Asians in Television Shows — Fall 2010
Each fall, I get excited about the fall line-up of new television shows and try to scout out the ones with, albeit, token Asians, or my favourite actors. Last year saw a small boon with Daniel Henny in Three Rivers, Lindsay Price in Eastwick, Stephanie Jacobsen in Melrose Place, and John Cho in FlashForward. Sadly, all four were canceled by the end of one season. It leaves me very cynical about the shows I chose to watch but I make a list anyhow.
The most promotion I’ve seen, in no small part because I think I watch a lot of CW shows, is Maggie Q in Nikita. Apparently really hot posters like the one here are everywhere in L.A.
NPY got me hooked onto the Masterchef where Mike and Slim represented for Asians in the top 10. Slim reminded us of someone we know and I was dazzled by her beautiful long hair that is usually pinned up to her head. As of this writing, she has already been eliminated. And of all the other amateur chefs, we noticed that Mike would have the most expressive reaction face and the camera would pan to him more often than others. I hope it means he goes further!
You don’t see Ian Anthony Dale in any of The Event promos so potentially he is just playing a small recurring part. I look forward to seeing his versatility.
The new Hawaii Five-O is chockful of Asians with Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park as leads characters alongside Scott Caan (good luck?) and Alex O’Loughlin (bad luck?). I’ve watched Alex in two shows in the past two years that got canceled within one season: Moonlight and Three Rivers. Here’s hoping.
I hoping that Kristin Kreuk will have a lot of screen time in the new Law and Order spin-off, Law and Order: Los Angeles. I really hope she can step up to the serious role an ADA requires!
While the Canadian So You Think You Can Dance top 22 is entirely non-Asian, Margaret Cho will be on Dancing with the Stars‘ 11th season. I think she’s on hiatus after filming her series, Drop Dead Diva.
I watch Amazing Race and am super excited to see the YouTube star I only learned about this summer, Kevin “Jumba” Wu, and his wacky father will be one of the teams! Another Asian face on the travel/challenge reality show is Kat Chang, a doctor, who races with her friend, (also a doctor), Nat. They are… “Team Nat & Kat”!
Other shows I’ll be adding to my PVR include Outsourced, My Generation starring Annie Son in a non-stereotypical role (teenage pregnancy!), and Perfect Couples starring Olivia Munn (although when does it premiere?).