Hoon Lee

Yes.

The character of Lee, the Chinese American servant played by Hoon Lee, is heavily expanded.

Which is a huge course correction, because Elia Kazan's famous 1955 film adaptation completely left him out.

Completely erased him.

Like, um, I don't know.

I think the other thing that's, like, there are, like, there's a line in the book where Lee says, "Now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good," and it's-

Mm

... like one of these lines that is, like, printed on tote bags and magnets and people like-

And so there's competition and there's comparison and there's, like, I don't know.

It's like, and how do you sidestep that and come to an authentic experience of your sister that has nothing to do with that? Like- I don't know, like, the idea of that.

Anyways, I see that with these characters, like there are moments as a mother, like there's a moment in the, um, fifth episode of this, or sixth ep- fifth episode, when Lee goes away and then comes back.

And when he, um, when he comes back, Cal wakes up and sort of, he goes in to, like, put the covers back on him.

And Lee is at the center of the spiritual and philosophical questions.

And, you know, it seemed like for a while Jonathan Tropper, the guy who runs all of those other shows I mentioned, loves Hoon Lee and the rest of the business had not quite figured it out.

Yes.

Good job.

So there, there's a couple characters that I think...

Uh, the other character who, to my understanding, Zoe Kazan is really expanding the role of, is Lee, who is played by the great Hoon Lee, who's currently also on Your Friends & Neighbors, was, you know, was in Banshee, was in, um, Warrior.

Love him in everything he does.

And so Lee is originally hired as like, uh, a servant for Adam and Cathy when they move out to this ranch in the middle of nowhere in the Salinas Valley, and Cathy abandons the family and suddenly, like Lee winds up taking over and being in charge, and he presents himself, at least initially, as like an im- immigrant who speaks Pidgin English and shuffles around.

And it turns out, no, he is much smarter than that, and this is just a role he's playing.

I mean, Florence Pugh, incredible actor, really good in this.

The best performance in this thing is by Hoon Lee.

He is just...

Right.

And he manages this only with the crucial help of his servant Lee, played by Hoon Lee.

Thank goodness for Lee.

Seriously.

Meanwhile, his brother Charles, who saw the truth from the beginning but was consumed by his own bitterness, never reconnects with Adam and dies tragically alone in Connecticut.

Cal, played by Joseph Zada, inherits the darkness.

He is the complex, troubled child, reflecting both his Uncle Charles and his mother Kathy.

But there is a crucial difference in this generation's ecosystem, and that is Lee.

And that brings us to the second major structural pivot Kazan makes.

She massively elevates the character of Lee, a Chinese-American cook played by Hoon Lee.

The expansion of Lee's character is arguably the most brilliant and subversive change Kazan makes to the original material.

Sounds like it.

Which is incredibly revolutionary for a story originally published in 1952.

By letting Lee raise the boys, the series elevates him to a position where he rivals his own wealthy employers for the center of the narrative

Hoon Lee might not have the explosive, meme-able star power of Florence Pugh, and his character's quiet, wounded dignity doesn't chew the scenery the way Cathy's destructive hatred does

But the review argues his presence is just as essential