The third season of Master of None (on Netflix from today) arrives four years after the second and it is not a surprise: Aziz Ansari, creator and main face of the series, had expressed the intention to take a long break already in 2017, because it did not seem there was much to add on the romantic adventures of a 30-year-old single in New York.
Shortly thereafter, in the midst of the Me Too, Ansari was accused of sexual harassment in an article that, however, many disputed as an example of bad journalism. For some time he disappeared from the scene, only to return the following year with a new show by stand-up comedy in which he also dealt with that story quite convincingly.
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The surprise
The surprise are the many changes: the protagonist Dev (Ansari himself) appears in passing, in the center instead there are Denise (Lena Waithe) and her new partner Alicia (Naomi Ackie). One of the best episodes of the second season had already been entirely dedicated to Denise, Thanksgiving, co-written with Waithe herself, who is promoted to second author here and co-signs all five episodes. The most striking thing is the direction: a very rigorous, documentary style, reminiscent of kitchen sink 1960s English: long shots, very few camera movements, almost no close-ups, even a 4: 3 screen. It is an intimate story, with very few characters and all indoors, shot by a camera placed in a corner and left there, but orchestrated in such a credible and delicate way that it is never boring.
Courageous sincerity
The general tone is more serious and mature: dating apps, social evenings and escapes in Italy give way to houses in the country, career and children. As Ansari said, on paper they all seemed like bad ideas, but it’s the best Master of None seen so far: the pleasure and complacency that had made the second season a little disappointing disappear, replaced by a courageous sincerity that faces the passing of the years, the victories and the disappointments without offering easy consolations.
Master of None 3, Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe, Netflix, starting today