8Asians | An Asian American collaborative blog

Fresh Off the Boat, Season 1, Episode 4: “Success Perm”
Original airdate February 10, 2015.

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Microsynopsis: Jessica’s sister pays a visit from D.C., bringing her husband, mother, and son. In an effort to appear more successful than they are, Jessica and Louis dress the house up and get new hairstyles. The sisters engage in a duel of appearances, as do the brothers-in-law, while Eddie is puzzled by the shifted musical tastes of the cousin who turned him on to hip hop a year ago.

Good: The absolute best thing in this episode is the us-against-them partnering of Louis and Jessica. The war of appearances is explained when Louis says to the kids, “Sometimes you have to spend money you don’t have to make it seem like you have money that you don’t spend,” which gets him a high-five from Jessica. It is later surrendered while they lie in bed together and share the misery of their apparent failure while Easy E looks down from above. The interactions between Jessica and her sister Connie are hilarious, and they get funnier as the episode moves along (minus one scene in the restaurant). There’s even something charming about what the grandmothers discuss. Other big pluses are the attention to detail that rewards repeat viewings and the best voiceover narration by grown-up Eddie we’ve heard so far. Shout-out to the writer who came up with the Mariah-Carey-Washington-Wizards-Dress line.

Bad: There’s a lot of over-emoting that I can’t make excuses for. I understand that cousin Justin has to lose his role model status, but his running off and sobbing is cartoonish and difficult to believe in an otherwise fairly believable episode. The brother-in-law’s freak-out over the stolen car is silly. The multiple outfit changes in the restaurant aren’t over-emoting, but they’re a bit over the top, too. And while the O.J. Simpson setup is almost Seinfeldian in concept and execution, the payoff falls pretty flat.

FOB moment: Evan and Emery, sleeping in the pantry, are using rice bags for pillows.

Soundtrack flashback: N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” and Live’s “Lightning Crashes.”

Final grade, this episode: This is the strongest episode so far, with excellent pacing and genuine laugh-aloud moments. I especially admire the way the writers find a couple of good gags, such as the subtitles beneath the sisters’ English dialogue, and then add a little twist that’s even funnier. The incidental but funny juxtaposition of Eddie’s love of hip hop over his parents’ success perms adds a convincing realism to a family we really want to like and to believe in, and it’s an indication of writers who are invested in more than good laughs. There are still some weird disconnects here and there, and the sitcom seems to aspire to a level of intelligence that makes the Afterschool Special summing-up at the end seem unnecessarily heavy-handed, so there’s a lot of room for fault-finding. Still, this episode bodes really well for potential future awesomeness. I have to give it a solid B.

Fresh Off the Boat, Season 1, Episode 3: “The Shunning.”
Original airdate February 10, 2015.

*Watch Online*

Microsynopsis: Jessica makes a new friend, but Louis worries that this friendship might threaten the well-being of the family business. Louis sees the neighborhood block party as an opportunity to introduce people to his restaurant. Eddie is convinced that what he needs for instant cred is to be seen with his (married) next-door neighbor clinging to his arm.

Good: There’s a lot to like here, but standout moments include scenes with Eddie’s younger brothers Emery and Evan. Emery continues to be the ladies’ man in the family, while Evan takes a turn as a neighborhood mom. Randall Park shows some comedic acting chops I didn’t know he had, and his character Louis is taking on some discernable definition. Jessica’s interactions with her new friend are believable; their bonding moments ring true and genuine, something a lot of Eddie’s story is lacking. There are hard-earned payoffs in the last few sequences that give me a good feeling about how strong this show could be.

Bad: Eddie’s story line is sitcommy as heck, just a silly, unbelievable, over-the-top, not-very-funny plot thread that, if not for a pretty good payoff at the end, could really have brought this whole episode down. I’m a strong believer in letting teens and tweens listen to the music that turns them on, but when they emulate disrespectful, misogynistic behavior they see in music videos, they make a case for the other side. It’s clear Eddie comes from a good, strong home, and he should know better. The cartoony aspect of this part of the story softens it a bit (I get it; it’s just meant to be silly), but he gets away with far, far, far too much. And misogyny aside, it’s just kind of dumb and unfunny. You can forgive a lot if something is funny. This doesn’t earn that.

FOB moment: Stinky tofu at the Melrose Place viewing party.

Soundtrack flashback: ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and Too Short’s “So You Wanna be a Gangster.”

Final grade, this episode: I appreciate this episode’s willingness to make things uncomfortable, and its ability to rescue its characters from being jerks in a way that seems believably conciliatory. There are some really funny moments in dialogue, situation, and visuals (the NASCAR payoff is as good as anything in Arrested Development), and the introduction of (hopefully) recurring characters bodes well. It’s still playing to too dense a young audience with Eddie’s character, though, and that’s reason for concern. It gets a low B.