Thursday, January 20, 2011

Thursday Top Threes: Asian Characters on TV

*tips hat* howdy, y'all. burkie's in the house offering up this week's Thursday Top 3. in honor of our regular blogstresses here, who are your top 3 all-time favorite Asian characters on TV?

Burkie:
1) Lane & Mrs. Kim from Gilmore Girls. yes, i'm sure at least one of these characters may show up again on this post...not that i ever watched this show, of course. i'm a guy, after all. still, given what i've, uh, heard about this show, i have to put the two characters together. they're good characters on their own, but neither would have been able to reach number one on my list if the other one hadn't also been in the show. they enhanced & defined each other's character even more than the gilmores, i think.
2) Kwai Chang Caine from Kung Fu. a controversial choice, since he's an asian character played by a non-asian (david carridine). however, this is not like mickey rooney playing a japanese in Breakfast At Tiffany's (one of the most offensive things i've ever seen). caine was actually a half-asian character in the show, raised in a shaolin temple in china, then had to leave china, and wound up wandering from town to town in America's wild west. i love westerns, and this was a most unique western. Kung Fu popularized the spirituality behind martial arts. it was good stuff.
3) Angela Pearly Gates Montenegro from Bones. i had to come back and edit this because i remembered that i had forgotten her (i originally had Divya from Royal Pains in this spot). i love the show and all the characters on it. angela is the most free-spirited. she's half-asian, and the coolest thing about her? this is her father (as himself) on the show :) ((trivia: Pearly Gates is also the name of billy's guitar!))

Mira: What a fun question!
1. Mrs. Kim from Gilmore Girls. Yeah, yeah. Burkie knew his "blogstresses" well and Mrs. Kim is undoubtedly one of the best Asian characters on TV ever in my book. She represents the craziness of Asian moms in such a great and funny and lovable way.
2. Nikita from Nikita. She's only half-Asian but she's so good at kicking ass! This was a surprise show for me this season. I had little to no expectations of it but wound up really enjoying it. And well, she's my present-day Sydney (Alias)!
3. "The Other Asian" from Glee. I think mostly I just loved that he was called "The Other Asian" for so long. And I think he's cute. And I liked that I had "discovered" him on Twitter as Lil' C's roommate before Glee started.

Jennifer: By the way, I wrote a post on Asians on TV almost exactly 5 years ago.
1. Miles from Lost. I know Sun and Jin would be more popular picks but I loved Miles and his sarcastic quips. The flash-sideways episode with him and Sawyer as LAPD partners was fantastic...I'd watch that spinoff!
2. Hiro from Heroes. The show went downhill fast and I stopped watching during the second season but Hiro was a bright spot from the beginning. He was the only one who saw his power as a positive thing and was excited by it. I was also pretty amused by his ridiculous sidekick, Ando. "Yatta!"
3. Tom Haverford from Parks and Recreation. I just think Aziz Ansari is hilarious, and I'm so happy the show is finally returning tonight!

4 comments:

burkie said...

jenn, i started reading this less than five years ago and didn't know about your post, but i'm glad to see that you also lumped lane & mrs. kim together :)

nikita is a great choice, too. i've only seen the show a few times but she definitely kicks ass!

mira said...

Ooh I thought of one more. Kalinda from The Good Wife!

Jennifer said...

Others I also considered: Lloyd from Entourage, Raj from the Big Bang Theory, Kelly from the Office, Sharon/Athena from Battlestar Galactica (played by an Asian actress but ethnicities are different in the BSG world), and Senor Chang on Community.

Fanny said...

1. Cristina Yang from Grey's Anatomy. I love her sense of humor and she's a lot more complicated than the other characters. You really need to try and get to know her in order to see what she's really like. She doesn't just put herself out there for everyone like some other characters do.

2. Sun & Jin Kwon from LOST. I bawled for every episode that featured their story after they were separated. I hated that in the end they couldn't be together to raise Ji Yeon.

3. Toph Bei Fong from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Even though she's short, blind, and only about 12 years old, she's probably the best earthbender in the world.