Mo
Netflix | ★★★✩✩
Longtime readers of the JC’s TV reviews will know there’s one word in this self-declared “dramedy about a man hustling to provide for his Palestinian family in Texas” that really winds me up.
I don’t necessarily blame Mo’s co-creator Mohammed Amer: of course he’s going to draw upon his own life and experiences.
Most likely it’s Netflix’s fault for pushing the point, but come on, you’re only hurting your own cause. Exactly what type of people are you trying to get to watch your show, and how precisely are you defining that word?
Dramedy.
Beware: it either signifies they were making a drama that turned out to be funnier than dramatic, or they were making a comedy, which didn’t end up with many, if any, actual laughs. Either instance is usually the worst of both possible worlds.
Mo Season1 Episode5 00 18 56 16R
Mo Amer, Omer Elba and Cherien Dabis
Given Mo Amer’s background as a standup it’s probably the latter, forcing the audience to lean into an undeveloped emotional and narrative journey to make up for its chuckle deficiencies.
Which isn’t to say there isn’t an interesting situation here, because there is, and it’s what saves the show. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, migrating to the US during the first Gulf War, and still waiting 22 years later for their asylum case to be processed, the lack of a green card makes Mo terrified of immigration officials and forced to take whatever work he can.
If this were closer to a traditional sitcom it would be the perfect setup; in every episode Mo gets a different job — mobile phone repairer, selling fake goods out of his boot, DJ at a strip club, olive picker — before returning to the status quo.
As a drama though, it feels too bitty, with through lines of a growing addiction to codeine, and the ongoing asylum application not enough to paper over the cracks.
What does work best, for both laughs and drama, are the cultural juxtapositions between Mo’s Arab background and family, the Texas setting, and his Mexican-American Catholic girlfriend.
Effortlessly switching between three languages and customs as needed, Mo maintains his good-natured character of someone trying to do the right thing as best he can.
Assisted by charm and likeability, Amer is easy to watch, which I’m sure will serve him well in the upcoming blockbuster Black Adam with Dwayne Johnson.
There are amusing nods of political commentary mostly directed at American phenomena such as mass shootings and the expense of healthcare, whilst Mo’s Palestinian identity seems to predominantly take the form of a quasi-religious appreciation of hummus and olive oil.
A Zionist bickering about 1967 in a shisha house and a Jewish lawyer make appearances, but really this is all background noise. Interesting background noise, which combined with it being shot and acted well, makes Mo easy enough to just let one episode flow straight into the next.
But with very few actual laughs, having a main character without a grander purpose gives you less of a purpose to actively seek it out.
