Fresh off the boat11/25/2023 ![]() ![]() But over the last 20 years, the volume of new programs – and the array of ways to consume them – have steadily increased, dispersing the attention of audiences in what’s commonly called audience fragmentation. ![]() Television viewing in 1994 usually meant watching ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, or watching live events. What happened? Simply put: viewers have many more options, and they can now watch shows how they want, when they want.Īs a result, television no longer functions as a mass medium, but as a niche medium. Only eight shows from last season had audience ratings substantive enough to rank in the top 100 programs of the 1994-1995 television season. Adalian found that the highest rated show in 2014 – The Big Bang Theory – would have ranked only 57th by 1995 standards. Last year, TV critic Joseph Adalian compared ratings from 1994 with those of 2014 to illustrate how much smaller “big” audiences have become. To explain this, it’s important to examine the significant adjustments to the television landscape over the past twenty years and how the business has changed. So despite lower ratings, Fresh Off the Boat has been declared a success, while All-American Girl was swiftly canceled. Yet this has been hailed as a strong debut, and after a handful of episodes, many are saying the show is likely to be renewed. In comparison, Fresh Off the Boat earned a 3.3 rating among the same demographic in its premiere (which includes those watching DVR recordings within three days). It took 20 years for another show starring an Asian-American family to appear on network television. The changes – part a shift toward more targeted programming – are so pronounced that it’s fair to ask whether today’s TV shows can even be compared to those of 1995.Īll-American Girl was canceled after one season. Instead, when looking at Fresh Off the Boat and All-American Girl – and analyzing their respective fates – it’s important to consider the extraordinary transformation of US television in the intervening decades. ![]() Have the times changed, such that mass audiences are more receptive to shows like Fresh Off the Boat, which feature diverse characters? Not necessarily. Yet the continued scarcity of Asian-American characters is stunning. Most Americans might not realize how infrequently Asian-Americans appear on TV. To be sure, a show about an Asian-American family – especially one as well-written and acted as Fresh Off the Boat – is an important milestone. In that way the movie throws back to '90s indies or '00s mumblecore titles, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.Īs Ben, Min makes an impression and holds the camera, and the actor isn't afraid to make him shabby and rough around the edges.The new ABC family comedy Fresh Off the Boat is being hailed for returning, at last, an Asian-American family to US television – the first since 1994’s short-lived comedy All-American Girl, which also sought to bring stories about an Asian-American family to prime-time, broadcast television. "Fresh Off the Boat's" Randall Park, making his directorial debut, gives "Shortcomings" a light polish, even as the script by Adrian Tomine has the characters speaking like they're all in various stages of graduate-level theses on gender studies, cultural identity and racial roles in society. Ben's fumbles through his love life lead him back to Miko, and to some hard-learned lessons about himself. When Miko moves across the country for an internship and proposes they take a break, Ben pursues the new ticket taker at his theater, Autumn (Tavi Gevinson), and later Sasha (Debby Ryan), whom he meets through a friend. And his dreams of being a filmmaker are doing about as well as his run-down arthouse theater, which is moving about eight tickets per screening and is facing shutdown. His best friend Alice ("Joy Ride's" Sherry Cola) has her own life to live, and is eyeing a move to New York. His girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki), is tired of his objectifying of classic blonde-haired, blue-eyed ideals of beauty, and is maybe tired of him as well. "Shortcomings" spends the next 90 minutes or so examining Ben and presenting itself as the anti-"Crazy Rich Asians." It's a hyper-talky and overly literate comedy which, if it has a shortcoming itself, is in its presentation of characters as stand-ins for beliefs or ideas rather than as living, breathing people.īen is the Japanese American owner of a Bay Area cinema who doesn't realize it yet but is at a crucial turning point in his life. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |