Fresh Off the Boat, Season 2, Episode 10: “The Real Santa”
Original airdate December 8, 2015.
Microsynopsis: In order to provide Evan with a better role model, Jessica embellishes Santa Claus’s persona, giving him multiple graduate degrees and a Chinese ethnicity. Emery stresses out over the perfect gift for Jessica while Eddie advises him just to “let it ride,” espousing his philosophy of things eventually working themselves out.
Good: Jessica’s miniature Christmas town is hilarious, and although her Santa characterization story gets a little crazy, it’s difficult not to smile at her sincere efforts to give her youngest son an inspiring model. And yeah, I’m a sucker for the sentimentality of the season, so Evan’s unironic embracing of everything his mother shares kind of hits me right here.
This is another episode where Emery is more Eddie’s younger brother than Evan’s older brother, and it’s just a really good dynamic. Emery knows his brother well enough not to take everything he says at face value, but there seems also to be a sincere fondness between siblings that gives Eddie some of his best light. Eddie is also helped by his special relationship with his grandmother, who’s really funny in this episode.
Bad: Jessica’s solution to the Santa problem is just sooooooooooooo ridiculous, the only thing that keeps it from ruining the episode is the sincerity of her speech when Evan confronts her.
FOB moment: Jessica prepares zongzi for Chinese Santa’s visit.
Soundtrack flashback: “Dear Mama” by 2Pac (1995).
Final grade, this episode: It takes a few weird steps over the line into absurdity, in a way that seems out of character even for this show, but “The Real Santa” is a funny episode, with laughs from unexpected places (the Pan-Cultural Seasonal Entity for one, and Honey’s reminiscing about her cranberry bog experience for another), and some nice interactions between Eddie and Emery, Louis and Jessica, and Jessica and Honey. The actors seem to have found most of their places in two dimensions, enabling them now to delve a bit more into the third. B.
Symptoms: Dave asks his parents if he can quit the basketball team, since he finds the sport boring, and because he’s no good at it. Ken, an avid fan of the sport, encourages Dave to ride the season out; the team is in the playoff and only has one game left. Molly and her parents have differing opinions about what’s appropriate attire for a high-school student. Damona, out of vacation days, wants to go to Mexico with a friend, so she tries to bait Pat into saying something racially insensitive, making him feel bad enough to give her an extra day off.
Prognosis: I love the idea of both the A and B plots being centered around Dave and Molly, something that strengthens Dr. Ken as a family show with a multitude of interesting characters, but this episode does little to develop Molly or Dave better than skin-deep in dealing with conflicts that deserve at least a slightly more thoughtful exploration. Of the three resolutions in the final act, Ken’s coming to grips with Dave’s other interests plays best, a bit of sentimentality that works, but the resolutions of the other plots are cursory, and really not that interesting. I honestly don’t know what to think about what any of this bodes for the future of this program.
Microsynopsis: Jessica and Honey, disagreeing about their investment house, have a falling out. Eddie takes a job helping hip-hop artist DMX with domestic chores. Louis opens his home to an old friend whom Jessica does not trust. J.B. Smoove and John Ross Bowie (Barry Kripke on The Big Bang Theory) also have guest roles.
Bad: The Louis story isn’t very interesting. J.B. Smoove is funny as always, but as Louis’s friend in the C plot, he basically serves only as contrast for Honey’s relationship with Jessica, and it feels like a distraction.
The story of Japanese American internment comes to Broadway in this new emotional musical about the Kimura family, starring Lea Salonga, George Takei, and Telly Leung. The tale unfolds at Heart Mountain in Wyoming, following a family ripped from their home by war and a community confronting injustice, facing doubts about their loyalty and patriotism. After premiering at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, 
