CW’s new musical romantic comedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend had its debut last Monday and it may very well be the comedy that comes about as close to what the 12-year-old me would’ve most wished to see but, alas, never had the opportunity until now.

The series stars the very funny and talented Rachel Bloom (YouTube’s Rachel Does Stuff) as an unhappy New York attorney who gives up her cushy job to move to Southern California to win back her ex-boyfriend whom she hasn’t seen in ten years.

One of the things that makes this show so unique is the ex-boyfriend and the object of Bloom’s affection: Josh Chan played by the Filipino Vincent Rodriguez III. 

Yes, the romantic male lead is an Asian American dude. And while rare, we have seen this before—most recently, in last year’s short-lived ABC comedy Selfie where John Cho was the male romantic lead to Karen Gillan-but here’s where Crazy Ex-Girlfriend takes that trope one step further and turns it into something I don’t think has ever existed on a prime-time broadcast network series before: the Asian American guy is the undisputed objection of affection for the white female lead.

As progressive as a show like Selfie was, the premise is still based on the traditional love-hate relationship between the main guy and girl. Yes, you know the two leads are meant for each other and will eventually get together, but there’s a lot of back-and-forth in regards to how they feel about each other. With Bloom’s character in Crazy Ex-Boyfriend, there is no ambiguity. She is completely obsessed with Josh Chan—he is presented as the epitome of the “perfect” male specimen and she will do anything to win him over.

Josh is Andrew McCarthy in Pretty in Pink—the cool, sophisticated guy that Molly Ringwald has a crush on, but thinks he’s too good for her. When was the last time you saw an Asian American guy playing that role? We’re lucky if he even gets to be Jon Cryer’s Ducky (and yes, there is a Ducky equivalent on the show, but he’s the white guy).

Bloom is also the creator of the series and this is what she said when she was asked why she made that particular character choice for Josh: “We always wanted the male lead to be Asian because I grew up with Asian bros, and I hadn’t seen that represented on TV.”

Good on you, Miss Bloom.

But while the positive repping of an “Asian bro” is one of the things that makes this the show the 12-year-old me would’ve been excited about, there’s really another reason for my nostalgic enthusiasm: the series is set in West Covina, California.

For those not familiar with Southern California, West Covina is a middle class suburb in the San Gabriel Valley about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles (or in the words of the characters on the show: “two hours from the beach, four with traffic”). It is your typical American suburb with a population of just over 100,000 and it supposedly has the highest concentration of chain restaurants of any Southern California city.

And why would West Covina have such meaning for the 12-year-old me? Well, because even though I never lived in West Covina, that town was a big part of my youth. I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and I had a lot of friends from West Covina because our family went to church there. Yup, every Sunday, you could find me in Sunday School inside the hallowed walls of the West Covina United Methodist Church on Azusa Blvd., just south of the 10 freeway. Some of my best childhood memories are from there—playing basketball or football after church, summer day camps, arguing with our Sunday School teacher about why The Last Temptation of Christ was not blasphemy, and watching movies at the West Covina mall followed by cassette shopping at the West Covina Tower Records. Good times indeed.

But what my friends and I would constantly remark and joke about was how West Covina was the most boring city on the face of the earth. That’s how it felt to us. It was the most fucking boring city in the world—our suburban shit hell (which is what makes it sort of perfect for the show’s setting). Never in our wildest dreams could we imagine that this most boring city would one day be the home for a prime-time network series:

Shit, real TV shows were supposed to be set in real cities like New York or Miami, not sleepy little West Covina. And I don’t remember there being so many strip clubs in West Covina so I think I might’ve missed out on part of my youth.

So thank you, makers of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, for bringing such joy and, dare I say, pride to the 12-year-old boy residing inside me. I thank you, the Asian bros thank you and the 100,000+ folks in West Covina thank you.