By Sharanya Gopinathan
We’re so glad this brand-new web series came to our attention!
Ethnic Best Friend is just as quirky, intriguing and different as the name would suggest. The tiny, approximately 4-minute-long episodes, directed by James Hosken, follow Natalia (Valentina Vela), a Colombian aspiring actress and Yuki (Sachi Lethi), a half-white Taiwanese-American teacher, both of whom seem to be based in Abu Dhabi.
Excitingly, the web series is meant to be about “the intersections of friendship and mentorship among women of color in white, male dominated environments”, which sounds like essential reading for all of us whether we live in countries dominated by white men or not. The series throws up lots of interesting complexities, like Yuki railing about oppression while clearly enjoying some forms of it herself, and Natalia coming to terms with her Colombian identity.
The show takes care to emphasise the “webbiness” of the idea of a web series, with lots of scenes depicting video chats between the two friends. The show’s makers say that “part of the conceit of the show is to make the frame of the series fit more seamlessly into the frame of a computer screen”. I don’t know what it does for the conceit of the show, but it does make it extra good fun to watch, and a bit more relatable than it might have otherwise been.
You can watch the episodes on their website here.