Master Of None - General Discussion

Meredith Quill · October 23, 2015

Anticipate Here!

Meredith Quill · October 23, 2015

Your Media Topic!

BetterButter · October 23, 2015

BetterButter · November 3, 2015

biakbiak · November 4, 2015

Sepinwall' s glowing review, small plot spoilers.

ToxicUnicorn · November 5, 2015

Heard the two co-creaters interviewed on Fresh Air today - they were refreshingly lively and thoughtful. They had definitely thought about making a show where race, culture, and identity will be undercurrents, but not treated in a too pat, condescending, or politically correct way. I am definitely intrigued enough to give this show a try.

Primetimer · November 5, 2015

Aziz Ansari navigates the tricky world of dating in his new Netflix sitcom. Should you make a commitment to it?

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possibilities · November 6, 2015

I loved how the first episode took on the rift between people with kids and people without kids, and how each feels the other may be either missing out or having all the fun. As a childless person (by choice and very happy with it), I was worried at first that they were painting child-free people as shallow losers who had missed the boat, but by the end I was satisfied that they were saying people with kids are often only there because they were just passive in the face of conception or sloppy in the face of deciding vs defaulting into that path. And either way, the culture is very different between parents and non-parents. That has been shown before, but I liked the way they did it here, with the acknowledgment that even though people sometimes stay in each others' lives, there's still a gulf. THe path taken here completely changes everything; people say that, but this show meant it.

There was the one mom who seemed to genuinely be glad to be a mom, but she was also stressed and aware of what the drawbacks were, there was the totally arrested development guy without kids who seemed unsuited to adulthood in general as well as to parenting, there was the dad who was miserable and doubted his choices even if he loved his kid, and there was Aziz, who was exhausted by kids even if he liked them but didn't come off like a child himself. That seems fair. I've seen all those types and I liked that nobody got to be romanticized, and the level of love or loneliness seemed to track with the person, not which way they'd gone on breeding or not breeding.

Also, I loved Dev's lesbian friend, who basically represented the "this is a straight people problem" point of view. Lots of lesbians I know have kids, but it has a whole different layer of choice involved, and isn't something that happens because the birth control failed. There are just no surprise babies for lesbian couples. And her discussion of how we view protection made me laugh, even if in my experience it's not 100% true; I'd say it's true in many cases, but not all by any means. But where it's not true, the concern is about preventing disease, not pregnancy. There's a whole other kind of conversation going on.

I also liked that they are addressing social awareness in the course of daily life, like how Aziz was worried about taking the little girl into the public bathroom, and how when he asked a stranger to do it he got called on stereotyping. Neither he nor the women involved came off totally wrong, though. He got their point, and he apologized sincerely, but they were also kind of bitches. I thought that was cool-- there was a three dimensionality to it. And then when the kid acknowledged it was a weird situation, but then told a stranger he "took her into the bathroom and said not to tell anyone"-- and it was awkward but did NOT result in police being called; she was a brat, not a victim and that was handled in a balanced way, also.

"We cannot sell food that has had the penis of a small boy on it"-- so funny.

"He was only gone for a minute, how could he have put his penis on all 30 packages?"

"Don't yell people's ethnicities!"

"Don't put your penis on anything!"

Great lines, and again-- handled as passing moments and not major plot points. I liked how he apologized to the people who had to hear the kids yelling ethnicities, and they basically seemed to accept his apology, instead of it getting turned into a major catastrophe. Kids are the worst! Everyone knows it. It needs to be dealt with, but it doesn't need to ruin everyone's day. Likewise, the mom saying that since there was no blood, he had done a great job babysitting-- so refreshing in the face of the insanely over-protective parenting that's common these days.

In the Parents episode, I liked how Aziz and his friend came off as total brats compared to the parental flashbacks, but then how the parents were also part of the problem because they never shared about themselves (and when Aziz bought his dad a guitar, he preferred the video games too). I also liked how "iffy wifi" at first sounded like a "real problem" only from his spoiled point of view, but later was shown to have cost him a job (and the audition in the cafe was great, with everyone unsure whether to panic or if he was actually acting and whether to let him finish or not). And the dad was supportive when Aziz didn't get the job, despite that Aziz had earlier said his dad was never supportive. And he did call his dad right away when he got bad news, so you kind of realize that at some level he does feel loved and supported, even if he consciously feels like they don't connect.

I thought the parents were a little much with his mom yelling about how she doesn't like Chinese food right in the restaurant, and the dad not giving a fuck about whether she likes it when he suggested going there again. But I also liked how the other parents were speaking Chinese to the waiter to basically apologize for the obnoxious/ignorant behavior of his dining companions behind their backs. It's not just white people who are stupid, and how often do we see that shown in any way that isn't getting white people off the hook? Loved it.

In episode 3, I loved how the "dream date" turned out not to be someone he actually liked, once he got past the most superficial level of appearance. And also how he was trying to figure out how to be both respectful and a player. LOVED that he liked the one date prospect saying she would love to go but only as friends (but he didn't want that, so he didn't choose her). Hated that he ditched the date he'd finally made plans with, when the woman he first wanted to go with became available-- but liked that he knew it was wrong AND that it backfired on him when she turned out to be not his type. Also liked that when he re-connected with the date from episode 1, it didn't turn into the "second chance perfection" Hollywood says is always just around the corner. And he was disappointed, but he didn't act like a jerk about it, he was real about it but not obnoxious. There's this thin line, in life as well as art, between swallowing your truth in order to look good, acting on your feelings to the point of transgressing boundaries, and getting it right as an aware but not fake person. I like that the show is trying to show that balance, without making anyone exactly a role model or a villain. Fallible within tolerable limits, or at least watchable limits, to me is a funny enough place.

I haven't watched past episode 3, but so far I really like it. Dev is a little more of a jerk than I would want in a friend, but not so much of one that I hate him on screen. And his constant struggle to bridge various gaps, whether between his real and ideal selves, or himself and the people in his life, and to navigate complexity (like with the kids or his parents or the job interview or dating), I think is good fodder for humor that is a little cringy because of identifying with it, a little self-congratulatory because you can sometimes believe you'd be better than him, and a little inspiring because you see him sometimes get it right and you want him to have a win, or vindicating because sometimes he gets it wrong and you want to see him get his comeuppance. You just never know which it's going to be in any particular scenario, so it keeps you on the edge, while finding out. I like that feeling, of not being sure which way something is going.

And, again, I love that they've populated the show with more than tokens. It makes me feel like they aren't taking sides.

ToxicUnicorn · November 7, 2015

"Dev and Brian learn about their parents."

I loved, loved, loved this episode. I don't think I've ever sat through a half hour of scripted tv that has felt that real to me, and I thought it was done with a light touch.

I was a little worried it would be too serious and heavy when I heard there would be flashbacks to the fathers' respective childhoods - so it was great to see the cut from Brian's father's story to the group laughing in the restaurant.

ElectricBoogaloo · November 7, 2015

A condom mishap and a kid's birthday party prompt Dev to consider the reality of having children.

Promo: