'Ramy' Season 2: The Hulu show is at its best when it focuses on Ramy's family
Spoilers for 'Ramy' Season 2
Much of 'Ramy' on Hulu is about is a millennial American Muslim who is grappling with his faith and lifestyle while battling the judgment of his friends and family. That millennial is Ramy Hassan, played by co-creator of the show, Ramy Youssef. Youssef had won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series -- Musical or Comedy for his portrayal in the first season.
However, some of the individual episodes in 'Ramy' also focus on his immediate family members, such as his father, Farouk Hassan (Amr Waked), his mother, Maysa Hassan (Hiam Abbass), his sister, Dena Hassan (May Calamawy) and his Uncle Naseem (Laith Nakli). Some of the second season's strongest episodes are when it features these individual characters.
For instance, in the episode titled '3riana grande' (in English transliteration of Arabic letters, '3' represents the Arabic letter, 'ع', which is like a rough 'a' sound), we learn that Dena has won a full scholarship to go to law school. Excited, she posts it to Facebook, where she gets over a hundred likes. Her parents then berate her for sharing it on Facebook and inviting the evil eye. At first, Dena is unconcerned, but when she starts losing hair and feeling a bump on her chest, she starts to get really worried. She starts to wear a headscarf and even goes to Uncle Naseem for guidance.
After visiting a fortune teller who apparently saw a very bad fortune for Dena, the latter then does something to help ward off any evil lurking around Dena. Just when it seems things are going okay for Dena, her car breaks down which is made worse by the driver in the tow truck. The Mexican immigrant is assimilated and berates Dena for wearing a headscarf, saying it's oppressive and congratulates her for being able to drive a car. Frustrated by the man's racist dialogues, Dena breaks down.
In another episode, 'Ramy' focuses on Maysa, who is set to become an American citizen; what motivates her to do so is so she can vote out Donald Trump. However, when a Lyft customer ends up reporting her, she worries that it may affect her citizenship procedure and obsesses with following one of her customers to apologize. Maysa, for the most part, does not seem to understand what she did wrong - she kept refusing to use the right pronouns for the customer - and is still, for the most part, quite offensive. But the episode shows that she can start to change if she put a little more thought into it.
Of all the character-driven episodes, it is Uncle Naseem's that is the most surprising. In the penultimate episode, we learn more about Uncle Naseem and perhaps how his constricting culture may have lead to certain predilections in how to act in society. Though he appears very successful and sure of himself, we learn there's more to him.
These episodes are what show that 'Ramy' is not about the "general Muslim story," but rather shows that there isn't one story, in fact. Representation opens up more representation and even with all its faults, 'Ramy' shows there's space for more.
'Ramy' is available for streaming on Hulu on May 29.
