Fresh off the Boat - The Best in Orlando & Clean Slate - Double Review

Last week all of us, Fresh off the Boat fans, got a special treat in the form of two episodes of Fresh off the boat and they delivered.

"The Best of Orlando" - Audience of One

In the first installment of the week, The Best of Orlando, we once again got major focus on the Louis-Jessica relationship and it was a clear winner. During Louis' acceptance speech for winning Best Small Businessman of the year, he forgot to thank Jessica. Poor Louis wasn't ready for the hell coming his way, I always feel so bad for Louis when he has to clash with Jessica but the way she crashes him and all of his hopes is just hilarious. The playing off between Constance Wu and Randall Park was just captivating and makes me laugh so hard all the time. Louis appearance on Good Morning Orlando was another hit as his second speech was interrupted just when he was about to thank Jessica.

Louis reaching out to Evan for help was a nice touch and them recreating the ceremony was the perfect way for Louis to get back into Jessica's good grace. Louis' speech was pure perfection, special kudos to Eric Ziobrowski for penning the speech and Randall Park for executing it perfectly. Jessica forcing Louis to do the speech in front of everyone who attended the ceremony was hilarious and truthful to Jessica's character.

Evan and Jessica working together throughout the episode were working so well, not that it is a surprise but the two of them are doing an amazing job together. The ongoing puns with Jessica's sister, Connie were bringing plenty of smiles on my face. Looking for Connie's Orlando appearance in the February 8th episode.

Meanwhile, Eddie, Emery and Grandma Huang were on starting a business of their own. As a growing Emery fan, I truly enjoyed this side story. Eddie and Emery's attempt to start a fake Chichos business was an interesting plot point and gave the two truly different brothers ground to bound. Their business failing cause of the principal starting to wear the pants as well was hilarious.

"Clean Slate" - Stick Up For Me

Even though I overall think that "The Best of Orlando" was a better and funnier episode, I appreciate "Clean Slate" for pairing up characters that don't interact too often and find a way to make their interactions truly memorable.

The Huang's were in front of a milestone, all family members were about to enter the new chinese year with a clean slate. Of course, the moment Jessica said it things started falling apart and creating turmoil for the family members.
In a surprising turn of event, we witnessed the first Jessica-Emery centric story. To no one's surprise, Jessica had issues keeping a clean slate and sought out Emery's help when she forgot to bring her lucky red dress from the dry cleaners. Emery got into a fight with the owner of the dry cleaner shop and Jessica didn't stick up for him cause she wanted to keep her slate clean. This created major friction between mother and son and Forrest Wheeler delivered a truly powerful performance moving Jessica to fight for her kid. The reconciliation between Jessica and Emery was on point and moving with Constance once again touching hearts of all the viewers around the world.

In another unlikely pairing, we followed a story involving Louis and Evan's characters. After getting a horrendous haircut from Louis' barber Evan writes a hate letter to him which accidentally gets sent before the new year. Louis and Evan try to get to the letter but all of their attempts are foiled in a hilarious manner. The two of them bonded over their failures and agreed that some things can't be changed and that you never should settle for less than you deserve, not even with a lesser barber.

After a couple of episodes, we got Eddie centric story. It didn't evolve any other main character but his distant cousin Simon. In order to fix his slate, Eddie was tasked of babysitting his distant cousin Simon. Simon who looked like Evan of growth hormones was a pain in Eddie's back. I laughed so hard when Eddie convinced Simon he is playing as the Bowsers while playing Super Mario. When Simon humiliated Eddie in a rapper face off, I thought Eddie would go all spoiled child but he was so impressed by Simon's skills that he was jealous instead. The two cousins bonded and delivered a great performance during the family's celebration of New Year. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of Simon down the road.

Sadly Fresh off the Boat is going on a 2-week hiatus but it is a good thing as the ratings against This Is Us aren't good at all. And while the show is on hiatus, join me in the comment section to discuss last week's two great outings.