Aziz Ansari's 'Master of None' on Netflix

this show is finely balanced between cloying and wearying

Heidecker is a brilliant actor - Wareheim not so much

― the naive cockney chorus (Simon H.), Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:15 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed, but I almost felt like Eric wasn't taking this show seriously, himself. Like he was making sure he kept any sincerity at arms length.

That being said, throughout their career together Tim was always better at selling a character and Eric would always settle into the same schtick.

Dev's friends are not good actors. I don't think aziz is too bad. The dude is like an echo of 90s Comedy Central culture and the woman's lines are delivered so mechanically it's like she hasn't bothered to process what they mean

I like the Claire Danes ep, Indians on tv ep, and parents ep the most (have to see last 2 episodes yet tho)

Aziz himself is mostly ok, but its so thin and the characters so wooden

(the last 2 episodes were the worst ones, especially the penultimate)

the lesbian friend has shockingly poor delivery.

"their moms were relatively dire, humorless and put-upon."

way to generalise.

Agreed, but I almost felt like Eric wasn't taking this show seriously, himself. Like he was making sure he kept any sincerity at arms length.

he also directed a bunch of episodes btw.

(but i agree it felt like his character was from a different show sometimes)

Sorry, to clarify I meant he wasn't specifically taking the performance seriously. His directing is always pretty good!

"their moms were relatively dire, humorless and put-upon."

way to generalise.

Not trying to generalize here, just observing based on the three Indian dads and two moms (one of the families was an Indian father and American mother) that I knew well though my childhood.

The dads all had similar senses of humor, were often making puns and playing pranks and goofing around, generally let their sons do what they wanted, etc. The mothers were both much more strict and formal, were always the parent to tell my friends they weren't allowd do certain things, would call my mom in a panic if they knew were out together and it was a minute past curfew, and were perpetually cleaning and cooking for the households - one of my friends would actually bring both his laundry AND dirty dishes with him when he traveled 500 miles home from college for his mother to do for him.

The dynamic of Ansari's mother and father in the Parents episode reminded me very much of this, especially her "I just sat on the couch and cried" line.

find this a really likeable show that in a few episodes explores really interesting themes (thought Indians on television episode was p great) but the acting is really bad - Claire Danes episode really showed this because her and dude playing her husband really stood out as being actual actors - , and the writing is not quite there at times, as in maybe be a little more time could've been spent on certain lines/scenes - not sure who is involved in the writing room here though I think some parks and rec folks were involved and I suppose I had that issue with that show too.

these complaints don't really mar the show for me, enjoying it and not sitting there on the couch tutting each time there's a wooden line reading or anything, it just seems a shame that I feel like there was the potential for this to be great and it isn't quite there for me.

flavorpill's link bait headline read "the real analogue to master of none is not girls but sex in the city" and that should keep me from watching this for a while longer.

everyone here otm. flavorpill isn't.

that sex in the city analogy is weird. I guess they're both set in NYC and have single people?

great now I can't help seeing "is Master of None really the new Sex in the City?" being typed out on Carrie's laptop

Aziz is such a Miranda.

"wow, I love this!" / Nashville episode / "oh, I hate this"

I wish people would stop thinking couples arguing with each other is a good idea for a TV show.

We've seen the first two eps, and his parents (however cute) are such terrible actors (especially his mom) that my wife could barely take it, though I sort of appreciated it in an endearing B&W low budget indie sort of way. Thank goodness this show is now B&W, btw..

they are terrible, yes. not sure who ISNT a middling actor in this show though. aziz isnt esp good himself, never mind anyone else!

still love it though, ha. hope it comes back soon.

https://twitter.com/AkilahObviously/status/677560296433704960

^that was published in The New Yorker (iirc) before Master of None debuted, and I read it mostly as a rip on Curb Your Enthusiasm, but Master of None definitely fits

you almost gotta think Aziz threw in the kid's birthday party with the bouncy house on purpose after reading this, no? that just seems too crazily specific to be coincidental.

Did he throw away any funny lines from the script on purpose too?

That bugged me, nobody has a bounce house for a first birthday party. Made it seem like nobody who had kids was in the writer's room.

i thought this show was good! maybe not great, but good, very watchable. thought there would be at least one episode that really delivered in terms of hilariousness, which didn't really happen, but that is ok.

ansari's character doesn't strike me as super unhappy. there's also plenty of joke jokes in this, it's way more sitcommy than louie (to it's benefit and detriment). the acting isn't great but i didn't really mind (plenty of ppl irl are bad actors), his dad was a charming enough ham to get past that for me. was mainly happy to see noel wells get another shot and do well w/ it after snl. as netflix shows go i'm never gonna name it as their best (whereas i can think of like four others that i might) but it was profoundly better than i thought an aziz ansari starring vehicle would be.

this show tried to be 3 or 4 shows in the course of 10 episodes and i probably ended up liking about half of it. whoever upthread noted that the episode w/danes and emmerich stood out because they're actual actors was right on--between them and the fact that it was probably the most conventionally plotted that was my fav episode. the season got pretty bad by the end, i thought the relationship stuff was about as facile as it gets.

I didn't even finish an episode of this. In the opening scene, my main thought was "they don't seem very drunk, how did he convince her to have sex with him?"

I think it also suffers from just coming at a time when the terrain of shows about a certain kind of young single *creative* person in NYC is getting a little worn. I think I said somewhere in the Girls thread that there's a certain narcissistic pleasure in just seeing things you recognize portrayed in a show, and MON would get more mileage out of that if it had come earlier.

MON lacks the courage Girls has to present any of its characters as anything other than loveable

plenty of ppl irl are bad actors

what?

omg

I greatly preferred "Difficult People" for aimless and unlovable creative people slacking around in New York. Maybe because the characters are older and don't seem to be coasting so much as in total denial.

lol i couldn't get through ten minutes of difficult people

It's a pretty hard watch! It's like a less lovable Curb Your Enthusiasm.

that sounds kinda good

generally let their sons do what they wanted

I do not think that this is a cultural norm for 'Indian Dads'.

I greatly preferred "Difficult People" for aimless and unlovable creative people slacking around in New York. Maybe because the characters are older and don't seem to be coasting so much as in total denial.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, December 19, 2015 10:00 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

SAME

Difficult White People

"Indians on TV" episode was the only one that stood out as great to me but it was a pleasant time-waster otherwise. The "Parents" ep didn't really click with me (too soft or something) but I liked the Chinese food argument because my parents have similar positions on that subject.

i like difficult people. except for precious who is almost as bad as aziz's parents as far as unfunny goes. any chance for me to see andrea martin is a good time.

Casual is actually a show about horrible people who you are supposed to root for. they are the worst. and the brother and sister on it have some sort of incestuous thing going on because nobody else can stand them. the main guy is like a mix between jeremy piven and ryan reynolds.

Catastrophe is my go-to funny horrible white people show

love difficult people

casual was ok but didn't deliver on the promise. "casual" dating. dating apps. Funny awkward dates etc. There was one funny episode like that, then suddenly there was all this melodrama about the daughter that I didn't buy. Pretty enjoyable show overall but seemed to dive to quickly into heavy stuff and skip all the stuff that might've been more fun.

Transparent is another in the category of Difficult White People, though it, Curb and Difficult People are actually more accurately a subset of post-Seinfeld Difficult Jewish People (with cursing). Heard great things about Catastrophe.

Master of None feels a lot like Chris Rock's Top Five, as far as balancing race and media with a loose Annie Hall style. The whole point of having it be low-key in both cases is a way of saying "just spend a day in this person's shoes" without either softening or overdramatizing that reality.

SPOILER but I really liked how at the end of the season, Aziz's character does all this soul-searching about whether he wants to be in a real long-term relationship with this woman and then when he's decided he really wants to commit to it, bam, she's already decided to move to Tokyo. It's just so typical in that type of scenario to see the dude go through all this emotional hand-wringing while the girl is just idly existing off camera without any agency waiting for him to determine their future. Just a nice little subversion that was in keeping with the general thoughtfulness of the show.

A lot of interest in being the ____ Woody Allen lately, although maybe that's just a press cliche.

i could hear nothing but great things about Catastrophe and would still refuse to watch a show starring fucking Rob Delaney