Our take
Based on Epic magazine’s column of the same name, Little America is an anthology series based on real-life immigrant stories. The episodes vary in plot, topic, and even era—they’re as diverse as the characters themselves—but they are all connected by one thing: the hope of achieving the American Dream. In one episode, an Iranian father sets out to build his family’s dream home in a bid to prevent his son from moving out. In another, a second-generation Korean-American struggles to find his calling, much to the dismay of his war-survivor parents (“What do you know about suffering?” the mother, played by Parasite’s Lee Jung-eun asks when her son complains about med school).
Co-created by Lee Eisenberg, Kumail Nanjiani, and Emily Gordon (The Big Sick) and directed by Sian Heder (CODA), Little America is a heartwarming collection of stories, as moving as it is urgent. It’s easy to miss this over splashier shows on TV, but trust that this one’s worth tuning into.
What it won
Spirit Awards
2 noms
The story
Observe the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring, and surprising stories of immigrants in America.
Elsewhere
"They are "hard work pays off stories," and they are "immigration is hard" stories, yes. But each of them is also much more lovely and painful and complicated than those easy summations."
— Kathryn VanArendonk
"Perhaps most importantly, "Little America" avoids becoming patriotic propaganda not by disparaging the United States and its policies (which it rarely does), but by selectively emphasizing what America can offer at its best."
— Ben Travers
The details
Who picked it
Renee Cuisia is the lead curator at A Good Movie to Watch. In her spare time, she likes to watch K-dramas and analyze them to death. She's also seen You've Got Mail one too many times but is still convinced it's one of the greatest films out there.
