Dr. Ken

Ken Park (Ken Jeong) is a wise-cracking HMO doctor. With wife Allison (Suzy Nakamura), he has two kids; Dave (Albert Tsai) and Molly (Krista Marie Yu). D.K. (Dana Lee) is his old-world dad. Pat (Dave Foley) runs the clinic. Damona (Tisha Campbell-Martin), Clark (Jonathan Slavin), and Julie (Kate Simses) are the nurses.

The Hangover's Ken Jeong tries to do a standard network sitcom show. Asian-Americans have had a troubled past until recently. This may be trying to be too safe. There is nothing terribly funny here. I can only recall a couple of notable shows, both dealing with his parents. It's not surprising that the dad got included as a regular. Ken may be best as a wacky side character. He struggles as a traditional central lead.

I remember watching this show and thinking that it would be ten times better if it was on HBO and he could be free to do whatever he wanted. Anyone who has seen Ken Jeong's bloopers knows that he is a fantastic improviser, and when he does it he can make you cry laughing. If he had that kind of freedom this show would probably still be on air.

Dr. Ken is a family show that focuses on the life of a Korean-American doctor. Ken has a wife Allison, who is Japanese-American and a therapist. They have have 2 kids, the typical teenage daughter and the smart odd young son. The show is about Ken's family life and his work life, in both he's a bit clueless to things.

I would say this show is passable, it's nothing you'll be very excited to watch, but it's something you can watch. The problem is there's nothing fresh to the show, besides the fact that it's culturally mixed, which is great. But it's not very funny, the writing is basic, and the delivery on acting is just okay.

The cast and characters are great, but the writing is too weak and it doesn't seem like there's much effort in making the show. The actors are fine, just needs better production and writing.

It's a pretty run of the mill sitcom. A lot of jokes jokes go for the obvious. A lot of the appeal for it, at least for me, was Ken Jeong coming fresh off of Community, and bringing a number of his co-stars in for cameos. But watching through it, nothing was really anything more than adequate. Other sitcoms do the jokes better, but if you like the cast it works. The best analogy I can think of is it's like oatmeal, it'll work for what you want, but it's bland and there are better options.

The pilot was painful. I couldn't get thru it. Typical sitcom shtick that I am not a fan. I am more of the Arrested Development variety.

However, As a Nurse (if you saw the 2nd episode you might get the reference) I find a lot more humor in the 2nd episode. Perhaps it comes from my being in health-care and seeing the US health-care system and arrogant doctors skewered. The 2nd episode was much more enjoyable.

I'm going to keep watching. I think the early reviewers jumped the gun reviewing off the pilot. Pilots are always rough and rocky. They rarely show the true potential.

I <3 Ken Jeong.