From his standup comedy to his book Modern Romance to his hilarious Netflix series Master of None, Aziz Ansari always delivers a multi-cultural depiction of the millennial American experience. In season one, we watch as Dev (Ansari), a 30-year-old New York actor and first-generation American, refuses to speak in an Indian accent while auditioning for stereotypical Indian roles, contrasts his life to his dad’s upbringing, and tries to make it work with his girlfriend Rachel (Noël Wells).
Dev has an impressively diverse collection of friends: There’s Black lesbian Denise (Lena Waithe), his Asian friend Brian (Kelvin Yu), the super-tall and sensitive Arnold (Eric Wareheim), and fellow Indian actor Ravi (Ravi Patel). They all walk the line of maturity and woke-ness in the information age, but they also aren’t quite ready (or quite sure if they want) to settle down and have kids.
In other words, the show fluently speaks millennial—with iPhones, Uber, and the internet playing a realistically significant role in the characters’ daily lives. It’s also refreshing to see a show that lets straight men be feminine, with scenes that feature Dev and Arnold discussing date deets while Arnold gets a routine pedicure.
What I love about Master of None is that each episode has a unique format, focusing on different characters and their backstories. Season two brings even more of that, and dials up the multicultural factor: The first two episodes, shot in black and white, are set in Italy with Dev fresh off his breakup with Rachel. In pursuing his passion for pasta, Dev takes a few weeks to learn how to make it by hand from a local shop in Rome. After Dev says goodbye to his new Italian friends, he returns to New York to become the host of a ridiculous baking competition show, Clash of the Cupcakes.
