ABC's 'Dr. Ken' is Not a Cure-All, But a Spoonful of Sugar

by Aprille Hanson
When ABC finds a niche their audience loves, they run with it. Recently, it’s diversity. ABC released “Black-ish” (about a black family), “Cristela” (a Hispanic family) and “Fresh off the Boat” (an Asian family).

Unfortunately, “Cristela,” a truly hysterical show, got the axe way too soon after just one season. Luckily, “Black-ish” and the funny, but not near the caliber of “Black-ish” or “Cristela,” “Fresh off the Boat” have thrived.

So, it was not a big leap for ABC to premiere “Dr. Ken,” a show about an Asian doctor and his family, starring the hilarious Ken Jeong (“The Hangover” movie trilogy and the TV show “Community). What makes this show work better I think than “Fresh off the Boat” is the stellar cast led by Jeong, who in fact was a doctor before becoming a comedian.  

It’s your standard 30-minute comedy which finds Dr. Ken Park trying to balance his career as a physician, who’s got a bit of a chip on his shoulder -- think CBS’s “Becker,” which ran from 1998-2004 -- while spending time with his family: his wife Allison Park (Suzy Nakamura) who is a psychiatrist, which leads to fun banter between the couple; and his children, young teen Molly (Krista Marie Yu) and Dave (the funny-beyond-his-years Albert Tsai from “Trophy Wife”).
The show doesn’t try to do anything cutting edge like “Black-ish” or “Fresh off the Boat,” but it’s merely set up in that “Everybody Loves Raymond” sitcom format that’s been around for a long time. It helps to have two extremely funny leads in Jeong and Nakamura, who also have undeniable chemistry. What also works are the child actors, which can be very hit or miss in sitcoms. In the pilot, I thought Molly would be the most annoying part of the show, as the ungrateful teenage brat. However, it’s nice to see the writers not constantly making her the brooding one and that makes Yu and Tsai feed off of each other well.

The “annoying” distinction goes mostly to Dr. Ken’s work place cohorts. His boss Pat (Dave Foley) is the stock overbearing, unfair boss who views the doctor’s office as a business above all else. Then, there’s Damona (Tisha Campbell-Martin) who is the sassy black head nurse who doesn’t elicit near the laughs she should. Clark (Jonathan Slavin), Dr. Ken’s ever faithful gay nurse who just adores him like a father is worth a smile, but again, viewers need more. But by far, the most irritating character on the show is Julie (Kate Simses) who is a physician-in-training. Her mouse-like voice and demeanor and jokes that are not funny, like the time she gave herself a hug and the laugh track blared on, are just puzzling. In the pilot, we saw Dr. Ken giving a vegan/all-natural patient hell for not taking her thyroid meds and it was terribly funny, but since then, the show has gotten away from him actually meeting with patients. It’s a shame because that was easily the funniest part of being at his workplace. Either the writers have to bring it back or they need to make his coworkers funnier and more likable to make it work long-term.

But again, what saves the show is Dr. Ken’s family, from his stereotypical Asian parents to his sister Dr. Wendi, the masterful comedian Margaret Cho, who hopefully will make more appearances in the future.

It’s not a show that’s changing TV or treading on a new ethnic group because ‘Fresh’ already did that. But it’s a show that after a long day you can feel good about watching and laughing along to.  

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