Hyphen TV: Six Goats and Ten Dell Computers

July 1, 2013

"Don't worry, man, you're just a guest star for one episode." KIDDING, that's harsh even for me.

It was ladies' night on Sullivan and Son, which means...two male Asian
American guest stars! First up was Nick Endres playing Angel,
a broad-shouldered, car-loving gal (you read that correctly) who hit it off with local racist old
drunk Hank...until everyone finally figured out that Angel was a dude.
"Back home she'd be a top earner," Ok Cha observed. "Those people very
good at doing the tuck." It turns out Angel was confused about what
"ladies' night" meant, I guess? And in one fell swoop, close-minded Hank can now cross homophobe and Asianphobe off his list, as he danced
-- awkwardly, but still -- with Angel at the end of the episode. Growth?

We're all surprised by this coupling, Hank.

But
the big stunt casting of the night was The Big Bang Theory's Kunal
Nayyar
as Neal, the smooth new guy who appeared out of nowhere to pick
up all the women at the bar with his cheesy lines. When Steve called him out
on his icky game, Neal dropped the slick act and revealed that he's a guy from Mumbai with a heavy Indian accent. Why the act? "If I
approach any girl in Pittsburgh with this accent, they're gonna ask me
questions about their Verizon account," he explained.

Steve took
pity on the guy and introduced him to Melanie, who opened by saying,
"You're Indian? That's cool. Hey, can you help me activate my phone?
Kidding!" Maybe I'm just lucky enough to have never observed this, but are there people who actually say things like this upon meeting an Indian person, even
jokingly? Anyway, the two seemed to hit it off, with Neal telling
Melanie, "Back home you'd be worth six goats and ten Dell computers."
But guess what! Even this was an act -- Neal is from San Diego (his
parents work at Sea World), and he is adept at switching back and forth
between the douchebag (his word) and the Indian guy as needed to get
girls' numbers. I was actually glad to see the show take a bit of a
surprising angle with the character, even exaggerating his Indianness as
a way of showing Neal turning people's stereotypical beliefs against
them. I mean that's what was happening, right?

 

"All Indian people do work for Verizon! It's true!"

On Push Girls, we
got just a quick update with Angela, who received her learner's permit since
last we saw her, and is now taking driving lessons. It's pretty amazing
to see her operate a vehicle again -- hopefully we'll get to see her
actually on the road before long. Her elation at her new freedom is
palpable, and it's really great to watch. Go Ange!

Angela loves her driving instructor more than most.

At this point,  we're pretty much just hate-watching Mistresses, right? Dr. Karen
continued her parade of dumb when she found Sam's wallet in her car
(left there, lest you've forgotten, after she picked him up from the
emergency room) and went to return it in person. Of course, he happened
to arrive home while she was trying to shove it into the mail slot
(while carrying a bag of groceries...how did he pay for those with no
wallet, hm?) which led to him inviting her inside. If you
assumed that Karen excused herself with a made-up appointment to avoid
the awkwardness and unprofessionalism of chilling with her dead
patient's son -- who has a crush on her -- you're not watching carefully.

"This is weird, what I'm doing, right? Or maybe it isn't?"

Sam
showed Karen the old camera his dad sent him along with a note that
urged him to pursue what he loves. Sam obviously took this to mean that
he should drop out of Brown and pursue his dead father's psychiatrist.
Karen watched Sam make dinner, accepted a glass of wine and had a few extremely close encounters with him during the evening. "Why
are you being so nice to me?" he asked at one point. Because even to
Sam, her idolizer, Karen's behavior was bizarre. "I feel like you need
someone," she non-explained. All the tension and weirdness, of course, led
to Sam swooping in for a kiss, which Karen (thank god) rebuked in
surprise. Because why would he do such a thing -- assume you're into him
when you show up at his home and hang around for hours, continually
finding yourself in close proximity to him? Mixed signals, girl.
This can only lead to bad, humiliating things. And I'll be there to
watch!

Karen demonstrates how one should watch Mistresses.

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Contributor: 

Dianne Choie

columnist

Dianne Choie's TV is in Brooklyn, NY. She has a cat, several reusable shopping bags, and other mildly annoying stereotypes of youngish people who live in Brooklyn.

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