The Brothers Sun

The Brothers Sun is an American action comedy drama television series created by Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu for Netflix. It was released on January 4, 2024. In March 2024, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise

The life of average Californian Bruce Sun is turned upside down when his older brother, Charles Sun, visits Los Angeles, California, from Taipei, Taiwan. Having no recollection of his past in Taipei, Bruce learns about his family's profession as Taipei's most renowned gangsters, with his brother being a hardened criminal raised by his crime boss father. After an attempted assassination on his father, Charles has to move to LA to keep his family safe. Additionally, Bruce finds out that his mother moved with him to California in order to build a life away from her estranged family. His mother's effort has proved to be futile as Bruce has to adapt to the gangster life of his family.

Cast

Main

Michelle Yeoh as Eileen "Mama" Sun
Justin Chien as Charles Sun, Eileen's eldest son
Sam Song Li as Bruce Sun, Eileen's younger son
Joon Lee as Terrence "TK" Kang, Bruce's Korean-American best friend who is a drug dealer and stoner
Highdee Kuan as Alexis Kong, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles and Charles' childhood friend from Taipei
Recurring
Alice Hewkin as twin sisters June and May Song
Jenny Yang as Xing
Johnny Kou as Big Sun
Jon Xue Zhang as Blood Boots
Zhan Wang as Yuan
Madison Hu as Grace
Rodney To as Detective Mark Rizal
Ron Yuan as Frank Ma
Episodes

Production

Development

On February 2, 2022, it was revealed that Netflix ordered the production of The Brothers Sun created by Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu as a part of Falchuk's eight-figure deal with Netflix with both creators serve as executive producers and Falchuk as the showrunner. Alongside Wu and Falchuk, Mikkel Bondesen and Kevin Tancharoen would join as the executive producers. The series would consist of 8 episodes with Wu set to write the story and Tancharoen set to direct the series. On March 1, 2024, Netflix canceled the series after one season.

Casting

On June 13, 2022, the cast was revealed as Michelle Yeoh and Justin Chien took the leading roles as Eileen Sun and Charles Sun respectively. Joining the main cast would be Sam Song Li as Bruce Sun, Highdee Kuan as Alexis and Joon Lee as TK. Other cast members who took recurring roles are Alice Hewkin, Jon Xue Zhang, Madison Hu, Rodney Tu, Jenny Yang, and Johnny Kou.

Filming

Filming took place in Los Angeles, California and Taipei City, Taiwan for three months. The house in episode six was filmed at Villa Splendido in Malibu, which was used as a fictional mansion in the show. The team reached out to John Cho's representative for permission to create a polar opposite character under his name. Sam Song Li said, "I think John Cho is a lot more humble than he's portrayed." Cho's band, Viva La Union, had their song "Alive" featured in the same episode.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 84% approval rating with an average rating of 6.5/10, based on 44 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While The Brothers Suns mix of brutality and sweetness sometimes veers into tonal whiplash, inspired fight choreography and a terrific cast keep it a fun family affair." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 61 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".