Master of None: Hot Ticket

November 9, 2015 7:51 AM - Season 1, Episode 3

Dev's plan to score a date with a pretty waitress by inviting her to a concert doesn't have quite the result he wanted
posted by The Gooch (8 comments total)

This is one of the episodes that seems to go back to a bit from his standup and expand it into a more in-depth treatment of the core idea. A lot of the episdoes fall into this category (Indians on TV, Parents, this one, Ladies and Gentlemen) while some seem to be based on something else (or perhaps on some routine of his I haven't seen?) -- such as Nashville, The Other Man, and Plan B.

This episode does set up the reintroduction of Rachel who becomes important down the road (and whose actress is doing a fine job), but I found the "Hot Girl is a Lunatic" trope to be kind of weaksauce. I did notice the lampshading of Dev's rant about honesty and directness being put right next to him texting several women and taking a winner-takes-all attitude about the outcome, and I think this feeds into one of the themes I see throughout the series about Dev (and by proxy, Aziz himself of course) growing and changing especially with regards to how he treats other people.
posted by axiom at 9:19 PM on November 9, 2015

This is silly but I really loved (and was annoyed by) Dev pausing the show every time a text came through because it's something I do. It's just like music in the car - there's no reason to turn it down when looking for something but most people do that.

The lunatic hot girl didn't actually bug me because not too long ago I met a guy EXACTLY like that. And I think that's maybe one of those things I did not expect to have happen at my age (42) and so I didn't think it was unrealistic that he'd meet a total douchebag who was stealing jackets and being an asshole. I didn't file it under "crazy hot chick" - I filed it under, "wow, that is a horrible person."
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 10:50 PM on November 9, 2015

The Evolution of Aziz Ansari
posted by growabrain at 11:04 PM on November 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think how the overall interaction played out also helped move it from "crazy hot chick" to "horrible person." Usually with the "crazy hot chick" trope, the guy may know she's horrible, but can't resist getting swept up in the crazy drama because she/the sex is so hot (blech). But here he quickly loses interest and won't get sucked in.

It's really more about how trying to play the system backfired: the actual date itself was crummy, and then there's the glimmer of hope that's yanked away from him at the end. If he'd just taken the other girl, maybe he'd have had a great time, maybe not, but he wouldn't have run into Rachel and reconnected, had a great evening, and then had to watch her walk away.
posted by ghost phoneme at 11:57 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Among the many awesome things about the show, damn the soundtrack!! The how has put it on Spotify.
posted by dry white toast at 8:49 PM on November 10, 2015

I got a little sad when I saw the "Story by Harris Wittels" in the title sequence (sidenote: I love the title sequences throughout the series), reminding me that this was the show Harris Wittels was about to move to NYC for right before he died (mentioned in Aziz's tribute to him). But there was so much of his humor in this episode: turtle climbing out of a briefcase, the sincerity of "I really admire you as a person", the conversation about becoming a pool shark or a professional bowler by practicing a lot (which sounds like it had its origin in Harris's Foam Corner (aka Harris's Twitter drafts)). I'm half surprised that with all the talk of the concert and music, Phish wasn't mentioned once.

With all the advice he gives Dev, I would like to believe that H. Jon Benjamin's character is Coach McGuirk after getting his life right.

I want to be as excited about things as Brian is about going to the aquarium but I also hope to never meet anyone who has an aggressive Cartman impression.
posted by memento maury at 10:05 PM on November 10, 2015 [8 favorites]

With all the advice he gives Dev, I would like to believe that H. Jon Benjamin's character is Coach McGuirk after getting his life right.

DUDE YES. A good 80% of the time when he talks all I hear is McGuirk. I rarely hear Archer. Sometimes I hear Benjamin from Dr. Katz.

I LOVED that that chick became so nutzo. I feel like I've known people like that, sadly. I totally binged the entire season... sooo... yeah.
posted by Crystalinne at 10:29 PM on November 10, 2015

All I hear is Archer, which can be... disconcerting.
posted by axiom at 10:24 PM on November 15, 2015 [2 favorites]