8Asians | An Asian American collaborative blog

Dr. Ken, Season 1, Episode 3: “Ken Helps Pat”
Original airdate October 16, 2015.

Symptoms: Pat informs Ken’s staff that it needs to work on Saturdays. At Allison’s urging, Ken goes to bat for his people, accepting an invitation from Pat to have dinner on Pat’s yacht. Dave has a new nickname at school; Allison and Ken disagree about how he should best deal with the situation.

Diagnosis: It’s a pleasant episode. Ken and Allison’s healthy relationship continues to anchor the show. The office characters are beginning to get some flesh, but the interactions still feel awkward. There are some good laughs, the best coming from conversations between Ken and Allison. I’m a bit baffled by the Park family’s always wearing shoes in the house. Where I come from, no Asian families do this, most removing them before even stepping across the threshold. Are Los Angeles families different this way?

Prognosis: There’s a huge difference between this episode and the series premiere. The laughs are less predictable and not as cheap, and the difference in Ken’s roles at work and home is getting interesting. I like that it’s difficult to tell which role Ken likes better, and I like that he seems genuinely to be valued in both settings, in completely different ways. The show is trending smarter, as is its main character.

Rx: I am surprised by how much less annoying I find the Pat character, up ’til now my least favorite in the show, but it reinforces something I’ve felt from the beginning: that the show should build its relationships as a first priority, and that it should take its time in doing so. The one-on-one time Ken and Pat have on the yacht is just one scene, but it does so much more for developing Ken’s relationship with Pat than the entire episode last week did for building his relationship with Clark.

Dr. Ken, Season 1, Episode 2: “The Seminar”
Original airdate October 9, 2015.

Symptoms: Someone files a complaint against Ken (his third), so he is required to attend sensitivity training, which prevents him from being home while his parents are over for dinner. This leaves Allison, Molly, and Dave to deal with interminable silence and stone-faced expressions at the table. Without Ken to serve as conversational go-between, the other members of the family finally warm to one another when they unexpectedly find common ground: a mutual acquaintance they can openly mock while he’s not around.

Diagnosis: Mean humor in the premiere had me concerned, but that’s nearly gone in the second episode. There are a few plot elements we’ve seen multiple times before: the everyone-bonding-by-laughing-at-a-common-acquaintance thing and the read-this-letter-I-wrote-to-someone-else-so-you’ll-know-how-I-really-feel-about-you thing have been done better, but the grandparents handing out money in the last scene is pretty creative, and although the all-pantomimed scene tilts over into preposterous, it’s not the kind of thing you see every night in primetime. This scene’s resolution is unobnoxiously funny and it makes up for a maddening reaction by the studio audience to the climactic action immediately before. The loudness of the audience laughter is a huge liability throughout the episode and I beg the production team to bring it down. It’s an uneven episode that gets a little cliche, and office relationships are more told than shown, but a couple of freshly funny moments, a decent in-laws plot, and strong performances in the household bring it up to a C.

Prognosis: Rare is the sitcom that comes out of the gate sprinting, so while my expectations remain tempered, my hopes remain high. The trend is upward, and I still love the pieces even though gameplay has been mostly valleys with a few good peaks.

Rx: Be a lighter touch with the studio audience laughter. It’s a crutch that should never have been prescribed. I still don’t know what to make of the entire gang at work (except Pat, played by Dave Foely, whose chracter is right out of the cliche factory–someone please rethink him because he could be an important foil for Ken), but some of the good character development happens when Ken’s not there, so more of that, please. The playful banter between Ken and Allison continues to be a huge strength, so much more of that, too. Meditate on these things every day and see me again next Friday.