Fresh Off the Boat impressions

[mr3urious]

ABC has been firing on all four cylinders lately with its sitcoms (at least the single-camera ones anyway), and Fresh is no exception. It's the first sitcom starring Asian-Americans since Margaret Cho's All American Girl, but unlike that one, I can see this lasting more than 1 season, mainly because the characters' Asian-ness and their stereotypes aren't front and center.

I like the main character of Eddie in that in spite of being a wannabe gangsta ("If you were an outsider, hip-hop was your anthem."), he's still generally a well-behaved kid. And I like how his mom is the traditional Asian "tiger mom" (before the term even became well-known) but the dad is the one who is more willing to immerse himself in American culture. So I'd say there's plenty for both Asians and non-Asians to like about this show.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yeah, I think I brought this up a while back.

I see it tanking. It seems far too cliche, to me. Asians trying to act more like typical Americans . . . yeah, you know what? That's been done before, with other ethnicities and races, and even the Geico cavemen had a sitcom that tanked because of it.

 

[Muppet Master]

I liked the ones that aired on Wednesday, but the ones on Tuesday were pretty weak, but I still think it is a good show, like a mixture of The Goldbergs and Black Ish, and I will keep watching the show if it keeps being a good show in general.

 

[Oscarfan]

Yeah, I think I brought this up a while back.

I see it tanking. It seems far too cliche, to me. Asians trying to act more like typical Americans . . . yeah, you know what? That's been done before, with other ethnicities and races, and even the Geico cavemen had a sitcom that tanked because of it.

Considering there's only so many premises in the world, I think there'd be enough of an angle for this one.

 

[Drtooth]

I'll take that premise over precocious white family with obnoxiously first world problems and diabetus causing kids or single white morons trying to get some.

This show could go either way, but you know what? I'm very happy Asians are getting some representation on television that isn't the awkwardly token friend that has no personality out of fear of some sort of letter writing campaign. Really. You know there's something wrong when the longest running show with an Asian cast is Jackie Chan Adventures. And even then, because it's Jackie Chan!

Overall, I dig the show, and I like what they're getting at. A former partial show runner/writer of American Dad and Pepper Ann is one of the show runners here, and that sort of biting humor is thankfully present. While I got to admit, I don't quite like it as much as Black-ish, I have to say it's refreshing that ABC's sitcoms have all been quite good this year with no wanna be Bad News Bears series or weak would work better as a movie premises. Gotta admit, I did like Super Fun Night, but it felt like it was at the wrong time on the wrong network and should have been a film.

By Contrast, CBS only has 2 decent shows and only if you really like them. NBC is a disaster. You'd think they'd give a better timeslot to Parks and Rec.

 

[mr3urious]

I can't really find a lot of bad things to say about Fresh. I guess one thing that may bother some is the strong use of '90s hip-hop music, but I don't mind it myself as I think it works well with Eddie's character and the '90s setting of the show.

Overall, I dig the show, and I like what they're getting at. A former partial show runner/writer of American Dad and Pepper Ann is one of the show runners here, and that sort of biting humor is thankfully present.

The show is very much like Everybody Hates Chris or Malcolm in the Middle in tone in that the title character gets dumped on by the whole universe. This isn't surprising since Nahnatchka Khan wrote for the latter show.

 

[Drtooth]

I can't really find a lot of bad things to say about Fresh. I guess one thing that may bother some is the strong use of '90s hip-hop music, but I don't mind it myself as I think it works well with Eddie's character and the '90s setting of the show.

I actually think that worked really well with the last episode. Eddie only being into Hip Hop because he idolized his cousin, only for said cousin to go through a totally poseriffic Grunge phase.

And while it's making me feel old as heck, I like how this is the first, if not one of the first to have a retro 90's backdrop before lesser shows jump on the bandwagon, only far more shallow.

 

[Muppet Master]

Though I still like black ish better, this show is still good, though it does not talk much about race than the other show, still a good time, and something to watch on a day that does not have much, at least on this channel.

 

[Drtooth]

It's more about culture than race, with the hint of biographical/autobiographical backdrop.

Nice to see some of these autobiographical sitcoms making a comeback. I especially love how The Goldbergs always ends with an actual home movie to show there is actual reality based context. Love how the episode where he was traumatized by Hasbro killing off most of it's product line in the Transformers Movie ended with his old fan fic repair movie.

 

[mr3urious]

Last night's episode was hilarious with Eddie holding a sleepover at his house and promising the boys a "dirty movie" when it was really a sexual harassment avoidance video from his parents' workplace... but they love it anyway because they've never seen a real porno before and think that's how all pornos are like, and they go around school sexually harassing the girls.