Master Of None is all grown up

Rating: 3/5

American writer-director Aziz Ansari's critically adored comedy drama is back after four years - and it has grown up. But its sober melancholy has a bittersweet beauty and realism to it. Here are three reasons to watch it.

Seasons 1 and 2 of the comedy drama Master Of None were some of the finest hours of television in 2015 and 2017. The life of New York actor Dev (Aziz Ansari) was the perfect canvas for Ansari's fresh and funny takes on millennials, modern love and the Asian immigrant experience.

Then, in 2018, Ansari, the show's star and creator, faced sexual misconduct allegations that derailed his career and the show.

This is why it has taken four years for it to return for a third season of just five episodes, also known as Master Of None Presents: Moments In Love.

As in real life, Ansari has taken himself out of the picture. The show focuses instead on Dev's childhood friend Denise (played by Lena Waithe, who co-wrote the season), and the ups and downs of her relationship with her wife Alicia (Naomi Ackie).

The series always had a keen eye for the subtle ways in which relationships - and people - shape-shift and evolve, sometimes from one minute to the next.

And it captures that here with Denise and Alicia - a low-key but quietly devastating portrait of a marriage.

Ansari briefly pops up as Dev in the first episode, when he and his girlfriend start fighting in front of Denise and Alicia.

Denise is now a best-selling author, but it turns out Dev's acting career has tanked and he has moved back in with his parents.

As he reminisces about his carefree days living the good life in Manhattan and going on grand trips to Italy - as seen in Seasons 1 and 2 - you realise this is probably the more real and representative look at the life of an ageing millennial.

Compared with Dev, Denise and Alicia are living the dream with their bourgeois domestic bliss. But their lives are about to change as well.

While the series never spells this out, the suggestion is that there are seasons in one's life, an inevitable cycle of birth and decay. And you can hear Ansari reflecting on the vicissitudes of his life.

Yet, there are moments of vitality and joy too - stolen, fleeting and often thoroughly mundane, like an impromptu dance party in the laundry room.

They never last, but that is also what makes them beautiful.