On Fresh Off the Boat, Eddie is a good kid, most of the time. On occasion he does lie, but as this episode shows, it can be for a good reason. Taking the heat for your siblings mistakes is what you do when you’re the oldest. An unspoken but nice part about Eddie getting in trouble for the papaya is that Evan didn’t confess. He’s typically the good child of the three, and based on previous actions, it could be assumed that he would’ve told the truth, but he didn’t and instead let his older brother get in trouble. This works because it makes his character seem more real. People don’t always do what one would expect them to do. Also, he’s a kid, and they don’t always fess up to their mistakes. Good thing for Eddie, he was able to clear his name.
Another great part to Evan’s change of character was his excitement in the dishwasher. Emery and Evan always love to do work, but he wanted the machine to do it for him. It was surprising that he wasn’t shaming people for using them and instead wanted to use one himself. His child-like wonder trumped his usual work ethic.
Meanwhile, Emery was busy sabotaging his dad during the infomercial, which was so deceptive. Who knew he had it in him? It was funny to see Louis mess up so many times on such simple lines, but it goes to show that acting isn’t as easy as it looks, and the joke was kind of meta. Emery got his time to shine, but he was nervous himself and his odd blinking was funnier than expected. Also, his untrusting nature towards his father’s good advice. Emery really wanted to be a star in this infomercial, but unfortunately he got played, the ad made him look like a cry baby, and Louis was made to look dumb. Poor Louis, he didn’t deserve that, plus they stole his idea for the name. He really got screwed over. The only one to really win was Tony Wonder.
Rhys Darby does a good job at being Tony Wonder. His awkward, but charming style was a treat. The fact that he kept giving them bobbleheads of himself was funny because nobody wanted them, but he kept handing them out as if he were a big star even though he only does infomercials that people watch really early in the morning.
Lastly, there was a line that was glossed over, but it had so much importance I was surprised it didn’t play a bigger role. When Jess was talking to the kids about how a dishwasher would make them soft, the grandma interrupted and said that a drying rack made them soft. It was a small, but great line showing that as technology progresses older generations see the newer generations getting more soft. It would’ve been surprising that Jessica glossed over the grandmother’s words, if it wasn’t for the fact that she was doing the same thing her sons were doing to her.
Fresh Off the Boat airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on ABC.
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