Neoliberalism In 'Master Of None'

The television series Master of None, created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, centers on a 30-year-old Indian American actor, Dev Shah, played by Aziz Ansari himself. The comedy of the show is gleaned from Dev’s experiences living in New York. Many plot lines of the show incorporate discussions of race, gender, and sexuality. For this project, we focus on the second episode of the series, “Parents.” This episode’s theme is the child-parent relationship in America, when the parents are immigrants. Dev, whose parents immigrated from India, and his friend Brian, whose parents immigrated from Taiwan, thank their parents for all their sacrifices by taking them out to dinner, in the hopes that learning about their parents’ struggles will bring them closer together. The episode is brutally honest about both sets of parents’ experiences, but makes sure not to generalize. (Each parent has a specific story that is unique to them, there is no “monolithic immigrant experience”.) …show more content…
Neoliberalism is a political theory that places responsibility on the people to govern themselves. (Through economic means of the privatization of business and less state social services provided by the government.) The episode “Parents” of Master of None explores the immigrant-parent to second-generation child relationship through the theory of neoliberalism. In some instances the episode affirms neoliberal ideals (being a hardworking, “model minority”.) and in other instances the episode complicates the theory. (Dev’s parents being supportive of his acting career and the episode’s positive view on leisure time.) The episode explores the effects of neoliberalism in terms of the model minority, self-sufficiency, and the “American Dream.” Our analysis will be supported with the incorporation of essays by academics from the realms of ethnography, anthropology, and Asian American studies, along with helpful