New Netflix Show for a Rainy Day

Aziz Ansari is an American comedian whose biggest claim to fame until now is playing Tom Haverford on Parks & Rec as well as being a stand up coemdian. He is a first generation American from Indian parents. Ansari grew up in North Carolina and attended New York University. He started his career by doing stand up at Upright Citizens Brigade, a popular comedy club in New York where many comedians get their start. If you haven’t heard of Aziz Ansari you should “treat yo self” to watching his new Netflix show; Master of None. After 2 nights, I have finished the first season of the show released on November 6th.

Master of None is just 10 short episodes of comedy goodness. Ansari and friend Alan Yang created the show. This show is very diverse show that is not afraid to deal with major subjects like racism, gender discrimination, and dating in 2015. Ansari plays Dev Shaw a 30 year old actor living in New York City. While going on audition after audition his biggest break has been a gogurt commercial. In episode 4 “Indians on TV,” Dev has a strong opinion on putting on an Indian accent to get a role. He who has no accent whatsoever, feels that it is not right to always be typecast as a taxi driver, or a bodega owner who has an Indian accent.

This show features a very diverse cast and a lot of great guest stars like Claire Danes and Ansari’s parents themselves, who play his parents in the show. Dev’s friend group consists of a white man, an African American lesbian, an asian man, and his love interest Rachel, a white woman. Being a Netflix original, it gives them the freedom to cast people who big TV networks won’t necessarily cast. I think that Netflix does a great job with integrating diversity in television. Until now the most diverse and innovative Netflix show is Orange is the New Black, I think that with its subjects and cast, Master of None tests this. Being a comedy, this show is great at still being funny while tackling these huge subjects that are very relevant. It can be compared to Catastrophe, Broad City, and Transparent, which were all new types of comedies that we have seen in the past year, they deal with bigger issues than making the viewers laugh.

Overall, Master of None is a must watch. If there is a Sunday afternoon where you want to sit on the couch and watch something, I would consider this show, you can get through the whole thing in just under 5 hours!