Master of None
マスター・オブ・ゼロ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Dating in New York and Modena, then a final season handed to Lena Waithe's character and her wife; the creator's own #MeToo moment shadows it.
Dev Shah is a thirty-year-old actor in New York, the son of Indian immigrants, whose best-known work is a yoghurt commercial. He eats well, wonders whether he wants children, learns what his parents gave up to come to America, and keeps being offered accented stereotypes; one producer's email reveals that a show will cast only one Indian. He meets Rachel, a music publicist, on a night that ends awkwardly, and when she is free they start dating, move in together and fall in love. At a friend's wedding Dev begins to wonder whether they are only settling down because it is time. After the premiere of a film from which his scenes have been cut, he tells Rachel he is not sure, and she leaves for Tokyo. Dev goes to Italy to learn to make pasta.
In the second season he is an apprentice in Modena, where he grows close to Francesca, who works at the pasta shop and is engaged to Pino. Back in New York he hosts a cupcake contest for a celebrity chef, Jeff, and goes through a string of app dates. One episode follows his friend Denise through twenty years of Thanksgivings as she comes out to her mother. Francesca visits New York for a month; Dev tells her he loves her, and she says she loves him too but needs time. He learns that Jeff has sexually harassed women on his staff, and fumbles it on a talk show. Francesca leaves without an answer. In the final scene they lie side by side in bed, and she is no longer wearing her engagement ring.
The third season, Moments in Love, released in 2021, belongs to Denise, now a successful novelist living in an old house in upstate New York with her wife, Alicia, who deals in antiques. Dev, his career over, comes to dinner and fights with his girlfriend. Alicia wants a baby; an insemination ends in miscarriage, and she knows Denise only half wanted it. While Alicia is away, Denise sleeps with an old flame and has a car accident driving her home. Rushing to the hospital, Alicia is found out in turn: she has been seeing another woman. They divorce and sell the house. Three years later Alicia, alone, goes through IVF and, after a failed first round, becomes pregnant. Years after that, both remarried with children, they rent their old house for a night and find they still fit. The last shot is Denise outside, looking back at the house.
Starring
Aziz Ansarias Dev Shah
A New York actor and son of Indian immigrants, working through dating, family and a career built on commercials.
Dev Shah’s story
Dev is thirty and best known for a yoghurt advert. He loses a sitcom part after a producer's email says only one Indian can be cast, and falls for Rachel, who moves in. At a wedding he starts to doubt; after his scenes are cut from a film he tells her so, and she leaves for Tokyo. He learns to make pasta in Modena, comes home to host a cupcake contest for the chef Jeff, and falls for Francesca, who is engaged. When she visits he tells her he loves her; she says the same and asks for time. He fumbles Jeff's harassment on a talk show. The season ends with them side by side in bed, her ring gone. Years later his acting career is over, and at Denise's table he fights with his girlfriend, Reshmi.
Lena Waitheas Denise
Dev's childhood friend, a lesbian who comes out to her mother over the years and becomes the heart of the third season.
Denise’s story
Denise, Dev's friend since childhood, tells him first that she is attracted to women, years before her mother slowly comes round. By the third season she is a successful novelist in an old house upstate with her wife, Alicia. She goes along with Alicia's wish for a baby out of duty, and after the miscarriage Alicia knows it. While Alicia is away, Denise sleeps with an old flame and crashes the car taking her home; at the hospital she realises Alicia was not where she said, and has been seeing another woman. They divorce and sell the house, and she and Dev make up. Years later, both remarried with children, she and Alicia spend a night in the old house and find they still fit. Denise looks back at it from outside.
Noël Wellsas Rachel Silva
A music publicist who becomes Dev's girlfriend in the first season and leaves for Tokyo when he cannot commit.
Alessandra Mastronardias Francesca
A young woman at the pasta shop in Modena where Dev trains, engaged to another man when they fall in love.
Naomi Ackieas Alicia
Denise's wife, an antiques dealer who wants a child badly enough to try alone after their marriage ends.
Alicia’s story
Alicia works in an antiques shop and shares a hundred-and-fifty-year-old house upstate with Denise. She wants a baby, conceives with the help of Denise's cousin Darius, and miscarries, knowing that Denise only went along out of duty. Supposedly at an antiques show in Baltimore, she reaches the hospital after Denise's accident and learns of Denise's affair, and Denise works out that Alicia was much nearer: she has been seeing another woman, and it was not a fling. When Denise tries to reconcile, Alicia decides there is too much between them. Three years on, single, she tries IVF; the first round gives no embryo that can be used, and with her mother's comfort she tries again and becomes pregnant. Years later, remarried with children, she spends a night in the old house with Denise, and they find they still fit.
Eric Wareheimas Arnold Baumheiser
Dev's tall, food-loving best friend, who shares his meals and advice and has his own broken heart to mend.
Why it matters
Master of None began as a comedy about a young man with too many choices, and its best episodes pushed past that: to how Indian actors are cast in Hollywood, to what immigrant parents gave up and, in Thanksgiving, to a Black family slowly making room for a gay daughter. Lena Waithe, who co-wrote that episode from her own experience, became the first African American woman to win the Emmy for comedy writing. The second season built a storyline around a celebrity chef who harassed women on his staff. Eight months after it was released, in January 2018, Ansari himself was accused of sexual misconduct in an article on Babe.net, and his career paused for a year. When the series returned in 2021, Dev was a minor figure and the season belonged to Denise and Alicia: a slow study of a marriage, infidelity on both sides and a woman's long road to motherhood alone.