Parents' Guide to Interior Chinatown

By turns satirical and emotional, this curious show is a weird, compelling good time thanks to the strength of its writing, easy-to-love actors like Yang and Chieng, and a fresh premise. What if the background actors in a Law & Order-style drama rose up and started controlling the narrative? In Interior Chinatown's world, a pair of well-known detectives are the "glam squad," getting all the attention of the press (and starring in a meta crime procedural on television), while failing to see that Chinatown's rise in crimes might be connected to the activities of rival criminal gangs. Detective Lee and Willis are from the neighborhood, and they see more clearly. But can they compete with the glam squad for public attention while evading the criminal tentacles of Chinatown's gangs?

It's a setup viewers could easily imagine in a Law & Order episode, which makes it all the funnier when Willis and his team subvert police procedural tropes. While the glam squad dramatically investigates the disappearance of a local woman, Willis sweeps floors and runs orders of Peking duck to customers' tables in the background. Even when the drama invades Willis' uncle's restaurant, Willis' tentative heroics are punctured by the ribbing of his cousin and day-to-day restaurant realities: A gang rumble set piece in the restaurant is followed by a scene in which Willis, Fatty, and co-workers must clean up the mess they've made. But Interior Chinatown's best moments are those in which Willis grapples with his past and future, especially in Fatty's company. Their relationship feels deeply lived-in, by turns mocking and supportive, just the way cousins can be. Amidst Interior Chinatown's visual dazzle and satirical sendups of cop show tropes, Willis' emotions and his relationships with his family ring true and add depth to what could have been an enjoyable, yet forgettable, satire.