Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Little America’ On Apple TV+, An Anthology Dramedy That Tells Heartfelt Stories About The Immigrant Experience

Little America is an anthology series based on the stories under the same title in Epic Magazine. The stories are generally heartwarming and inspirational tales of immigrants and their families and how they’ve overcome trying circumstances to achieve in this country. Lots of big names are among the executive producer list, including Master of None‘s Alan Yang; Kunail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon, and Lee Eisenberg have adapted these true stories into fictionalized episodes, though they all seem to adhere to at least the spirit of each immigrant’s story. Read on for more…

LITTLE AMERICA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of the Economy Value Inn in Utah. The rolling info sign says “Goodbye 2002! Hello 2003!” A boy speeds down the outside corridor with a shopping cart full of linens.

The Gist: The first episode, “The Manager”, is about Kabir (Ishan Gandhi), who is first depicted at 8, helping his parents run their motel, and encouraged by his father to learn the dictionary; he promises Kabir a Trans Am if he memorizes all of the hundreds of thousands of words in it. We then see him at 12 (Eshan Inamdar); Kabir has studied the dictionary so much, he spells words all the time, and is encouraged to enter the state spelling bee. But right before he competes at the bee, his parents run into visa issues and have to go back to India. They assure him that they’ll be back in a few months and leave him in the care of a family friend named Kunal (Sunkrish Bala). Kunal has no interest in running the motel, leaving the preteen in charge.

When he wins the state bee, he at first refuses to go to the national competition; it’s been almost a year since his parents left, with no sign that they’ll come back. Then he hears that the contestants will get a chance to meet First Lady Laura Bush (Sherilyn Fenn). One of the first things that impresses him is the fixtures in his hotel room; he should know, right? He reads a letter to Mrs. Bush about how slow the process of getting his parents back have been and asks her for help.

He wins the bee, spelling words in his hands. But years later, the high school-age Kabir (Suraj Sharma) is still running the hotel, and decides to blow off his responsibilities and throw a party in one of the rooms. But soon he gets good news.

Our Take: As we watched the first two episodes of Little America (we’ll discuss that second episode in a bit), we were trying to put our finger on why we were enjoying it so much, despite the fact that the show held little of what we’re used to seeing on prestige streaming shows. There was no real conflict; the stories are positive and inspirational, and while the subject and his/her family face hardships, those hardships are mere obstacles to overcome instead of played for high drama.

We think what got us so into these stories is that they’re all real, or at least based on someone real. So we know that these stories aren’t just schmaltz; they’re real inspirational stories of people who found their niche despite being under extreme stress.

For instance, in the second episode, an undocumented teen named Marisol (Jearnest Corchado) is just scraping by, living in a garage with her mother and brother. She’s been disciplined at school for her attitude, and she buys an old iPod from Goodwill and keeps the oldies that the previous owner had on it. But when she goes to an Urban Squash League introduction for the promise of free shoes (hers are held together with duct tape), the coach (John Ortiz) sees a competitive fire in her and calls her “The Cougar,” encouraging her to enter tournaments.

These are all big stories told in a small way, with mostly unknown actors and stakes that are high and low all at once. It’s really the antithesis of anything Apple has put on their streaming service since it debuted in November; the biggest names are behind the camera, not in front, and it’s not trying to be showy. It’s just trying to do a good job of telling these stories in a satisfying way. And while, as with most anthologies, some stories work better than others, they’re all starting from a high level of execution, so even the least successful episodes are pretty successful.

Sex and Skin: Nothing.

Parting Shot: The end of each episode contains a postscript about the real person the episode is based on. Kabir, for instance, still helps his parents run his motel.

Sleeper Star: The show’s visuals are part of what helps these stories along. In the squash episode, for instance, there’s a fully-plexiglass court built in what looks like an old train station in order to accommodate the crowd for the finals that Marisol was in. In the motel episode, the rooms where Kabir and his family live are made to look warm and lived-in, despite being converted motel rooms.

Most Pilot-y Line: In the squash episode, the landlord of the garage where Marisol and her family live obnoxiously says, “You can always call the police,” when they complain to him for the umpteenth time about the wonky kitchen sink. What a dick.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Little America is without a doubt the best series on Apple TV+, mainly because it doesn’t take huge swings and misses; it simply tells its stories without a lot of fuss.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Little America On Apple TV+