MediaWatch: The Oscars put Jon M. Chu and Bowen Yang in the Spotlight
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 06 Mar, 2025

The Oscars weren’t the only big entertainment news this week. SNL die-hards got some drama and Severance fans were treated to the performance of the season.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Goldsea’s MediaWatch, a weekly round up of AAPI news from the worlds of pop culture, sports, politics and other spaces our community might occupy (Spoiler alert: we’re everywhere). The Academy Awards were this past so lock in for an entertainment-heavy addition. Let’s get right into it! 

This past Sunday’s Oscars served to remind us just how spoiled we were two years ago when Everything Everywhere All At Once swept the top award categories. This year, unfortunately, there was a noticeable decline in AAPI representation by way of wins and visibility. One highlight, though, was all the love for director Jon M. Chu, who helmed the blockbuster film adaptation of the musical Wicked. Chu also treated us to a blockbuster reveal on the red carpet, when he mentioned plans for a Crazy Rich Asians TV series in development at Max. Chu, of course directed the history-making 2018 film that the series will be based off of. He told The Hollywood Reporter that they decided to go the series route because “every character we wanted to explore needed more room and just a movie wasn’t doing it for us.” 

The Oscars also gave us a brief onstage appearance by Wicked actor Bowen Yang who helped present the award for Best Costume Design. Yang himself continues to be everything everywhere all at once having played JD Vance on Saturday Night Live in New York, only to be onstage in Los Angeles less than 24-hours later. Interestingly enough, SNL’s host this week was Shane Gillis, who famously had his own invitation to join the show’s cast quickly revoked in 2019, largely due to his history of anti-Asian jokes being discovered. 

Yang weighed in on Gillis’s firing this past week when comedian Michelle Best (don’t worry, we haven’t heard of her either) took to Instagram to claim that Yang “bitched [Gillis] off the show,” going on to refer to Yang as a “whiny queen.” Yang actually responded to her Instagram comment saying “Didn’t do any of this but I wrote the sketch you were a background actor in.” Translation: If I’m a queen, you’re a pauper. 

And finally, more entertainment news from Apple TV’s Severance, one of the hottest shows in the world right now (ACTUAL SPOILER ALERT: we’re about to discuss Season 2, Episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo”). Nepalese American actress Dichen Lachman, who plays the mysterious Ms. Casey, put the team on her back with a season-stealing performance. After teasing us for two and a half seasons with only bits and pieces of Lachman’s character, we finally got an episode exclusively about her. It’s about damn time. Lachman, who delivered an acting masterclass last week, is being praised for one of the best performances of the series to date. She proved her chops with a range that required going well beyond the portrayal of a single character. If you know, you know.