Fresh Off the Boat (2015-20)

Fresh Off the Boat, loosely based on Eddie Huang's memoir. An Asian American family on network TV in a family 90s-era sitcom. That's not nothing. It is a watershed moment in American culture. It paved the way for Crazy Rich Asians. It paved the way for Awkwafina, Lulu Wang, Hasan Minhaj and the plethora of new Asian voices we're seeing in film and TV. Representation matters. You don't fully comprehend how much it matters until it is achieved and you realize what the world has been missing out on. Not only does it normalize your own experience, it exposes white society to broader expectations of normalcy too. While maintaining its cultural specificity, it also clearly demonstrates that we all undergo similar experiences. It was always pleasing to identify my friends and family being represented on screen in these relatable characters. Constance Wu and Randall Park became mainstream stars in their own right. And we watched the kids grow up over the last six years. It has been a good run. Let's hope we don't have to wait long for more Asians on network TV.

Shazam! (2019)

Let's start off by stating the obvious, the dialogue is bad, really lame and cheesy. The question is whether this was intentional. I like to think the writers were fully aware and actually revel in the tonal awkwardness. That said, I don't think the trailer is a very good representation of what the movie actually is. There is no reference of the central conflict between superhero and villain in the trailer. The movie provides origin stories to both. We're sort of mislead into thinking the movie is about a kid with the power to turn into an adult, which is kind of lame. And that's certainly part of the gimmick. But there is a broader mythology that I was unfamiliar with. Points for casting. There were some genuine laughs. And points for the human part of the story. They could've just made an interesting story about a foster family, but it's a little more than that.