Master of None

By starrymag | June 21, 2017

By: Summer Bishil

 

I was hooked on “Master of None” from the very first episode of Season One. As a self-proclaimed comedy junkie, all you had to say for me excitedly tune in is that Aziz Ansari was starring in a show on Netflix and is the co-creator. I had been a fan of his comedy since…Well, too far back to remember. Since somewhere around the time where it was still socially acceptable to wear Juicy Coutre on your ass. When I was through with my blissful binge of the first season, I thought to myself, “Finally!” It was a show I related to and something I could watch without feeling guilty about the hours I spent planted in front of my TV.

 

One of the reasons I related to “Master of None” was because as an actress of South Asian decent it is not every day or every year or ever that you see an actor of South Asian background in a leading role who is also the co-creator.  Even more specifically one pursuing a career in acting and “trying to get that ‘Friends’ money” as Aziz Ansari’s characters Dev’s agent so flawlessly put it. That was one of the funniest lines I have heard on a show in a long time.

 

This show is full of quotable lines, but it’s so much more than just quotable. You don’t have to be any of the things I described to be able to relate to and enjoy this show. One of the many things that make this show work is that the humor has such a nuanced hilarity.  The reason for that is it is not written by a man who doesn’t understand his subject and is too busy projecting untrue negative and tired stereotypes about women and people of color.

 

I also just enjoy shows and movies that take place in New York. I don’t know why. I just do and so do a lot of people. I’m not from New York and to be honest I have always felt intimated by the city, but it just has an animated vivacity that lends itself to fantastic storytelling.

 

So many half-hour comedies are about characters who, while funny, in a shell of a human being kind of way that don’t exactly feel real. Don’t get me wrong, I have been known to enjoy watching those formulaic half-hour sitcoms with a laugh track, but sometimes you just need more. Sometimes you need to get woke if you will…

 

The characters in “Master of None” are given room to breathe and come to life in a way that is so bursting with energy and authenticity that no matter who you are, where you are from, what your dreams are or what your background is, you can relate to the characters and are left laughing and cheering along with them.

 

The humor in this show doesn’t pull cheap tricks. Instead, the humor illuminates hilarious truths about our culture. It shines a light on what it means to be a young, but not so young person that you don’t know what you’re doing trying to create a life and find meaningful relationships. In a nutshell, this is a story about a man pursuing his dream in the “Big Apple” while searching for love in an increasingly complicated and detached smartphone age; and doing so with wit, courage and a solid center.  Possessing those traits is what makes the main character Dev so likable and inspires you to root for him. Dev is surrounded by equally witty and charming characters that aren’t just there to fill in the blank but genuinely enrich the story.

 

What makes the supporting cast so special is that it brings characters that are so often relegated to some stereotype to the forefront.  An example of how this show achieves that is the episode in Season Two that was a day in the life of a New Yorker. This episode worked so well, despite being a tangent episode that had nothing to do with the main storyline of the show we had just watched for half a season. The reason it worked was that the writers are invested in the characters so we are allowed to become invested and care about them, even if it was just for half an hour.

 

This show makes you slap your hand on your knee and chuckle so loud you want to pee. But it also makes you think deeply about certain topics and as a result of that thinking makes you feel deeply. The Thanksgiving episode this season comes to mind as an example of how this show makes you feel things you wouldn’t necessarily expect to feel while watching a half hour comedy. The Thanksgiving episode deals with his best friend Denise’s sexuality and her struggle to come out to her family and, ultimately, to be truly seen by her family; over the course of her young adulthood and her present reality.

 

The episode takes you on her families’ journey to accepting her sexuality. Fun fact: This episode was directed by a woman and co-written by Lena Waithe, the actress who plays Denise. I fundamentally believe that that is a contributing factor to why this particular episode was so sensitively and masterfully done. It is because the writers of this show see the characters they are writing for and don’t dilute them to the point where we are watching animated stick figures say manufactured jokes for a half hour. Instead, we get the chance to experience new and unexpected themes and become invested in those themes. All of the female characters in this show are so utterly charming and singular and well…real! They feel like your girlfriend or a girl you used to know. Denise, Aziz Ansari’s friend from childhood, stands out to me,as such an achievement of a fantastic female character on television.

 

All that being said, two questions did come to mind during the first five minutes into the second season of “Master of None” Number one was why is it suddenly in black and white? Two, why are we suddenly in Modena, Italy and not in New York where the first season took place? After about ten minutes spent in Modena, I quickly change my question to how could we not be in Modena? How could it not be in black and white? It makes perfect sense! It is these types of surprises that this show pulls off and can justify through strong characters and storytelling that make it feel so special. Not to mention, it is pure joy to watch Dev make his way through his day in Italy, and while he does, we get to meet new characters along the way. Cue Francesca played by the enchanting Alessandra Mastronardi, the girl who will become his love interest for this second season. Although there is immediate chemistry between them in the first episode, Dev is so busy pining over the loss of his phone and with it the number of an English girl he had a happenstance lunch encounter. For any of us who have lost the number of an engaging stranger we have just met, we are right there with Dev,feeling his loss over what could have been. New destinations and lunches aside, I haven’t had that much fun watching someone in a foreign country mending their broken heart, well ever!

 

As utterly pleasurable as it was to watch the beginning of the second season of “Master of None,” it is a welcome relief when Dev returns to New York. We get to spend time with the characters we grew so fond of in Season One especially his parents, who are played by his actual parents! This second season goes down like the Italian food its main character is so contentedly enjoying while on holiday in Modena, Italy without any guilt!

 

“Master of None” is far too tapped in with the beat of our culture to be what a lot of TV is, a guilty pleasure. Even as we find ourselves amidst the “Golden Age of Television,” there is more junk TV than there is whole TV. What I mean by whole TV is inclusive and authentic storytelling, with a truly diverse cast that feels accurate to the world we live in. This show proves that you can binge watch a show and laugh so loud your neighbor’s dog barks. You also get to cry and come away with a deeper understanding of what it means to be looking for love and happiness in our culture.

 

Like I said before, I love a half hour sitcom with a handful of young people that stay the same age and do the same thing every day as much as the next guy. There is a reason that formula has been recreated so often and it is because it works. After all, we need that something to tune into once a week and know we’ll laugh but not have to think too hard about why were laughing. But if that’s all we had? If all we had were the carbohydrates Aziz Ansari’s character eats when in Modena we would get bloated! We crave variety and “Master of None” is a welcomed change. It is a slow insightful comical romantic burn that never gets old and is persistently authentic!