Huang's World

I watched four episodes of this show: Taiwan, China, Orlando, & Jamaica.

Let me just start by saying that I love Fresh Off the Boat... Which is why I sat through four episodes of watching Eddie Huang process his emotions like a 5 year old child would. He cannot control his emotions, and watching his mini meltdowns was honestly pretty painful at points.

I am very passionate about food (Asian food in particular), so I was really excited to watch this. I'm pretty bummed that this was more of a self indulgent exposé on Eddie Huang's confused views on humanity, and his existence as an American. Had this stuck more to food and culture, and less to Eddie Huang's internal hang ups, I would have probably loved this show. I'd love to see his parents host a similar show, as they were (personality-wise) the highlight of this show for me.

I LOVE the "Fresh off the Boat" Series and really like seeing more Asian representation in media. And while we are pretty saturated with "Around the world" cuisine shows, I really thought this would have a unique quality. But Eddie really comes off as too immature and shallow; as if this entire series were geared towards his West Coast elitist friends who need some diversity points. Farting and talking about toilet topics in every episode doesn't endear us to him, so much as make him look like someone who doesn't realize what to leave out in a show about world cultures and cuisines. I seriously hope this gets better and "polishes up", since I really like hearing "real talk" from the people in places I'll probably never see in my lifetime.

I'm still trying to figure out what this show is exactly about. There are 100s of better shows than this with way more content which should have the "VICE" stamp. I gave an extra star just because of the post-editing.

Eddie Huang was very unprofessional, offensive and disrespectful in many episodes, especially when he was singing the God Bless America from a piece of paper, and he was literally laughing during the song. I'm not American, but it is unacceptable in any country.

Why is he called a cultural critic??? Please, give me a break!

Huang's World started out as a mixed bag for me. I started watching it simply because Black Market and Cyberwar were not airing and it was the only obvious thing of interest to record. Huang is a bit of an entertaining host, but he seems to be irrational at times and it really dilutes the content of his messages (based on the third season). However, by the second season, you can pretty much understand what he means at any moment so the show has improved based on what they learned from their first season aired on Viceland.

Eddie Huang is a child of Chinese immigrants and he has built himself a career on studying how foreign cultures developed their foods and how it is important to find a connection to these cultures. However, in the third season, he often says we need to understand our homeland or we will be missing something vital and I find this to be a really confusing or simply assumptive statement. In Season 4, he seems to be much more keen on explaining the effectiveness of multiculturalism through food and is saying that food is what connects us all as humans. I can definitely agree with what he presents as his season 4 message.

Huang has quite a strong personality and this was more at the forefront in Season 3, but I feel like his history is more focused on in Season 4 and this format works better. Huang is pretty funny and he makes for a good underdog type of character, but I think focusing on him brought out a lot of personality flaws. I would say that the China episode where he talks about how visiting his home country for the episode was influential to made for a strong episode and another strong episode was about his home in Florida. Also, the Border Town episode in Season 3 was fun to watch too. Now he has been focusing Season 4 episodes on North America and I feel that he has really nailed everything he does and the show is more welcoming than before.

Oh, but there is also a Japan episode in Season 4 that is really worth watching if you are curious on Japanese culture. The first half of the episode is filled with commonly known stuff, but things get more interesting in the second half. South Korea is another recent episode and I feel that it pretty much does what the Japan episode does, but improves everywhere.

The part where Huang's World does not do too well is focusing on one aspect for too long and I think that Season 4 really has improved by not being overly focused on anything. They still explain things in an effective way so you will actually be learning more with the new format.

Basically, you should watch this show if you are curious about other cultures, especially in the United States or East Asia. I find other Viceland shows approaching more interesting topics, but some aren't as fun to watch as Huang's World has been.

Huang's World is an honest show that illuminates the interconnectedness among everyone's diaspora within the global mosaic. He asks the uncomfortable questions, & professionally responds to the uncomfortable answers. I dont know if he meant to give global glimpses of everything humanity has in common- but that's what i took from it. Btw.. great cooking/eating show segments as well.