{"id":21492,"date":"2021-05-03T15:57:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T15:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=21492"},"modified":"2021-05-03T17:47:35","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T17:47:35","slug":"master-of-none-lena-waithe","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/master-of-none-lena-waithe\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Master of None’ To Focus on Lena Waithe For Its Third Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lena
Lena Waithe and Aziz Ansari at the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in 2017 (Photo: Jason LaVeris\/FilmMagic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Aziz Ansari\u2019s debuted his semi-biographical series <\/span>Master of None\u00a0<\/span><\/em>in 2015, it <\/span>garnered a sweeping fandom<\/a>\u00a0for its exceptional ability to capture the delicate humanity<\/a> in finding your identity<\/a> with lighthearted humor and wit. The Netflix<\/a> comedy series, loosely based on Ansari\u2019s life, chronicles the personal and professional life of Dev Shaw (Ansari) who is navigating his present and future in New York City as a 30-year-old actor. From the outset, the show remarkably tackled a diversified plot \u2014 unraveling the immigrant experience, modern love, and the cumbersome stages of adulthood in every episode.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After a long-awaited return to the streaming giant, the acclaimed series has officially been renewed for its third installment and unveiling a reimagined through line that drifts away from the plot of its last episode in 2017. The new five-episode season pivots to the exploration of queer love through the relationship of Denise (Lena Waithe) and her partner Alicia (Naomi Ackie), rather than following Ansari\u2019s leading character. According to a Netflix description, per <\/span>Hollywood Reporter<\/span><\/em><\/a>, “this new season is a modern love story that intimately illustrates the ups and downs of marriage, struggles with fertility, and personal growth both together and apart. Fleeting romantic highs meet crushing personal losses while existential questions of love and living are raised.\u201d Denise, who appeared in the previous seasons as Dev\u2019s childhood friend, shifting to the spotlight of season three \u201cdelivers an evolution of the series that remains tethered to previous seasons while breaking new storytelling ground of its own.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Ansari wrote alongside Waithe for the upcoming season premiering May 23 as well as helms the director\u2019s chair. Waithe has previously lent her pen to the series as she co-wrote the acclaimed season two episode “Thanksgiving” that divulged the precarious conversations of sexuality in Black households. In 2017, Waithe became the first-ever Black woman to win an Emmy for outstanding comedy writing for “Thanksgiving.”\u00a0 The memorable (and semi-autobiographical) installment co-starred Angela Bassett at Waithe\u2019s TV mom Catherine. Throughout the flashback-heavy episode, Waithe\u2019s character Denise deals with coming out as a lesbian, or a \u201cLebanese\u201d person, as she puts it as a young teen to avoid labels, to both her family and close friends like Dev.<\/span><\/p>\n

This seemingly abrupt shift is not startling for many fans of the show. In 2018, Ansari (who co-created the show with Alan Yang) was accused of sexual misconduct at the height of the #MeToo Movement. Ansari would later address the allegations in his 2019 Netflix special <\/span>Right Now<\/span><\/em>, stating, \u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019s some of you that are curious how I feel about that whole situation. I felt so many things in the last year or so: There\u2019s times I felt scared, there\u2019s times I felt humiliated, there\u2019s times I felt embarrassed, and ultimately I just felt terrible that this person felt this way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29094,"featured_media":21541,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16],"yoast_head":"\n'Master of None' To Focus on Lena Waithe For Its Third Season<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After a much-anticipated return, \u2018Master of None\u2019 is premiering season 3 to Netflix on May 23 and a new plot awaits its viewers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/master-of-none-lena-waithe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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