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abbie_ 's review for:
The Wangs vs The World
by Jade Chang
medium-paced
Started off great, but not quite enough in terms of wrapping up or development. The premise is Schitt’s Creek vibes, mega rich family loses everything and has to readjust, with obviously some tweaks - Charles, the father, decides that the American dream is dead (love that) and that he should seek new fortune back in China, so he gathers up his kids and takes them on a roadtrip with China as the eventual destination.
But unlike Schitt’s Creek, where everyone starts out an arsehole but you love them within a few episodes, the Wangs… hmm. They start out unlikeable and they stay that way pretty much the whole way through BUT I got the idea that we were *supposed* to be rooting for them by the end. And I was not. There are some eyebrow-raising moments which go beyond general unlikeable characters, like Andrew having a weird epiphany that his sister (his 16 year old sister!) is ‘sexy’. I feel like there was some commentary on racism from the Wangs towards other races, but it didn’t feel critical enough and if they were supposed to have grown by the end but the comments were still coming at the end… I’m all for sympathising with characters for their flaws but racism is far beyond a character flaw.
Interesting enough to have kept me reading but ultimately a bit of a flop.
But unlike Schitt’s Creek, where everyone starts out an arsehole but you love them within a few episodes, the Wangs… hmm. They start out unlikeable and they stay that way pretty much the whole way through BUT I got the idea that we were *supposed* to be rooting for them by the end. And I was not. There are some eyebrow-raising moments which go beyond general unlikeable characters, like Andrew having a weird epiphany that his sister (his 16 year old sister!) is ‘sexy’. I feel like there was some commentary on racism from the Wangs towards other races, but it didn’t feel critical enough and if they were supposed to have grown by the end but the comments were still coming at the end… I’m all for sympathising with characters for their flaws but racism is far beyond a character flaw.
Interesting enough to have kept me reading but ultimately a bit of a flop.
Moderate: Infidelity, Racism, Classism