Season Two of Master of None Cements it as one of Netflix’s Best
By Lucy Bladen
This article contains spoilers of Master of None, season two.
It’s been a long wait for fans of Aziz Ansari’s Netflix hit Master of None. When the show was released in 2015 it became a runaway hit, with a second season announced shortly after. However, fans were forced to wait until May, 2017 for the season to arrive.
Thankfully, season two definitely delivered, cementing Master of None’s position as one of Netflix’s best.
The show follows Dev Shah (played by Ansari), who is an actor living in New York and his escapades with friends – Arnold, Denise and Brian.
Season two opens where the previous one left off. Dev is living in Italy, learning to make pasta from a woman only referred to as ‘Nonna’, alongside her granddaughter, Francesca. In this episode, Francesca is portrayed as friend of Dev’s alongside her boyfriend, Pino, but as the season progresses she slowly becomes the love interest. The first two episodes are set in Italy and it is a welcome change of scenery.
After the second episode, Dev leaves Italy and heads back to New York where he lands a job hosting a show called ‘Clash of the Cupcakes’.
The rest of the season follows his time in the big apple navigating a new career, friends, family, and his dating life.
In the past, I have written about the series Girls and its “portrayal of everyday life” but I have actually realised Master of None is a more accurate depiction and unlike Girls the characters are likeable.
From the Tinder messages to awkward first dates to despair from knowing you do not stand a chance with your crush, Ansari encapsulates it all during the series.
Master of None conveys diversity brilliantly and this was more evident in the second season as in a few episodes, Ansari stepped away from his role of protagonist.
One of the best episodes of the season, New York, I Love You, intersects four different stories, one is Dev and his friends and the other three are unknown. The second story is about a cashier. As we reach her point in the episode the sound stops and as the viewer quickly realises she is deaf. This exercise in empathy is clever and forces the viewer to watch as they will miss out on dialogue if they don’t. It also happens to be one of the funniest points of the seasons, as the cashier and her husband argue in a homeware’s store about their sex life.
In Thanksgiving, we are provided with an insight into Denise’s upbringing and her struggles in coming out to her family and their acceptance. This episode is set over twenty years, with Thanksgiving dinner as the setting for each. We learn that Dev spends every Thanksgiving with Denise’s family. There is some smart dialogue, with humour intersecting into the serious subject matters explored.
Religion is also another great episode which explores Dev’s parents (played by Ansari’s real life parents) and their Islamic faith. In Religion, conflict ensues as Dev declares to his wider family he is not religious, something which his mother grapples with. The final scene in this episode is touching, as it juxtaposes Dev socialising with his friends in a bar and his parents socialising after prayer in a Mosque.
I must be in a good place now. pic.twitter.com/gS6qkJ34FL
— Master of None (@MasterofNone) May 16, 2017
The last two episodes of season two, act almost like a featured film, indeed, the second last episode went for an hour, compared to the half hour a normal episode goes for. It explores Dev’s and Francesca’s relationship, who is in New York, and their compatibility. It becomes clear that Dev has fallen in love with her and Francesca grapples with her complicated feelings and the fact she has recently gotten engaged.
There was an open ending to season two, leaving it up to the interpretation of viewers. Hopefully, the interpretation is not all that viewers are left with, but season three has yet to be confirmed and Aziz Ansari has hinted it won’t be any time soon.