Master of None

In a previous blog I wrote about Aziz Ansari’s star turn in Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation: there he played Tom Haverford, a white collar civil servant with pop-ya-collar pretensions of being a Hip Hop entrepreneur. As the series progressed though, Tom shedded his swag, morphing into a fully rounded human being. This chrysalis of character demonstrated the showrunners trust in Ansari- a stand up by trade- to be more than his one-dimensional stage character. It was this experience I imagine that gave him the confidence to write his debut sitcom, Master of None.

Master of None is a ten-part Netflix comedy co-written by Ansari and Parks and Recreation writer, Alan Yang. The sitcom follows Ansari's Dev's struggles in life, love and acting. Recently, there has been a glut of comedies that take place behind the studio door, but very few do it with the incisional insight as this. To offer a caveat though, the pilot episode doesn't corroborate this: it is a fairly mechanical rendition of a song that’s been sung before- think Girls without the drama and you’ll be there.

But the second episode is a textbook case of why you should stick with a sitcom after episode one. Other than The Office I can’t think of a great pilot episode. Comedies, in particular, need time to bed in: we have to get to know the characters; it is the familiarity that breeds laughter. So it is with this wonderful show.  The second episode is titled ‘Parents,’ whom form the backbone of the narrative. At the beginning Dev and his friend Kelvin are in their respective family homes being asked to do a job by their fathers: Dev’s father wants help with his iPhone, and Kelvin’s wants his son to get him some rice. Both refuse to help, arguing that they’ll be late for the film trivia questions that precede the trailers of the movie they’re going to see. For their hardworking parents to ask them to do simple tasks is a gross impertinence when popcorn trivia is at stake.

What elevates these scenes are the hilariously poignant flashbacks of the fathers as they retreat into their pasts, remembering the hardships they faced in getting to America. Witnessing their hard-won journeys to America and the subsequent racism they faced as first generation immigrants makes their children’s selfishness darkly humorous. Later in the episode, Dev learns that in India is father worked for two years in a zipper factory, which causes him to re-evaluate his treatment of his parents and take them out for one meal to repay them for their lifetime of service.  

Ansari's real life mother and father play his character's mother and father.

It is how Ansari’s touches on stories like this that make his sitcom vital and progressive. So many viewers haven’t had their immigrant experiences televised with such nuance and depth. As a child of an immigrant, I appreciate that I’m as guilty as Dev for not appreciating my dad’s journey from familiar Tamil home to fish out of water England. My dad cleaned caravans, worked security and cashed tills at petrol stations to survive those English winters. That proverbial land of coconut milk and honey must have seemed very far away. And what do I do when he asks me to help him with the shed? Look at my watch and tell him I can give him five before I have to get back to watch a programme that's available on catch-up. Ansari captures the disjuncture between the first generation of immigrants that fought for their footholds against a second generation that used their parents struggle as climbing frames.

Although the comedy deals with modern themes of race and identity, it also benefits from Ansari's field research to say something about the tradition of love. This year, Ansari along with sociologist Eric Klinenberg wrote the book Modern Romance that chronicled love in the digital age. The findings from the book are imbued throughout the sitcom. In episode 1 Ansari and Rachel have to summon Plan B when a condom breaks under sexual interrogation. Their trip to the chemist lampoons how male chivalry has become a credit card across the counter. In a later episode Dev has 48 hours to find a date for a concert; so playing the percentage game texts four girls, hoping the one he wants replies. Seeing how he heartlessly withdraws his offer to one girl when his number comes up with another shows how electronica has made love insensitive and cold.

Ansari’s comedy has earned him rave plaudits and the moniker ‘the new Woody Allen.’ In Master of None this comic is doing something new with an old format. Ansari the stand up, author, actor, writer-director has proved he is the Jack of all trades, isn't it time you watched his Master of None?


Master of None is available of Netflix now.