This week’s Fresh Off the Boat episode, “The Car Wash,” was very lackluster. It was the epitome of a filler episode that the season could’ve done without.
The biggest issue with this episode was that Eddie did pretty much nothing. Other than reference Spice World a lot he just kind of showed up randomly. The only interesting thing was that we found out he was cool with a teacher, which is something that goes against his character and subverts the notion that all of Eddie’s teachers dislike him. It would’ve been more interesting to dive into that dynamic and how that works. Aside from that the only other thing that was worth noting was when he tells his brothers that their mom has a gun.
The main focus was on Emery and Evan’s rivalry to get Ms. Doris’s attention. It wasn’t funny. Emery’s thing was always naturally being the most liked person in the room, but every since he got to high school it’s been a problem for him. Evan has always been the favorite by working hard and following the rules. On paper this should’ve been an interesting challenge for the both of them, but since Emery now has to try to get people to like him it didn’t work. Two try-hards working to become teacher’s pets is boring. Nothing about their story landed until they found out about Eddie’s connection to her, but then it was all about Eddie being the interesting one. The twist at the end was nice regarding how they’ve become teacher’s pets to Mr. Carlson and it’d be a good idea to follow up on that in the future.
Can we talk about Jordan, aka Stripes, for a second? I know that moment was supposed to be a joke, but it came off very rude. I don’t know if it was the delivery or the line itself, but I actually felt bad for the kid, especially because the teacher said not to humanize himself, as if Jordan was less than human.
As this was all happening, Louis was trying to save his marriage even though it wasn’t falling apart. My issue was that he clearly wasn’t seeing that he wasn’t supporting his wife and I knew she’d be mad at him. It was too obvious that he was making a mistake. I also didn’t buy that Louis would be so worried about Terry, especially because of how little he was actually around Jessica. The episode should’ve made it seem more like there might’ve been something for Louis to worry about. Instead I found myself talking to the screen telling Louis to stop listening to Marvin. In the end it all worked out, but the issue didn’t need to happen.
By the way, Jessica has a gun! Apparently no one knew, which was funny.
Fresh Off the Boat airs Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC.
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