American Born Chinese Season 1 Review: An Entertaining but Flawed Adaptation

As a whole, American Born Chinese is a better coming-of-age series than a fantasy. Sure, there’s plenty of predictably awkward flirting, unoriginal dialogue, and the like, yet it’s still easy to be charmed by the script, as well as the likable performances and characters.

The show boasts an impressive cast, a lot of whom you may recognize from Everything Everywhere All at Once. Most of the actors are given opportunities to really shine throughout the season. Michelle Yeoh, in particular, is a delight as Guanyin, and she brings a lot of humor to the series.

Ben Wang, who plays Jin, shines during the show’s comedic moments. His dead-pan delivery and perplexed expressions fit in well with what’s going on around him. However, he’s less believable in the more dramatic scenes, although he’s not helped by the dialogue in those moments.

There’s certainly a lot of diversity in terms of Asian representation, even if the show often bites off more than it can chew in regard to race-related issues. The comedic elements actually work better than the dramatic ones, all of which we’ve essentially seen before in some form or other.

The series is charming, delightful, and fantastical, even though the myriad of tones and genres don’t always work together. It also goes on for too long, as the 8 episodes really drag in some places.

Some side plots could have been eliminated or shortened, which would have helped the flow of the season.

American Born Chinese Season 1 Episode 4, “Make A Splash,” features a particularly bizarre tone and style. It’s too quirky for its own good, featuring humor that rarely works and random narration that seems pointless. The show’s ambition far exceeds what it accomplishes, at least in this particular episode.

Unsurprisingly, the action scenes in American Born Chinese contain a fair amount of slow-motion, which works until it gets to be tiresome. That said, a few of the action scenes are reminiscent of something like Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which is a good thing, as it gives the show much-needed personality.

Although American Born Chinese opens in the fantastical realm known as Heaven, the real world — Earth — actually ends up being more interesting of the two. There’s great editing in-between the two worlds, but the more time is spent on Earth, the more we (all but) forget about Heaven.

There are also still so many questions about the logistics of Heaven.

Bits of information are sprinkled throughout the 8 episodes, yet they aren’t cohesive enough to get a clear sense of what’s going on. The world-building will need some significant expansion and/or explanation in further seasons if Disney+ chooses to renew it.

However, as the story is too drawn out in this season, making the season drag in some places, perhaps more seasons would be unnecessary. The show would need to add more lore and innovative elements to keep things from becoming stale.

Ultimately, American Born Chinese is a series about friendship and family; its focus on the relationship between Jin and Wei-Chen, as well as Jin’s relationship with his parents, is primarily what makes it a worthwhile watch.

Stray Thoughts

• The costumes, designed by Joy Cretton, are appropriately colorful and fanciful, especially in Heaven and for those magical characters.
• The needle drops throughout the series don’t always tonally work.
• The pop culture references are seemingly random, probably inserted to remind us that this is taking place in the present day.
• It’s somewhat of a relief to see a Disney+ original featuring teenagers that isn’t replete with over-the-top acting.
• The bizarre close-ups, accompanied by eerie music, come across as cheesy.

What did you think of this season of American Born Chinese? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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All episodes of American Born Chinese are available on Disney+.

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