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Eddie ushers Emery into middle school by giving him the first volume of Eddie's cultural heritage log, a document of fake Chinese customs he told the teachers and staff to make his life at school easier. Meanwhile, Evan adjusts to his school experiences without Emery, while Jessica and Louis spar over house cleaning. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Oct 19, 2016 - 3 comments

Valentine's Day is almost here, and Eddie is going to take Alison to the Janet Jackson concert, but he doesn't have the tickets ... yet. He has a plan, and Trent's got his back. At home, Jessica and Louis get a night to themselves, thanks to Honey and Marvin taking Emery and Evan for the night. But when Emery comes back home for a moment, what he sees challenges his views of romance.
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 15, 2016 - 1 comment

Fun fact: Jessica loves Christmas villages, but finds Santa to be an underachiever. With that, she goes about improving him for Evan. Meanwhile, Eddie and Emery have differing opinions on how to approach Christmas present selection. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jan 6, 2016 - 5 comments

It's all about money problems - Eddie wants to get a necklace for Alison's birthday but it's too expesive, so he gets a job that he can't talk about (it's a nondisclosure agreement thing). Meanwhile, Jessica ends her friendship with Honey for not agreeing with her opinions (specifically about an expensive fortune teller), while Louis' old college roomate, Barry, comes to visit, but it's totally not about money (OK, it's an opportunity for Louis to get in on the ground floor of something big). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jan 6, 2016 - 1 comment

It’s Eddie’s 12th birthday and he doesn't want his family to do anything special, really. This concerns Louis and Jessica, who discuss the rules of the house and how they might be lightened. Meanwhile, Emery and Evan purposely misbehave to gain attention from their parents. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Nov 12, 2015 - 4 comments

The hosts of Good Morning Orlando invite Louis to appear on their program, to talk about his business and do a few of his impressions. Jessica encourages him to make the appearance, but she is horrified by the way Louis represents himself as an Asian American on television. Eddie and his friends are pleasantly surprised to learn that they all have girlfriends, but they are at a loss to figure out what that means and how they should proceed (and who exactly is dating who). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Nov 7, 2015 - 2 comments

The family has big plans for Halloween: Louis wants to turn the "dead zone" cul-de-sac into a prime stop for trick-or-treaters; and Louis, Eddie, Emery, Evan and Grandma Huang go all-out with their costumes. Jessica, meanwhile, finds herself in an escalating situation with a group of teenage boys, ending in a Halloween showdown. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Oct 29, 2015 - 4 comments

Louis' American school dance dreams come true, and he passes on the lessons he learned from Pretty in Pink to Eddie and his friends, while Jessica tries to bond with Louis' mother. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Oct 18, 2015 - 1 comment

Louis tries to finally get the right anniversary present for Jessica, while Evan declares it’s “party time,” inviting his brothers out to the lawn to hang with him and his Beanie Babies, except Eddie and Emery think a water slide would be more fun.
posted by filthy light thief on Oct 8, 2015 - 5 comments

Jessica shares her child raising and chess tips to Honey, who is having a tough time being the strict parent with Nicole, who makes Louis wish he and Jessica had a daughter. Meanwhile, Eddie is trying to avoid taking piccolo as his 5th period elective, and enjoying his time with Nicole, who protects the 7th grade boys from the 8th grade bullies. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Oct 1, 2015 - 6 comments

When Jessica notices that Louis has packed his swim suit for a business trip, she gets suspicious. To make sure it's all business, she quickly packs the family for a trip to Gator World Hotel and Resort, where Eddie tries to do something worth bragging about in seventh grade, and "Baby" Evan copes with growing up and losing his "brand." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Sep 22, 2015 - 6 comments

Jessica and her family are assimilating to the Orlando way of life, and she is closing houses like a boss, so she is thrilled to be invited to join the North Orlando Country Club. Club membership comes with its perks, but also makes Jessica worry about her family losing their roots. The boys are enrolled in an intense Mandarin course in Tampa, and Jessica tries to get back to her roots, though Louis realizes the cost of the country club might be worth it. Meanwhile, Eddie tries to take the easy way in World Cultures Day, but finds himself learning about his culture and schooling his class-mates. [Season finale] [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 26, 2015 - 7 comments

Louis and Jessica get pressured into volunteering at the kids' schools because budget cuts have forced Principal Thomas (Maria Bamford) into enlisting parents to help out around school. Louis coaches basketball, which shows Eddie \a whole other side of his dad -- a former semi-pro basketball player back in Taiwan -- while Emery and Evan see a side of Jessica they wish they hadn't when she grudgingly takes on producing their school play, and puts her own spin on it. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 17, 2015 - 1 comment

When Jessica starts working as a real estate agent with her initial competitor, Ashley Alexander, she turns down a condo for something more challenging, and she is offered a challenging property that has been on the market for years. Meanwhile, the new school counselor, Ray (Judah Friedlander), tries to direct Eddie's entrepreneurial motivations into positive territory, specifically running for class president. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 15, 2015 - 3 comments

Jessica is annoyed that Louis isn't jealous when her college boyfriend, Oscar Chow, visits, which leads to Louis and Jessica facing their respective blind spots. Eddie put off making a project for the science fair, and looks to his brothers for help of one sort or another, while Evan and Emory have a brotherly battle over science fair supremacy, and Evan fights dirty. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 7, 2015 - 2 comments

When Jessica goes to get her realtor license, she comes face to face with the best realtor in the city, who has years of experience (and sales) over Jessica, who lies to her family rather than admit she wasn't the best. Louis gets a sit-down, salon-style hair dryer ("and it's beautiful") to reach his "maximum hair potential." Eddie turns to his dad for advice on how to get Nicole to like him, and get some tips in the form of restaurant location guidance. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 29, 2015 - 1 comment

There's a new Chinese kid at Eddie's school, and everyone is sure they'll be best friends. Despite their differences, Eddie and Phillip Goldstein find common ground. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 14, 2015 - 5 comments

Louis get a billboard for the restaurant, but it keeps on getting vandalized. Jessica wants to treat it as a hate crime, while Louis tries to downplay that aspect, and finally tells Jessica the back story at a fundraiser at a country club. Meanwhile, Eddie tries impressing Nicole with Ice Cube's The Predator and its prominent Parental Advisory warning on the cover. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 5, 2015 - 6 comments

As Jessica searches for a job for herself, Eddie starts working at the Cattleman's Ranch to get enough money for a video game (Shaq Fu) he wants. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 4, 2015 - 8 comments

Jessica gets hooked on the "fright of the night" stories in the nightly news, and gets Louis to put on a sexual harassment course to protect the restaurant from lawsuits. Enter Dusty Nugget (Brett Gelman), a reformed sexual harasser himself (“They Hannibal Lecter’d me! Don’t be alarmed, I got booked on showing, not touching.”) and his collection of sexual harassment prevention tools, including video cassettes. It's those VHS that save Eddie, who secures his home as the sleep-over destination because he has a dirty movie, but doesn't initially have such a video. But it doesn't stop there ....
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 3, 2015 - 4 comments

Jessica's sister pays a visit from D.C., bringing her husband, mother, and son. In an effort to appear more successful than they are, Jessica and Louis dress the house up and get new hairstyles. The couples engage in a duel of appearances, while Eddie is puzzled by the shifted musical tastes of the cousin who turned him on to hip hop a year ago. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 2, 2015 - 4 comments

Louis urges the family to make new friends at a neighborhood block party, but Jessica must choose between a budding friendship and neighborhood gossip that might be bad for Cattleman's Ranch Steakhouse. Meanwhile, Eddie tries to earn respect from other kids in the neighborhood. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 1, 2015 - 6 comments

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. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 28, 2015 - 5 comments