TV Review: Fresh Off the Boat (3×08) “Where are the Giggles?”

It’s Christmas time, and the Huangs are getting sued in the latest episode of Fresh Off The Boat. Wait, that’s not right. Who would do that?

After closing another deal, Jessica received tickets for the whole family, and she decided that they all needed to see “Jingle All the Way.” Unfortunately, they left Evan behind. At first it seemed like the episode was going to do a spoof on Home Alone, but they only paid homage to it with Evan’s reaction and the trap he set up, which Marvin accidentally sprung. What made the situation funny was that Marvin told the Huangs to stay at the movies because the movie was so good, and they did. Granted, Jess was worried the whole time, but she still stayed.

Their return home leads them to the discovery of a physically hurt Marvin and an emotionally hurt Evan. One decided to sue Louis and the other asked Jessica for a Tickle Me Elmo. Thus began the majority of the episode.

Even though Marvin is upper class and the Huangs have insurance, it felt out of place for him to sue them to begin with since he’s such good friends with their family. His reasoning didn’t really make sense. It was interesting that the show did the twist on the ghosts of christmas past, present and future through the pain meds Marvin was taking. Eddie and Emery’s ghosts were alright, but Grandma Huang’s was the best because she was standing and speaking English. The only issue with the “visions” was that Jessica was okay with their Premium going up by four dollars. She’s all about saving money, so it was odd to have her be okay with that. Eventually Marvin learned the error of his ways, but again the whole situation felt forced.

Jessica’s journey to find a Tickle Me Elmo had to be the funniest parts of the episode. The best one being the line at the computer store. “Is your son missing?” “Yes, a Tickle Me Elmo.” Greatest part of the episode. It was also ironic that Deirdre was at the toy since earlier in the episode; the Huangs didn’t make room for her and her husband even though they needed it because he husband would go blind if he didn’t sit in the middle. Turns out Deirdre is a buyer and collector of toys. She had a whole room dedicated to them. My one caveat was that the toys were clearly from today’s time, especially the Pikachu’s, which were slim unlike the original chubby ones, but that’s a small detail that can be overlooked. In exchange for Elmo, Jessica had to dress up as Santa. Of course, Deirdre should’ve known that it would be a mistake to have her do that, but she learned that the hard way. Also Jessica still got the Elmo, thanks to the husband which gave it to her anway.

What was weird was that Evan didn’t want the toy at all and decided this was the year to finally tell his mom that he didn’t want toys for Christmas anymore. This felt weird because he waited so long to tell her. The emotional impact didn’t stick because of the logic based around it.

Eddie and Emery didn’t really do anything this episode, but it was nice to that Emery tricked Eddie (who now wanted to celebrate Kwanzaa) by giving him a book on how to celebrate Kwanzaa for christmas.

7/10

Fresh Off the Boat airs Tuesdays @ 9/8c on ABC