Let's just get my bias out of the way right now. I LOVE Taika Waititi! I have never seen anything that he was involved in that was not good. He has never had a single "dud" as an actor, producer, write or director. It's actually quite amazing.
Therefore, when I heard that Waititi was the executive producer of Hulu's original series "Interior Chinatown", my wife and I rushed to watch it. (We are old so it took a while for the message to get to us). This show is based on Charles Yu's 2020 novel of the same name.
For about the first 7 episodes, we thought Waitit had done it again. He had produced another highly creative and entertaining show. He even directed the first episode of the show "Generic Asian Man".
Those first 7 episodes pulled off a very similar gimmick to "Kevin can F Himself", a show I loved, incredibly well. Both use a show within a show to tell their full story. While "Kevin Can F Himself" used a family sitcom format, "Interior Chinatown" used the Police Procedural format. Instead of switching the style based on a character's point of view, the style switched back and forth to show the difference between reality and drama... until the lines get blurred.
As an avid fan of the original "Law and Order" I can tell you that the author, Charles Yu, had done his homework. The scenes where the show is shot like Law and Order did not miss a single detail. From the inappropriate jokes the detectives tell when they discovered a body to the interactions with the nameless "tech guy" who needs to enhance every picture or video, the details were spot on.
I really loved those first 7 episodes where the audience is given little clues as to what is really going on. Is the main character Wu on a TV show? Is he losing his mind? Is everyone in his world on the show?
Unfortunately, the last 3 episodes were a little too "meta " for me. The lines between the show within a show were blurred so much that I got kind of lost. This is not to say that this ruined the show. Without giving away any spoilers, I can just say that I loved the journey a lot more than the destination.
Overall there are some great performances, dialogue and characters. I have liked Chloe Bennet in everything she has been in she she played Daisy on "Agents of SHIELD". Jimmy O. Yang as our hero Wu does a great job. I would say Lisa Gilroy was the best scene stealer in the show with her super serious portrayal of an over the top detective Sarah Green but the title of scene stealer must go to Ronny Chieng as Fatty Choi. Cheing is one of the funniest stand-up comedians out there and he does an amazing job as Wu's best friend Fatty.
As I wrote that last paragraph, I remembered all of the great things about the show. I think my problem is that the first 7 episodes are so good, that it was nearly impossible to keep to that high standard. So overall I would say I really liked this show. If I had to give it a number I'd say a 9.5 for the first 7 episodes and a 7.5 for the last 3. So clearly I think it is worth your time if you can handle a little "meta" show.
Has anyone seen this show or read the book? Any opinions on Ronny Chieng?
