Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

Awkwafina is am American comedy treasure, and given her own starring vehicle, she shines. Her comedy chops won't be news to anyone who watched her steal scenes in Crazy Rich Asians. It's also pretty clear that Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens is intended to be the successor to Broad City -- vignettes from Nora's life are even connected by animated interstitials that echo Broad City's fun animated credits. There's been a borough switch -- Brooklyn to Queens -- and the backdrop has shifted from a tight friendship to a family, but Nora is still about a freewheeling young woman trying to find her place in the world through a haze of pot smoke.

Awkwafina's chemistry with her sympathetic widowed dad and no-nonsense grandma is also choice, with both relationships reading as lived-in and affectionate. Chinn in particular is a hoot -- when she walks in during the show's second episode having gone from a graying bob to a startlingly ivory crewcut, she pats it proudly and says she told the hairdresser she "wanted to look like Eminem." "Score!" says her granddaughter supportively, who continues to have her grandma's back even after her posse of elderly Chinese friends get in a physical fight with a gang of senior Korean girlfriends over the only electrical outlet at an Atlantic City food court. When told to "read a book," one of the Chinese friends spits "Don't tell us about books, bitch, we invented paper." Well, they wouldn't have anything to charge without Korean people, because "We invented Samsung!" says her Korean rival. With jokes like these, Nora is one of the best reasons to visit Queens yet.