A Netflix Anatomy - Master of None
All the inspiration behind Aziz Ansari's must-watch serie
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June 1st, 2017
June 1st, 2017
Master of None is, in many ways, a one-man-show.
It is the series written, directed and interpreted by Aziz Ansari, an American comedian who, like a contemporary Woody Allen, tells himself, his life and his obsessions in a fictional context.
Specifically, this show produced by Netflix follows the vicissitudes of Dev Shah, thirty years old New York actor with Indians roots and with a passion for pasta, looking for a balance between sentimental life, professional ambition, friendships, family and doubts about future.
Along with Dev there are his friends: the bizarre Arnold (Eric Wereheim); his associate actor Benjamin (H. Jon Benjamin); the type of Taiwanese origin Brian; Denise (Lena Waithe) African-American and lesbian. Among the meals, cocktails, amorous appointments, bad figures, discussions, rehearsals, part-time work, develops a comedy criticized by critics and the public, which Variety described as "a collection of magnificent self-contained vignette that may or may not connects to the episodes around it".
It all starts with Dev having sex with a girlfriend met just before, Rachel (Noël Kristi Wells), a condom that breaks down. The two are attending for a while, but the problems begin, she decides to go to Tokyo, he is also disappointed with the work plane, takes a plane and goes to Modena in Italy to learn how to make pasta. In the midst of everyday life, emerges an intelligent reflection on the romantic sitcom set in New York, a brilliant criticism of the commonplace in the perception of Indo-Americans a precise discourse on gender and ethnic diversity in Hollywood representation and ethnic prejudice.
All done with authenticity, lightness, intelligence, and grace.
Feel like: Hermann Reimer
Hermann Reimer is an artist born in Münster, Westphalia in 1959. In his painting, people are pieces of furniture mimicked with other furnishing items. Humanity and everyday ambiance blend with details that remind of Edward Hopper's work. His art has a voyeuristic echo, which brings someone who looks at it in the private sphere of someone, between his disorder, among carpets, tea cups, and magazines abandoned on the table.
Reimer, like Aziz, shows us the everyday life, between its banality and its potential.
Dress like: Band of Outsiders
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Dana Covarrubias is the woman behind the stylish choices in Master of None.
Already at work for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and series like Elementary or Louie, the costume designer has revealed in some interviews fashion secrets of Ansari and co.
Sometimes it happens that an actor shares a part of his personal wardrobe within the character he plays, in this it's the opposite: Dev's clothes have become Aziz's ones. All his style is based on a limited number but strategic pieces: five pairs of chinos, three pairs of shoes, two jackets and 10-15 dress shirts. They are casual, but made of truly beautiful fabrics, easy to mix and match with everything. There are a lot of Band of Outsiders, Saint Laurent, Steven Alan for the shirts and Unis for the trousers. If in the first season, the look of the Netflix's comedy star is linked to America in the 1960s, inspired by Woody Allen's films and classics such as The Graduate, the second influenced by Italian influence. In the episodes set in Modena Ansari inserts creations of Zegna, Brunello Cucinelli, Boglioli and Isaia, mixed together to re-elaborate, in the same way, the style of Italian neorealism.
The same cinematic notes are evoked in Francesca's wardrobe, Dev's new love interpreted by Alessandra Mastronardi. The main fashion muse for her is Monica Vitti in The Adventure by Michelangelo Antonioni. In practical terms, this fascination translates into the use of polka dots, protagonists of clothes and accessories, often branded by Dolce & Gabbana, Margiela, French Connection, Isabel Marant and Madewell.
The most stylish episode of Master of None?
According to Dana Covarrubias, it's Thanksgiving, the second episode of the second season, focused on Denise's coming out, told through Thanksgiving over the years, from the 1990ss to 2017. Series favorite moment for the costume designer is the one in which Denise refuses to wear the drees choosen from her mother and instead wears Malcolm X hat with the Cross Colours shorts and vintage Nikes.
Think like: Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari, in collaboration with the sociologist Eric Klinenberg, explores how love relationships in the digital age, time in which the worst appointment is not boring or full of awkward silences, but the one that those that seem initially promising and then ends up instead, with possible future partners who never responds to your SMS.
The first book of the protagonist of Master of None is an entertaining essay, but with some scientific accuracy given by hundreds of surveys, interviews and focus groups conducted anywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. It's a good read on modern romance, the pleasures, and dangers that accompany us on the journey to find love.
All with Ansari's funny and, at the same time, profound humor.
Sound like: DJ Larry Levan
The title of the series comes from a Beach House song, but during the episodes, commenting on Dev's journey searching for love and identity, appear, Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Spandau Ballet, Giorgio Moroder, Cure, David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Tupac, D'Angelo and much more.
Do not Worry Be Happy accompanies Dev and Arnold who come home at night; Flying sung by Dean Martin is a background to Dev making pasta; Dev and Rachel dance on 1997 hit Return of the Mack by Mark Morrison. Music supervisor of the show Zach Cowie points out the contribution of Woody Allen's films set in New York, such as Annie Hall and Manhattan in establishing the musical identity of the first season, while in the second highlights how Italy invades every aspect of the series, set, food, fashion, and music.
The song symbol of the trip to the Bel Paese? Lucio Battisti's Amarsi un po.
In Master of None, music also comes into the story with Father John Misty's cameos, who plays Chateau Lobby # 4 during a secret party to which Dev brings a girl and one of John Legend covering I Can't Help It by Michael Jackson.
A curiosity? The true influence of the soundtrack of this Netflix series is DJ Larry Levan, the legendary resident of the Paradise Garage club in the late 1970s and early 1980s in New York.
Taste like: Pasta
Love like: the always gentle, light, fun way to deal with racial integration, sexism, homophobia, stereotypes, and love
Aziz has an always gentle, light, fun way of telling racial integration, sexism, homophobia, stereotypes and love through an authentic, shared and credible everyday life.
That's what we love about this comedy.
