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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
19
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
The Mercury NewsMay 24, 2023
The PlaylistMay 22, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Despite these many words about self-exploration, “American Born Chinese” remembers to bring the fun. Action sequences — except, and unfortunately, a key one that doesn’t use all of the provided space before cueing the VFX — are permeated with a sense of playfulness.
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IndieWireMay 2, 2023
Jun 1, 2023
Season 1 Review:
American Born Chinese is a fun, bold reimagining of the American coming-of-age tale, combined with Chinese mythology and a deservedly award-winning graphic novel. There are lots of moving parts in a short amount of time, but it works in a seriously charming way when all brought together with excellent fight choreography to tie a bow on it.
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May 24, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Is this show a perfectly timed victory lap? Yes. Does it get unwieldy when you’re compressing a centuries-old epic and a high school #StopAsianHate campaign into eight episodes of Disneyfied polish? Of course. But American Born Chinese’s commitment to the juxtaposition makes the show worthy, as uneven as it can be.
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RogerEbert.comMay 24, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Even with its flaws, “American Born Chinese” is a very entertaining contemporary update of groundbreaking source material for the family. Fans of the original might miss its edge, but it compensates in solid storytelling, great wuxia action, and star-making turns for Ben Wang and Jimmy Liu.
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May 2, 2023
Season 1 Review:
The show, while enjoyable, falls into the same trap that former Asian-led projects have in the past: It capitalizes off of race as a selling point for Western audiences, perhaps unknowingly relying on the same familiar tropes instead of pushing the boundaries for what these narratives have the potential to be.
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The GuardianMay 24, 2023
Season 1 Review:
In its final act, the different threads of the narrative are braided together effectively, but culminate in the sort of unimaginative superheroes-blasting-stuff-at-each-other that ends most Marvel films and is less thrilling than the riveting quest for Jin to join and be accepted by his high school soccer team.
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The TelegraphMay 24, 2023
Season 1 Review:
Sometimes, the wholesome teen angle can hold the series back – its representations of racism and emotional upheaval feel too Disney-fied, sterilised, brushed under the carpet rather than fully explored. .... If the serious parts of the series had received a more adult spin, this would be a brilliant show; instead, it's merely a good one.
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May 24, 2023
Season 1 Review:
American Born Chinese feels like about three series crammed into one, which might explain why it takes so long to get into its story. Despite good moments and the benefit of fortuitous timing – featuring Michelle Yeoh and (briefly) Ke Huy Quan after their Oscar-winning work in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” – the intriguing mix of action, coming-of-age teen dramedy and fantasy never entirely gels.
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ColliderMay 26, 2023
Season 1 Review:
It’s like the show wanted to showcase all its potential but may only be able to thread it together in a possible second season. If this is what it takes for this story to really come to life, then fine — but at this moment, it’s hard not to view it as a massive waste of time.
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May 23, 2023
Season 1 Review:
It does a lot of things right in the first season, and lays considerable groundwork for deeper character dives and plot expansion in the future. But it’d be daft to think Disney would be able to capture the Asian American experience in a way that pleases everyone, everywhere, all at once.
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May 22, 2023
Season 1 Review:
By the end, whatever feels distinct about American Born Chinese, which primarily resides in the quotidian details of Jin and his family’s life, washes away in a blur of scrolls, rebellions, and tacked-on endgame stakes. It feels like a vibrant coming-of-age story, spun out of edgier source material, that’s been made to conform to the needs of the Disney machine — a dynamic that sounds suspiciously like its own form of assimilation.
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