Dang! [Season 1] (2026)
It's not often that a concept that began life in live-action gets switched into animation. But that is just what happened with Dang! the new adult animated comedy created by Andrew Law. Law was developing the idea while working as a writer on The Good Place. When he took his project to Netflix, the streamer suggested he redevelop it for animation. And the rest is history.
Dang! is created by Andrew Law and directed by Anthony Chun. It's written by Law, Sabrina Wu, Lawrence Dai, Taryn Engelhart, Jennifer Kim, Matt Murray, Samantha Rily and Chris Schleicher. Producers include Law, Murray, Schleicher, Alan Yang, Chris Prynoski and sitcom super-producer Michael Schur (The Good Place, The Office (US), Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine). The series is animated by Titmouse Inc in partnership with South Korean studio Yearim. The series debuted on Netflix on September 8, 2026.
The voice cast features Andrew Law himself as Andrew Dang, Poppy Liu as Eunice Dang and Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once) as Ruthie Dang. It also features Edi Patterson, Jared Goldstein, Al Roberts, SungWon Cho, Joel Kim Booster, Margaret Cho, Chloe Kim, Phil LaMarr, Sabrina Wu and Chrissy Teigen.
The eight-episode first season follows the Dang siblings. Asian-American twenty-something brother and sister Andrew and Eunice are living a hedonistic lifestyle in New York City. But it's disrupted by the arrival of their older, favoured by their parents, sister Ruthie. Her apparently perfect life has been thrown into chaos when she blew up her marriage and got pregnant by her boss. Her subsequent decision to move to the Big Apple was not what Andrew and Eunice wanted to hear. And hilarity ensues- or does it?
Dang! distinguishes itself pretty well from the jump in its basic concept. There simply aren't that many adult animation series that feature young adults at the centre. Which is weird when you think about the audiences who primarily consume this stuff. Aside from Dang! there's only really JG Quintel's Close Enough, but Warner Bros decided to delete it from streaming so you can't watch it any more. Not only does is depict life as a twenty-something, but it also shows life as an Asian-American, and as a person in the LGBTQ+ community. Not many series can claim that.
The series is very much focused on the central trio. Andrew (neurotic, gay, sacked from his own start-up) is the de facto lead, with easily the most screen time. Eunice (free-spirited, self-absorbed, makes streaming videos of her feet for weirdos) gets the second most, with Ruthie (snobbish, condescending, pregnant) definitely getting the least. The relationship between the siblings is the heart of the show. Andrew and Eunice are depicted as best friends as well as brother and sister. Their love for each other is clear, even if it's not said out loud. The relationship with Ruthie is more frosty, but it begins to thaw when she realises she's not so different from them after all, and has made many mistakes of her own.
Andrew's sexuality is important in the series, but it's just depicted as part of his character. It's not made into a big deal; nobody treats it as anything out of the ordinary, and it rarely has much of an impact on the plot. This is not Q-Force, Netflix's last attempt at gay representation in animation. Andrew references his many hookups with random men, but we don't see much evidence of it on screen. There's nothing explicit here. Eunice is also implied to be bisexual, or at least sexually fluid. The only time we really witness it is in a fantasy sequence with Paramore's Hailey Williams.
When the trailer for the series was first released online, there were complaints from some on social media that it leaned on Asian stereotypes. There don't seem to have been many protests since the series was released, and it really doesn't seem to have been a problem in the finished. The Dang family doesn't conform much to any stereotype of Asians that I've ever encountered- although Ruthie is closer to it, if anything. Unless, of course, there are well-known stereotypes that I've never heard of. The creator, main actors and the majority of the writing staff are all Asian-American, and they are able to draw on their own real lived experiences without resorting to cliché.
In the world of adult animation, Dang! is one of the better looking shows. Never falling into the trap that adult animation equals ugly, it looks decent consistently. Clean, well-designed and slickly animated, it's easy on the eye. Titmouse are extremely adept at doing this sort of thing and Dang! is just the latest example. The show also has a really well-designed title sequence, with the Dang siblings riding a subway car and encountering the citizens of New York.
Despite all this, it could be moot if the show wasn't actually funny. And that, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. In this particular beholder's view: Dang! is pretty funny. Sharply written, smart and sometimes savage, it's consistently well written. Although it never really reaches hilarious, it's never less than enjoyably amusing. Excellent performances from the voice cast too, with the three siblings doing a particularly fine job.
Dang! arrives as a very polished, extremely confident first season. And confident they should be, as it's an impressive piece of work. Hopefully, this will translate into audiences, and its focus doesn't make it too niche. It would certainly be a shame if we didn't get to spend more time with the chaotic Dang family.
IN A NUTSHELL:
Would you beleive it? Andrew Law's comedy is pretty Dang
good.
Would you beleive it? Andrew Law's comedy is pretty Dang good.
★★★☆☆
