Master Of None - General Discussion

[Meedis]

Lena Waithe's making the rounds.   She made some brief appearances on a couple episodes of Netflix's Dear White People.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Aziz Ansari’s comeback show was a lot to process (review of his new comedy tour)

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Aziz Ansari Reflects on Sexual-Misconduct Allegation at His NYC Pop-up Show

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Lena Waithe at the Met Gala with Kerby Jean-Raymond

[scrb]

Alan Yang on Bill Simmons podcast.

Talks about him pitching MoN and how some celebs told him they loved the show.

 

If it wasn't for the #MeToo event, there would have been a third season by now probably.

But Aziz apparently didn't show enough contrition the first time he talked about the incident.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Lena Waithe at the Emmys:

 

[aghst]

Season 3 debuting in May.

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/master-of-none-netflix-season-3-aziz-ansari-1234943422/

 

OK, what kind of reception will it get.  Aziz may not be as beloved as the first two seasons.  That standup special didn't go over so well. 

[Irlandesa]

  On 4/21/2021 at 6:42 PM, aghst said:

Season 3 debuting in May.

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It's under the "Coming Soon" section so I don't know if that means it'll come out in May or if it might be later. 

It says it focuses on Lena Waithe's character which will be interesting because Lena has had some controversy as well.

[aghst]

Hmm, The Chi had a horrible season, though she's not in a featured role in that show.

As long as she's not having a lot of input on the creative direction of this show ...

[msani19]

I saw that the announcement isn't getting a very positive reaction. Combination of Lena Waithe and her controversy and the general response to Aziz's situation. The 2 seasons were so good, even without the issues that happened, that I was already worried that another season wouldn't live up to the anticipation. 

We shall see. I'll watch it and see how I feel. 

[DanaK]

Dropping May 23, focusing on Lena Waithe's Denise and her partner Alicia http://thefutoncritic.com/video/2021/04/26/video-master-of-none-season-3-official-trailer-netflix-157215/20210426netflix03/

[aghst]

Didn’t even remember her character name.

Has another series ever done this, make a minor supporting character the focus of a season?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S3 trailer:

 

[Scarlett45]

  On 4/27/2021 at 10:57 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

S3 trailer:

 

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Thank you for sharing the trailer. 

[BetterButter]

 

[aghst]

So has anyone watched?

Reviews seem lukewarm.  Good but not at the level of the first two seasons.

[Cementhead]

Big fan of the first 2 seasons but no, I have not watched and don't plan to.  All the reviews tell me it is an entirely different show altogether and nothing about it appeals to me. 

[possibilities]

I didn't know that Lena W had controversies. I'll have to look into that.

I watched S3 and, without addressing the issues surrounding her or Aziz, I'll post a mini review about the show itself. This will be all spoilers, so I'm hiding it.

  Reveal spoiler

We really need more representation for lesbians, and not only focused on things like coming out or being discriminated against or fighting for our rights. So I like that they decided to just make this a story about the two women, and their marriage, divorce, and lives generally, like most stories about straight people are. In that sense, it was excellent representation.

One of the main drivers of the story was about the struggle one of them went through to get pregnant, and I will just say that I can't comment on how well that was done because I not only have no interest in IVF or people's angst about birthing genetic offspring, but I think it's bizarre and I just can't support it. You want a kid? I get that. I don't get why it has to share your genes. But whatever. I did appreciate that they made a point about how absurd and offensive it is that fertility treatment is covered by most insurance for women in sexual relationships with men, but not for single women or women in partnerships with women. The doctor said "we have a code for being bitten by an orca, but not one for this." 

The last episode shows the women getting together in what apparently is an on-going affair they are having, years after they divorced each other and married others and both had children separately. They are both lying to their partners about where they are, and they discuss how happy they are having their illicit getaways and wonder how long they can keep doing it before they get caught. Neither of them see to feel any guilt about lying or sneaking around. It's weird. The show does not address this at all. it just ends there. 

On the one hand, I know that the literary convention of portraying an affair and then punishing the cheaters at the end of the show is an artifact of censorship where the only way to publish "obscene" material was to go that route. It's clearly disingenuous to produce a work that capitalizes on an affair and then tacks on punishment at the end, so I guess there's no reason to do that here other than convention. But on the other hand, I also don't really want to see the world turn into a place that enthusiastically glorifies shittiness. It didn't seem at all introspective, it was just "isn't this grand!" I guess we have a lot of shows that center on glorifying criminal behavior, so this is in the same tradition, only for sexual infidelity and lying to your partner. Oookay, then. Have at it, conscienceless folks! If they had embraced ethical non-monogamy or polyamory I'd be all for it. I'm just not into liars.

From a technical perspective, I enjoyed the quietness. They leave a lot of silence or low level ambient noise instead of filling the movie with music and constant expository conversation. They also use opera in the background sometimes, which normally I am not a fan of but somehow managed to enjoy here. And they set a lot of the movie in a rural area, with chickens (I LOOOOOOVED the chicken scenes-- they were VERY real, and I am a lover of chickens anyway), horses, sheep, and just a really beautiful landscape. I liked that it wasn't just another city-based movie.

It also wasn't in any way even attempting to be a comedy, so yes: very much not the same show as the first two seasons. 

Aziz shows up 2 or 3 times, mostly in the peripheral role of "Denise's friend." He's really barely in the show, though. It would be easy to forget and/or ignore his presence.

 

[aghst]

I don't know when I'll watch S3, if ever.

But it is interesting that Aziz is taking inspiration from great directors, like he did in season 2.

Louis CK did the same with his show, supposedly was very exacting about having just about every frame of the show be exactly the way he envisioned it.

So these comedians who gained fame as standups and sitcom actors are looking to establish their artiste cred.

They have received a certain amount of critical acclaim for their shows, even if they have some personal behavior issues.  Maybe they're trying to follow in Woody Allen's footsteps -- speaking of someone who got some flak for putting out works which were deemed not as funny as those that came before these "serious" works.

[possibilities]

I don't know that I'd recommend it. If you are boycotting him, or Waithe, you're not going to feel like a martyr when you miss it. I got sucked in by the tantalizing prospect of lesbian representation, but I'm not sure it was worth it.

I like that they had the show in a rural area (mostly), not only because I live in one and enjoy it more than noise, concrete, crowds, and smog (plus chickens! they are so personable!), but also because most of the time we only see POC portrayed as either living in a big city or being in the South, usually in poverty. But this show gave us Northeast rural Black folk-- with money, no less! It's just not something the media shows very often, and I like seeing that subverted.

[DrSpaceman73]

I tried, finished one episode and started the second, I just am not into it.   I can't take a while season of this.  Not what I've come to expect from the show......not interested

[Eri]

  On 5/30/2021 at 6:17 AM, possibilities said:

I don't know that I'd recommend it. If you are boycotting him, or Waithe, you're not going to feel like a martyr when you miss it. I got sucked in by the tantalizing prospect of lesbian representation, but I'm not sure it was worth it.

I like that they had the show in a rural area (mostly), not only because I live in one and enjoy it more than noise, concrete, crowds, and smog (plus chickens! they are so personable!), but also because most of the time we only see POC portrayed as either living in a big city or being in the South, usually in poverty. But this show gave us Northeast rural Black folk-- with money, no less! It's just not something the media shows very often, and I like seeing that subverted.

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I watched it all the way through and I agree with your earlier post - I appreciated the scenery and the individual storylines but the ending really turned me off because heaven forbid they show healthy relationships in this show. Relationships are hard but they really don't need to be *that* hard.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One thing I really appreciated about this season was showing the realities of in vitro fertilization. Too often on tv shows, it's portrayed as one quick visit to the doctor/clinic and then the woman immediately gets pregnant. It can be a long, frustrating process so I am glad that they showed what it can really be like.

[possibilities]

Why was she always trying to sneak her injections in the public areas of the store she worked in, though, instead of going to the bathroom to do it? How long does it take? Is she really going to "steal a moment" in front of customers, instead of just slipping away to the guaranteed private place for a couple of minutes?

I agree that it was more realistic than the usual white washed shiny nonsense of other IVF portrayals, but that struck me as some bullshit.

[loki310]

  On 6/7/2021 at 5:40 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

One thing I really appreciated about this season was showing the realities of in vitro fertilization. Too often on tv shows, it's portrayed as one quick visit to the doctor/clinic and then the woman immediately gets pregnant. It can be a long, frustrating process so I am glad that they showed what it can really be like.

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Yeah it really was. Especially when she did all that work for it not to work the first time. The IVF subplot was probably my favorite thing of the season. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

  On 6/7/2021 at 5:03 PM, possibilities said:

Why was she always trying to sneak her injections in the public areas of the store she worked in, though, instead of going to the bathroom to do it? How long does it take? Is she really going to "steal a moment" in front of customers, instead of just slipping away to the guaranteed private place for a couple of minutes?

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To me it looked like she was going into the back room where only employees were allowed. I don't recall her trying to give herself injections out on the floor in front of customers. The only thing I specifically remember was when her alarm went off while she was talking to a customer and she asked another employee to come over and help them so that she could go into the back to do her injection.

[loki310]

  On 6/17/2021 at 11:43 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

To me it looked like she was going into the back room where only employees were allowed. I don't recall her trying to give herself injections out on the floor in front of customers. The only thing I specifically remember was when her alarm went off while she was talking to a customer and she asked another employee to come over and help them so that she could go into the back to do her injection.

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I will say that you (I) just have to administer the shots at the same time. So one could do 10pm when you’re at home. So yeah, I don’t know why she was doing them at work. Lol

[ElectricBoogaloo]

  On 6/18/2021 at 6:59 AM, loki310 said:

I will say that you (I) just have to administer the shots at the same time. So one could do 10pm when you’re at home. So yeah, I don’t know why she was doing them at work. Lol

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When she read the instructions, they said that injections had to be administered three times a day and the other medication had to be taken within a two hour window. Even if she did one injection in the morning and another in the evening after work, that still leaves one more that has to be done in the middle of the day aka when she's at work.

[possibilities]

I didn't get that she was going into the back room, but if that's what she was doing, that's a lot less outrageous than doing it in the public part of the shop.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

  On 6/19/2021 at 2:17 AM, possibilities said:

I didn't get that she was going into the back room, but if that's what she was doing, that's a lot less outrageous than doing it in the public part of the shop.

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It was a grotty room with shelves of tools and cleaning supplies so I'm pretty sure they didn't allow any customers back there.

The shop was full of antiques and soft lighting. The back room where she was giving herself injections had fluorescent overhead lights.

Edited June 20, 2021 by ElectricBoogaloo

[MilkMachine]

Unpopular opinion, but I really enjoyed this. I am drawn to slow-moving, character-driven, "slice of life" fiction. I think it works especially well for the 5-episode format—even I probably wouldn't want to watch 20 episodes of this.

It felt very disconnected from the original Master of None. It's been so long I don't remember much about that show, but I know the tone was very different.

  Reveal spoiler

Even though it felt kind of...disappointing? like a bummer? that they'd both readily cheat on their spouses, it didn't seem out of left field given that they were both cheating on each other at the end of their marriage. I like that it left me feeling a few different ways. Denise can say "this won't end well" and we the audience know she's right and can imagine what that will look like even without having that play out on screen.