Is Fresh Off The Boat Shipshape, Or Will It Make You Seasick?

What Is This Thing?

After spending his first dozen or so years in D.C.'s Chinatown, Eddie Huang experiences major culture shock when his father uproots him, and the rest of the family, in order to make a go of a steak house in mid-1990s Orlando. How will their lives change when they're suddenly the only Asian people for miles around?

When Is It On?

Though it's premiering two new episodes tonight -- one at 8:30 PM and one at 9:30 -- its permanent time slot will be Tuesdays at 8 PM on ABC.

Why Was It Made Now?

Because ABC had a hit with its '80s-set coming-of-age sitcom about a Jewish family (The Goldbergs), the network found a project that could do the same thing, except set in the '90s and revolving around an Asian family.

What's Its Pedigree?

Restaurateur/blogger Eddie Huang wrote the memoir the series has been based on and is credited with having created it. Also producing is Nahnatchka Khan, best known for having created Don't Trust The B---- In Apt. 23. Randall Park, notorious of late for his performance as Kim Jong-un in The Interview but a veteran character actor before that (The Mindy Project, Veep), plays Eddie's father, Louis; The League's Paul Scheer and Judging Amy's Jillian Armenante play the host and a server at Louis's restaurant. Other than a quick cameo from Maria Bamford at the end of the second episode, the rest of the cast is new to me.

...And?

If you've watched Park's performance as veteran war hero/governor/Selina rival Danny Chung on Veep, you know he is so so so so SO funny, and he's by far the best thing here too. He imbues Louis with both pathos and edge, and though no one is really that psyched about the move to Orlando (who would be) (but I kid Orlando!) (but Orlando knows it's true), it would be hard not to support the American dream of such a sweet husband and father. And that's before you even see that he's decorated his steak house with a taxidermied bear! Something I'm still holding a space for in my current home and will have myself someday!

A lot of the most amusing bits of the first two episodes, actually, revolve around the restaurant, particularly in the second, when Louis and his wife, Jessica (Constance Wu), clash over how to deal with a table full of frat bros who are clearly just about to dine and dash. His way is to treat them like people, explaining to them that their theft of a meal will hurt him, his wife, and their three boys. ("You guys were really going for a little girl, huh," comments one of the bros. "Don't get me started, we were going to call her Emily," says Louis -- to coos of hilarious approval from all the bros.) Her way -- when they ignore Louis and dine and dash exactly as she'd predicted they would -- is to run them is to run them down with her minivan and shame them into returning to the restaurant to apologize and shore up Louis's faith in people's basic decency. Wu and Park have a great prickly chemistry that makes them fun to watch.

...But?

Much has been made in the run up to this premiere about Fresh Off The Boat's revolving around an Asian-American family for the first time on TV since Margaret Cho's short-lived All-American Girl, and it's definitely laudable for ABC, a family-friendly network, to broaden the scope of the kinds of families it represents. That it cast a Korean-American actor (Park) in an explicitly Chinese role is an objection for someone other than this honky to raise. However, much as we all united, as a nation, against Ashton Kutcher's brownfaced PopChips spot, we all can also unite against this tone-deaf Fresh Off The Boat tweet. When a TV series creator is forced to come out publicly against the marketing for his own show, one might reasonably be alarmed about its prospects and/or the consistency of the vision behind it.

But even if you separate the PR from the actual show...I just can't with the kid-coms anymore. Fine, I didn't give The Goldbergs much of a chance, but I tried with Modern Family for well over two seasons. The only reason I still hang with The Middle is my love of Sue Heck, and if Black-ish doesn't waaaaaay sideline the twins soon, I'm going to have to ankle it too. But at least both of those have the sense not to put their youth characters at the centre of the action that much; like The Goldbergs, Fresh Off The Boat is primarily told from a tween perspective, which is not cute or charming or funny to me and to which I say no thank you to my TV much as I do in my life.

...So?

It's probably the kid factor more so than the stilted accents that will keep me away from this one. But if you like The Goldbergs -- and especially if you think references to things from other decades are by definition hilarious -- this is probably going to be much more enjoyable to you than it has been for me.