Fresh Off The Boat Might Have Been Good, But Has Nothing To Do With Reality
This show has suffered too many controversies for all the wrong reasons.
The shows that portray the lives of a minority in a believable and heartfelt way are usually praised by both critics and audiences. When such a show is also a very funny sitcom, filled with great punchlines, it rises to the top of the ratings and becomes an audience favorite.
Fresh Off The Boat, being the story of an Asian-American family making their way in the U.S., had every chance of being considered the best show in terms of community representation to date. However, with the amount of controversy surrounding it, that title is now completely out of reach for it.
When a show claims to be based on someone's autobiography, one would expect that person to be involved in the production in some way. Fresh Off The Boat was supposed to be an adaptation of chef and food personality Eddie Huang's book of the same name. However, Huang quickly dropped out of the project.
As it turned out, ABC took a different creative approach to the show, cutting out a lot of the darker details that made the story more meaningful and true to life.
One of the big elements that was cut was the abusive behavior of Huang's father, who was originally a former gang member. All of this trauma led Eddie Huang to turn to petty crime and drugs, which were also excluded from the series.
It's easy to understand that the network was concerned about how these events would fit into the concept of a family-friendly sitcom. However, this means that they took the wrong approach from the very beginning. If the show had been made in the style of a black comedy, it would have allowed the writers to tell the story in a much more realistic way.
Otherwise, the claim that Eddie Huang's story was being adapted became an outright lie by ABC to attract more viewers because a real-life celebrity's name was attached to the project. The dilemma of a generally good standalone show being harmful, because it changes the narrative of a real person's story, would haunt Fresh Off The Boat forever.
If you want to check out Fresh Off The Boat for yourself, you can stream the sitcom on Hulu or Disney Plus.