Dr. Ken, Season 1, Episode 15: “The Wedding Sitter”
Original airdate February 19, 2016.
Symptoms: Ken and Suzy are invited to a Welltopia doctor’s wedding. Suzy is reluctant to go, supposedly because she doesn’t care for weddings, but what she really doesn’t care for is Ken’s dancing at weddings: he’s a “selfish dancer.” Molly is pressed into sitting duty when Dave’s sitter has to cancel at the last minute. Molly has other plans, so without telling her parents, she hires a substitute sitter. Dave also has other plans, so he hires a fill-in (Fresh off the Boat‘s Ian Chen) for him, figuring the substitute sitter won’t know the difference. The Welltopia crew is invited to the same wedding, but Clark, Julie, and Damona show up at the wrong wedding, where Clark meets someone who sparks his interest.
Diagnosis: I need to disclose that almost all dancing leaves me flat, so just about any story that features a lot of dancing is going to do likewise. The Clark plot is cute (guy’s got serious game), and I laughed aloud (both times) at the Julie yelling gag. It’s rare nowadays that such a simple gag surprises me so completely, but this one does, and I can’t think of a time when I’ve seen it before. Molly and Dave accidentally in cahoots at the end works really well.
Prognosis: Clark gets some good character development, and it’s always good to see the Welltopia group socializing outside the office. I’m still finding the plots generally not worthy of the characters. Perhaps this week it’s due to my bias against dancing humor, something that may not be anyone’s fault but my own. Still, although I didn’t find the story very amusing or entertaining, I enjoyed spending time with the characters, and any show that aspires to longevity needs to develop good characters, which Dr.Ken has lately been doing.
Rx: I think it’s time for an Allison-centered plot, maybe one whose action takes place mostly away from her family. Her character is one of the best-developed in the show, but we see her only as wife and mom. And I really want to see more development of the friendship among Clark, Damona, and Julie.
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In this week’s Post Show and Tell, Joz Wang interviews Suzy Nakamura, Albert Tsai, and Ian Chen (of Fresh off the Boat) from the Dr. Ken Welltopia set. Suzy says Allison’s pendants M and D are for “Molly” and “Dave,” but I’m pretty sure they’re a secret acknowledegment of the actress’s admiration of a certain 8Asians contributor.
