Fresh Off the Boat

It's the 1990's. Eddie Huang moves from Washington D.C. to Orlando, Florida with his Taiwanese family. His father (Randall Park) opens a western style steakhouse. His mother (Constance Wu) is the Asian tiger mom. Honey (Chelsey Crisp) and Marvin (Ray Wise) are their next door neighbor.

This starts with a potential for an edgy sitcom of an Asian family moving into an all-white neighborhood. In the end, it is a very standard network sitcom. This should be Eddie's story but the breakout star is Constance Wu. The kids are fine but more could have been done. Marvin's daughter Nicole could have been a great side character but she gets ghosted over time. The brothers don't get to expand their roles. The show is good network fare but it doesn't stand out other than having the Asian cast.

I won't waste your time with acting like I'm a famous critic. It's about a chinese family of 6 moving to orlando Florida to start a new life in 1995. Every character has a unique quality that make the show hilariously funny except for one. There is a deadening villain in this show that makes you angry the entire time. Yes, the mother, Jessica is a narcissistic, sociopathic, arrogant, rude woman with a God complex who ruins not only the show but her family's lives throughout every episode. Almost every episode is some way for the rest of family to overcome the mothers monstrous ways. She is not funny, has no sense of humor, no sympathy, empathy, or kindness in her body. If the writers truly wrote her character that way they made a terrible mistake. She is profiled as the typical angry chinese woman who hates white people and thinks she is superior over every race, color and creed and machs any political or religious views that aren't her own. Point blank, she ruin the show. If not for Randal Park and the rest of them this show would flop. They carry it enough for the show to be very funny and enjoyable. You still have to live with the foul aftertaste of Jessica after every episode but it's worth it. I have never hated a comedy show character more than her because she is not there for comedy, she is the villain and there to ruin it, not add to it. So suck it up, look past the horrible idea ro make the mother the character she is and enjoy the rest of it..Forget it, i cant even watch season 6, no mother is that horrid & no kid is that stupid. Was able to stomach the mom with the other characters but not now, they just stopped trying.

I've been watching this every week since it started in 2015. Great funny show. Just sit back and laugh and don't think too much. Easy going with a good cast. It just works. It has a final ending and not just stop airing without a closure. Have fun with this little fun comedy show!

9/10

"Fresh Off the Boat" is a show about a Taiwanese-American family who has moved from Washington, DC (where there are lots of Taiwanese- Americans) to Orlando, Florida (where there are none!). While this sounds a bit like "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" or the like, the show still is surprisingly original and worth seeing. There are several things I really appreciate about it: it DOES talk about race and stereotypes (something very rare on TV today) and writing is so good. The characters, as a result, are very likable. Overall, there's very little not to like about this one and I see it as actually being a lot like the wonderful show, "Brooklyn Bridge"--but with a greater emphasis on humor. Well worth seeing--whether you are Asian or not.

These TV series are very watchable, rewatchable and perfect as a background watch when you do something else. Many characters have undeniable charisma, relatable and the story line is rather lighthearted instilling the right values. It's also, in a way, generation X's nostalgic porn.

What didn't work for me:

• the family cast is rather mismatched visually, they didn't look as of the same ethnicity to me
• Louis's character is very cardboard like and lacks depth.

• They often forgot to balance Jessica's character, sacrificing showcasing the traits her family loves her for -all for the sake of comedy relief attached to her pushiness and other rather negative traits.

• I lived as a foreigner in a southern US town and it's already difficult to integrate even if you are a crowd pleaser. And though I am white and my town was mostly very lovely, I still experienced xenophobia, at least, once per month. With Jessica's character forget about it...I think the whole integration issue was super sugarcoated.