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!

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Featured Photo: ABC

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