Young Adult Binges: Primo, XO Kitty, American Born Chinese

I have binged a LOT of TV this month (what else is new) so it is now time to pass my recommendations on to you. First up, a bunch of shows about young high schoolers that are thoroughly delightful and distinct.

Primo: Created by Shea Serrano and co-executive produced by Michael Shur, this is the story of young Rafa (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio), a 16-year-old Mexican-American boy growing up in San Antonio, Texas, who lives with his mother, Drea (played by the charming Christina Vidal), and her five brothers who are always popping in and out of the house. His uncles are different brands of wacky, but they love their nephew and offer up all sorts of conflicting advice when he needs help with anything. As you can imagine, their house is loud and chaotic, but it is also full of love and support, and over the course of eight episodes, you will get a well-written family sitcom that is brimming with heart and humor.

The show is a semi-autobiographical look at Serrano's upbringing, so there is a lot of loving attention to detail and a great deal of specificity about this boy and his world. This is not some broad sitcom - it is well-observed and laugh-out-loud funny, and I eagerly binged my way through it. The cast of characters is fantastic, and they can all pair up and play off of each other in interesting and varied combinations that ensures this is a show that could go on for many more seasons. There's a lot of excellent material here and it never gets stale. So settle in - you're going to enjoy this ride.

XO, Kitty: This show was not remotely on my radar, but I decided to give it a try. And then I couldn't understand how it hadn't been on my radar, as it's yet another spin-off from writer Jenny Han, in her To All the Boys I've Loved Before Cinematic Universe. I haven't read any of Han's books, but man, these adaptations of her work are light, frothy, delicious confections that delight me to no end, and XO, Kitty is no exception.

Anna Catchcart stars as Kitty Song-Covey, a high schooler who has been missing her long-distance boyfriend/pen pal Dae (Choi Min-young) who she met a few years ago on a family vacation to South Korea. When she gets a scholarship to spend her junior year abroad in Korea at the same boarding school that Dae attends, she leaps at the chance. This is also what her mother did when she was a teenager, and Kitty feels like this is an opportunity to follow in her dead mother's footsteps and get a better sense of who she was as a person. Of course, when she shows up on campus and tries to surprise Dae, it turns out he might be harboring some secrets, and there are a lot of complications that will need to be untangled.

The show has a fantastic aesthetic, and is shot like a K-drama. The writing is full of soap operatic twists and turns; I could see a lot of the twists coming from a mile away but that didn't stop me from being thoroughly entertained nonetheless, and then in the final few episodes, things took a turn that I truly hadn't expected. This show is full of really diverse and fascinating characters that you don't ordinarily get to see in an American high school show, and it's funny, warm, and charming. One you start, the cliffhangers will ensure you simply can't stop.

American Born Chinese: Based on the graphic novels by Gene Luen Yang, this show is a sci-fi-fantasy that basically reunites the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once: what's not to love?! Ben Wang stars as Jin Wang, a Chinese-American tenth grader who is trying to fit in at high school, has a crush on a girl, wants to be on the soccer team with a bunch of bro-y boys, and is dealing with some family trouble at home with a mother who is loving but pushy, and a father who is being worn down by microaggressions at work and has lost all sense of ambition. However, then a mysterious boy named Wei-Chen (Jimmy Liu) shows up at school and Jin's life is suddenly thrown into chaos. Turns out Wei-Chen is the son of the Monkey King and he has come down to Earth to find the Fourth Scroll, a magical item that could help mend a rift between the gods in Heaven. Bet you didn't see that coming.

What follows is a fantastical quest that is replete with Chinese mythology, kung fu, and nerding out. The special effects can be a little wonky at times, but it's just a TV show, so you can be more forgiving about the low budget. And the cast, that includes people like Michelle Yeoh as the Goddess of Mercy, and Ke Huy Quan in a great but odd role that will leave you wondering for eight episodes how it ties into the rest of the show, is fantastic, really rallying around this cause for better Asian representation on American TV. This is not a perfect show, but it's perfectly entertaining, and it's certainly not like anything you've seen before.