Stop apologising - you're not in Ottawa any more.
Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.
#17 : Mo
Given comedian Mo Amer’s previous TV role – as the larger-than-life sidekick in HBO sitcom Ramy – it would be easy to assume that his shtick was all about big, brash laughs that trade on his on-screen charisma. But his semi-autobiographical sitcom, about a Palestinian refugee in the US, proved Amer to be a writer and performer of far more depth. Storylines involving opioid addiction, the painful battle for citizenship in the face of ineffectual bureaucracy and lovelorn attempts to reconcile romance and religion added up to a warm, distinctive watch – whose success owed no small debt to Amer’s charisma.
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Another first for us - this is one I've never even heard of. Or him - so I'm really coming to this blind. The Guardian talks about it warmly enough though - their comedy recommendations have generally turned out to be lovely or baffling, but let's hold out some hope for this one, shall we?
And fortunately, it's lovely. Mo takes centre stage, but he surrounds himself with a core group of likeable but different characters - all of whom have their faults. However, even characters who make only the briefest appearances have obviously had some effort put into them - it feels like a lot of experience and love has been put into this. Also, I enjoyed the fact that the season manages to progress and even, in some cases, resolve (but not in most cases) things - the lack of which is a complaint I often have about sitcoms. It also has quite the cliff-hanger of an ending!
Well, I say it's lovely - but a lot of it is very much not lovely. It actually covers some pretty heavy shit man, but does so with a lightness of touch but without denying the seriousness of the issues under consideration - it's well written and, because the characters are well written, you care what they are going through. There's one scene in particular in which potential disaster is turned into heartwarming success, only to have it snatched away in a bittersweet manner - it's really well written. It was slightly weird how they introduced an entirely new family member in the fifth episode - it was almost as if they suddenly realised they didn't have enough characters for their story! But don't worry, they come up with a good reason why she's not been seen so far - she married a WHITE MAN! And. even worse than that - he's a CANADIAN!!
Mo Amer is very much the central character and he carries things well - yes, he's a bit slapstick at times, but it's nicely balanced by the more serious scenes. Teresa Ruiz is also excellent as Maria (his girlfriend) and the pair of them have really nice chemistry together. Farah Bsieso and Omar Elba are also good as Mo's mother and brother and Tobe Nwigwe gets a namecheck for being believable as Nick, a good (and tolerant) mate, in his first screen role. There are also about a million other minor roles, all of whom bring something to the party and the flashback scenes are very well done, with the kids in particular being delightful earlier versions of the main characters.
I wouldn't go out of my way to describe it as the best telly ever, but it's very watchable with characters you care about and it felt like it gave me an insight into a life (or several lives) which I didn't know anything about - I enjoyed it. Netflix tells me (repeatedly) that the second series is COMING SOON and I'll make an effort to check it out.
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