Now trending: Oat milk lattes! Turmeric sheet masks! Eyebrow feathering! Gen-Z yellow! Cloning your dog! And…SEXY ASIAN MEN ON TV! SO IN RIGHT NOW!!!!!

"A trend, wow. Wow."

I was talking to Vincent Rodriguez III, who plays Josh Chan, the doofy romantic lead opposite Rachel Bloom on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I was concerned our interview had started off on the wrong foot.

"Vinny," I joked. "You're like the new cauliflower milk. Congrats!"

No response.

To be fair, I didn't want to write a so-called trend piece on the recent spate of genre-defying hunky Asian men on TV. (That was my editor's idea!) The word trend is tricky and can implicate a passing fad or a flash in the pan. And these days, "trend" brings to mind the alternative-milk industrial complex sooner than, let's say, a group of people. But I'd be lying if I said I hadn't noticed a long overdue change in how my Asian brothers were represented on the small screen.

And so I offered Vinny (below, on Crazy Ex-G) big-big moneys to stay on the line.

"I think one of the reasons why the word trend comes up is because it can feel like a fad," he finally said, "but when are we going to take a sidestep away from the tall, dark-haired or tall, light-haired leading man and depict something just as authentic, but another ethnicity? Another height or body type? Could we be so bold?”

Yes, we can! There is an undeniable new class of handsome Asian male actors dominating TV right now. Vinny, but also Manny Jacinto from The Good Place, and Ross Butler who plays a studly jock on 13 Reasons Why and Riverdale. These guys are putting to bed the absurd question Can Asian dudes be sexy? (An axiom that reminds me of a different one from not so long ago: Can women be funny? The simple answer to both being obviously, yes. You idiot.)

In both cases, the conversation should really be focused on the entertainment industry's obligation to flesh out three-dimensional characters. And the fact that, in most cases, it's basically easier to tell the truth.

Rodriguez remembers when Crazy Ex-Girlfriend cocreators Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna first described Josh Chan to him as "an athletic looking Asian bro in his mid-to-late twenties, really friendly, laughable, and very laid-back." The breakdown, he says, was far more relatable than the meek nerds and ninja masters he was used to auditioning for. "I was like, Well, I grew up with Josh Chan. I am Josh Chan. I know a lot of Joshes," he says. "It was so simple, but it was also very evident to me that we hadn’t seen this depiction quite yet."