What I’m Watching: Master of None

Master of None: Season 2, Episode 6 “New York, I Love You” (B-)

I remember hearing about this episode before I watched it, and I know that a lot of people loved it. It immediately reminded me of the 2009 film of the same name, which I thought I had enjoyed but upon returning to my review, I realized that I actually didn’t like, mainly because it was a pale imitation of the far superior “Paris, Je T’aime” from several years earlier. What disappointed me most about this episode was that it served as a break from the regularly-scheduled story of Dev and his life, with the main man appearing only in the episode’s closing moments to joke about how he didn’t know the plot of the movie that apparently everyone in New York City was well aware of thanks to its cross-cultural relatability/simplicity/stupidity. I appreciate the effort to be artsy and look at the melting pot of New York through a new lens, but I admire this show more when it does that but still centers on the same familiar characters who we love to watch in their natural habitats, albeit from a different perspective than we might be used to and see on a regular basis. Seeing how doormen are treated and expected to do things that are far beyond their job descriptions and then blamed when they fall short was mildly interesting, and the segment involving the deaf woman communicating with those around her had some value too. But I’m eager to spend the rest of the season with Dev, seeing New York through his very particular and perceptive eyes.