Summer Spring has sprung, and of course that means it’s perfect weather to stay inside, shut your blinds to block out that pesky sun, and pull up your Netflix queue. And if yours has been looking pretty lackluster lately, may I suggest adding Master of None to the mix? There’s only a quick two seasons so far so that should only take, what, two days to get through, tops?
SO LONG, TOM HAVERFORD
Parks and Recreation remains one of my favorite shows to grace our TV screens. The mix of personalities, while exaggerated, was so true to daily life in the office. One of the best characters was Tom Haverford, Aziz Ansari’s over the top swag master. He gave us treat yo self, and a naming system for foods that made eating more fun, if that’s even possible. Looking at you chicky chicky parm parm.
Well, this is not who Aziz plays in Master of None. Dev Patel is a much more honest character, rather than the caricature that Tom Haverford was. I don’t know Aziz personally (unfortunately), but Dev seems to be a version of the man himself – obsessed with food, an actor, and living as an Indian in America in a time when that’s sometimes still pretty hard.
The supporting cast is the glue of this show – Eric Wareheim plays Arthur, a giant teddy bear with some serious lady-killing skills, Lena Waithe plays Denise, who has what might be the best collection of hats I’ve ever seen, and making their debut and stealing the screen are Aziz’s parents, Shoukath and Fatima Ansari, playing, you guessed it, Dev’s parents. One thing that this show does not lack is diversity, and it’s not forced at all. Denise isn’t the token black friend, and Aziz is not the only Indian in the show by a long shot. Season one gives us a look into these character’s backgrounds and how their nationalities affects their day to day life in a really heartfelt way that I haven’t seen anywhere else on TV. While also throwing in lots of silliness and comedy, of course.
SEASON ONE
The premise of the show isn’t anything mind blowing – just your average actor looking for love and work in NYC. But Ansari is so heartfelt in his portrayal of Dev that it feels different from shows that cover the same topics. This isn’t a Friends laugh track show, where the goofball gets his head stuck in a turkey, it’s more an expansion on Ansari’s stand up bits: why girls don’t text back, why there can only be one Indian guy in any given episode of television, and the never-ending search for the perfect pasta. Season one details the rise and inevitable fall of Dev’s relationship with Rachel, Noelle Wells, formerly of Saturday Night Live. But it’s not all about the romance, there’s also bromances, how to relate to your parents as an adult, and The Sickening. And if you want to find out what that is, I suggest checking out episode two. But in order to do that, you have to watch episode one!
SEASON TWO
Season two picks up right where season one left off, and Dev’s unintentional insightfulness continues. Ansari works as writer, director, and actor, making the storytelling and directing seamless. He takes risks with sequencing, subtitles, and color that make Master of None feel like a foreign film, but without the stress of having to read subtitles for more than like ten lines. The first episode is in black and white, and while at first I might have panicked and thought my TV was broken, when I finally settled down and stopped fiddling with wires that I need to stop pretending I know the use of, I realized that it made perfect sense with the storyline and location. After that, it was just a quick 5 hours where I was unable to leave my couch and the season was over! A warning if you don’t like cliffhangers: I suggest you wait until the series is out as a whole because it’s a big one and they’re on that Outlander track of making us wait a thousand years between seasons. Perfection takes time, people.
Have you watched Master of None?
