Stumbled onto ‘Ramy’

As always, I will start with a relevant/irrelevant introduction. The Emmy’s, the subject of my last blog post, were on Sunday and the outcomes were unforeseen and mostly satisfactory. Fleabag was shown the love it deserves as the irrevocable fact that a woman can write the most hilarious and relatable show on TV right now if people simply get their heads out of their butts. Once again, I have my issues with Game of Thrones getting the ‘Best Drama Series’ award, seeing as its last season was disappointing at best. I would understand it as a farewell to an otherwise great series, had Veep won a single of its nominated categories on Sunday. You can probably sense the conflict I am facing; I am happy Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag, Alex Bornstein and Tony Shalhoub won in their respective categories, but baffled that Veep wasn’t shown the same preferential treatment as Game of Thrones. And even though the last season (and last couple of seasons) of Veep were significantly worse, they still did not reduce their characters’ development to ‘Mad person-Bad person’. And considering Veep characters are primarily caricatures of American politicians (or so I hope), that really says something.

Now that I have summed up my views on the Emmy’s, let me get back to what this blog is meant to be about. I wrote above that Fleabag was the most relatable show on TV. Seeing as Fleabag is a white, female character, it may not come as a shock that I found this relatable. However, the fact that I found a show about an Egyptian-American, Muslim man relatable, might be less obvious. And the fact that ‘Ramy’ was not nominated for any Emmy’s baffles me more than any of the above outcomes.

A friend of mine came across Ramy Youssef on ‘Late Night with Steven Colbert’ and found him hilarious, as he is, and decided we should watch his show that premiered on Hulu in April, ‘Ramy’. We are a bit late to the game, and obviously very late to complain about its lack of nominations, if anything, for the writing. So in recognition of my tardiness rather than complain, I will just remain baffled. Baffled is my favourite word right now and I must therefore include it a minimum of five times. Baffled. This show is about a young man navigating young adulthood trying to balance between being a deeply religious Muslim and a millennial. And while this exploration is fruitful enough to sustain a whole series, the show takes a moment to dive into the parallel experience of his sister, a young woman placed in a similar turmoil, and his immigrant mother. This is all done with great sensitivity, focusing on the individual in each case. And on top of that, it is an incredibly funny show.

I am a very shallow person and do not mind one-dimensional characters in my comedy-watching, as long as they are not given a one-dimensional love story to drive the show that I am supposed to care about (Big Bang Theory jab: check). But it was very refreshing to have a main character who tries to be a good Muslim, live up to his own expectations, messes up, feels guilty and tries again. And is hilarious. I won’t even try to talk about the critical acclaim of episodes such as ‘Strawberries’, where the events of 9/11 are experienced from the eyes of a pre-teen Ramy, not for how thought-provoking it was or its amazing comic reliefs (exemplar quote: ‘Jerk off on this leaf to show us you’re not a terrorist’). Others have made much better analyses. But something that struck me is that from the very first episode, the title character is called out for the preconceptions he himself has for Muslim women. As a viewer you are immediately made aware that this is not a male lead who will shed light to the whole Muslim experience, but rather another victim of stereotyping, which gives him room to grow as a character.

I also loved that towards the end of the season Ramy decides to visit Egypt, connect with his roots and strip himself of all this confusing American influence. And of course, he arrives and his extended family, who already lives in Egypt and is connected just fine with their roots, treat him like the ultimate American. His cousin wants to take him out clubbing, his uncles and aunts want their American presents and everyone calls him Ashton Kutcher. And this contrast between what the character expects and what so obviously and reasonably happens is hilarious. Everyone is justified and everyone is frustrated. And in these moments of comedy, you have the main character feeling Egyptian in America and American in Egypt and you yourself are half-laughing, half-empathising. And the best series right now play along this thin line between comedy and deep emotionality. And instead of celebrating these series, we crown Bran the Broken as ‘King of the Seven Kingdoms’ and get ‘Best Drama’ for it!

I understand that I am probably the last person that should have an opinion on this show. I was not born a first-generation immigrant, I did not grow up a minority, I was not stuck between two cultures and I am definitely not religious (unless atheist counts). But I am a young adult, I am trying to be better, I often fail and just like most coming-of-age stories, these messages always resonate with me. Which is a pretty good premise to create an authentic series about the everyday Muslim experience, without the Hollywood seasoning of Islamophobia. I will assume it is an even better series if you are looking for Fleabag-like character to identify with and instead you get Nadia in ‘The Bodyguard’. That is not to say that this series has a limited perspective audience. For example, Youssef said that he got a message from a Christian-Evangelist telling him that he IS Ramy. It just goes to show that there is a basic human relatedness underneath the specifics of religion and culture, which makes the show incredibly relevant today to all. And, did I by any chance mention that it is hilarious?

Baffled (that’s five). Maybe next season with Mahershala Ali will win something; he is an award magnet after all.