What great series did you see this week, Mark?
‘I want to talk about Netflix series moa comedy-drama consisting of eight short episodes. mo is based on the life of the famous American comedian Mohammed Amer. He also plays the lead role. Both the character Mo and the real Mo were born in Kuwait. After the outbreak of the Gulf War, he fled to America with his parents. Mo has been waiting for a residence permit for more than twenty years. This series is about the question: what kind of status do you have as a young person in America? You can’t look for a job, you can’t get an education, you’re kind of a disenfranchised person.
‘But this is also the story of a boy who grows up between different cultures, religions and languages. The home front is very fond of the Arab family history and Islam, Mo herself has a Mexican girlfriend who is of Catholic origin. Meanwhile, he must make it through the metropolis of Houston, which is steeped in American culture. In mo we follow him in the phase of his life where he, like so many immigrants, sits in a kind of waiting room – waiting for the moment when he can be a full citizen.
‘That Mo has an incredible amount of charisma and is therefore a fun character to follow. And that while the dilemmas he is faced with – about what the outside world expects of him and how he should survive in society – are not easy. For example, in the first episode we see that he is fired from a telephone shop because the owner is afraid that the immigration police will invade. As a result, he has to go back into the illegal circuit again. The comedy is then in the absurd circumstances in which Mo ends up, and the way in which he manages to talk himself out of everything again.
‘I recommend watching the Netflix special Mo Amer: Mohammed in Texas to watch. In it we see, in the last fifteen minutes, how the originally Palestinian Mo visits Palestine for the first time, after he has finally received his papers and is allowed to cross the border. A moving moment. Moreover, it becomes clear that his comedy has a serious core; searching for an identity for Mo the character and Mo the scriptwriter is a real experience.’
Whose deed. Do you have a second recommendation?
‘Yes, I saw an episode of the new Star Wars-series Andoro, which is on Disney Plus. I’m not even that big myself Star Wars–watcherI’m from the Star Trekgeneration, but I have to say that I really like this series. Andoro revolves around the birth of a rebel, who in the first episode is also presented as a huge toaster. I thought that was funny. you see that Star Warsuniverse no longer revolves around one big epic battle.
“In this case, it all starts on a mineral-mining planet, a sort of industrial planet full of rocket graveyards. Of course, do you think, in the Star Warsuniverse must be everywhere old rockets. Science fiction films rarely take that route to the underworld. Everything is dirty and dingy, rusty. I really like that aspect here. You can see this series just fine without knowing the complete mythology from A to Z. A pleasant surprise, I’ll keep watching this.’
And this is also worth a look:
Five Days at Memorial (★★★★☆) is a series like a disaster film in which the suffering does not remain abstract for once.
The charm of Eyeballs (★★★★☆) is still in the smoothly written screenplays.
workplace comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine (★★★★☆) gets a nice final chord in the last season.