Well, they say that if there is anything constant in the world then it is ‘Change.’ One cannot stop changes from happening and changes are the very epitome of any lifespan or any season. It simply does not matter which field does one belong to, change is inevitable. Then it rests on the shoulders of the individual or on the shoulders of the company whether to accept that change or not. And the change has been accepted by the ABC network, which has become the first channel in nearly 20 years since Margaret Cho’s show to feature a TV series sitcom featuring an Asian American family. Yes, the new sitcom “Fresh off the Boat” is based on the lives of an Asian American family and deals with the kind of culture shock they experience while they live in one city and move to another. Let us have a closer look at some of the prominent features of this comedy series.
Sitcoms have always gone well with the American audiences. Be it “Friends” or “How I met Your Mother”, American audiences have always found these sitcoms to be extremely exhilarating. A big piece of this recognition should also go to the ABC network, as they have taken some bold decisions. Some of the decisions have gone down well with the audience while some have fallen flat. However, the channel has never led its empirical characteristic go for a toss. This time again, they are back with a completely new series called “Fresh off the Boat.” This sitcom is based on the memoirs of the world famous chef Eddie Huang. This series deals with an Asian American family who are characteristically living a peaceful life in Chinatown, Washington DC. However, due to a certain turnaround, they have to shift their base from Washington to suburban Orlando. This shift in base is not just a physical shift but also a sort of culture shock to the immigrant family who are seeing things that they never knew existed beforehand.
The chubby and cherubic Hudson Yang plays the protagonist role of Eddie. He totally fits into the role of a hip-hop youngster. Randall Park, Constance Wu, Ian Chen and Forrest Wheeler are the other stars of this comedy show and each of them have acted very nicely, at least the promo kind of indicates that. Having said that, looking at the promo it looks like the young Hudson Yang and Constance Wu have stolen the limelight as both of them can be seen acting very naturally and it seems that the roles were tailor-made for them.
The show is all set to be seen in the 2014-15 calendar year and its promos are very promising and are garnering huge responses. The show’s title still hangs in a balance, as the makers of this sitcom are confused between “Fresh off the Boat” and “Far East Orlando.” Well, both the titles seem to be apt. This sitcom has a huge pressure on its head and the test is whether the American audiences are ready for a full blown Asian American family sitcom. Until now, many Asians have been a part of sitcoms but never ever has there been a sitcom before focusing entirely on an Asian American family.
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Ha ha ha, at first I was a little put off by the way some of the characters were portrayed and the prejudices of some of the others, but I can come around to watching it for a seasons at least. Just to sate my curiosity.