Season Two Of ‘Master of None’ Is Pure Brilliance
Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang have done it again.
I think before we dive into this review of the second season of ‘Master of None’ my 24-year-old self should give a little bit of background about getting into the show plus some history about my show preferences and tv history. I want you to understand who and where this review is coming from.
For one, I’ve seen nothing Aziz Ansari has done outside of ‘Master of None’. I’m sure his standup comedy is high-quality, but other than knowing that he was born in South Carolina I don’t know a whole lot about the man.
As for my tv/show preferences, there really aren’t a lot of shows I refuse to watch. As far as binge watching goes, I’ve seen ‘The Office’ and ‘Trailer Park Boys’ all the way through a half-dozen times each . ‘Dexter’ and ‘Friday Night Lights’ are all-time greats. ‘Breaking Bad’ is one of the greatest shows that will ever be made and ‘The Walking Dead’ is pure trash. ‘Twin Peaks’ is also up there for me.
But I’m also someone that also absolutely loves ‘classic’ movies. Anything Alfred Hitchcock ever touched I’ve watched/will watch and ‘Rear Window’ is the greatest film ever created.
Enough about me, let’s get to season two of ‘Master of None.’
I think in today’s world you know when a show is good when you don’t look at your phone the entire time. Well, that and binging every episode. ‘Master of None’ falls into that category, in fact, it’s sitting atop the lists of those said shows in today’s world.
For those of you who didn’t watch season one of the show, you absolutely have to before getting into season two. You get to know Ansari’s character, Dev Shah, plus his friends, family and love life. Oh, and visually? It’s as good as it gets. Period. No show comes close to what you see in this show and how it’s shot.
Season one laid the groundwork to the series of course and with that you had a few more storylines and plots about Dev and the characters you see throughout the show. I will be honest and say season one was funnier than season two, but season two is far more deep, complex and just flat out genius.
Season two is just a bit more serious and a bit more grown up but still comes across as being far more relatable (outside the fact Dev has an unreal apartment in New York City and is the host of a badass food show).
As for what season two is TRULY about, well, it’s about a whole hell of a lot.
But that’s the beauty of the show.
It’s almost as if the show ‘takes breaks’ but those ‘breaks’ are what makes the show the show, really. You go from Dev living the life of dating through what is understood to be Tinder, but there’s also an episode strictly about religion that hits home even to those that aren’t Muslim as Dev is in the show, another about complicated lives of New Yorkers including a def woman where the episode goes from ‘normal’ with sound to complete silence when we meet her. We of course get to see all of this with the unbelievable backdrops of Manhattan, Brooklyn, up-state New York and Italy where two episodes take place.
Ansari and Yang brilliantly deliver a mix of happiness, sadness, dating, love and very relatable comedy in every single episode.
It’s not until the fifth episode of the season entitled ‘Dinner Party’ when Francesca, played by Alessandra Mastronardi whom Dev works with and becomes friends with in Italy, comes to New York when love comes up, and it comes up big and bad taking over most of the rest of the season.
I’m not going to get into any type of spoilers about what happens between the two, but the show most definitely gets you to root for the two to get together which Dev clearly wants.
Nevertheless, it’s a sticky situation that unfolds over the final five episodes that turns into the major storyline of the series.
Oh, and at the end of that ‘Dinner Party’ episode, which features a nice little live performance from John Legend by the way, you get to watch Dev ride around in a cab with pure silence outside of huffing and puffing for a solid three minutes. It’s bizarre, but it pulls you in even more and is about the millionth ‘real’ scenario the show portrays to perfection.
We even get a glimpse into Dev’s childhood and his Thanksgiving tradition of eating with his friend Denise in an episode. *SPOILER* We’ve known Denise is gay since season one, but this episode shows us Denise growing up from a young girl, telling her mother about being gay and bringing her girlfriends to Thanksgiving. That episode truly may be the most well done of the series.
Before I start writing a lengthy recap of every damn episode, I’ll simply say that season two of ‘Master of None’ is one of the most well done season twos I’ve ever seen and in my opinion tops season one.
Yes, the second season of a show is better than season one. That’s a rare statement, especially in today’s world.
Go watch ‘Master of None’ right this second. You’ll love every second and binge watch it in one sitting no questions asked. You’ll feel happy, then sad, then extremely lonely but then you’ll be all like ‘hey, ‘Master of None’ you’re really speaking to me.’ It’s the ultimate 2017 Netflix show and nothing else comes close to it.
Yes, it’s its own genre maybe, but it’s a damn good one.
