DUBAI: Riz Ahmed’s six-part Amazon series isn’t easily categorized. The first episode makes it seem like a straight-up, semi-autobiographical sitcom in the vein of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” — with an equally self-absorbed main character, a struggling British-Pakistani actor and sometime rapper called Shah Latif, played by the very-much-not-struggling actor and sometime rapper Ahmed, who is of British-Pakistani descent.
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By the end of episode six, though, the show has morphed into something far more layered, tackling cultural expectations, creative drive, ego and ambition, institutional racism, gender roles, and much more. It’s part life story, part satire of the entertainment industry, and, seemingly, part therapy for Ahmed.
Latif is given the opportunity to audition to be the new James Bond. When word of this gets out (helped by Shah ‘accidentally’ getting snapped leaving the audition location), it naturally enrages a certain section of the British population disgusted to think that Bond might be played by a non-White actor. And Shah has his own reasons to feel conflicted about what would be a life-changing role: he’s cultivated a public image as a role model for his community — can he really be that if he’s willing to become a figurehead for the old-school UK establishment?
