Review: Master of None, Episode 4: “Indians on TV”

By Tyler Hodg

It’s not hard to guess what the theme of Master of None’s fourth episode is when it has a title like “Indians On TV.” Writers Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang tackle cultural inaccuracies, and, well, blatant racism towards Indians in television and film.

With his acting career becoming mildly substantial, Dev (Ansari) encounters an act of racism through an email chain written by television executives. Naturally, he must debate if exposing their intolerance is worth not making that “David Schwimmer” money. The whole incident initially works out in Dev’s favor as he gets invited to a Knicks game by one of the back-peddling executives, but of course, things go south quickly.

For those who have watched the episode, I’m going to address the elephant in the room. As far as celebrity cameos go, the scene with Busta Rhymes isn’t top tier but still offers some worthwhile laughs. Seeing massive Busta discuss racism with tiny Dev is aesthetically humorous, to say the least.

For those who haven’t watched the episode, yes, Busta Rhymes is actually a guest star on Master of None.

The character of Dev is becoming very multidimensional. In “Indians On TV”, he is shown at his most volatile. There is a scene where Dev and his friend Ravi visit an Indian advocacy group with clenched fists, only to become upset with the agent as well. It sounds depressing, but is totally riotous.

As enjoyable as the episode was, I do have one minor issue with it: I wish the writers developed more of a thesis on why Indians are represented poorly in television and films. I’m not looking for a thorough investigation, but just stamping it as “people are racist” felt a little lazy.

This is the weakest episode of the series so far, but that doesn’t make it terrible. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments that make “Indians On TV” a decent addition to Master Of None.