Ramy Season 2 Review: Faith and Choice Dominate A Great Second Season
A complete surprise with its first season, Ramy returns for its second season with a clear goal of striving to achieve meaning and understanding in one’s faith. It’s a lofty, heady goal, but one that the show doesn’t take for granted.
Though there are some faltering steps near the middle, the second season is a wonderful continuation that builds on what’s come before and adds two great characters in Sheikh Ali and his daughter Zainab, who become important figures in Ramy’s life.
Ramy Hassan makes for a fascinatingly flawed main character for the show, someone who wants to skip the hard parts and get to the enlightenment. He is always making mistakes but with good intentions, and the show unflinchingly holds on as he tries to lose himself in his Muslim faith to make everything click into place.
He’s helped by the addition of Sheikh Ali (Mahershala Ali), whose leadership in the community and wise words are major components for Ramy as he tries to do the right thing. There’s also Ramy’s family, who are given a similar style of spotlight that the first season provided so that their own stories can be told.
There’s a level of introspection into Ramy as a character that is why so much of this second season works. He’s trying to find himself by diving into his faith, but his flaws still rear their head not as tests, but as a fallback to bad choices.
Perhaps they are self-destructive choices or perhaps it’s simply trying to grow up when he isn’t ready; the show isn’t afraid to challenge us or the characters and to throw them into moments they are not ready for.
By doing so, Ramy is testing its characters not only through their faith, but through their humanity. These characters feel so comfortably lived-in and so crisply defined and easy to connect with. Even characters that are initially off-putting on purpose, like Uncle Naseem, face fascinating arcs once it’s time to dig into their story.
It’s here where one of the major reasons the first season works returns; it may be Ramy’s show, but the lives of his family are just as compelling to follow. Some of its most impressive episodes come from hard-hitting looks into his sister Dena (May Calamawy), his mother Maysa (Hiam Abbass), his father Farouk (Amr Waked), and his Uncle Naseem (Laith Nakli).
These episodes are like slice-of-life spotlights that are empathetic views into the regrets, the fears, and the worries that they somewhat silently face. You’re able to see what makes each of them tick and why they respond in the larger narrative in particular ways. They’re bringing their lives and their experience to the situation, and on Ramy, that is felt more than some other comedies.
There are some missteps, unfortunately. A couple of the middle episodes don’t have the impact of the others, where some story beats feel incredibly out of place, like they don’t belong with what the rest of the show is doing. It’s only temporary, however, before coming back even stronger with the three final spectacular episodes.
Ramy Youssef does a great job of making his millennial character so wrong during one moment, and instantly likeable in the next. But it’s his writing, co-writing every episode, where his talent shines the most. You can feel questions he is struggling with coming out onto the page and screen and becoming universal emotions.
Hiam Abbass and Amr Waked are fantastic as Ramy’s parents, where their experiences over life reflect back on their children while they face their own issues. Both Abbass and Waked bring a level of understated depth to their roles, and offer some of the season’s most interesting revelations.
May Calamawy is wonderful as Ramy’s sister Dena, and while she is a little sidelined apart from her centric episode, she still stands out because of her great timing and because her performance on that episode is so strong. There’s also Laith Nakli’s Uncle Naseem, who is somewhat of a broad character that becomes more complex over time and allows Nakli to show a surprising side that casts him as one of the most tragic figures on the show.
Mahershala Ali becomes a larger-than-life figure in Ramy’s life, and on the show itself. As Sheikh Ali, he is a guiding light and inspiration that Ramy comes to see as a mentor, and his performance is one of calm composure and measured words, where everything has meaning. It’s the kind of character that fits Ali perfectly, as he brings so much compassion and a sense of history to the role.
He dominates the narrative of the season, and becomes this powerful symbol for Ramy and for the show itself. Ali is a mesmerizing performer here, and the direction the season takes for his character is a fascinating journey.
Ramy isn’t entirely about faith, but it is its dominating factor. Ramy wants nothing more than to be a good Muslim, and he’s constantly inundated with ways to strive for that goal. But the factor of choice looms just as large for him, and the second season becomes all about choices. Some choices haunt around the edges of their lives, while others feel inevitable as they approach.
The show is a wonderful celebration of faith and trying to be a better person. Even with some miscalculations along the way, the second season is on par with the first and continues to be a powerful comedy that deserves your attention.
What did you think of this season of Ramy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Ramy is available on Friday, May 29 on Hulu.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.