television – Kollaboration Blog Archives

Five Things We Want to See In The Big Hero 6 TV Show

Hiro and Baymax are back! Last week, Disney XD announced a new Big Hero 6 television show based on the Academy Award-winning animated movie. Set to premiere in 2017, the show is going to pick up where the movie left off and focus on Hiro’s adventures at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.

While it’s agreed that we can probably expect more witty banter, fist bumps and life lessons, we also have some other expectations for the direction of the show. Let’s take a look at what we want to see going into it.

1. No Culture-Washing

Big Hero 6 is so obviously multicultural that it may seem like we shouldn’t have a problem with it. However, the Big Hero 6 comic originally took place in Japan and had an all-Japanese cast of characters. The movie not only played on stereotypical Asian architecture to create the city of San Fransokyo instead of just setting it in Tokyo, it also changed the ethnicities of three of the six main characters in order to create non-Asian characters Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Fred. Nobody is saying that we don’t like these characters BUT erasing the Asian-ness of the original BH6 is not cool. While some of these things probably won’t be changed for the TV show, maybe Disney can introduce some of the original Asian heroes and villains from the comic book.

2. Science!

Big Hero 6 is based around science and the movie was chalk-full of the coolest science and technology. While science in fictional stories is always kind of questionable, it’d be super exciting if the show brought current theoretical and practical sciences to life in bigger and better cartoon form (for educational purposes of course). And, of course, it’d add more cool inventions to the BH6 arsenal.

3. Backstory on Hiro’s Family (i.e. bring Tadashi back)

Obviously, Tadashi (Daniel Henney) probably won’t make an appearance in the current timeline of television show, but we can still dream a little about seeing him in flashbacks. In the movie, Hiro and Tadashi live with their Aunt Kass (Maya Rudolph) and there’s no real explanation as to what their lives were like before the death of their parents, so the one way to bring him back would be to develop Hiro’s backstory, which could also inform how he handles certain situations at school.

4. Integration with the Marvel Universe

People forget that Big Hero 6 is technically a Marvel movie (complete with an after-credits scene with a Stan Lee cameo). We probably won’t be seeing Baymax and Hiro in the Infinity Wars movies, but it would be cool to see BH6 team up with Marvel characters like Spider-man or Iron Man (who many have proposed made a cameo in the Nerd Lab in the film) or to integrate the Infinity Wars plot in there some how.

5. More Glorious Baymax Humor (Accompanied By Equally Glorious Hiro Sarcasm)

More visual and verbal gags such as running out of batteries, not being fast, and constantly diagnosing Hiro with puberty and other teen afflictions.

Images via Disney

Dr. Ken Recap 1.01 – “Pilot”

The series premiere of Dr. Ken opens with a patient disagreeing with Dr. Kendrick Park (Ken Jeong) with his recommendation for a colonoscopy, insisting that “it’s hemorrhoids” based on his own research on WebMD. Dr. Park’s resulting sarcastic mocking causes the patient to angrily storm out of the clinic, setting the stage for ABC’s new family comedy.

Dr. Ken is the second family sitcom this season, and third show overall, featuring an all Asian-American family on American network television. It is filmed in multi-camera with a laugh track as opposed to Fresh Off the Boat’s single camera show, and is in many ways a more traditional family sitcom. Friday night’s premiere offered light-hearted humor, allowing the audience to recognize the show’s intention in portraying its characters as a normal sitcom family.

There were some familiar comedic faces on-screen, such as Tisha Campbell-Martin (Martin, My Wife and Kids, Rita Rocks), and Suzy Nakamura (Go On, The Goldbergs), as well as new ones, both of which are a delight to watch.

The “Pilot” featured a classic sitcom plot of an overprotective father overreacting to a child’s newfound freedom, but the real goal of this episode was to introduce us to the Park family and their relationship dynamics.

Dr. Park, as we met above, is the father of the family. Played with his trademark manic energy, Jeong’s character expressed a wide spectrum of human behavior throughout the pilot. Although initially depicted as an arrogant and narcissistic doctor, he eventually showed that he was capable of remorse, generosity, and humility by the end.

Suzy Nakamura plays Dr. Allison Park, wife of Ken Park and a psychiatrist. She plays the understanding mom who is open to giving her teenage daughter, Molly Park (Krista Marie Yu), more freedom as she is growing up, signified by passing her driver’s test. Her parenting style contrasts with Ken’s although they both eventually meet in the middle as a team, because “it’s got to be us against them!”

Molly spent the episode playing against her father, who, unlike his wife, is terrified now that she has a driver’s license. His overprotectiveness ends up getting him in trouble, as she proves herself to be more responsible than he turns out to be.

Finally, Albert Tsai (Trophy Wife) plays Dave Park, who was seen confidently practicing his mime performance for the school’s talent show, despite how much his dad tells him that it was a terrible idea. His youthful enthusiasm, quirkiness, and confidence is something every young kid should learn and keep throughout their life.

As for the quality of the premiere itself, the comedic lines came off typical and the plot might have been a bit predictable, but it was still entertaining to watch. For one thing, it is one of the few shows representing Asian-Americans that stray away from overt stereotypes. When watching it, it feels like you’re watching characters that you normally see on any other television sitcom, without focusing too much on their ethnicity and culture. It’s rather refreshing!

Featured Photo: ABC

Fresh off the Boat Recap – “Family Business Trip”

It’s been a minute since we were first introduced to Huang family on ABC’s Fresh off the Boat. The first all Asian American family sitcom in 20 years recently made history as being the first one to last more than one season, after a solid first season mixing laugh out loud humor with the reality of growing up in an Asian American household. After Tuesday’s premiere, it’s already safe to say that the second season is off to another hilarious start.

School is out for the summer and Eddie Huang spends the days away either watching TV or playing video games. His goal is to return to school to show off the one cool thing he did during the summer, buying his own pair of “fresh as hell” Reebok Pumps. However, after watching a report on MTV, made by hip hop luminary Ed Lover no less, he learns that Reebok Pump shoes were seen being worn by the legendary (but uncool) John Stockton and were now effectively uncool. With summer coming to a close Eddie must quickly come up with a cool experience to share with his school friends before vacation’s end.

Conveniently, he along with brothers Emery and Evan, mom Jessica and grandma tag along with his dad Louis on a “family business trip” to Gator World. However, Jessica, who was already suspecting something fishy regarding her husband’s business trip, eventually learns that there was no business to attend to on this trip after all, and that in fact all of Louis’ past “business trips” have been secret vacations to unwind.

As someone who, until then, never believed in vacations (cue Jessica’s burst of laughter when her friend Honey suggested taking one earlier in the episode), she finds it difficult to wrap her mind around such a concept. However, after attending a massage session Louis booked for her, accompanied by the sound of whale calls, Jessica at long last learns what it means to relax and be on vacation.

Meanwhile, Eddie ventures off to build up his reputation by riding the most extreme ride in Gator World, the Death Roll. But all it took was a quick glimpse of a kid being pulled away, vomiting on a stretcher, for him to quickly chicken out of the idea. Forced to return to school without a cool story to tell, his uneventful summer was not well received by his friends… at first that is. Things took a 180 degree turn when his crush Nicole, who was supposed to have started high school, returns to redo eighth grade. She tells Eddie that she wished she could have played it simple over the summer like he did instead of skipping out on summer school. Her compliment instantly validating Eddie’s lazy summer.

In the end, young Eddie scores reputation points with Nicole, and more importantly, Fresh off the Boat scores big for making it back for a triumphant second season premiere! I look forward to seeing more strong and hilarious stories this season, as well as more character growth and exploration of the show’s world, in particular for the character of Grandma Huang.

Photo Credit – ABC

‘Selfie’ TV Pilot Review

Regarded as a modern-day adaptation of My Fair Lady and Pygmalion, Selfie follows the story of Eliza Dooley, a narcissistic social media-obsessed ditz, who enlists the help of Henry Higenbottam, a marketing genius, after her online reputation gets smeared by a humiliating viral video.

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Cary Fukunaga Wins an Emmy for ‘True Detective’

Cary Fukunaga took home his very first Emmy for his work on True Detective last night and possibly became the first Asian American to win an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, or for any kind of directing at all for that matter.

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Lisa Ling Explores America on CNN Primetime

Award-winning journalist Lisa Ling will host a new show on CNN exploring and profiling unusual subcultures in the States. According to Capital, Ling’s show will be one of the featured series on CNN’s summer lineup, alongside Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” and Morgan Spurlock’s “Inside Man.” Continue reading “Lisa Ling Explores America on CNN Primetime”

Jamie Chung in New NBC Series “Believe”

Our favorite Korean-American hottie and actress, Jamie Chung, is doing big things! Jamie plays Channing on NBC’s newest sci-fi series, “Believe”–the love child of an incredible group of directors and producers that includes J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek” and “Lost”), Bryan Burk (“Lost” and “Fringe”) and Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity.”) “Believe” is about a young girl, Bo (Johnny Sequoyah), who is equipped with special powers like telekinesis and predicting the future, as well as a small group named the True Believers who must shield her from those who try to exploit her powers.

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John Cho cast as lead for ABC comedy series “Selfie”

Known as Harold from “Harold and Kumar” and the newest Hikaru Sulu in the “Star Trek” reboots by J.J. Abrams, Korean-American John Cho was recently cast as the second-lead in a new ABC comedy.

“Selfie,” will loosely follow the musical My Fair Lady as the show’s story centers around social-media addict Eliza Dooley (“Doctor Who’s” Karen Gillian) and her downfall after her split with her boyfriend goes viral. Now she gets “likes” and followers for all the wrong reasons and needs help rebranding her image.

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