Round Two: Master of None

Master of None: Season 1, Episode 2 “Parents” (B-)

This is one of those times where I feel like watching this show one episode at a time rather than marathoning it all in one setting is putting me or the show, if not both, at a disadvantage. That said, if an episode can’t subsist on its own and needs to fall back on the quality of other installments or the sum of all the parts, that means it’s not as strong as a series that airs a new episode once a week. I’m surprised this episode, which I saw Aziz Ansari post something about regarding his real-life father taking his only vacation time from work to come guest star on the show. Having Ansari’s own parents play his parents on the show is a fun idea, though I’m not sure exactly what that accomplished. The primary problem is that we don’t know Dev as a character enough yet, and to meet his parents and understand that he and Brian should appreciate their roots so soon gives too much of the wrong value, especially since they realized on their own that they needed to spend time with them instead of encountering some situation that later proved it. The jokes about them texting each other and including the wrong Brian were funny, but the whole doesn’t feel as complete. Dev doing his audition in a coffee shop because that’s where he could get good wi-fi also felt a bit ridiculous, one of those moments that has to seem absurd and inevitable on TV but could have easily been avoided in real life.