Asian American Media Studies and the Problem of Legibility

In February 2016, I participated in a roundtable discussion about Master of None, the Netflix series created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang (2015–present). Hosted by the Asian Arts Initiative, a multidisciplinary arts center based in Philadelphia's Chinatown, the evening brought together fans of a post–network TV series for a lively discussion. At one point, filmmaker (and curator) Sara Zia Ebrahimi commented that there was a remarkable degree of narrative experimentation across the ten-episode season that may have affected the show's accessibility; it seems likely that a network concerned about building a week-by-week following would not have allowed Ansari and Yang to play with the show's tone and narrative structure to the extent allowed by Netflix. Toward the end of the evening, an audience member asked the panel to comment on her sense that Master of None was well received in the Asian American community while The Mindy Project (created by Mindy Kaling; Fox, 2012–2015; Hulu, 2015–present) was subject to extended criticism. Inspired by Ebrahimi's observation, I noted that The Mindy Project engaged with the conventions of the sitcom and the romantic comedy in an entirely accessible way, and that while creator Mindy Kaling was clearly engaged in an ongoing commentary on those forms, she had just as clearly embraced their conventions to make her points. (Furthermore, an unexamined bias against the romantic comedy and other "women's genres" likely contributed to the critical dismissal of The Mindy Project.) Following Thomas Schatz, I understand genres like the romantic comedy as articulating fundamentally irreconcilable ideological contradictions (even as they produce narrative closure through a symbolic resolution of those contradictions).¹ By contrast, Master of None's open-ended narratives force the audience to consider social issues that do not have easy answers. Master of None refuses to leave "the mind at rest" with a palatable narrative resolution that minority audiences may perceive as accommodating mainstream audiences.²

I think this point becomes even clearer when we compare both shows with the ABC network's two Asian American sitcoms, Fresh off the Boat (ABC, 2015–present) and Dr. Ken (ABC, 2015–present), which are extremely legible as prime-time sitcoms. Dr. Ken is a multicamera family-and-workplace sitcom with archetypal sitcom characters (nutty dad, grounded mom, boundary-pushing teenage daughter, nerdy prepubescent son, and four varieties of coworker: sassy, naïve, arrogant-oblivious, and gay)—in fact, Dr. Ken feels like a cryogenically preserved 1980s sitcom. Fresh off the Boat draws from more contemporary trends (e.g., the tightly edited cutaway gags that interrupt expository dialogue) but also features archetypal characters (Old World–values mom, New World–loving dad, hardheaded but good-hearted teenage son, two precocious younger brothers, and acid-tongued grandmother). While Master of None is the smartest and riskiest of the four, the Asian American community is perhaps most excited about Fresh off the Boat, which is set in the 1990s and thereby softens its racial commentary by locating it in a less enlightened but still familiar time. Fresh off the Boat is identifiably Asian American but also accessible to ABC's viewers.

The contradiction between originality and comprehensibility is foregrounded by the rhetorical backflips that mainstream media outlets perform when promoting programs that ostensibly present minority viewpoints. At the Television Critics Association press tour, the president of ABC Entertainment Group observed that ABC's fall 2014 slate was "a mission statement to reflect America. . . . In a way it's not so much diversity as it is authenticity."³ He then went on to say: "We picked them up because they were great television . . . but they sort of for us unleashed a creative vein that was unmissable. We think these shows are deeply relatable (to broad audiences). When I watch Fresh off the Boat, or Blackish or Cristela—I am those families. . . . Great stories about great characters will resonate in the heart and gut anywhere in the world."⁴ In other words, these shows are specific enough that racial minorities will find them authentic, but they are relatable enough that they...