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The Waves: Can We Still Enjoy Master of None?

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Society & Culture, Business

3.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate Senior Editor Allegra Frank and Slate Production Assistant Madeline Ducharme talk about the latest season of Netflix’s Master of None. The pair digs into the show’s depiction of a queer Black relationship and breakup, and discusses if the show even a comedy anymore. Also: how are we supposed to care about a relationship when we first see it at its end? After the break, Allegra and Madeline go outside of the show to talk about Season 3’s creators, Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe. Ansari and Waithe have both stirred controversy in the past few years. At the height of the #MeToo movement, a now shuttered site called Babe.net reported an alleged unpleasant sexual encounter between a 22-year-old woman and Ansari. In response, Ansari stepped out of the spotlight for a couple years, though he said at the time that the encounter was consensual. Meanwhile, Waithe has worked on several projects, including 2019’s Queen and Slim and Amazon’s Them, that have been accused of propagating needlessly cruel Black violence on-screen. Allegra and Madeline discuss what we’re supposed to do with accusations and situations like this, particularly once the dust has settled. For Slate Plus members, Allegra and Madeline kick off our new segment, Gateway Feminism. They talk about one thing that helped make them feminists. For Allegra, it’s those sugar and spice cartoons, the Powerpuff Girls, while Madeline was heavily influenced by 2010s Tumblr. Recommendations Allegra recommends a seasonal favorite - S’mores flavored Oreos. Madeline thinks you should pick up Kristen Arnett’s second novel, With Teeth. Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Susan Matthews and June Thomas. Additional production help from Rosemary Belson. Send your comments and thoughts about what The Waves should cover to thewaves@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves.

0:12.8

Welcome to the waves. Slates podcast about gender, feminism, and flawed, but lovable heroes.

0:21.2

Every episode you get a new pair of women to talk about the thing we can't get off our minds.

0:26.1

And today you've got me, Allegra Frank, and me, Madeleine Ducharm.

0:31.9

And today we're going to talk about TV. Of all the TV shows we expected to return this year,

0:39.6

Netflix's Master of None was pretty low down on the list. Last month, the comedy's third

0:46.0

season premiered more than four years after its second. And while season two was critically

0:51.5

claimed Master of None's hiatus and then quiet surprise return, we're met with very different

0:57.6

levels of excitement and anticipation. The new season of this rom-com, which is now called Master

1:03.7

of None Moments in Love, sort of like a mini-series, now stands as another example of a disgrace

1:10.8

celebrity's steps toward a self-made redemption. So Madeline, let's talk. What got you interested

1:19.2

in this subject this week in the return of Master of None?

1:23.5

I am most interested in this topic. The reason I can't stop thinking about it is that

1:28.8

the two people that are behind this new iteration of the Netflix original,

1:35.4

Aziz Ansari and Lena Weith, who play very different roles in this iteration than they did

1:41.7

on the other version of Master of None, they've both had pretty fraught public accusations

1:46.5

leveled against them in the past few years. And a lot of our listeners, maybe even myself,

1:52.5

maybe even Allegra, might consider one or both of them to be like pretty problematic.

1:59.0

But at the same time, the show sort of tells this intimate story of a Black lesbian couple,

2:03.8

and that's something we rarely see in a big Netflix series like this. So there are just lots of mixed

2:10.2

feelings around here, especially for me as a queer person watching this show. Mixed feelings is

2:16.0

the key phrase here. For those who don't know, Ansari was publicly accused of sexual misconduct in

...

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