What I’m Watching: Master of None

Master of None: Season 2, Episode 5 “The Dinner Party” (B)

This show is certainly great, and I’m enjoying it a lot more than I was at the beginning of season one, but it’s also easy to identify the truly strong episodes from the much less engaging ones. In this episode we got the return of not one but two alluring women that we met earlier this season. Francesca was an important draw for Dev in Italy, and obviously coming to New York to see him with her boyfriend conveniently not in tow could have meant an open opportunity for him, as others tried to convince him it was. Yet the eager cupcake show host didn’t go for it, and instead ended up with quite the solitary ride home which served as the closing extended shot for the episode. He also had a date with Priya that didn’t go nearly as well as the first time and instead felt a whole lot like the end of their date when they ran into her ex who had just gotten back from Syria and Dev tried to one-up him with a story from his cupcake show. I’m glad that the series isn’t featured so prominently and that Dev just considers it a job. I liked the casting of the reliable Bobby Cannavale, who won an Emmy for chewing scenery as a pasta-loving Italian gangster on “Boardwalk Empire,” as a chef who had not one but four dinners in the first night we saw him and represented a certain kind of celebrity who lives a life of luxury and doesn’t gloat but instead just keeps on going and indulging, never stopping for even a second just to slow down a bit.