Fresh Off the Boat: Home Sweet Home-School

February 28, 2015 7:37 AM - Season 1, Episode 2

When the boys all get high marks in school, Jessica tries to get them moved into gifted programs but the school doesn't have them. She then considers enrolling them in a Chinese Learning Center (CLC), but there are none in the area. Wanting to get Jessica and her incessant micromanaging away from the restaurant, Louis convinces her to home-school the kids.

Music:
Jessica sang Wind Beneath My Wings (original video for Bette Midler's version)
Snoop Dogg - Who Am I? (What's My Name)
Cypress Hill - Insane in the Brain
Ice Cube - Today was a Good Day

posted by filthy light thief (5 comments total)

My wife and I just got hooked on this show, so I'll be posting an episode per day until we're back to speed on the live airings.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:38 AM on February 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

When he was proud of himself and he and his grandma rolled up to Snoop, I felt that. When Snoop came out that was kind of the height and start of the g-funk era for me, and it was like a gust of fresh air. Playing that song it just felt like a brand new day. So I know that feeling he had.
posted by cashman at 2:53 PM on February 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, this show is silly, but in a really honest way. There is some cultural parody, but the actors and the script carry it all well. Much is extended to hyperbole, but based on something that could well be reality.

One odd thing about this episode, if not other ones: those three songs all came out in 1993, two years before the show is set (What's My Name? - October 30, 1993; Insane in the Brain - June 22, 1993; It Was A Good Day - February 23, 1993). Their source albums were also out in '93, except Ice Cube's The Predator, which came out in Nov. '92. I'll add these notes to the original post of the next episodes, for whatever that's worth.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:39 PM on February 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

This show, much like The Goldbergs with the 1980s, doesn't seem to be trying very hard to get the timeline of 1990s pop culture stuff right. The Goldbergs is at least open about it (it was October 17, Nineteen Eighty-Something...) and I think that helps a little bit with it -- you know it's a pastiche from the beginning.

I understand not wanting to be constrained by having to fit into a specific year or two when you want to mine pop culture references, but I feel like maybe FOB would have been better if they'd set it in the early 1990s, even if that doesn't match up with Eddie Huang's actual experience.
posted by tonycpsu at 6:48 AM on March 1, 2015

"I'm sorry. My son got straight A's, and I told my wife I love her. Please bear with us. We're going through a rough patch."

Hahaha! This! I'm so behind, but I thought the second episode was a lot better than the pilot. The "I love you" subplot was a good one!
posted by gemutlichkeit at 4:03 PM on April 6, 2015