Master of One

I've never viewed a scene in television or film that hit me like the last five minutes of Master of None's 'The Dinner Party."

Viewing in my bed, I touched the screen of my iPad assuming the credits were about to roll, but I was wrong. There were five full minutes left.

I didn't understand, the episode had reached its logical conclusion. The taxi door closed, the girl was gone. Sure the character of Dev was already replaying in his head everything that happened that night, different choices he could have made that could have led to different outcomes; but the cab was moving, the night was over. It wasn't until about 30 seconds in that I realized, 'my God, they are going to show us his entire cab ride home as he sits in contemplative silence, with a ping of regret washing over him.'

This is why Master of None is the best show currently on television. It has finally figured out a way to portray our generation's experience without being insufferable.

Full disclosure, I expected to hate Master of None. I was never a huge fan of Human Giant and I found Aziz's most famous character of Tom Haverford on Parks and Rec to be a little too 'extra' (that's what the kids say now, right?) Add that to the fact that Master of None is another show that glamorizes New York in an unrealistic way and I fully expected this to be another Girls rip-off with a slightly more likable and diverse cast.

I've never been more thrilled to be wrong.

The first season of Master of None (Co-created by Ansari and Alan Yang) focused on the lives of a diverse group of moderately successful thirtysomethings in New York City, an exhaustingly familiar premise. But while the show did focus on the pangs of getting older and navigating relationships, it was often at its best when it did something completely different, famously displayed in the episode 'parents' in which Dev and a fellow first generation American have their lives juxtaposed against their immigrant parents. It is fantastic.

The second season (so far, I'm only through episode six) has focused more on the uncertainty of growing up, but while a similar set show like the dearly departed Girls might seem whiny, Master of None does a wonderful job at conveying these same emotions in the moments of silence.

It is hard to discuss feelings. Dating is awkward. It is difficult to reconcile career ambitions with creative fulfillment.

Season 2 opens in a gorgeously shot episode in Italy, displayed in black and white entitled "The Thief" an obvious homage to Vittorio De Sica's classic 'Bicycle Thieves.' That's just not something a season 2 show could traditionally do until the advent of streaming services. Sure Sunny has experimented with some weirdness lately, gimmicky episodes were no stranger to the family sitcoms of the 90's, but the idea of the 11th episode of a series deciding to say 'FUCK IT' and go shoot two episodes in a small Italian village show the the risks that the show is willing to take.

The show still has flaws. Everyone magically has enough money to live in a roomy loft in Manhattan, people seem to go out on four hour, three location dates every night. That's not my New York experience. I am accustomed to sleeping on an air mattress in the laundry room and drinking 40's out of brown bags in Union Square.

But the show is grounded. Instead of something like Broad City that is screaming at you GIRLS ARE JUST AS GROSS AS GUYS this show will put forth a similar message with enhanced subtlety: the Tindering at dinner, the jar of condoms on the bedside table, the Indian girl that wanted to talk about Summer Slam and Mortal Kombat Annihlation all night!! These are characters sure, but I know them in my real life.

There is a jarring scene early in the second season's run that features a quote from Sylvia Plath in which she discusses a fig tree as a metaphor for life's decisions. I'll paraphrase but every branch of the tree was a different life she could have lived, and while she wanted them all simultaneously, certain paths or branches died off.

I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked..."

We can't have every possible future that could have awaited us, but that will never stop us from wondering what could have been?

The existential crisis plaguing Dev at the season's halfway point is one I am all too familiar with. He's developed feelings for someone that maybe he shouldn't, so what does he do? Does he complain about it to his diverse collection of friends? Or does he tell her the truth?

I dunno man, I guess this is growing up.