Master of None has returned with a new season after four years. A lot has changed since then- there’s the pandemic, whose effect on the season is noticeable from the get go. And then there’s the sexual misconduct allegations against Aziz Ansari, who withdrew from social media afterwards. That might be a reason why he chose to focus the season on a different character than his own, but he definitely committed to telling a compelling story that did justice to those characters. The result is a study of marriage and love that suffers from pacing issues, but still manages to leave an impression by the time it ends.
Denise (Lena Waithe) is living in domestic bliss with her wife, Alicia (Naomi Ackie) after making it big as an author. Over time, however, her life crumbles as her relationship falls apart after a miscarriage that leads to both partners cheating on each other. Now alone, Alicia struggles with childbirth as she has to go through expensive IVF procedures that test her sanity and endurance. Eventually, the two women reconcile with each other, and start meeting each other again behind their families’ backs.
Aziz Ansari co-wrote and directed all five episodes. You can see the influence of classic directors like Ingmar Bergman on his distant, perfectly arranged frames. He uses the cottage that Denise and Alicia live in at the start of the season as a staging ground that reflects the state of their relationship.
This season, called Moments in Love, is a significant departure from the first two seasons. It’s no longer an observational comedy, but a drama, and a more mature exploration of love. It feels like an unique and earnest journey that is almost a complement to works such as the Before trilogy and Marriage Story. The shift may be too jarring for fans of the previous seasons. Sometimes, it feels like the show lingers for too long on some moments. Some episodes pass by too fast.
Still, the show is highly compelling when it gets everything right.
Lena Waithe also co-wrote the season, and her perspective has definitely made the narrative better. The season’s best episode is episode four, where Alicia has to battle through heartbreak, discrimination and financial hardship in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother. Her journey feels authentic and hard-fought, interspersed with moments of doubt and despair, as well as bone-aching exhaustion.
The characters in Moments in Love are complicated and flawed to a fault. The show doesn’t validate cheating, but it does delve into how it can still lead to intimate and sincere moments. The season ends on Denise taking a cigarette break outside the place that once used to be her home, her life vastly changed from the last time she had been there. Alicia had left it once again, and now it was ‘back to regular programming’.
Moments in Love isn’t necessarily better than the previous two seasons, but it is worth watching, if you can sit through the auteur direction and the occasional slumps in pacing.
If you’re a fan of the previous two seasons, however, you might be annoyed by how much Denise has changed and how Dev’s cameos indicated a turn for the worse in terms of both career and love life. If you do stick through, however, you might be surprised by the sincerity of Denise and Alicia’s struggles.
