Ramy...GG winner for Best Actor in a TV Comedy

Checked the pilot out last night after reading good reviews.

Definitely recommend although I know a good part of this board would be skeptical.

He’s great as the lead, kind of a mix between Aziz Ansari in Master of None and Donald Glover in Atlanta.

Some pretty funny/awkward situations that all seem like they could be pretty true to his life which makes them even more cringeworthy

quote:

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Ramy Hassan is a first-generation Egyptian-American who is on a spiritual journey in his politically divided New Jersey neighborhood. He becomes caught between a Muslim community that thinks life is a moral test and a millennial generation that believes life has no consequences. Through it all, he's still trying to do the things that most 20-somethings do, like date. He is essentially a guy who is torn between praying on Fridays and going to parties on Friday nights. Which side will win out in this seemingly endless internal battle?

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From an interview and review if some want more info before diving in:

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“On one level, it’s very clear that there’s nothing out like it,” Youssef said. “There’s this initial reaction that you have of: ‘Oh, man. I have a lot of responsibility. I have this responsibility to speak for my people.’ Then you start to make the thing and you’re like: ‘That’s an impossible goal. If I try to do that, it just won’t work.’”

He continued, “The more that I got into the process, I realized all I can do is really offer my singular point of view, and make sure that it’s as much me as possible, and that will speak to who we need to speak to.”


If “Ramy” is not exactly a Muslim “Cosby Show” — this version is far more vulgar — Youssef, who also has a stand-up special debuting on HBO on June 29, can claim credit for acing the Riz Test.

“If that’s how it is, I have hopes for it,” Dr. Habib said. “It will change the narrative and it will maybe open the floodgates for more shows like this about Muslims.”

The Ramy of the show has to reconcile his faith with the demands of being a young adult in New Jersey. He said that while his character on the show wasn’t an exact replica of himself, “a lot of the rules that are in the show are kind of the ones that I do have for myself personally.” Most of his love interests early in the season are white and do not understand why he doesn’t drink or do drugs. He has deep conversations at his mosque about how to properly wash his feet and what his place is in the world. (Youssef doesn’t completely avoid caricatures in the show: His uncle, played by Laith Nakli, is cartoonishly homophobic and anti-Semitic.)

At the same time, “Ramy” explores many of the same issues as other contemporary shows about young adults trying to get by, like HBO’s “Girls” and “Insecure.” Along with the push-and-pull of his faith, Ramy contends with meddling relatives, selfish friends, dating woes and career struggles.

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