One of the most astute set-pieces in Aziz Ansari's debut sitcom, Master of None, is when his character, Dev Shah, and best friend, Arnold (Eric Wareheim), decide to go for tacos.
“There’s so many taco places. We have to make sure we go to the right one. I’ll do some research,” says Dev.
“Great. I’ll sit here and do nothing,” says Arnold.
A montage then follows of Dev frantically searching Google, Yelp and Time Out, asking friends, cross-referencing each other and scouring photo albums before finally picking Tacos Morelos, as if it were the one true saviour of tacos while all the others served horse-meat mince with no guac.
The scene highlights three things: firstly, like Ansari, Dev really loves tacos; secondly, Master of None is a sitcom that could only be made now; and thirdly, that we really need to cool our jets with Yelp.
Dev, though, will likely never stop over- researching, as Ansari points out when we meet.
“Alan [Yang, co-creator] is also in London at the moment, and when we got in yesterday we were trying to figure out where to go for lunch,” he says. “So we both spent a portion of our time in London sitting at our computers. It was real-life methodology that we used for that scene.”
Master of None first came into being when Ansari and Yang's previous show, NBC's Parks and Recreation, wound down last year after seven successful series. Ansari does stand-up and also recently wrote a dating guide, Modern Romance. His topical subject matter fed into the show, be it women's raw deal, the chasm between parents' sacrifice and kids' lack of gratitude, or dating etiquette.
“We just didn’t want it to feel like I was just saying my stand-up routine in difference scenes, so we worked hard on the dialogue to make sure it felt different enough,” Ansari says. “We were conscious enough, as that happens in shows sometimes: that the character shoehorns in their stand-up for some reason.”
Their series presents modern-day traumas so accurately that in the little over a month since its release on Netflix, it has nabbed a Golden Globe nomination and the ultra-rare feat of a 100 per cent rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Friends playbook
It helps, of course, that this is an age when every American sitcom has to mentally run through the episode list of Friends, Seinfeld and Frasier to make sure their protagonists' situation hasn't already been covered. On Master of None, the Indian lead, his black lesbian friend, music publicist girlfriend and token straight white male friend are exposed to situations that have rarely received airtime.
Ansari – more serious, curt and jetlagged than expected – comes to life when asked about the responsibility on his slight shoulders.
“It’s not a responsibility,” he says. “It’s a gift to be able to tell these stories that haven’t been told. There’s been so much space devoted to straight-white-guy stuff that if you take the time out to explore other things, there’s a wealth of stories that are there for the picking.”
Is he ever concerned about the dangers of portraying a minority inaccurately? “I can’t represent a whole group. No one can,” he shrugs. “You just do your best, and stay true to yourself and hope people respond to it. I would never be so bold to think that I could represent a whole culture just by myself.”
In any case, it’s a step forward when any stereotype is avoided.
"What I realised doing Master of None was that everyone gets pigeonholed," Ansari says. "There's an episode when I spend time with my girlfriend's grandmother. And spending time with the elderly actor who played her [Lynn Cohen], she said the role was great. She normally gets stuff where she's breaking her hip or is a rapping granny. That's her thing; that's how she's pigeonholed.
“I think it just takes time for people to realise that everyone has drama and love and comedy in their lives.”
Progressive comedies
Sitcoms have been particularly adept at creating popular, diverse, well-rounded characters outside of their typical niches. In the 1970s and 1980s, the real path forgers were The Golden Girls, The Cosby Show and Diff'rent Strokes in the US, and The Fosters and Desmond's in the UK.
Today, Master of None, Black-ish and The Mindy Project all feature nonwhite protagonists, while sitcoms containing assimilated ensembles, such as Happy Endings and New Girl, also bring telly into this decade. (The "Are You Right There Father Ted?" episode notwithstanding, Irish television has been less enlightened.)
Still, it’s never an easy sell. “The industry has been a straight white guy’s club for so long,” says Ansari. “So women and people of colour have to work extra hard to assert their position. But it’s happening slowly.
"A few years ago, you can imagine people looking at the script for 'Indians on TV' or 'Parents' [each Master of None episode is given a theme] and saying, 'I don't know if a mainstream audience will be interested in that show'. That basically means, 'I don't know if white people will care about this story.'
“These shows prove that none of that shit matters. People watch animated movies about fish and they’re not confused. They get it. As long as a story is interesting and compelling, and you have drama or comedy, you can talk about anything.”
For all Ansari's barrier-breaking, it may well be that the US is reverting to worse times, especially if the support of a certain wispy-haired gent is anything to go by. "Oh God," he groans as if Donald Trump himself is approaching. "Personally, I don't like talking about him. The best thing to do about him is ignore him and hope he'll go away.
“You see the footage of people cheering for him and it’s disappointing, but you’re not going to be able to eliminate that in the world. There’s always going to be a pocket of that. So we’ll ride it out.”
In the meantime Ansari is looking towards Master of None's second series. However, in an effort to avoid second- season syndrome, it's a long way off.
“Alan and I have lightly talked about things here and there, and signs point to us doing a second series, but I’d wait a while and make sure I was inspired enough. I wouldn’t want to rush it.”
Second time careful
“The first season was a culmination of years of work, of stand-up, of my book,” Ansari says. “It wasn’t like we wrote it for three months and that’s what we got. So I wouldn’t want to make a second series unless it can be as deep and interesting as the first one.”
Will he be touring until then? “I need to write some more stand-up. I have 40 minutes of stuff, but I need another 20. So maybe next year, but I haven’t decided.
“I’ve got to take a break for a while. I just need to let my mind breathe for a little bit to come up with these ideas. You’ve got to rest every now and then.”
He has earned it.
- Master of None is available on Netflix
