Master of None

What's the title?

Master of None

Who created it?

Aziz Ansari & Alan Yang

When did it air?

2015 - Present

What’s it rated?

TV-MA

Would I recommend it?

No, unfortunately. I would’ve liked to have liked it – but I just don’t.

What's it about?(non-spoilers)

The show follows Dev, an Indian actor living in New York, as he navigates his career, his relationships both with his immigrant parents and with his diverse friend group, his love of food, and his search for love.

What did you think? (spoilers)

I was first introduced to Aziz Ansari by his role as Tom Haverford on Parks and Recreation. That show is lovely, and whenever I see any of its cast listed on another project I am nine times more likely to give it a watch. So when I heard that Aziz was headlining a Netflix original series that he had co-created, I was intrigued. Then the reviews came in, and everyone was losing their minds on how great it was. I added this show to my queue. I watched the pilot but did not proceed with the series for probably a year. When the trailers for the second season dropped, I gave the series another college try. I made it halfway through the first season. I am saying now that, while it grieves my completionist heart, I’m DNFing this series.

I'm not surprised by the acclaim Master has received. There's a lot to like in the series. Like I said, I like Aziz. All the diversity in the series - as well as the ways that diversity is both normalized and highlighted - is important and wonderful to see. The writing is well done. I occasionally laughed; it wasn’t a gut-buster of a show or anything, but it didn’t feel miscategorized as a comedy either. The show looks beautiful as well. Most of the time I’d be more preoccupied with the way the scene was shot than to what was going on in the scene – which exemplifies my problem with the show.

The show is atmospheric. It is not a story. Sure, the show isn’t completely devoid of plot, but the plotlines will get dropped for whole episodes before they are picked back up which doesn’t allow for any kind of dramatic momentum. The episodes feel like loosely connected essays or short stories, whereas I prefer for episodes to feel like chapters in the overall novel that is a season. The episodes of Master of None are all well done, and I would enjoy them as twenty minute short films, but I had to force myself to watch the next episode each time I dipped in. When I’m binging a TV show I normally suffer from the exact opposite problem.

So, is Master of None a good show? Yes. It’s well done. It has compelling points of view on fresh topics. It also happens to be – at least to me – boring. If you want to give the show a shot anyway, I’d say go for it. A lot of people seem to be enamored with the show, and you may be one of them. However, if you were thinking of giving this show a pass, I’d say follow that feeling.

Images: iMDB

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