10.19.2011

hbo developing chinese family drama... with robots!



Some strange TV news... The creators of HBO's Big Love are reportedly developing a new series called China Doll, an unconventional family drama about China, Chinese Americans... and robots. Whaaaat: HBO Developing 'China Doll' Family Drama From 'Big Love' Creators.

According to Deadline.com, creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer are combining their respective interests in technology and Chinese history and politics to produce a show about a mixed-race family and their humanoid robot. Yes, you read that correctly:
"It is about China, Chinese Americans, robots, the effect of technology on our lives and the China moment in American consciousness," said Olsen, referring to China’s current economic ascendance that is changing the dynamic in the U.S.-Chinese relationship. China Doll centers on a successful California construction subcontractor, his Asian American wife who is a university professor, and a robot as they straddle both sides of the Pacific with extended families on two continents. Despite the presence of a robot, "this is not a sci-fi show," Scheffer said. "It is ambitious but is set in the present day."
So... is it like, um, a Chinese American Small Wonder? It sounds like the show is mashing together some very real modern American anxieties: 1) The changing face of the typical American family. 2) China's rising economic might. 3) The rapidly collapsing boundaries of technology. Throw them all in a blender and you get HBO's Chinese American robot show.

I swear, contrary to popular belief, I can keep an open mind about something like this until it actually airs... but China Doll sounds awfully weird and just too easy to get wrong. (That title is the first thing that needs to go.) I really hope they get some writers who are sensitive and mindful about how this could go off the rails. Hey, Greg Pak, feel like taking a break from comics?

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