This Is Your Life on Retail: March 2022

Hello world.

 

It's been a long time since I've blogged. I've been busy dealing with the vicissitudes of life. Here I'd like to continue my dialogues about what retail work has been like at this current juncture, amidst the pandemic still going on, corrupt corporate policy and abuse, and the war in Ukraine. 

First off, a general rundown on the gig. The daily grind as a cashier at a multimillion dollar company has become much more difficult. There's not much staff to help you with, well, anything. Management is always absent from the front end so most of the time you're on your own. 

There's no baggers to help you bag the large orders that come down your line nonstop for eight hours straight. 

The union has finished up its voting for the strike authorization vote but it remains to be seen if there really will be a strike. I was skeptical about the vote to strike authorization because it seems that most of the public has given up on retail workers at this point. We need your support still and our fight isn't over even at this stage of the pandemic.  

At the beginning retail workers were heroes. The customers supported us as much as nurses even because of the pandemic. But now, the customers show us a lot more of the contempt hidden in their hearts for the unskilled labor. It's very easy to hate unskilled labor. Nowadays, there's always a yelling going back and forth throughout the day between cashiers and customers. Something about a dollar off most of the time that could be easily resolved but management will only agree to things if they just want people to go away so they don't have to deal with it. 

The union asked the company for $5, $1 extra per year for five years. Even that alone won't be enough for the workers to live on in California. The company said no, so they've been reduced to going down to $3, $1 per year for three years. That's an even worse proposal. But if they could get it, it would still be a victory for the workers and a victory is a victory, no matter how small.  

I'm not surprised by any of this. In fact, most of the stuff I mentioned here has already been mentioned in a lot of my other blogs about retail during the pandemic. 

And yet covid is still happening there and now the customers don't have to wear facemasks. Today at work, I had to work at the only cashier station that didn't have a plastic shield shielding me from customers and their maskless faces. Thanks a lot you corporate guys.

As Loki says in the show, "trust my rage." 

For those who are interested, compare this post about working conditions today with about a year ago, you can read it here.

Thank you for the support. 

The song we sing, did you know, we're listening. 

Our very own zombie apocalypse virus

Greetings supposedly healthy people of the interwebz. 

Thought I'd jot down some thoughts on the coronavirus going around right now. Well, for starters, let me say that we finally have our very own zombie apocalypse virus! World War Z! Book of Eli! *Insert any random apocalyptic movie!* This is good news for people who love bad news. [Modest Mouse reference]

The one good thing about the virus is that it will bring the world down to Earth, humble them, before everything is turned back to normal. Also, and this is a great good, it just might bring down the entire Trump Presidency. It isn't that the virus is singling him out, it's just that his administration is handling the whole thing very badly. As the late-night comedians joke, "If Trump is in charge of the coronavirus we're all gonna die." Probably the truest and most dark joke I've heard in a while. At least it's funny. I like dark comedy and satire. I'm a Voltaire fan. 

But in all seriousness, the virus will make the world great again. Right now people are stupid, ignorant, and as long as they have their TV, streaming, video games, porn, sex, and beer/liquor, they're content to live their happy little lives not giving a shit about the state of affairs of the world. I'm talking about the average idiots, the biomass. Sitting on their lounger chairs with their potato chips, weed, and beer. This is their only life away from work. Something akin to what Green Day sang about on their critically acclaimed hit album American Idiot.  

The virus will completely decimate the biomass and bring them to their knees. It will humble them. And the entire world. This is just what the world needs in what I would call one of its darkest hours. Ironically what will save them will hurt them and the economy. We don't get to save the girl. Instead, we'll get something like the flu. 

Welcome to the New Dark Ages. This is something of a divine comedy. Somebody should write a book about this period in the world. It will sell like hotcakes. After this period passes the world will be a better place. We will change the world. Or rather the virus will.

A Hard Day's Night

Salutations. I just wanted to jot down some notes about a good open mic I played last night. I performed with my friend Jason Thomas. He's an excellent alto saxophonist player. The night started early for us. We got to the Sugar Mill Saloon bar around 10 pm. We ended up waiting until nearly 1am to perform. We had beer.

There were a lot of performers. Most of them were comedians. Terrible comedians. But there was one fat comedian who kept making jokes about how he's bisexual. Things got pretty awkward. However, he was the funniest comedian so I give that guy props. 

Eric Shaffer played a terrific set on his shiny Stratocaster guitar. He does improv with loops and pedals. He makes beats by drumming on his guitar and sliding his hands on the strings. He's quite good at it. He even wears a suit coat.

We ended up going on around 1am. There was still a decent amount of people. How the heck does this bar bring 15-20 people on a Tuesday night? Even staying till nearly one in the morning? I guess the open mic is getting popular. I used my Hagstrom Super Swede Les Paul and a bass amp. However, my guitar tone was super clean, too clean, because I plugged in my guitar in the low input jack. A female friend of mine who's also a good musician said my guitar tone needed more bite. Should've brought a distortion pedal she said, lol. Clearly, she's clueless? Lol.

In terms of my guitar tone, I thought it was good for what we were doing. Which was straight-ahead jazz. We played Footprints by Wayne Shorter and Freddie Freeloader by Miles Davis. 

Jason's tone was good per usual. You can hear him on my recordings from Soundcloud. However, a good musician friend of mine said that when he was soloing and I was comping, that it seemed like we were just getting into it when I returned back to the theme and ended the tune. It's good criticism but we also had a time limit. I was limiting the songs to about ten minutes each. We played for a considerable time. Considering.

Are you supposed to feel great after a performance? I usually feel really great after playing an open mic, and then the next couple days after. It's the one outlet I have to perform music in front of an audience. I really need to be playing in a band but I've not the organizational ability to form a band nor the time to really invest in a serious gigging band. One day soon I hope to play in a band. That's really all I need. I have the talent already.  

A lot of times after performing I critique my playing pretty hardcore. I would say that my friend Jason is a better musician than I am, certainly a better jazz musician. But I also think that because of his conservatory training, sometimes when he performs live, especially with new people for the first time, he comes across kind of stiff. But that's okay. At least our set sounded great. We've only been rehearsing for a year together, lol. 

After the bar shenanigans, a bunch of us went to an after-party at a friends' house. I usually get home safe and sound through a friend of mine. But she was in a rush to get home so I ended up sleeping over and taking off in the morning. I live a few blocks away but carrying my amplifier and wearing my guitar on my back was rough walking home today in the hot afternoon sun. I tried to get my friend to call a lyft ride for me but he claimed his phone was dead. You don't get to party all night long hard without facing some repercussions. So I guess the moral of the story is that when your lady friend checks out for the night, you should always go with her. 

And that's all she wrote.

Disenchantment, A Riff on Fantasy

Disenchantment is a new comedy animated show written by Matt Groening (Futurama, The Simpsons) and Josh Weinstein (The Simpsons). The show is about a princess who's friends with an elf who loves her and a demon who's possessed her for life. Its a fantasy inspired show with Futurama artwork. Not only do we get the characteristic Futurama style artwork, we also get the humor, albeit much dryer in the first couple episodes. 

Characters
Bean is an alcoholic bad girl princess to a terrible King who beheads and kills his subjects all the time. She's no saint herself, accidentally sending people to their deaths and such. She is a bad egg, a misfit, which might be because her mother was turned to stone when she was a kid and she's longed for her ever since. Likewise, her father is hell bent on getting the Elixir of Life, in order to restore his ex-wife, even though he remarried and even has a son with the new wife, an heir to the throne. 

Elfo is an elf who's completely ignorant of most things. He left his elf kingdom and almost died before he met Bean. Bean's father, King Krog keeps him alive because he believes he needs elf's blood in order make the Elixir of Life. 

Lucy
Lucy is a demon that possessed Bean when she opened up this bottle in the castle. He's the devil's advocate in every way, causing Bean to make horrible mistakes, ruining her relationships even more. Everyone thinks he's a talking cat. Despite being a terrible person, he's one of the more likable characters, joke-wise. 

The early episodes are slow and have almost rocky starts. This isn't a show that immediately envelops you in laughs. Rather, it makes you work for it, like a art-style science fiction novel, I'm thinking of Neal Stephenson, that kind of thing. Where you might enjoy the writing style, but its so dense that it takes you a long time before you get to the meat and potatoes of the story or what the writer intends to say. Same thing with Disenchantment. 

Slow early episodes
Things don't really start to become interesting until episode four, with each episode being 30 minutes that means you have to sit through almost two hours before things get rolling into a comfortable drama with jokes. In a way I've come to expect this, especially as a modern literary device, where writers can spend forever building up one idea, only for it to come to fruition and finish in two seconds. 

There are certain episodes where Bean does just this. She's put into a confrontational situation and she panics and we are wondering what she will do. Instead of something interesting or grandiose, she instead comes to a conclusion in two seconds, the plot is finished, episode done, fin. 

Now, I can certainly be critical here and say this is a result of lazy writing. It could be for all we know, we weren't there when they wrote it in their work room. However, it might not be lazy writing, perhaps they saw the easy way out and just went with the easiest solutions. Either way, I don't see it as entirely bad. Its just a cartoon after all. 

One of my favorite episodes was this one where Bean gets exorcised by a creepy guy who imprisons Lucy, and plans to throw him in a volcano at the top of a mountain, think Mordor. Turns out he had tons of Lucy's demon race people and he was throwing them all to their deaths! Bean almost falls into the volcano in order to save Lucy from death. Quite the surprise because we are given an understanding that none of these characters care about anything. When the old creepy priest is throwing demons to the fire, a female demon shouts out,"I possessed your aunt and she loved every second of it!"

End of season thoughts
The show takes a surprising twist near the end of the series when they get the actual Elixir of Life, and Bean uses it on her mother's stone corpse, which reanimates her to life. What will begin in season 2 will be a much different altogether piece of work, where Bean isn't at the beck and whim of her father, where she will be able to drink with her mother, and who knows, go on a quest and become a real warrior? They've been nudging Bean unto the warrior path a little bit. Which brings me to my next point. 

Is this real Fantasy? 
Have any of the writers of this show every read any real fantasy novels? Perhaps they have, and perhaps they haven't. I certainly haven't read any comedy fantasy novels, although I'm certain they exist. This isn't your high fantasy like Ursula K LeGuin or even low pop fantasy like Game of Thrones. In a way its just a fantasy skin, other than the fact that the time period is like the Middle Ages, albeit with swords and sorcery, this isn't like CS Lewis or Tolkien come to cartoon. Its video-gamish at times. There's a scene where the gang is flying atop a griffin, which is stereotypical of World of Warcraft fast traveling.

Critics of the show say it isn't fantasy enough, it doesn't satisfy fantasy fans. I say its okay, but that it needs to supercharge it fantasy credentials into high gear for season 2, otherwise I would say its pandering to the nerdy, intellectual, female, fantasy crowd. 

Female Lead
I've talked to friends about the show and some of them can't get into the female protagonist perspective. He said,"I don't find her funny." I think that's sexist, but perhaps this is a trend. By making progressive shows about female lead characters, TV shows are having an influence on gender politics and such. I think its great. In fact, I can relate to Bean in many ways, not because she's a girl but because of her alienation, which could be a symptom of being a woman in this universe. If the female protagonist is going to become a trend, I think its a good one because women aren't main characters much on TV (I mean this loosely, as the show is a Netflix exclusive). Its a nice touch. 

The verdict 
Although this show isn't as great as Futurama or The Simpsons I'm sold. I found it so good that I finished season 1 in three days, which is pretty fast for me because I don't watch TV shows too much. I see the entire first season as a slow buildup for more hip and happening fantasy-driven plot in season 2. I think that will be what brings in even more fans, and we'll see if the writers can 1) write better 2) write real fantasy 3) do more interesting things with the characters. I think if they do these things the show will not only become more popular, but develop into a cult classic, a new part of the geek culture, although in some ways it already is. Check out the show now, its on Netflix. 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction novel written by Douglas Adams in 1979. You can see the book influenced science fiction in a popular cultural aspect, just take a look at Dr. Who and this book is that. The idea of the actual book in the novel, entitled The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a book with so much information compiled into it that it could be city, this idea is in a book I'm currently reading, Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age Or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. In this book an electronic book is given to a girl of a lower social class, a book compiled by men in government. That idea is much more serious than this book however. But Hitchhiker's is good fun. 

The plot follows a cast of characters (one human with a bunch of aliens) following the destruction of the planet Earth. This alien who was living on Earth for fifteen years and got stranded and this human are the only Earthlings that lived through it and now they've gone out into the Galaxy as sort of space dandy ronin, thus hilarity and shenanigans ensue.

It must be mentioned that Douglas Adams also wrote for Monty Python and it is evident here. There's lots of off the wall wacky descriptions of things (often with made up words), hilarious comedy dialogue, all the while being descriptive in a quasi literary way. 

I thought the ending was kind of funny. So basically because the Earth man had been on the Earth right before it was destroyed, somehow he knew the meaning to life (or something like that), and these mice (who were the secret overlords of the Earth, although they allowed themselves to be tested on by humans) needed his brain to access it and give this Universal Truth to the entire Universe, which needed to be said by this millions of years old Computer. They needed to remove his brain. Got that?

Its just funny that ultimately they found themselves in a sort of popular science fiction cyberpunk moment, which was a change of pace from the rest of the book, which is mostly descriptions of things and evolution of plot. There's a part where our gang of misfits meet two liberal cops who say they're just regular guys, liberals who embrace their girl friends in the fact that they feel bad when they shoot or kill people, and that they like to write poetry but haven't had anything published. It was an over the top moment like most of this book, but this part in particular had a Zen feeling, we can humanize our enemies, even within the contexts of this fun space adventure. That's probably the best thing I can say about it. Its not quite like the science fiction I mostly read, which is all serious works about class and society but it was a fun alternative for something to read in between my usual readings. Right now I'm reading through Octavia Butler's Kindred and I gotta say it is phenomenal, I'll be writing about that novel next. 

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

The Disaster Artist

The Disaster Artist is an adaptation of The Room starring James Franco and his brother Dave Franco. The Room was a terrible movie I've dubbed (whenever I talk to other people about it) "so bad, its bad." So why would a smart artist actor James Franco want to do a movie about it? The answer to that is (probably) because The Room is a Hollywood success story. Sure it didn't get any awards and isn't a 'good' movie but it has a cult following and a fan-base that loves Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero. And now that The Disaster Artist has done well James Franco and Tommy Wiseau can rest easy knowing they both did a great job in Hollywood. Sure it might be comedic relief but that's not the point. The point is that Tommy came from nowhere and is now a movie star. The dream of every actor that comes to LA. Just like my dream to become a guitar player. And I'm from Wisconsin so I might as well have come from nowhere.

The cool thing about the movie is that it was sort of autobiographical. It shows Tommy trying to be an actor in acting school and he fails hard. When he comes to the realization that he may never become a famous actor he decides to make a movie of his own. Nobody knows where Tommy comes from or where he got his money to make a movie. Let's just say he's probably some sort of financial investor, like how he played a banker in San Francisco with long hair (premise of The Room). Anyways (how is your sex life?), Tommy figures the only way he can become a star is if he does it himself, everything from producing, directing, acting, and casting. A novel idea but nothing to take lightly. You can sink or swim, even more so in the movie business than in music. Seeing his humble beginnings on screen makes me think that everything I do to become a famous guitar player isn't enough. I have to increase everything I do tenfold if I wanna be like Tommy. Or just play so bad its bad (bad as in good, like the jazz cats say). One thing to note is that Tommy worked hard to make The Room a cult classic, even spending tons of money to keep the movie playing in a theater for two weeks so it could get a chance to be nominated for awards. He also had an ad out back when the movie came out that had his real phone number on it.

Its a funny movie but it wasn't as funny as seeing The Room for the first time. Now that's funny, especially the sex scenes. Instead, I watched this movie and took in the more documentary aspects of it rather than any particular laughs, or any laughs at all. However, the audience laughed a lot and they're right, its sort of a funny. But I've seen it all before, all the jokes, the scenes, and Franco is not as funny as Wiseau (but he tries). This movie recreates scenes from The Room in exact frightening detail. Sure its cool that they recreated scenes but to make it exactly to the point that the lighting and shading and details of the rooms (ha) were identical? Now that's something a madman would do. Or just somebody who really loves The Room. In this day and age I suppose that's maybe not so farfetched.

Oh, hai Mark!

Is Terry Crews gonna be the voice of Doomfist?

In a tweet earlier today Blizzard announced that Terry Crews has visited the campus for unknown reasons. People are thinking its because he's going to be the voice of Doomfist. This seems highly likely, as I don't think he would've been there just because he's a fan of pc gaming.

In an Overwatch subreddit titled "If Doomfist becomes a hero I'd be so hyped if Terry Crews voice acted for him" Terry Crews responded  "I would LOVE TO PLAY DOOMFIST." He's really into pc gaming and he has to do this for the fans, the devs, and for himself. He would be a great addition to the game.

I know Terry Crews mostly from Everybody Hates Chris, a Chris Rock comedy sitcom about when he was a kid. Terry Crews plays Chris's dad in that show and he's a great actor. I also know him from Brooklyn Nine Nine, a goofy show that delivers the laughs.

Blizzard loves their fans so it is entirely possible that they might hire a voice actor based on thousands of Reddit upvotes and one piece of Reddit gold.

If you didn't know who Doomfist was you can read all about him here.

Will Ferrell Starring In Esports Movie

Will Ferrell will be starring in a movie about esports. ESPN says it “will have similarities with the role he had in Talladega Nights”.

"His schtick, as exciting and unexpected as you may find this, will be that he’s an old dude playing in competitions where nobody else is over the age of 30, and esports powerhouses Evil Geniuses and Fnatic are both “in discussions to participate in the film”." (Kotaku)

I tried looking for the trailer but it doesn't appear to be online anywhere-meaning that the fact that most gaming publications and gamers know this is pretty cool. I wish I could see the trailer and get the pre-giggles. I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell and his comedic antics.

The fact that he's doing a movie about esports is a major win for us gamers. Whether you're semi-professional gamer (or super hardcore) like myself, pro gamer that gets paid and wins tournaments, or just a casual player that plays when they have the time we can all appreciate the fact that gaming has become a huge phenomenon and has been unleashed upon the general populace like a bat outta hell. 

I think gaming used to be a bit taboo when I was a kid. It meant you were a basement dweller who didn't have a girlfriend and still lived with your mom. But now everybody is a gamer. Hot girls are gamers (gamer grills), weight lifting jocks are gamers, dads are gamers, and even old ladies (see story about 80-year old granny who streams Skyrim). Gaming has become a part of the mass media culture in many aspects. This means that its no longer as exclusive as it used to be but things are much better now that everyone can be accepted and initiated with the rites of gamerdom.

Esports has made gaming even bigger and its great. I do enjoy watching gaming tournaments on Twitch from time to time and I can see that the gaming community has widened in race, gender, class background, and age. Gaming has also brought people together who otherwise would've never known each other in a million years. I've met countless friends through online gaming, it's pretty cool.

If this movie hits the major box offices (and I'm sure it will) it will be a huge win for gamers and the gaming community.

Gamers are really funny people. Just talk to me or any of my friends. 

I'm with the Maestro

Mozart in the Jungle is a show I think I wrote about but it was a super long time ago. I didn't do a review or anything, I think I just mentioned that I was watching it. So to recap, this is an Amazon Prime exclusive show about the life of Hailey Rutledge, a 26-year old woman living in New York trying to complete her dream of being an oboe player in the New York symphony. The show is based on the book with the same name. I tried reading the beginning of the book and I quickly got bored with it because all the girl does in the book is just keep having sex with all her teachers. Not a surprise in the classically trained conservatory world and it happens all the time in the show too. Thankfully, its not what defines the show like the how the book is. Let's talk about what makes this show great and a bit about season two.

Okay, so obviously the music is good. It's mostly the warhorses. Beethoven's fifth and all that jazz. But the music still sounds good when the musicians play. I don't know if they were really playing the music but it sounds fantastic to my somewhat musically trained ears. In addition, the acting in the show is phenomenal. There is a Mexican actor named Gael Garcia Bernal who just absolutely slays at acting. He plays a weird, musically-possessed conductor that cares deeply for the orchestra but just can't organize or run anything in the non-music world. Hailey becomes her assistant for a while. He's kind of like a real conductor probably. He's that good at acting. He makes you believe its all real. The old white conductor is also great. He does a great job of playing an old conductor who tries to write but turns out to be a washed up hack. The actress who plays Hailey is also great. Although sometimes it feels like you're watching an episode of Girls, I do believe that white girls act like that. Then there are the older musicians in the orchestra. They're all great. There's the hot cellist who turns out to be bi. There's the older oboe teacher for Hailey that turns out to be a bitch to her. There's the druggie percussionist. There's the good boy white bread white guy. There's the white guy violin soloist who's kind of the leader of the orchestra when the conductor isn't around. There's the actress who plays Gloria, who's chairman of the orchestra board. She's exactly what an orchestra leader should be. There are funny moments, dramatic moments, musical moments, and interesting mannerisms that get used throughout season one and two. This is what makes the show so great.

The ending of season 2 was pretty interesting. Basically its the same thing that's happening at my work between the company and our union. The musicians are fighting to get more rights and benefits and the people who run the orchestra aren't having none of it. Meanwhile, on a trip to Mexico Hailey gets into a sorta thing with the Maestro (Bernal) but doesn't tell anybody about it until she's drunk at a orchestra members party. Season two ends on pretty much a cliff hangar. Gloria (chairwoman of the orchestra) says she will resign if they give the musicians what they want and the Maestro says the same thing but it comes to a strange conclusion. I didn't really get it to be honest. Very unclear ending for season two but I think that's just because they want the viewers to wait until season three. And that won't be a while.

I first saw the show a long time ago but I only just finished season two last night. It was worth waiting for the second season and it makes me happy to see that there are great shows about music out there. It would be pretty cool if there was a show similar to this one but about jazz or something. Although I think this show is more classified as a comedy there are dramatic moments in it that you wouldn't find in many comedies. You should check it out on Amazon Prime or online. The show does feel like a luxury to be able to watch it because its only on Prime. It should be on cable TV or something because it would get the attention it deserves as a network show. One of the best music shows I've ever seen. Can't wait for season three. I've been writing a lot about shows it seems. The next post will most likely be about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shadows movie. I might go see the new Warcraft movie this weekend too. Watch this space.

Real robots and fake Indians

Master of none is this Netflix comedy/drama created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang. The show is about the daily life of Dev (played by Ansari), a 30-year old actor living in New York city. The beginning episodes of this show are so good I would say its amazing-possibly a masterpiece? However, the more you get into it, you realize its not what you thought it was. By this I mean I thought the show was like a straight hilarious comedy. But then they try to throw in this real life drama crap like having a relationship and stuff. Let me tell you about some of my favorite moments from the show.

There's this episode where Dev receives an email from some show people that he auditioned for. He wasn't suppose to get the email but it was somehow forwarded to him. It was just written that way. He finds out they said something super racist. "Lets see if he can curry our favor". Pretty fucking hilarious. Later, the white guy that said the racist comment tries to win over Dev by taking him to a Knicks game. The guy buys Dev some nachos and some young white kid eats some of his nachos. "Did that kid just eat my nachos? What the fuck." Dev tells the kid those are his nachos but apologizes once he realizes the kid was waiting for his absentee father that wasn't going to show up. Also, Busta Rythmes shows up at the game and apparently he's friends w/ the white guy who said the racist comment. Dev talks to Rythmes in private about the comment and Rythmes is all like,"Mmmm nope. Because Indians eat curry? That's some racist shit. You should play the race card." Obviously its more funny once you see the delivery of the vocal lines but that episode was definitely one of the best in terms of the comedic content.

There was another episode where Dev and his Asian friend go out with their dads for dinner. The Asian dude's dad's memories pop up of when he was a kid when the guys ask him what he did in Taiwan. Then it cuts to a super stereotypical scene of him as a kid in Taiwan with his pet chicken. And then his parents say they need some meat for dinner and that they want him to kill the chicken. The kid walks out with a knife and pushes the chickens head down and the scene fades. Great scene. Super racist and stereotypical but funny. Every immigrant has a chicken story like that it seems.

Then there's the episode where Dev sleeps with a married woman. The guy catches them at his house and he's all upset, as he should be. The guy's all like,"why the fuck are you still here!" And Dev's like,"I don't know. You said you were leaving. I thought it might be awkward if we were in the elevator together." True comedic gold with that scene. Also, there's the scene where the guy the woman is married to skips Dev in line at the ice cream shop. He points to a fat guy and says,"I'll have what Chubbs is having." Then he takes a bite out of the ice cream and throws it at the garbage can, yelling,"that's disgusting!" Super funny stuff.

My personal favorite part was when Dev was working on a black virus movie (lol) called the sickening and the virus first was exposed and he was auditioning on his laptop in a coffee shop all like,"Oh my god! The sickening! It's happening! Holy fuckin' shit!" Then this stereotypical big black woman that runs the coffee place says,"I don't know what it is you think you're doing but you can't do it here". There was even a guy who was afraid to leave the coffee shop because of Dev. That was a nice hilarious touch.

Okay, so now you know for sure that the show is super funny. However, at some point around the 6th or 7th episode (there are 10) Dev gets in a relationship with some chick that he used to know back in the day. He met her at some party and at first things don't click because she was still w/ her boyfriend but somehow she gets into it w/ Dev. I'm not into relationships and I don't enjoy watching shows about relationships. Their whole relationship is super cute but its sort of cringe worthy in terms of the acting and the overall characters. I know girls who are like the girl Dev was dating but its not necessarily something I would want to see in a show that I thought was suppose to be funny. I guess what I'm saying is that I wasn't into the lovey dovey stuff. It distracted from what I thought made the show great-the great delivery of the jokes.

I do believe there's going to be a second season for this show but you know w/ these Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming only series it does take them longer to create more seasons than regular TV networks. There is definitely something special about this show. At first when my brother was watching it when he visited I thought the show wasn't my thing. But Ansari is a hilarious and good actor. He isn't quite brilliant but he does know how to deliver the lines well. In this day and age to be a funny actor I think you have to be able to improvise better than reading and memorizing lines. I think Ansari is that type of actor. The modern day actor. He's good at what he does. Also, its good to see a brown guy be able to write and act and do it so well. We need more minorities in the spotlight and media. We're all over the music world but everywhere else we're pretty scarce.

If you like funny shows then you should definitely check this show out. Hopefully season 2 delivers some more great comedic material. Hopefully there is a season 2! I can talk about this show with my friends and quote the lines and we all get it and find it super funny. It's all on Netflix. Go check it out.