#1 Happy Family USA Season 1 Review: A Timely if Messy Exploration of the Costs of Assimilation

#1 Happy Family USA is a timely exploration of a very unhappy Muslim family’s struggle to assimilate in post-9/11 America. In its short runtime of eight half-hour episodes, the show aims to tackle more than it can handle, occasionally stumbling because of its surrealist lens. 

Rumi (voiced by Ramy Youssef) is a pubescent teenager who finds it extremely difficult to belong in his predominantly white neighborhood and high school in New Jersey. It just gets worse after 9/11.

Most of this is a familiar story, but #1 Happy Family USA makes itself distinct through its style of exploring this difficulty. Rumi goes to desperate lengths to impress his teacher, whom he has a massive crush on, and this leads him to pretend to be something that he is not.

His father, Hussein, also voiced by Ramy Youssef, goes through a similar journey, becoming the token “good Muslim” for a Fox News show, all in pursuit of money to support his family. 

Each member of the family, barring the tragically deceased grandfather who haunts Rumi’s mother, Sharia, is a proxy for different ways Muslims in America find belonging in this country. In a time where the targeting of Muslims and Arab Americans is happening yet again through the suppression of pro-Palestine speech under the Trump administration, most of these stories strike eerie parallels to today.

The series often draws on the surreal. For example, Mona, Rumi’s elder sister (voiced by the wonderful Alia Shawkat), goes on a drug-induced trip to Cairo with her grandmother, who convinces Mona to live her truth as a lesbian despite her family’s judgment. There are other examples, too, such as Rumi having a best friend who is a lamb meant for sacrifice, etc.

The animation style works particularly well with these surreal trips, and care is taken in the construction of each character and their code-switched selves. I particularly like how they glitch through the doorway of their home to present themselves differently to the outside world, appearing just like everyone else.

While the family’s members are well-written, some supporting characters border on caricature, reducing them to less insidious versions of themselves. This is especially true for Timothy Olyphant’s FBI Agent and neighbor, a bumbling guy just trying to do right and who doesn’t count as a threat to the Hussein family.

George W. Bush also makes an appearance at the end for a sleepover with Rumi and makes a deal with him to release his wrongfully detained uncle, but making any deals with then-President Bush is akin to making a deal with the devil. 

While making these villainous characters less threatening in this way also does reduce the power of the fear and intimidation they cultivated in Muslim and Arab communities in the U.S., it also seems to skate over the reality of their cruelty too easily, especially when it comes to the throwaway mention of Guantanamo Bay.

The series takes big swings at significant issues, and for the most part, it works. There are some surprisingly emotionally resonant moments throughout the at times ridiculous storyline, especially when the family is honest with each other about their fears in the changing world around them.

I wish there had been more episodes to explore these wide-ranging issues in more depth, but the series covers a lot of ground in just eight episodes. #1 Happy Family USA leans on the surreal to explore timely issues of belonging and assimilation in a unique, if at times ridiculous, manner.

 

 

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#1 Happy Family USA is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

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