Park worms through Ben’s many relationship troubles: He gets with Autumn, for instance, and then turns his sights to the politically charged Sasha ( Debby Ryan), endangering each with his caustic humor. It works because the film fully embraces the wretched unlikability of Ben. In the hands of Park, Adrian Tomine's graphic novel (adapted here by Tomine) finds cutting new dimensions in the miserabilism of an unabashed asshole. “Shortcomings” is a wickedly funny, absorbing character study and solo feature directorial debut by actor Randall Park (“Fresh off the Boat”). Will he cheat on his girlfriend, Miko? If he, along with the premise, comes off as loathsome, that’s sorta the point. His attraction is tested when he hires the oddball performance artist Autumn ( Tavi Gevinson) to work the ticket window at the theater. Much to his chagrin, however, Ben loves white women. Ken,” and the game-changing opportunities for other “Crazy Rich Asians” actors.Ben is a failed film student who spends his days managing an arthouse movie theater and watching Criterion discs such as Ozu’s “Good Morning.” He can’t fathom a world where he isn’t the prime arbiter of taste. He cited Ken Jeong’s since canceled ABC sitcom, “Dr. “It helped redefined a space that will help all creative Asian American media, producers and artists.”Īs a young Asian American actor, Yang said it’s been exciting to see how much the landscape has already changed in six years. “It is redefining what mainstream culture is. But because of “Fresh Off the Boat,” there’s already hope that Asian American-led successors will no longer be seen as out of the ordinary. “Fresh Off the Boat’s” absence leaves “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens,” the Comedy Central series led by the star of “The Farewell,” as the only other U.S. “But I get stopped by people of different races who say how much they love the show.” “As expected, there were some people who were like ‘This isn’t my family.’ It’s an understandable kind of response when there’s only one,” Park said. So, the cast understands some of the criticism from Huang and others. “I never compromised it for what a company or brand or studio told me to do.”įor better or worse, the show was often treated as a default ambassador for the Asian-American experience. “I take representing my experience as an Asian American in this country very seriously,” Huang said in an interview in January. In an essay for Vulture in 2015, he slammed it as a “cornstarch story” that was less about about specific moments in his life and was instead a bland, “one-size-fits-all” narrative. She also apologized for being “insensitive” to struggling actors.ĭuring the show’s first season, the real-life Eddie Huang distanced himself from the show. She issued an explanation the next day, saying she would have to give up another project. Wu, who was not available for an interview, shocked viewers when she angrily tweeted about the show’s renewal in May. The show may also be remembered for headlines generated off-screen. That’s where the in-community joke gets funnier.” “They take that stereotype-based joke and turn it on its head a little bit more. “What was smart was having a writers’ room, showrunner and actors that felt more empowered like they were part of the process,” said Stephen Gong, executive director of the Center for Asian American Media. The series used culturally specific humor while trying to universally appeal to a broadcast network audience. “I knew a little bit about how important it was but I didn’t really know the full scale until a little bit later on.” We talked about how previously ‘All-American Girl’ tried to do the same thing,” Yang said. “My Dad would definitely talk about how important it was to have this kind of show. Thanks to his father, journalist Jeff Yang, he had an inkling this wasn’t just any TV gig. Hudson Yang, 16, was 9 years old when he won the role of Eddie. And having passed 100 episodes, the Huangs will live on in syndication for years to come. It paved the path for movie stardom for Park (“Always Be My Maybe”) and on-screen wife Constance Wu (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “Hustlers”). It accomplished some unique firsts, like being the first American TV show to film on location in Taiwan and having a majority of dialogue in one episode be in Mandarin. Without question, the sitcom, centered on a Taiwanese-Chinese American family in the 1990s living in predominantly white Orlando, Florida - will be immortalized in the canon of Asian-American representation.
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