Master of None: Moments in Love

 2021, created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang - netflix

Aziz Ansari got in a spot of bad press in 2018 during the initial #metoo wave.  The story, sadly, seemed a typical one  (not for Ansari, just...in general) of a date that went sour with too much alcohol and too much male aggression.  

Ansari owned up to his behavior, behavior that, unlike say Louis CK or Harvey Weinstein, didn't seem to be an endemic problem in his life.  But that he did it at all was a problem, and Ansari was made an example of, a warning to "playas" to just fucking stop it already. The following year he put out a comedy special on Netflix that he addressed the work he needed to do on himself, and the lessons he needed to learn, and the listening he needed to do.  Beyond that comedy special, and a limited, low-key tour preceding it, Ansari has stayed out of the spotlight.

His TV show, Master of None, I've greatly enjoyed.  It's a romantic comedy delivered primarily from the male perspective (which is atypical for the genre), with personal cultural observations from Ansari, co-creator Alan Yang and collaborator Lena Waithe. As a fan of Ansari as a comedian and actor, I was disappointed in his behavior, but encouraged by his mea culpa and hoped that he could rehabilitate both himself and (less importantly) his image.  And I really wanted more Master of None.

Master of None:Moments In Love is a reflection of Ansari's desire (or need) to avoid the spotlight, so he steps behind the camera as director of all 5-episodes in the ...season? Side-series?  He handed the focus to Waithe, who co-wrote the season with Ansari and Yang.

It focuses on Waithe's Denise (who had a stellar spotlight in Season 2) and her marriage to Alicia played by Naomi Ackie.  The show opens with the couple living upstate in a beautiful cottage home with a sort of farming vibe (chickens and vegetable gardens), and establishes a state of contentment.  That is disrupted with a dinner party visit from Ansari's Dev, who we last saw making a big romantic play for the engaged Italian woman he fell in love with in Season 2.  He's now with someone else, and their relationship falls apart in front of Denise and Alicia, which then spurs on some heightened emotion between the two.  (Dev's life has completely gone to shambles compared to when we saw him last, which seems to be a form of in-show parallel to what happened IRL).

Alicia wants a baby, and while Denise is on the fence, she eventually comes on board.  It's an arduous process, but they conceive, only to lose the child.  The miscarriage fractures their marriage, and a shorter episode follows Denise as she packs up her former life to move back to the city.

The fourth episode is Alicia-centric, and a wonderful spotlight for Ackie.  It's an hour-plus that takes us through Alicia's trials as she decides to become a single mother and go through IVF on her own.  It's an arduous process (as anyone who has gone through it can tell you) and an emotional one.  

The final episode jumps years in the future as Denise and Alicia have a renewed relationship, but it's an ongoing affair away from their spouses and kids.  It strangely seems to work for them... but you have to wonder about the fallout on their family side.

Ansari shoots the whole season in a 4:3 aspect ratio in primarily static frames.  There's a lot of measured takes... moments, if you will... that just sit and breathe with no real action or story.  Contrary to what you might think, rather than being boring, it kind of forces you to pay even closer attention, to invest even further.

Master of None was a comedy-drama, but Moments in Love is straight drama.  It's certainly not what I was expecting from its return, but I was glad to have it.  That said, I really want to see what's happening in Dev's life, and maybe that was the point of the character's two brief cameos, as a gauge of interest people might still have in him.