If you had predicted a year ago that one of America’s top broadcast comedies would be a sitcom about a Taiwanese family moving from Washington to Orlando to open a cowboy steakhouse – you would have been laughed off the studio lot. But you would also have been brilliantly prophetic.
The sad truth is, the moguls of TV land rarely roll the ethnic dice when it comes to recounting the Asian-American family experience. It has been more than 20 years since Margaret Cho's All American Girl was cancelled by ABC after only one season in 1994.
But when 7.94 million US viewers tuned into the premiere of Fresh Off the Boat (also on the ABC network) in February, their interest in the yin and yang of the Huang family revealed a healthy appetite for Asian fare – and you'll be able to sample the goods for yourself when the series debuts on OSN on Friday.
This lively comedy about the new American dream is inspired by the true story of foodie author Eddie Huang (author of Fresh off the Boat: A Memoir), one of three sons of Taiwanese immigrants, who grew up in Washington and Orlando and went on to make his fortune sating New York appetites with tasty snacks.
Now his manic childhood is being played out on the telly, as his family’s fictional counterparts come to grips with culture shock after moving to Orlando in 1995 to run the Cattlemen’s Ranch restaurant – where their life becomes anything but a Disney World dream.
The real revelation of this new sitcom is 12-year-old Hudson Yang, who plays Eddie Huang, a wheeler-dealer adolescent who plays all the angles like a pro at a pinball machine.
“That was the toughest role to cast,” says the show’s creator and executive producer Nahnatchka Khan. “Eddie’s very distinctive [with] his brand of swagger and style – and every kid that we were seeing was sort of just, you know, polished and didn’t have that authenticity we were looking for.
“And then Hudson put himself on tape from New York. And he was 10 years old, really raw – and he was fantastic.”
Much like Fred Savage carried The Wonder Years in the late '80s, Yang's character – who is crazy for hip-hop, rap and basketball – embodies the heart of this new series. And like The Wonder Years, it also employs a similar flashback technique, with voice-over narration from present-day Eddie, voiced by the real-life Eddie Huang, who's also a producer on the show.
The problems facing young Eddie seem endless. For example, it’s tough enough to be the new ethnic kid at school, but when he brings fat Shanghai noodles for lunch and a white kid shouts out “Wing Ding’s eating worms!” to gales of laughter, Eddie marches home and declares to his mother: “I need white-people lunch”.
Eddie's enthusiastic dad Louis, played by Randall Park (The Interview, Veep), embraces all things American, while Eddie's pragmatic mum Jessica, played by Constance Wu, is bewildered by "white" culture.
Rounding out the Huang household are his charismatic middle brother, Emery (Forrest Wheeler), and his goody-two-shoes baby brother, Evan (Ian Chen), both stereotypical Asian overachievers who still manage to fit in.
As one might expect, portraying Asians for laughs on American television is fraught with peril, and early reviews criticised the series for its clichés and stereotypical moments.
Stick with this sitcom, however, if you can. It soon dispenses with the easy and obvious gags to find surer, more meaningful ground.
“It’s important for me,” says the real Huang, “to make sure the show stays authentic, the show stays responsible to the book and the Asian community and people of colour in America in general”.
• The first episode of Fresh Off the Boat is at 8.30pm on Friday on OSN First Comedy HD
artslife@thenational.ae
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The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Strait of Hormuz
Fujairah is a crucial hub for fuel storage and is just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond.
The strait is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just three km wide in either direction. Almost a fifth of oil consumed across the world passes through the strait.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, a move that would risk inviting geopolitical and economic turmoil.
Last month, Iran issued a new warning that it would block the strait, if it was prevented from using the waterway following a US decision to end exemptions from sanctions for major Iranian oil importers.
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Jawan
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm
Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km
Price: From Dh796,600
On sale: now
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SQUADS
India
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur
New Zealand
Kane Williamson (captain), Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wicketkeeper), Henry Nicholls, Ish Sodhi, George Worker, Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Trent Boult