Round Two: Ramy

Ramy: Season 1, Episode 2 “Princess Diana” (B+)

The second outing of this show proved just as strong as the first, indicating that Ramy’s life may take center stage more than just the way in which religion affects it directly. He got commended for his “Mediterranean flair” by someone who was clearly profiling him as an identifiable other, and then got to spend the rest of the episode with his very intolerant uncle. I was excited to recognize Danny Jolles, a former NYU classmate of mine and recent recurring player on “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” as Jacob, the head of Snack Snipe, who was truly terrible and didn’t want to offer any benefits to the employees whose circumstances and identities he used to bolster himself. I also just saw actor Laith Nakli, who played Uncle Naseem, in the Tribeca film “Swallow,” which I didn’t like, but it is funny that he was the only good-natured person there when he’s definitely the worst one here. Challenging his family members to name one Jew who died on 9/11 didn’t exactly indicate his tolerance, and it just got worse from there. His sister was smart to exploit Naseem’s strict, archaic notions by playing directly into them, confirming that her brain isn’t working since she was on her period and earning his express permission to leave for a few hours. I like that Ramy finally stood up to him when they left and told him that he was an asshole, only to then have to jump in to help when Naseem nearly got beaten up for stepping in to help a woman trying to defend herself. Nothing is simple, and it’s good to see complex characters portrayed.