Master of None 2.06

New York, I Love You

Dev, Denise, and Arnold are excited to see Death Castle the new movie starring Nicholas Cage, Emma Watson, and Tyrese Gibson. This episode isn't about them or the movie. As they walk past a building the story suddenly shifts and follows Eddie, a doorman. For the next 10 minutes the episode is all about Eddie as he deals with tenants and tries to juggle a thousand different tasks and keep everyone happy. Eddie's story ends as the camera follows someone else out the building and into a bodega.

At this point the focus shifts to Maya, who works in the Bodega. She is deaf and this entire portion of the episode is done silently. When she is trying to communicate with someone who doesn't know American Sign Language (ASL), there are no subtitles. Later when she is talking to others who do know ASL there are subtitles. She argues with a friend who bought the same jacket as her. She argues with Barry, her boyfriend, who isn't giving her what she needs. This segment ends when Maya and Barry get into a cab. At that point the focus shifts to Samuel, the driver of the next cab to come along.

Samuel lives with 3 or 4 other guys. They are all from an African nation. They speak French when they are talking among themselves. They go out for a night on the town. They can't get into the club they want to go to because they don't have the right look or have women with them. They get lured to another club which is dead and where a bottle of vodka will cost them $800. They hang with some women at Lucky's, a fast food joint, before heading to the movies with the women to see Death Castle. The camera pans around the theater and everyone is there: Dev, Denise, Arnold, Eddie, Maya, Barry, and Samuel.

I remember hearing about this episode before. I didn't remember too much about it other than (a) that it was one of the better episodes and (b) that it highlighted the lives of a few ordinary New Yorkers. I think this one lived up to the hype. There was only one moment that made laugh out loud but I was more than ready for a Dev-light episode.