TV Review - Ramy

Over the past decade, we've seen a few comedians who are Muslim or come from Muslim backgrounds rise to prominence and find success in Hollywood. Through them, we've gotten a perspective from first-generation immigrants and the inherent culture clashes, particularly between parent and child. The child is typically more westernized or Americanized, whereas the parents are more traditional and adherent to their foreign customs or beliefs. This results in conflicts over how the children should conduct their personal or professional lives. The comedians who are usually the children in that equation end up having an identity crisis, feeling pulled in two different directions and sometimes not accepted or fitting in either place. A few of those comedians through their work have also expressed the Islamophobia they've faced in the wake of 9/11. This series by Ramy Youssef is another example to add to that list of Muslim or Muslim-heritage comedians either with family from the Middle East or Southeast Asia, giving us that point-of-view.

The first time I saw this point-of-view was with Kal Penn in his film The Namesake (2007). Another was Aziz Ansari in Master of None (2015). Two more recent include Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick (2017) and Hasan Minhaj in Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King (2017). In all those examples, the problem fundamentally revolves around the dating and love lives of each of the Muslim or Muslim-heritage, young men. Youssef's series is similarly centered on his character's dating and love life. Youssef's series though has a tangential focus that complicates his series more than the works of the aforementioned comedians. A lot of the aforementioned comedians are either atheist or non-religious. That's not the case here.

Ramy Youssef stars as Ramy Hassan, a twenty-something employee at a start-up, tech company who lives with his immigrant parents and twenty-something sister in northern New Jersey, in or near Hackensack. He attends mosque or the Islamic Cultural Center regularly. He does his daily prayers. He adheres to Islamic rules like not drinking alcohol, eating certain foods and premarital sex, although there's debate with that one. The reason there's debate is that Ramy's chief concern is finding a woman to date or love and eventually marry. With the exception of a couple of episodes, the series has Ramy dating a different woman in almost every episode. With each woman, we see what kind of person Ramy is or what kind of person he isn't, as he struggles to figure out what kind of person he wants to be.

In that, this series isn't that uncommon from Master of None. The difference is that Ansari gave his character something else to do besides just date women. He not only diverts attention to focus on other people within his friends group, but he also gives himself other things to focus on besides dating. Youssef also diverts attention to focus on other people within his family, but he doesn't ever give himself other things to focus on besides dating. He allegedly has an existential crisis about his faith and identity but for him it always comes back to what girl he wants to kiss. It's frustrating, particularly how certain Muslim women are cast. Nanjiani got some criticism for his depiction of Muslim women in The Big Sick. Here, Youssef takes it to a whole new level that a recent article in The Atlantic better explains.

Out of the ten episodes, the only good ones are the ones that focus on other people within his family. Youssef literally has two episodes where his titular character isn't featured or only pops up in passing. Those two episodes are literally about the two women in his family, his sister and his mother. Those episodes really shine and give us perspectives that aren't often seen. Yes, those episodes center on those women exploring their romantic relationships, but those episodes have themes of sexism and marital ennui that are more interesting than whom is Ramy going to hook up.

May Calamawy co-stars as Dena Hassan, the sister to Ramy. She's younger and doesn't seem as faithful as Ramy, but the mores of the faith are put upon her more than him. She feels the pressure more than Ramy, especially at home. Ramy chooses to ignore those pressures, which is male privilege that he doesn't acknowledge or recognize at first. However, Ramy tells Dena that she could assert an American privilege to ignore those pressures too. She's frustrated and she can be snarky, but she's a good girl.

Hiam Abbas (Succession and The Visitor) also co-stars as Maysa Hassan, the mother to Ramy. She is trying but she isn't fully Americanized. She's still trying to fit in. For the longest time, she's been the typical housewife and mother. She's very protective and nurturing of her children, so much that it annoys both Ramy and Dena. The seventh episode is all about her and her reconciling her identity in that all the people she loves have either ignored or abandoned her. She then has to figure out who she is or what she wants practically without them. Like everyone else, she wants a connection with someone, anyone.

The ninth episode demonstrated some potential for a show like this to provide insight to audiences who are unaware of what's going on in the Middle East or with young people who live there. Ramy visits his home country of Egypt. While there, he realizes not only a narrow view they have about the United States but also a narrow view that he has about Egypt and its recent revolution. It does a lot to shatter misconceptions people might have about others. It goes to what Ansari said when he hosted Saturday Night Live and that's people just need to see Muslims doing normal things. This series goes a long way to do that and to just normalize Muslims, which they already are.

Rated TV-MA-LS.
Running Time: 30 mins. / 8 eps.

Available on Hulu.