Interior Chinatown – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

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Episode 8 of Interior Chinatown begins with Detective Turner on an indefinite vacation, leaving Willis to take his place supporting Green, who is now the lead detective. Lana is suspended for the time being as the precinct investigates her background.

On an HBWC-owned news channel, Willis is now a rising star, appearing in commercials, more commercials, and, well, even more scenes staged as commercials. In one of these commercials, Willis starts as a star detective, then changes into a waiter, and finally into a tech guy. His assistant, an ever-cheerful individual, is busy building Willis’s “personal brand” while bringing him coffee every five minutes.

Meanwhile, Lana visits Willis’s parents’ apartment, notices the same construction worker murder case being reported on the news, and finds it suspicious. On the other hand, Lily’s soaring career slows down when she stages a listing in a stereotypically Asian manner. She also notices Johnny in a picture for a brief moment. Later, she learns from Betty that a massive project to reinvent Chinatown is in the works.

Willis reflects on what Turner had told him about how nothing feels real. Later, Fatty and Willis have a heated argument, during which Willis is drenched in hot sauce—just as a hot sauce commercial flashes on the screen.

Meanwhile, Lana drowns her sorrows by endlessly ordering shrimp until Wong has a waiter tell her to stop. She later sneaks into Wong’s room, finds his diary with numerous listings, and sees Johnny’s name in one of them. At the same time, Willis finally decides to return to his family and meets with his mother. Together, they confess how much they miss Johnny.

The Episode Review

To be fair, this episode was one of the most ingenious in terms of portraying the metafictional aspects of the book adapted for the screen. It features perfect interruptions with commercial ads, some clever advertising for Chinese hot sauce (with Fatty and Willis fighting, poking fun at moment marketing), the good old “we are Asians, we don’t waste food” jokes, and more.

The only downside is that it spans the entire episode. Interior Chinatown has these super clever and funny moments, especially with satire running wild. However, the only qualm I have is that it sometimes becomes extremely tedious to follow. Many viewers, unfamiliar with the concepts of metafiction and structural satire, would likely find the show pointless and boring, as if nothing makes sense.

Luckily for me, the show has picked up a bit, focusing more and more on the idea of characters being just that—characters playing different roles—and the sheer constructiveness of a work of art. Now that the build-up to a fruitless mystery chase has toned down a bit, it feels like the charm of the book has been revived.