Send those Hi Cuties and serve that pasta because The Sickening is happening with Master of None this week! Patreon shout out to Julio from the legendary Contrarians podcast.

Stats

Released: 2015
Network: Netflix
Creators: Aziz Ansari, Alan Yang

Breakdown and Analysis

  • We were not prepared for a show about a guy and his young friends to have the depth and voice that it did. If you are open to watching this show, despite controversy with Aziz, you are in for some tasty morsels.
  • A constant theme we continue to experience are societal expectations. What you should have achieved or should be doing at each particular age. When you reach adulthood it surrounds getting married, having kids and a successful career. At the end of Season 1 we see Dev and Rachel go through a conflict about getting married. An interesting train of thought Dev had was when you get to the age you are expected to get married, are you with them because they are ‘the one’ or is it convenient? Truly interesting and you could spend a lifetime pondering over it. Having kids is in the first episode of this series. Having a career particularly through Rachel and travelling to Chicago for 6 months.
  • This flows into another theme we explored, being the overwhelming sense of feeling unfulfilled. Particularly through Rachel not wanting to be like her sister. Settling into a life and always wondering what if.
  • One of the best episodes and the reason we dived into this show was the way they approached Dev and Brian’s relationship with their immigrant parents. The show does a great job of presenting how we may or may not interact with our parents without being preachy and have a definitive resolution. There are many things immigrant children may not know or ever know what their parents have gone through and we enjoyed seeing that portrayed on the show.
  • Religion was also handled in a realistic way. It is ok to be a certain way within the immediate family but you need to change or behave a certain way to avoid bringing shame to the family. The perception of others is more important to you as a person. We talk about how we were to be seen and not heard as kids. And even then it’s seen cleaning or cooking. There is also a formality between the parent and child, there isn’t a world with immigrants where your parents are your friends.
  • In regards to women and feeling safe the show also tackles this in an episode where women share their stories. It was a natural and casual approach to a very dicey topic. KT shares some experiences, not too dark but certainly uncomfortable moments.
  • It is not new to have discussions about lack of representation for persons of colour. In our household, we hear more about African Americans and Asians generally. It isn’t really brought up a lot about Indians on TV or movies. Although KT does take qualm with Daddy Dev because he says there are no indian models. Please refer to Dev Patel.
  • Showing how we interact with old people isn’t new but from a person of colour point of view, we really enjoying watching this. The differences shown in the day in the life episode of how each of the workers have different experiences. It was also nice to see portrayal of an older person that was of sound mind was open about her rebellious past.
  • Surprise, surprise this show tackles love. Nothing wrong with that but it was nice to have other themes interwoven into this series.
  • Not sure the day in life concept worked. It was entertaining but was grossly out of place thematically hence distracting.

Unrelated but vital points

  • Oti was crowned Abacus Daddy!
  • KT does not stand with Oti in his besmirching of Sir Patrick Stewart.
  • Colin Salmon in everything, please.
  • Never spoil things in public places, only do it on a podcast.

For Your Reference

Oti’s pick

[imdb style=”gray”]tt5024912[/imdb]

KT’s picks

[imdb style=”gray”]tt5462602[/imdb][imdb style=”gray”]tt0445114[/imdb]