(:)(:)(:)(:)(:) this series, a hulu original, starts out fresh, funny and fairly light and by the end of the third season is fresh, funny, dark and deep. i lived many decades of my white middle-aged american existence without seeing any depiction of a muslim person let alone a family. one of the oft discussed blessings of this golden age of television is the ability for content that is thought of as not having a mainstream audience to flourish (and find one). i get the sense from friends that not many people in my demographic have found ramy yet so i call it to your attention.
ramy is a fictionalized depiction of comic actor ramy youssef’s life in north new jersey (across the river from new york city) living as a young adult (he is only 31 at present) with his 2 parents, sister and sometimes a cousin in their egyptian muslim family. the show is exceptionally well conceived, written and acted. and, while the episodes are in the 30 minute range, and there is a lot of straight up comedy, it has serious depth out of the gate.
ramy youssef plays ramy hassan as an often deadpan poorly organized under-funded hapless young man without prospects for job or marriage despite his parents’ expectations and wishes. his best friends, including mohammed amer who plays mo (with whom youssef collaborated on the hit netflix series mo), have mostly launched. mo owns a bunch of restaurants and has a kid. ahem played by dave merheje is married and a doctor.
when the series opens, ramy’s job is as an assistant to profoundly disabled stevie (the character, at least, appears to have no use of any extremity) played by steve way (an actor born with muscular dystrophy). way is a comic genius. actually pretty much all the lead characters are. the level of writing and comic timing is beyond anything i can remember. i also don’t remember seeing an ongoing disabled character on almost anything. the banter between stevie and ramy is pure gold.
as the show progresses through the next 2 seasons: ramy loses his way in life even more; his parents farouk and maysa (played perfectly by amr waked and hiam abbass–who is a genius actress) quarrel over finances; both he and his sister dena (played by hilarious and gorgeous may calamawy) resist their duty to marry. the through line of the show is really not ramy’s relationship to stevie, his friends, his parents or his sister. it’s his relationship to god and to islam (by which i mean the islamic faith). youssef the creator of the show is a practicing muslim (by the way, that noun should be capitalized but because of my own style sheet, i am italicizing it).
by the end of the show, there’s only one real message:
everyone comes to allah, it doesn’t matter how.
for a detailed and thorough review of the series read:
https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/ramy-season-three-tv-review