When “Master of None” creators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang sent their lead character, Dev (played by Ansari), to Italy at the end of the show’s pitch perfect first season you had to wonder if they could duplicate that success when the Netflix program inevitably returned. Over a year later the answer was a resounding, “yes.” The two Italian episodes might not have worked for everyone, but they were the foundation for an exemplary second season that featured, arguably, three of the best half-hour narrative episodes anywhere on television so far this year. (And, spoiler alert, Dev does eventually return to New York.)
One of those episodes was the almost standalone “Thanksgiving,” a modern classic with stellar turns by guest star Angela Bassett and series regular Lena Waithe, as well as “First Date,” where Dev goes on a series of dates with different women at the same restaurant, and “The Dinner Party,” a heartbreaker that finds the camera holding on Dev after he chickens out on telling the love of his life (Alessandra Mastronardi) how he really feels about her. Even with so much Peak TV to consume each episode features unforgettable moments and are testaments to the storytelling talents of Ansari and Yang, one of whom co-wrote on every teleplay during the season.
Ansari jumped on the phone on May 12, the first day the season was available on Netflix, to talk about the show for an interview originally conducted for a larger THR feature. Here’s the entire conversation.
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Gregory Ellwood: Congratulations on the new season. Are you just like checking social media for reaction or ignoring it all?
Aziz Ansari: You know it’s funny, I live in New York, so I’ll just walk around and people will gape at me. They’ll be like “Excited to watch the new season!” I just want to get a danish or something and people are like “Oh, man! I’m so excited to watch the season this weekend.” It’s really funny to me because you spend about a year making the whole thing and then everyone watches everything in a weekend. Done. And they’re like “All right. When’s the next stuff?” And you’re like “Wait a second. I spent a year making that!”
Do you like that binge-worthy aspect or do you sometimes wish the episodes came out once a week?
Well, I like that every episode is out at the same time so everyone just gets to watch everything and, you know see it all at once and there is no lag.
Let’s talk about your on-screen character, Dev. Last season he was all about sort of like he was in a relationship and they both realized it wasn’t good for them and he goes off to Italy to sort of have some time for himself. What was the arc you wanted for him in season two?
Well, I think the arc is you know, to sum it up briefly I’d say season one was about not knowing what you want and then season two is about wanting what you can’t have. It’s everything. It’s work, life, everything.
As an actor is there any episode or particular scene you’re most happy with?
It’s hard to like say one episode you really like, but a lot of people have said a lot of nice things about the scene at the end of five, [“The Dinner Party”]. I’m sitting in the car alone and people have really related to that scene and that was one of my favorite things we did this season, you know, and not even just by accident. I just feel like that’s such a moment that’s so private. What I’ve read about it is that it kind of hit the sweet spot where you feel something that’s a very, very private moment that you have alone. When you put it in something [like this] show and have everyone respond to it, it feels really good to know that “Oh, everyone’s been there.” That’s the whole point of storytelling, comedy, all that stuff is to make us all feel a little less alone in the world. So that scene I’m really happy with. And that is followed by [the heartbreaking final episode] and Alessandra is such a tremendous actor. I think I have to just raise my game to hang with her and she brought out the best in me.
Was it written in the script that the “camera stays on”?
No. It was totally an idea that came up because we were filming the scene and we were doing the dialogue in one take. Everything in one take. Me and [Alessandra] feeding the cat joking as she leaves. We did it in one take and the car would circle around to pick her up and we’d do it again. And I told Eric, hey, just roll on the after I drop her off and I’ll just stay in it and we’ll just see if we can do something with it. And, so, I did it and then when we’re in the editing I told the editor to just put it in and put that soft song on and I’ve listened to songs like that song and just kind of been alone with my thoughts and it’s a really heartbreaking personal moment to have. I showed it to those other guys as a surprise and they’re like, “Oh, wow. This is really cool. Keep it in.” And that’s what we did and it’s fun to watch it with an audience because people are like “O.K., all right. We’re still here. We’re really sticking around.”