'Fresh Off the Boat' is an American sitcom television series on ABC based on chef Eddie Huang’s memoir. The show is about a mesh of first generation and second generation Chinese Americans in the Huang family. The Huangs face daily obstacles as they do life together in their move to Orlando, Florida in the mid-1990’s. The ABC series finale “So Chineez” aired on Tuesday, April 21.
Father Louis Huang saves a failing family steak restaurant business, while mother Jessica Huang tries to assimilate into her new surroundings. The young married couples' three sons Eddie, Emery, and Evan make attempts at being popular at school.
In the latest episode, "So Chineez” Jessica and Louis become conflicted when her Caucasian friends Marvin and Honey say, “You know, sometimes I forget you guys are Chinese. You guys are just like regular old Americans to us.” The Huang family begin to take extreme measures to guarantee that they retain their Chinese heritage and identity. Everything takes a drastic change in attitude towards food, fashion, responding to neighbor invites, and to school projects.
Jessica decides to gives up her favorite soap opera ‘Melrose Place’ and Louis decides to give up an invitation to the country club. Jessica stops cooking mac n’ cheese for the family and instead shocks her boys when she prepares a traditional chicken feet meal. She swaps her dresses and jeans for a shiny silk blue qi pao, a traditional Chinese garment. Her son Eddie ends up reporting on China instead of Jamaica for his World Cultures Day project at school. Eddie gets an F for the assignment but his mom is super proud of him. Towards the end of the Ep., the family becomes normal again when they realize that as much as Chinese culture is important to them, they have all grown to love American culture.
"And that's how my family started reppin' Orlando. My mom had nothing to worry about. Because no matter what, we were never gonna leave our heritage behind," narrates Eddie Huang.
‘Fresh Off the Boat’ stars Randall Park as Louis, Constance Wu as Jessica, Hudson Yang as Eddie, Forrest Wheeler as Emery, and Ian Chen as Evan. Chef Eddie Huang narrates each episode. Sanjay Shah wrote the script and Chris Koch directed Ep. 13 “So Chineez.” More information is available at The Futon Critic.
