Netflix
With episode 4, Aziz continues what he started with Modern Romance, putting online dating & hookup app culture front and centre and pointing out some of the massive flaws that come with swiping and having too many choices.
The entire episode is one long first date, where multiple first dates are edited together to show them all happening at once, in the same places, with a rotating cast of women. We see how each one introduces herself, what they each talk about, what weird fetishes and behaviours they have, and finally how they each choose to end the night with Dev.
All the date behaviours are exaggerated for comedy – one woman goes to snort coke in the middle – but most are extremely recognizable for anyone whose ever met up with an online hottie; for instance, the woman who pretends to have an emergency but uses her phone to find another match definitely exists (and sooooo many men like her exist).
If that had been the entire episode, it would have felt like men calling women crazy and bitching about being used or friend-zoned or something. But Dev makes a few genuine connections, notably with The Good Place’s Tiya Sircar, Diana (his actress friend from season one), Aparna Nancherla and Lauren Miller Rogen (if you haven’t seen For A Good Time Call, leave this article and go watch it immediately it is fucking hilarious).
Netflix
As each date ends, the uber rides home are very different. Aparna’s Ramen blogger character has a boyfriend and just wants to be friends; Diana thinks they should stay friends and not mess it up, Tiya Sircar’s Priya shares a chaste kiss with Dev and they make plans to meet later. The only one who clearly immediately wants to have sex with him is Miller-Rogen’s Christine. They make out heavily in the uber, go back to her place and get busy. Dev notices her racist Mammy jar but doesn’t say anything and powers through.
When he tells her it’s racist after the sex is done, she has the typical white woman response to being called racist instead of listening to the man of colour who is trying to educate her. Dev high tails it out of there when she somehow turns this around on him, goes back home, plops on his couch and immediately starts messaging other women on the app.
The message is simple; having too much choice makes it harder to pick someone and increases the frequency with which you go out, but it doesn’t make the dates you do go on any more meaningful.
