What I’m Watching: Master of None

Master of None: Season 1, Episode 7 “Ladies and Gentlemen” (B+)

At first, I wasn’t sure why the episode opened with a woman we didn’t know being followed home by a guy who just wouldn’t leave her alone, and I thought it was just to show that Dev’s problems aren’t nearly as serious as those experienced by people around him. But, as this show has demonstrated, its episodes are very specifically themed, and the notion of women having to deal with things men don’t was emphasized throughout the half-hour. Dev standing up for his female colleagues was a nice thing to do, and naturally that led to him being ousted from the commercial so that women could play the main parts with men in the background. The best part of the episode was when Denise and Dev decided to not let the masturbating man on the subway go unpunished and shouted out “Stop what you’re doing, this is a citizen’s arrest,” which, shockingly enough, worked. I also loved how Rachel responded to Dev asking for them to call it a draw by running off and bragging about how she just won the fight with her boyfriend. Even when Arnold threatened to bring down this episode with his unnecessary presence and his immediate reversion to uselessness when he went with Rachel to help bargain down the price of her new couch, Rachel stepped in to save the day, proving that Noel Wells is this show’s best asset aside from its lead actor. I didn’t realize quite how far into this show I was, with just three episodes left that I’m very much looking forward to watching.