Aziz Ansari on Master of None Season 3: "On paper, everything sounds like a terrible idea" (https://www.indiewire.com/2021/05/aziz-ansari-master-of-none-season-3-terrible-idea-1234638214/)
Ansari directed and co-wrote with Lena Waithe all five episodes of what is being called Master of None Presents: Moments in Love, revolving around Waithe's Denise. “On paper, everything sounds like a terrible idea,” Ansari says in a Netflix featurette (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv-cOEmVXds). “Oh, I’m not going to be in the show anymore! We’re going to hold on them doing laundry for three minutes! It was a little bit scary because it’s not what we had done before.. But the first time we read it where it wasn’t just me reading with Lena but another woman reading with her, it was just like, ‘Woah, this is going to work. This is going to be cool.'”
As Master of None returns, it's still hard to think of Aziz Ansari without remembering his sexual misconduct scandal (https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/netflix/master-of-none-aziz-ansari/)
Ansari isn't the focus of Season 3. Instead, the Moments in Love-themed season puts a spotlight on Lena Waithe's Denise. "Still, Ansari sits at the helm as writer/director and creator of Master of None, tainting the show’s portrayals of food and sex," says Fletcher Peters. Master of None was, he says, "the perfect show...The comedy was as smooth as the handmade carbonara Ansari’s Dev twirls in the penultimate episode of Season 1...The show was incredible, but in a way where you could always expect more from the next episode and the next season." But after Babe.net reported in January 2018 an anonymous woman's horrible, violating night spent with Ansari, it's been hard to see Master of None the same way again, says Peters. "Amidst the whole 'art vs. artist' debacle, Ansari stands as one of those creators whose art is him," says Peters. "Art equals artist, nearly, when it comes to Master of None. So, if Dev Shah were to pull the same type of harassment Ansari’s accused of, would we, as an audience, forgive him? I suppose we might be expected to sympathize with him, as we so often do when we watch the series." Peters also points out that, in retrospect, Ansari has troubling associations. "As I read profile upon profile of Ansari, peeling through interviews and news write-ups like they were cloves of garlic, I did start to notice a trend," says Peters. "Many of Ansari’s influences, his idols and his mentors, were folks piling up similar allegations. "Aziz Ansari Gets His Louie,” (https://www.vulture.com/2015/10/see-a-trailer-for-aziz-ansaris-netflix-sitcom.htmlhttps://www.vulture.com/2015/10/see-a-trailer-for-aziz-ansaris-netflix-sitcom.html) wrote Vulture about the first trailer for Master of None, referencing Louis C.K.’s similar comedy series. In the Grantland interview, Ansari noted his dream director would be Woody Allen. Ansari continually idolizes R. Kelly (https://www.vulture.com/2015/10/see-a-trailer-for-aziz-ansaris-netflix-sitcom.htmlhttps://www.vulture.com/2015/10/see-a-trailer-for-aziz-ansaris-netflix-sitcom.html). Even David Chang (https://www.eater.com/22193151/momofuku-david-chang-memoir-eat-a-peach-review), who did the GQ Tokyo tour with Ansari, was recently exposed for toxic hostility against staffers in his kitchens. We need not blame Ansari for the behavior of these men, nor for aligning himself with their work before huge allegations hit the mainstream. But this tendency to idolize overly-masculine figures is still worth noting. Perhaps it’s not a mere coincidence Ansari’s befriended and revered a handful of troubling men. Something was appealing about their sense of humor; the way they talk about lust, women, sex; the way they feed their appetite—these factors add up."
Master of None: Moments in Love's attempt to replicate Ingmar Bergman results in unbearably slow episodes (https://variety.com/2021/tv/reviews/master-of-none-season-3-review-netflix-ansari-waithe-1234976087/)
Ansari directs "every episode on film in long take after long take as if staging his own Ingmar Bergman series," says Caroline Framke of the third season of his Netflix series. "It’s undeniably jarring, in a good way, to see a story about a queer Black couple given the kind of treatment typically only bestowed upon white couples. And yet the stylistic gambit quickly wears out its welcome in the season’s first meandering chapter, which runs a solid 50 minutes long in fits and starts. Master of None has always indulged a conversational detour, but previous versions at least took pains to fit within a half-hour runtime, a smart limit to which Moments of Love has no attachment. It’d be one thing if the episode used its extra time wisely. Instead, it lingers on banal back-and-forths and then fast forwards through the truly seismic events that reverberate through Denise and Alicia’s lives for the rest of the season. Ansari likewise plants half his shots in one place many feet away from his actors as if to mimic the feeling of eavesdropping on someone’s most intimate moments, but it mostly just feels frustrating not to be able to see the characters more clearly. The season’s first real close-ups, in fact, don’t come until its fourth episode — which is not coincidentally focused on Ackie’s character rather than Waithe’s. This season’s iteration of Denise doesn’t feel like an older version of Denise so much as a very different one altogether, begging the question of why this couldn’t have just been a different show outside of the Master of None umbrella with Waithe playing a new character. Most notably, this Denise is much more stoic than the last, which the season acknowledges. But at some point, her total inability to express any extreme emotions in some of the most significant moments of her life just seems like a way to bypass the fact that Waithe’s range is much more limited than her scene partner’s. This also applies to the many, many minutes Ansari devotes to Denise simply sitting, staring, or eating a sandwich with no discernible nuance whatsoever. Whatever curated vibe these scenes are trying to go for, they end up feeling interminably long for the sake of it."
ALSO:
Lena Waithe and Aziz Ansari successfully capture real life in Season 3 (https://www.vulture.com/article/master-of-none-season-3-review-lena-waithe-aziz-ansari.html): "While this season of the show argues that the things that matter in life — having a partner, having a child, building a fulfilling career — require effort and determination, it doesn’t fully invest in the concept of monogamy," says Jen Chaney. "Instead, it wrestles with that throughout, and its conclusions are ambiguous, which is not surprising given the creative interests of Ansari and Waithe (the latter is also developing a series for Amazon about non-monogamous marriages). But the one thing that these five episodes are sure of is that life, as monotonous as it can sometimes be, also contains great joy. Master of None is determined to make us stop and take the time to notice that."
Season 3 is like coming home to an old friend in the way it feels different yet familiar (https://uproxx.com/tv/master-of-none-season-3-review-netflix-aziz-ansari/): In Season 3, Ansari "slows everything down, both figuratively and literally, and that allows for plenty of opportunities to lay these characters’ souls as bare as possible," says Kimberly Ricci. "In the case of Denise, her at-times impenetrable exterior means that, yeah, this intimate approach to what she’s going through is gonna get interesting. That’s especially the case because she’s now married (to Alicia, played by Naomi Ackie), and as a freshly successful author, she’s moved out of the New York City bustle to a roomy house upstate. This setting, on one hand, caters to the pandemic shooting mode of fewer people in one place, but also, it allows the show to strip away any side stories in a realm where there’s no pretense allowed. There’s no room for maneuvering away from difficult situations. No distractions exist for conversations that one might want to avoid. Vulnerability can shine through. The process brings utterly unpretentious results (unlike what happened with the same getaway-to-a-remote-house approach for Malcolm and Marie), so that’s also a bonus. Also a good thing: Aziz is not entirely absent from being in front of the camera, but those moments are sparse. Perhaps he purposely meant to hang back to keep from drawing attention to his recent situation and distracting from this season’s mission. Yet even more so, he’s seizing this opportunity to further hone his eye behind the camera. The results are fascinating, particularly because Denise can be a tough egg to crack. Watching her layers emerge, although she never fully reveals herself at once, is fascinating. In fact, seeing what Denise chooses not to tell the world makes her all-the-more compelling, and her marriage is truly a modern love story, including the inevitable drama that arises. Meanwhile, Aziz knows how to point a damn camera, and he knows the value of restraint while allowing his subjects to simply do their thing without any rush to action."
Moments of Love feels like nothing Master of None has done before (https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/master-none-season-three-review-1168448/): "The pacing takes the Moments part of the subtitle extremely seriously, as long swaths of each episode just feature Denise and Alicia hanging around the house, washing dishes, doing laundry, and enjoying the sights and sounds of the countryside," says Alan Sepinwall. "It’s meant as an immersive technique — a way to make the viewer feel like they’re in this relationship at this particular inflection point when things are on the verge of going from blissful to anguished — but one that is asking a lot of patience from the audience. The 55-minute opening episode effectively sets a mood and the state of the marriage, but can feel self-indulgent next to the second and third episodes, which both clock in at less than 30 minutes (albeit at times feeling longer than that). But those viewers willing to be patient will find reward in the penultimate episode, a Naomi Ackie spotlight in which Alicia navigates the emotional ups and downs of fertility treatments. It’s another long, slow outing, but one where all the waiting is palpably, at times heartbreakingly, the point of the whole tale. That episode doesn’t retroactively make the earlier installments move more quickly, but it does make the approach make some sense."
Even allowing for the indie-film sensibility of it all, Moments in Love becomes frustrating in its sluggishness (https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/entertainment/master-of-none-review/index.html): "It's an obvious attempt to create a sense of intimacy and reality, but one that requires a total investment in the material and characters in order to succeed," says Brian Lowry. "Perhaps foremost, this Master of None underscores the freedom that Netflix affords artists, giving Ansari, Waithe and producer Alan Yang the opportunity to flex their creative muscles in an unexpected but self-indulgent way, while (more pragmatically) adding another season to the franchise. While it's easy to see how that works out for both parties, the reward for viewers is more nebulous, one that feels more compelling in individual moments, as advertised, than its impact as a whole."
Master of None skews too far from its fly-on-the-wall authenticity (https://www.indiewire.com/2021/05/master-of-none-season-3-review-aziz-ansari-netflix-1234637863): Naomie Ackie "is a stand-out," says Ben Travers. "Her chemistry with Waithe is excellent, as the two create clear-cut individual identities that feel like a good fit together even when you can see where their edges might prove incompatible. Ansari’s static camera, real film, and square frames emphasize the natural tone, as long, uncut takes allow the actors to walk in and out of sight. But the scripts let them down at critical junctures, failing to clarify issues that drive the plot forward in ways where Master of None typically excels. Previous seasons matched complicated progression in relationships with frank discussions with friends or equally muddied indecision, allowing the audience to either clearly understand what’s gone wrong or accept that there’s not always an easy answer. Too often in Season 3, Denise and Alicia land somewhere in between. Eventually, the story gets these two where they need to go, ending on an unanswerable question that should feel familiar to anyone who’s been part of a few long-term partnerships, but Moments in Love isn’t substantial enough as a standalone or clearly designed to go further."
Moments in Love is a beautiful depiction of real relationships and real life outside the life-or-death concerns that permeate Peak TV (https://observer.com/2021/05/netflix-master-of-none-season-3-review-moments-in-love-aziz-ansari/): "Eleven is busy saving the world in Stranger Things and June is trying to save America in The Handmaid’s Tale," says Brandon Katz. "But Master of None‘s stakes are merely everyday happiness. Its collateral damage is the connections we hold dear in our lives. Episode 2, in particular, is a reminder that life is what happens in between the moments we hang up our jackets and put them back on. With all due respect to This Is Us, but this is us. Moments in Love is particularly adept at juxtaposing our imagined lives with our realities. There are multiple tracks to our existence that we coast by on simultaneously. Our lives are never just one thing – they are everything in a blink that all end the same way. This season hones in on how we operate with others and for others versus our honest selves. Mistakes are often a subconscious declaration of what we truly want, the show seems to argue. Its tone is helped by Master of None’s ability to smuggle comedy into the absurdity of everyday life."
The most notable difference between Moments in Love and its preceding seasons might be how adult it all feels (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/netflixs-master-of-none-season-3-tv-review-lena-waithe-aziz-ansari-1234953083/): "Denise and Alicia are, in a sense, playing house — they first appear outside of time in their cozy but isolated existence, a GOOPy vision of soft-lit rusticity and aspirational hygge," says Inkoo Kang. "I’ll say here — undercutting my own review — that season three is best watched totally cold, but if you choose to continue reading, I have to reveal that it derives its emotional might from exploring that transitional life phase in one’s mid- to late 30s when you’ve lived long enough to experience true failure, witness the mortality and frailty of your elders and face the absolute closure of certain possibilities. Denise and Alicia undergo fertility issues, the deaths of family members and the aftermath of wunderkind success. And then the season opens its heart again, to expand its ideas of romance and love to rousing, even provocative, heights. It also takes its damn time getting there. Ansari appears for about seven or so minutes total as a strikingly deglamorized version of Dev, mostly staying behind the camera. (All episodes are directed by Ansari and co-written by him and Waithe.) If season one was heavily influenced by Woody Allen and season two paid tribute to Italian neorealism, Moments in Love’s lodestar is Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage (down to the similar titles). The autobiographical elements in Bergman’s miniseries/film even find a parallel in the details seemingly borrowed from Waithe’s personal life; despite Denise and Alicia’s full characterizations, certain authorial choices make it practically impossible not to speculate how much of her own feelings and experiences the writer-actor put into this season."
Master of None is oddly wrapped up in its characters' affluence in Season 3 (https://www.vox.com/culture/22444047/master-of-none-season-3-review-netflix-lena-waithe-aziz-ansari-moments-in-love): "Moments in Love seems, fitfully, to want to look at this question of economic privilege," says Emily VanDerWerff. "An assumption of economic comfort certainly animated the first two seasons of Master of None. The characters’ affluence, particularly in season two, was mostly presented matter of factly. Though the show was able to step outside the affluent bubble of its central character, its portrayal of New York could never quite leave the perspective of the people paying service-industry employees; it failed to explore the perspective of the service-industry employees themselves, even when it explicitly tried....In its early going, Moments in Love has the same vague 'lifestyles section of the New York Times' visual aesthetic of Master of None’s other two seasons. The house Denise and Alicia share is almost aggressively cozy, and it feels isolated from the rest of the world, like the couple lives inside of Taylor Swift’s photoshoot for her cottagecore album folklore. In later episodes, the series complicates its own affluent coziness, and we do learn that some characters from the first two seasons are having economic troubles. Master of None is interested in the ways that its characters’ blinkered perspectives shift with their economic rise and fall, and its examinations of how expensive it is to pursue IVF treatments help to ground this consideration. But no matter how much Master of None explores questions about the way its characters’ access to wealth (or their lack of access) paints their view of the world, it is unwilling to push too far. The season finale still features a lengthy vacation that suggests the characters remain fairly well off when all is said and done."
Master of None reaches new levels of authenticity in Season 3 (https://www.cbr.com/master-of-none-season-3-review/): "Although it's not nearly as funny as the first two seasons, there's a certain wry weariness that feels appropriate for the characters' older and more experienced stage in life," says Cynthia Vinney. "This isn't the first screen story centered on marriage and fertility, but Moments in Love breaks new ground by offering a genuine, no-frills depiction of a Black lesbian couple going through these common experiences in all their complexity. In the process, the show movingly brings out the universal human emotions embedded in Denise and Alicia's specific circumstances."
Naomie Ackie was excited for not only the challenge of her role, but of normalizing gay women on TV (https://tvline.com/2021/05/20/master-of-none-season-3-netflix-naomi-ackie-black-queer-women/): “I’ve always been really into exploring different ways to perform, and Master of None felt like a switch for me to give a really naturalistic performance,” says the British actress. “And once I knew that the story was going to be surrounding this queer couple and their marriage, I thought, ‘Wow. That’s something that I’ve never done.’ It felt like a great challenge, but also a great way to normalize queer relationships on TV.”
Master of None didn't earn its Moments in Love reinvention (https://www.theringer.com/tv/2021/5/25/22452313/master-of-none-season-3-review)
"If all Moments in Love did were foreground Denise and introduce her wife, Alicia, it would be a radical shift from Master of None’s status quo," says Alison Herman. "But the Denise of Moments in Love isn’t just older and sadder than the Denise of earlier Master of None. She’s unrecognizable, with only a passing resemblance to Dev’s erstwhile brunch buddy. This Denise is a New York Times–best-selling author, though literary aspirations never figured into her previous appearances—not even 'Thanksgiving,' the spotlight episode focused on Denise and her family." Herman adds that Aziz Ansari "has positioned Moments in Love as a reaction to trends elsewhere on TV. 'Right now, everything is so fast,' he told Indiewire. 'The idea was to go in the complete opposite direction.' With Moments in Love, though, Ansari and Waithe have veered so far away from TV it doesn’t seem like they had much interest in making TV at all. Clocking in at just over three hours, Moments in Love has the running time of an extra-long movie; with a self-contained story about a couple’s struggle with commitment, it has the structure of one too. Factor in Denise’s metamorphosis and it’s hard to shake the hunch that Ansari and Waithe had a feature-sized idea that got made by shoehorning it into their already-successful TV show. A more compact, single-dose Moments in Love may have even been a stronger one. All those still shots work well when establishing Denise and Alicia’s rapport, but by the time we watch Denise devour a burger in real time, they’ve worn out their welcome."
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Master of None Season 3 took the micro of what made its first two seasons great, made them macro, and somehow lost all the detailing that set the show apart (https://www.indiewire.com/2021/05/in-treatment-master-of-none-new-seasons-worse-tv-podcast-1234640769/): "The first two seasons of Master of None were never so good as when they dug deep into the lives of people outside of Dev (Aziz Ansari)," says Libby Hill. "The series provided us with windows into worlds we’d never before seen or experienced or had the opportunity to, for whatever reason. A particular stand-out was an episode in the second season, 'Thanksgiving,' in which we see Dev with best friend Denise (Lena Waithe) through a series of November holidays over the years that show her coming out as lesbian to her family and, in turn, her family coming to terms with their perception of their daughter and sister. It was insightful and emotional and tapped into something true. It was relatable because the specificity of detail was so finely wrought that it transformed into something universal. In other words, it turned into love. If you’re at all familiar with the third season of Master of None you’ll understand the irony of the above....The season feels like a painstakingly crafted facade. It looks as good as anything else you’ll find on TV. The production design is out of this world, but beneath, there isn’t much of anything behind that pretty picture."
Master of None is the latest breakup story to neglect to show why a couple was together in the first place (https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/05/master-of-none-season-3-breakup-stories/618980/): "Like many shows and films about breakups, Master of None jumps almost immediately into the central conflict," says Hannah Giorgis. "By the end of the first episode, it’s clear that Denise and Alicia’s marriage is collapsing, and the next three episodes chart that demise closely. Not until the final episode do viewers see why Denise and Alicia enjoyed each other’s company in the first place. After years apart, the two return to their old home—now being rented out by white owners—for a low-key weekend getaway. The grievances between them no longer matter now that they’re each partnered with a new person, but their banter is still familiar. The scenes are warm and light, the kind of vignettes that would’ve established the stakes of their divorce if viewers had seen them earlier. Instead, Master of None replicates one of the more frustrating pitfalls of breakup stories: not sufficiently showing why a couple liked each other initially, thereby weakening the blow of their parting."
Season 3 is a slow build to a stunning finish (https://www.polygon.com/22455159/master-of-none-season-3-review-aziz-ansari-lena-waithe): "In theory, Season 3 should have as much emotional impact as previous seasons’ non-Dev episodes, such as Season 3’s 'New York, I Love You' and 'Thanksgiving,'" says Quinci LeGardye. "While it falls short of perfection, it’s an impressive feat that’s worth the slower pace. Its flaws are notable, including the pacing issues and shortage of great observational moments. But they’re outweighed by its success at presenting a more mature depiction of love, and showcasing Ackie’s exemplary performance. It isn’t the same as past seasons, and it isn’t necessarily better, but it’s definitely worth the watch."
Master of None is a rare Hollywood portrayal of IVF (https://tvline.com/2021/05/26/master-of-none-episode-4-ivf-fertility-holly-fazio/): "If you haven’t yet watched the new season, I should mention two things: 1. You should. And 2. Episode 4 basically focuses solely on Alicia, the now-ex-wife of Waithe’s Denise, as she painstakingly pursues her dream of becoming a single mother via IVF," says Holly Fazio. "I should also mention that there are several similarities between me and Alicia, played beautifully by Naomi Ackie. We’re both in what is considered the 'geriatric' stage of baby-making. And, as I mentioned, we’re both single and therefore going through this process alone. That isolation I felt — then and now — is amplified by the fact that Hollywood is stingy with fertility and IVF stories. Rarely if ever do we see the struggle as realistically and unsparingly depicted on television or in the movies as it was on Master of None. That’s what makes the installment so unique. While it was hard for me to watch Alicia go through her journey, I had never felt more seen. It was excruciating and gratifying at the same time, a reminder that I am not the only person who chose this courageous path."
Aziz Ansari says the IVF episode was one of his favorite parts of the season (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-05-23/netflix-master-of-none-season-3-in-vitro-fertilization): “Topics that are in that zone — everyone’s dealing with it, but no one’s talking about it — are what I tend to gravitate toward,” Ansari said in an email to the Los Angeles Times
Master of None's IVF episode understands the value of a great nurse (https://www.vulture.com/article/master-of-none-ivf-episode-4-season-3-nurse-cordelia.html): Actress Cordelia Blair leans in on her real-life experience as a nurse for her portrayal in Episode 4. "Cordelia is the ultrasound nurse who examines Alicia to make sure the hormone injections are doing what they’re supposed to be doing," says Jen Chaney. "She’s also the one tasked with calling Alicia to deliver news that can be devastating or hopeful. Blair, who previously worked as a nurse in palliative care, infuses the character with such natural kindness that she comes across as both the ideal nurse and a nurse so recognizable, you could swear you’ve encountered her in a hospital or doctor’s office before. After a year in which medical workers have been celebrated for their courage and care, Cordelia is another reminder of what a difference it makes to a patient, in any context, to have a compassionate advocate holding their hand."
Co-creator Alan Yang says the Moments in Love season was made because "Aziz and I don’t want to do the same thing over and over again" (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/alan-yang-master-of-none-aziz-ansari-lena-waithe-1234958008/): "The idea for this season was taking classic techniques of filmmaking and applying them to an extremely modern relationship between two queer Black women," he says, adding: "We had discussions about him not being in it at all. Then we came back around and decided it’s cooler to see him and explore the idea of how friendships change over time. There’s been a lot of time since our last season. When we first made this show, it was a very optimistic time in this country. It was still the Obama presidency. A lot has changed, and we felt, tonally, this was more reflective of the year we just had."