Ramy Season 1 Review: Faith and Strawberries
2023 - The show follows a format similar to Hulu's other successful series, such as 'The Bear' and 'Atlanta,' featuring 30-minute (ish) episodes that blend humor, lightheartedness, and meaningful storytelling.
[Spoilers Beyond This Point]
A new age of storytelling with shorter, impactful narratives that explore diverse themes beyond the traditional life-and-death consequences is emerging.
Ramy Season 1: New Age Prestige TV
This marks a new wave of evolution in exceptional television, going beyond the likes of iconic shows like 'The Sopranos,' 'Breaking Bad,' and 'The Wire.'
Related: The Bear Season 2 Review: Time Well Spent
A wave of next-phase programming is on the rise, building upon the groundbreaking elements of the aforementioned trailblazing shows. Additionally, it draws inspiration from a tier just below, including 'Mr. Robot,' 'Boardwalk Empire,' and 'Narcos.' The defining feature of this new age is the increased ease of digesting these shows in their 30-minute format and a shift towards exploring storylines with less intense life-and-death consequences.
Before The Sopranos' debut, attempts at family-focused storytelling remained on the surface level, prioritizing crowd-pleasing elements over deeper narrative exploration. Serious consequences to actions were seldom portrayed, and mainstream TV largely played it safe, avoiding ethical boundaries and unconventional character roles.
Prior to The Sopranos' arrival, family-focused storytelling was mostly superficial, emphasizing crowd-pleasing aspects over delving into deeper narrative exploration.
The Sopranos changed the game with its protagonist Tony Soprano, embracing moral ambiguity as alluring and acceptable. Fearlessly delving into violence and darker themes, it introduced the concept of the "anti-hero" to a broad audience. This groundbreaking approach paved the way for iconic characters like Walter White in Breaking Bad and Omar in The Wire, reshaping television storytelling and expanding the scope of captivating narratives.
Related: An Analysis of the Role of Violence in ‘The Sopranos’
In this new era of prestige television, we are witnessing a resurgence of family-centered stories with lower stakes, yet they manage to captivate viewers with profound questions. Inspired by and applying The Sopranos' approach of not treating the audience like idiots, these shows elevate themselves to the most respected conversations.
They pioneer a unique style, infusing realism and exceptional screenwriting into more lighthearted narratives that, while not always life-or-death situations, carry significant weight and depth.
They break new ground by infusing this focus on quality of realism and excellent screenwriting into lighter, gentler narratives that still carry weight, even if they aren't always life-or-death situations. Instead, viewers can immerse themselves in the story of a complex character like Ramy and easily consume it, without journeying into the darkest corners of humanity, and often violence.
Layers of Faith in Ramy Season 1
The show delves into profound questions about religion and the reasons behind people's adherence to its rules. In its first season, Ramy specifically explores the dichotomy between the performative aspects of religion and its authentic application. It takes a close look at how different characters interpret Islam and how they incorporate it into their individual lives.
The show beautifully explores the varying levels of dedication individuals take towards their religion, delving into their motivations and highlighting intricate details that are often overlooked.
Ramy Season 1 provides provoking contemplation on strict religious regimens, it poses the question: Should one rigorously adhere to them at all times, or are there moments when compassionate human elements warrant deviation from these rules?
It raises thought-provoking questions about the nature of strict religious regimens: Should one adhere to them rigorously in every moment, or are there instances where human, empathetic elements justify deviating from these rules?
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It contemplates when it might be acceptable or unacceptable to break outside the strict confines of one's religion and explores the complex dynamics that come into play.
Ramy, as a character, is portrayed as an ordinary individual who has faced various conflicts since childhood, notably including the aftermath of 9/11 and dealing with the social hardships of being a Muslim adolescent during that time.
Strawberry Symbolism
Among the episodes of the season, Episode 4 titled ‘Strawberries’ stood out as one of my favorites. It was a poignant example of exploring something deeply human and adolescent, such as the experience of puberty and the challenges it brings and adding dangerous elements to the screen.
In this episode, one dangerous element was a conversation with Osama Bin Laden in Ramy’s dream.
Bin Laden's explanation of American greed reveals his motivations, demonizing it while also using it as a manipulation to sway Ramy's allegiance in this bold dream sequence.
In this scene, the dream-like elements are minimalistic and not visually different from the reality the show is shot in. It is in Ramy’s kitchen, where he sees Osama Bin Laden himself calmly grabbing something from the refrigerator. There is a stark contrast between Ramy and Bin Laden.
Ramy is vulnerable and innocent, while bin Laden is deep-voiced and shrouded in darkness.
“I love strawberries. They only grow in warm weather. But soon, in a few months, it will be winter, and America will still have strawberries. Do you know how?” asks Bin Laden.
The sound of Bin Laden biting into a strawberry is vividly depicted.
“Egypt turned their wheat fields into strawberry fields. So, every year Egypt grows thousands of strawberries. But they are not for Egyptians. People need wheat for bread. Do you see what I mean, Ramy? They have less bread… so Americans can have strawberries in December.”
The dialogue shifts from bin Laden's persuasive arguments about American consumption to Ramy's shocked rejection. Despite being tempted, Ramy realizes he doesn't align with Bin Laden's extremism.
The scene captures the complexity of the burden placed on many Muslims in America after 9/11, as they were wrongfully demanded to publicly deny any connection to radical Islam, despite having no ties to the heinous acts of Bin Laden.
Bin Laden’s explanation of the evilness of American greed gives us a motivation behind his actions, and a valid critique of this greed, but we see how it is being used as a manipulation to get Ramy to side with him.
Ramy remembers Angela from his class, who’s mom was killed in the 9/11 attacks. He comes to his senses that he is not like Bin Laden, he’s angry that Bin Laden killed people. Before that it seemed like the manipulation and intimidation of Bin Laden was working on Ramy.
“But, what about Angela’s Mom?” Ramy says.
During this conversation, both of them indulge in the strawberries that are on the table. They symbolize American culture, and the fact that they are both biting into them during this whole conversation is my interpretation that they both are guilty of indulging in this mass consumerism. Or more specifically put, everyone is guilty of this same type of thing. It’s hard to not be guilty of the blood on the other end of the strawberries bled by innocent Egyptians. Somebody has to pay the price for somebody elses luxury, and who doesn’t want luxuries?
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“But it’s not fair. They were just working… they didn’t know about all of that…” Ramy says referring to the people who lost their lives during 9/11.
Since this is a dream, Ramy’s internal struggles not related to 9/11 and being Muslim are present - the main one is masturbation. Ramy is 12-years old and this is a real burden to him and his group of friends often talk about how they jerk off. Ramy has never done it. This is such a realistic scenario and blend of multiple burdens that Ramy is dealing with and they serve as a foundational moment in Ramy’s life.
He is able to give in to his American indulgence identity by successfully masturbating to an image of a white woman accepting him (lol - yes this becomes a wet dream and the ironically funny catharsis to Ramy’s struggles with masturbation earlier in the episode).
Strawberries are a strong symbol throughout the season and it all begins in this episode.
Anyways, let me know what you think about all this in the comments.
I rate season 1 of Ramy a 8.8 out of 10. I started watching season 2 and so far it’s not hitting as well as season 1 did, but if I do finish it I'll be sure to update this blog with links to my reviews of season 2 and 3.
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