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.

Living in today's world we see more and more Asian people all in our communities I like living around them too, they are intelligent attractive and mostly friendly. This new ABC series set in 1990's Orlando about a Taiwanses family who moved from Washington D.C. to start a new life is a big winner! It centers around the young man and oldest child in the family named Eddie Huang(Hudson Yang)who is learning more and more American culture in the 90's from the style, music, TV, movies and one liners as this series captures the 90's culture well with it's slang and one liners! A real sugar and spice treat is the performance of the mom Jessica(Constance Wu)she's a sexy and sassy outspoken loving matriarch who guides the ship for the whole Huang clan as her husband(Randall Park)runs his steakhouse. Overall great show that learns us about Asian culture all the while being funny, educated and capturing 90's culture without taking things to serious! A thumbs up winner.

As the title says, not since Malcolm in the Middle have I seen such a hilarious family dynamic. Yes, the family is Chinese (Taiwanese) but this is just a side-story...they could be Polish (like in Malcolm in the Middle) or any other ethnicity making them unique. This is NOT about Asian stereotypes, this is about kids vs parents who are trying to keep up appearances/with the Jones'...and what could be more American than that? Superb acting by ALL the actors (even the Grandmother who only speaks Mandarin gets the funniest lines with subtitles). Add to this the nostalgia factor of the "hip-hop" 90's and I sincerely hope this is a formula for success. PLEASE keep this show on the air; it's got humor, good timing, good writing and it's something the whole family can watch and laugh at together. We are laughing WITH a family that happens to be Chinese, not AT a Chinese family.

I came into Fresh Off the Boat with low expectations, as there are seemingly endless ways to make a bad network show, especially by making it dull and mediocre by dumbing down the characters and their experiences. Add in the topic of race and immigration, where I'm certain network producers are terrified of offending anyone, and you're almost certain to brew up a giant batch of watered-down, "family friendly" weak tea.

But, amazingly, the show is good. And funny. Maybe most importantly, all of the characters are human, and they are full people while simultaneously showing different sides of the immigrant experience. I have a feeling you're not going to know who are the "good guys" and who are the "bad guys," and this really won't be a show about Eddie but about a family. As the first few episodes show, each family member has different, and even contradictory, skills for managing their lives together, and they complement each other. I also bet people outside of the family will soon be part of this equation.

Speaking of which, it's ironic that some reviewers are saying the show is anti-white, as a big critique of white people is how they tend to dominate any experience (like, for instance, a show about an Asian American immigrant family) and make it all about them.

Some background. I came to the states without any knowledge of engish and neither did my parents. It was some midwestern state in the early 1990s. In the school, there were 3 asians, and 1 black kid. From the very first episode to episode 8. I felt like my life was shown. I had the same infatuation with hiphop. My first album was Straight Outta Compton. PE and Ice Cube and Ice T were my favorite groups. I felt exactly as the series describe, it's not that the white folks were disrespectful to me (in fact there where at the beginning), but they just don't know what to do with a person of different race and culture. I could never truly be in the "in crowd". I found commonality in people who are different and music that's different, and most hiphop at that time was portraying rebellion against the establishment. To me, the establishment was white with Christian morales. That's not what I am about. I had 3 Asian kids in school who are straight A and musicians. I ain't about that nonsense. All through school, my best friend was a black kid and he was the one that introduced me to straight outta compton.

So this show is a great authentic view of the Asian minority. Stereotypes of Asian parents are REAL and of the white folks are REAL. Exaggeration of course, but the gist of it is VERY VERY real. My parents HATED rap with a passion because they don't understand it. All they care about 100% of time is where is my grade, what am I doing wrt to studying. No basketball, nothing. I had to find solace in the things that are shown in this movie. I had to conform to pizza and sloppy joe where my parents served Chinese dishes. In the 90s, Chinese is not the in crowd, unlike now.

Overall, this is a VERY realistic view for ANY Asian's coming to a majority white area in the 80s, 90s. I felt my life was displayed on screen. It was hilarious at the same time nostalgic of my life.

I signed up just to say my support for this show. I know there are many Asians like me with the same background, living in the same white neighborhoods.

Every other sitcom I have seen before are either non relevant or non- relateable to person like me or Asian. I get all the jokes of Seinfeld and Friends, but those are non relatable to an Asian person. Supremely refreshing to finally get our voices heard. About time.

US needs more shows like this.