United States Of Al offers cursory representation through dated comedy tropes
TV Reviews United States of Al
On the surface, it’s fairly obvious what the team behind United States Of Al was aiming for: The CBS sitcom is breaking a representation barrier on network TV by having an Afghan immigrant as its central character. While it’s primarily written by The Big Bang Theory alums David Goetsch and Maria Ferrari, four members of the writing team are Afghans as well. In the show, Awalmir, or “Al” (Adhir Kalyan), starts a new life in suburban Ohio, where he moves in with combat veteran Riley (Parker Young), for whom he was an interpreter while in Afghanistan. The two forged such a close friendship that Riley helped Al get his Special Immigrant Visa, which in real life is available to only 50 interpreters or translators per year. United States Of Al tries to find a light in war-related PTSD and in the culture shock and hardships faced by a Muslim immigrant, but it’s trapped in the dated sitcom format and predictable, stereotypical attempts at humor.
Sure, the show sets itself apart by including multiple actors of Afghan descent as well as writers who are Afghan and veterans; Middle East and North African representation is dismally low on television. But where does this particular inclusivity lead to? In the first four episodes, Al is the only Afghan or person of color with a speaking role, as the rest of the series regulars are all Riley’s family members. The sitcom came under scrutiny even before its premiere for casting Kalyan, who is South African and Indian, in the lead role. One of the series’ producers, Reza Aslan, defended this decision on Twitter, claiming that while they auditioned 100 Afghan actors, it’s tough to nail down the specificity of sitcom styling. Kalyan gained such experience starring in the short-lived CW sitcom Aliens In America and CBS’s Rules Of Engagement. As well-intentioned as it may be, it’s this exact method of presenting authentic, unexplored stories to mainstream audiences in the laziest manner that fails the marginalized community it’s trying to depict.
The pilot starts just before Al’s arrival, with Riley and his sister, Lizzie (Elizabeth Alderfer), waiting at the airport. It’s here that Lizzie asks her brother—who spent years in Afghanistan—what language is spoken there. It’s hard to believe she wouldn’t already know considering Riley’s time in Afghanistan and Al’s profession as a translator. We even learn her former fiancé also served overseas. She could have at the very least Googled this information? No, as the laugh track is here to remind viewers, not knowing Pashto is one of the country’s official languages as opposed to “Afghanistanish” is funny. The very first joke of the series sets up precisely the kind of wisecracks that are to be expected. With an offhand remark comparing Burning Man to the war and fighting the Taliban (tents, fire, loud sounds), Al is propelled into the unfamiliar territories of expansive grocery stores and Riley’s home, where he meets with Riley’s laid-back father, Art (Dean Norris), and estranged wife, Vanessa (Kelli Goss). Al also meets his goddaughter, Hazel (Farrah Mackenzie), who is Riley and Vanessa’s daughter. Al has saved Riley’s life many times, and now Riley’s family is letting him stay with them and helping him acclimate to a new world as he waits for the rest of his family’s visa situation to get sorted out.
United States Of Al seems to be trying to flip the script on the white savior trope. Al makes it his mission to try and repair Riley’s broken marriage, discipline Hazel (who doesn’t really need it, but Al sees her $1 allowance as akin to spoiling her), and encourage Riley and Lizzie to be more respectful of their father. They all end up learning from him as he begins to understand the American lifestyle. In doing so, the show often puts Al’s culture under the microscope, pointing to it as the primary source of his perspectives. However, his personality is presented only in broad strokes and clichés. There’s hardly any backstory for him in the early episodes, except for a quick video call with his mother and a reference to how his sister is disappointing the family by choosing not to get married. At one point in the pilot, when Lizzie goes out for a drink with friends at night and Riley exclaims she won’t be back till morning, Al asks him, “And you let her do this?” All of the main characters get specific, strong emotional hooks, and oftentimes, it feels like Al is only there to facilitate their stories. His own difficulties and culture shock become a punchline to jokes that aren’t funny and situations that aren’t believable. It doesn’t help that every single cast member’s performance is stoic. Even pioneer actor Norris doesn’t fit in.
The sitcom joins Chuck Lorre’s current lineup on CBS, which includes Bob Hearts Abishola, Young Sheldon, and Mom. Its boilerplate humor is reminiscent of another of his long-running sitcoms, The Big Bang Theory—particularly its character Rajesh Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). Raj, an Indian immigrant, was always the butt of banal comments based on his ethnicity and an afterthought when it came to meaningful development. This treatment has been passed on in some ways to Al. Raj couldn’t talk to women for the first six seasons of TBBT unless he was drunk. Here, Al freaks out and is unable to concentrate when he faces a woman wearing shorts. There is some legitimacy in this behavior—Al is only used to seeing fully clothed women except for in movies—but the arc is too worn out for a show set in 2021.
It’s natural for a few stereotypes to be strewn in if the plot is about someone belonging to a different background. Stereotypes exist because they often reflect accurate experiences, but everyone is already aware of them. No group is a monolith, though, yet United States Of Al keeps its titular figure in a mold. It does take a couple more steps forward than TBBT in this case, by showing slightly more empathy to Al’s freakout over the shorts than just dreary innuendos (don’t worry, they’re still in the mix—Riley’s response is basically “wait till you see boobs”). In brief moments, the show does find a way to elevate itself. It’s certainly trying to be more moving in a way that’s similar to how Mom handled Bonnie’s (Allison Janney) addiction issues. But for touting itself for its representation, the show offers this tenderness mostly to its white characters, though even jokes that don’t involve Al simply fall flat.
The tragic stories of the dangers that befall Afghan combat translators and interpreters who are left behind is well-documented. But telling the story of a fictional interpreter (although the show consulted real-life soldiers and their translators) who did get to migrate and start over without delving into the real challenges people like Al face is surface-level representation. It is possible for a comedy to dig into weighty issues without seeming forced (think One Day At A Time or Blackish). Al is a sweet, intelligent optimist who is ready to face the challenges of living in America. That’s already different from most depictions of MENA and Afghan characters, but sadly that’s about it. So far, his impediments have included women clad in half-pants and finding it hard not to meddle in Riley’s romantic or parental life. United States Of Al should be credited for opening the doors for Afghan TV creators and artists behind the scenes. It’s on screen that the show comes up short.
59 Comments
It’s worth noting that the idea for this show was absolutely ripped off from Dylan Park and his experiences in Kirkuk. And f*ck Chuck Lorre from here to eternity.
There are a lot of stories involving US soldiers and their interpreters. There are bound to be some similarities. But “I pitched a show at CBS and years later they have a show with a similar concept” doesn’t mean they stole his idea. The show was created and developed at Warner Brothers. It was sold to CBS as a pilot.
Created by: Chuck Lorre, D…
Articles like this seem to miss the forest for the trees.Will and Grace was a stupid, unfunny sitcom and the actor playing Will wasn’t actually gay. Regardless, the show inarguably helped put homosexuality in the mainstream.The United States of Al sounds like another unfunny Chuck Lorre sitcom. Nothing they do on that show will please everyone. But if it does what Will and Grace did, we will all be better off.
You reference the Middle East and representation for individuals of Middle East descent three times.This is a map with the Middle East highlighted in green. Please identify Afghanistan (hint: it is not highlighted in green). I will also point out that it is not in North Africa If you are going to talk seriously about representation, you should have some idea of who the people you’re advocating for are. “Middle Eastern culture” is not the same as “Afghan culture,” and ignores the complex and wrenching history of its often incredible people.
Apropos of nothing, maybe it’s the way the map is designed but I did not realize Kazakhstan was so big.
On topic, Afghanistan is adjacent to the Middle East, but of course that doesn’t mean anything in terms of potential cultural similarities.
it is the 9th largest country on the planet, but has the lowest population density.
While Afghanistan is rarely included as part of the middle-east proper, that map excludes both Egypt and Anatolia.
Just…no. One of the series’ producers, Reza Aslan, defended this decision on Twitter, claiming that while they auditioned 100 Afghan actors, it’s tough to nail down the specificity of sitcom styling
When your defense of the show reads like a word for word repeat of Sia’s defense of Music you should just stop. This show sounds like it should be a dramedy, not on network TV, and with an Afghan head writer/show runner and BIPOC producers.
It’s sad how not knowing anything about anywhere else is such a relatable concept to Americans that it’s a central pillar of humor designed for wide appeal. In the context of a plot that stems from its practice in modern imperialism, that’s pretty gross.
I mean…I didn’t know that Afghanistan’s dominant language was Pashto, but I *did* know that Afghanistan isn’t in the Middle East.
Not knowing anything about anywhere is so common that this writer seems to think having Afghan characters contributes to “Middle East and North African representation.”
This is not a cut and dried thing. I mean, it’s not like saying Florida is part of Australia or something. Seems to depend who you ask and what definition of ME or MENA or greater ME you’re going by.
What definition of those terms would include Afghanistan? This is the sort of “you know what I mean” logic with reference to ethnicity that people who care about representation should be condemning.
Yep – Afghanistan is in the heart of the Hindu Kush…and has a border with China. The shared ethnic heritage that expands “Middle East” to “MENA” is the lands controlled by the caliphates…who never reached Afghanistan, which tended to be split up between Persia and India, give or take the occasional Mongol invasion.
Or it could be that this show just sucks. lol Just because a crappy show is positing something is funny does not mean anyone will actually find it funny and therefore is not representative of anything. In fact, most of this review pretty much says that this is dated as hell.
“While it’s primarily written by The Big Bang Theory alums”You could have stopped right there.
I mean it’s Chuck Lorre, what more did we expect?
Afghanistan isn’t really in the Middle East, it’s Central Asia. It’s a nitpick, but given that the article touched on issues of cultural erasure, it’s an important thing to get right.
Not to be the worst/super pedantic, but Afghanistan is typically classified as part of South Asia, not MENA. Not really a big deal, I think your point is still well taken, but all the same!
Wait, Bob Hearts Abishola is real? I thought that was a fever dream I had.
ugh. now that i know these are the folks behind it, that show makes a lot more sense.
Co-created by a British-Nigerian woman, basically the only representation of Africans on American TV. It’s not the best thing to come out of the Lorre factory, but it could be worse. It’s not offensive, just bland.
yes, the trademark blandness was what i was referring to.
Quick Question: *Are* Afghans considered “MENA”?Afghanistan is very firmly *not* in “The Middle East” (and it’s nowhere near North Africa!).The majority of global Pashtuns live in Pakistan, and while Afghanistan has the second highest population, more Pashtuns live in India than *every other country combined*…so I’m not sure how or why a Desi actor is less representative than an Arabic one would be.
I’d have said South Asian myself. Sounds like the writer was trying to find a delicate way of saying Muslim-majority, not obviously slotted into our usual white/black/east Asian categories.
But, of course, the writer was complaining that they *chose* an actor of South Asian descent, haha!Honestly seems like an assumption that Afghanistan’s being a Muslim country “automatically” means that it’s in the “Middle East,” despite being closer both ethnically and geographically to the subcontinent.
True, Afghanistan is textbook Central Asia like Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, etc.
Exactly: it’s *literally* the defining country where “The Middle East” becomes “Central Asia.”Hell – it’s even more “Central Asia” than Pakistan, which is on the Subcontinent!
I think the issue is that basically Hollywood hires almost exclusively Indians for every brown person roll across Northern Africa, the Middle East through to Malaysia.
I think the popular understanding is vaguely association-based, rather than having any root in actual geography. Like, the “middle-east” is anywhere Muslim terrorists might come from, and “east-Asia” is any country mentioned in a Vietnam War movie.
Right – this kid would probably complain about their casting a Northern Indian Muslim actor to play a Pakistani character, haha!
As a holder of a fancy degree in Middle Eastern Studies whose concentration was in Iran and Central Asia, I wouldn’t personally use Middle Eastern as a descriptor for anything (West(ern) Asia is the preferred term). Generally speaking, no, you wouldn’t include Afghanistan as part of the Middle East, but you would include Iran (and Turkey), so it’s all pretty silly bullshit anyway. Middle and Near East are both named in relation to their location to England, and although they’re used in Persian and Arabic scholarly literature, they’re understood to be inherently imperialistic terminology. Personally, I’d be much more inclined to consider Afghanistan as part of the Greater Persia/Iran cultural sphere, but that would also piss off a whole lot of people. That said, post-invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, there became a (mostly Neo-Con) conception of the so-called “Greater Middle East” which very much includes Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, so I wouldn’t necessarily fault the author for referring to it as the Middle East.
Yeah, I’m just amused by the attempt to score “Cultural Awareness Points” by complaining about a Desi actor playing a character from the Hindu Kush, haha – my degree work was around the Black Atlantic, so it seems like complaining about having a Haitian-American play a Dominican-American, “when there are so many Mexican-American actors available.”
Saloni, I would just like to say thanks for this.The trailer looked terrible, and the Chuck Lorre pedigree means that everyone knows what type of show this is going to be.But I really appreciate your examples of where it’s at least trying to be better, even if it is doomed to be a victim of its own chuck lorre-iness.
I see the trailers for this watching March Madness games and it looks atrocious. So it’ll probably air on CBS for the next 10 years.
The best thing about the games on TNT and TBS is that they don’t have ads for this fucking show every commercial break.Foreign man plays polo with a dead goat? He didn’t know Michael Jordan retired? Comedy gold right there, I tells ya!
Don’t think the comparison to Raj on the Big Bang Theory makes sense. Yeah, the writing of the character was a weak spot, a holdover from the first season or two when the show was much broader, meaner, and stereotypical (and sexist) than it was later on. (Side question: has any show ever ran that long and got better, not worse, as it went on?) Not defending the choices they made for that character at all, especially when they went pretty quick from making Howard a gross ethnic stereotype whose misogyny is supposed to be cute, to better than that. But I think comparing the two characters because they’re both South Asian is a kind of stereotypical, essentialist flattening that representation is supposed to change. Raj was supposed to be a wealthy, Westernised person who went to American schools. That’s a completely different character than a military translator who doesn’t know basic things about US culture. If we expect all vaguely brown people to be the same, that’s a much bigger problem.
The only thing Chuck Lorre has done that I like is the theme song to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
OK, I’m going to get criticised for this, but I want to know why I’m wrong. Why do you need an actor of Afghan descent to play an Afghan? I get it for the writers’ room, you want specificity, a particular POV. But I don’t get it for actors, at all. Danny Pudi was the best choice for Abed, even if he wasn’t Palestinian. Daniel Kaluuya isn’t African American. Sandra Oh isn’t Chinese. Al Pacino isn’t Cuban. THESE ARE NOT BAD THINGS. THESE ARE ACTORS. And we don’t have this requirement for white actors. No one cares that Wendi McLendon-Covey isn’t Jewish. That Keri Russell isn’t Russian. If you’re a white person with dark hair, you can play Swedish or Cuban or Greek or Middle Eastern or generic white guy and no one minds. This means white actors have MORE opportunities. MORE chances. Asian actors have enough trouble, now we’re going to forbid a Korean actress from playing a Japanese-American? Who does that help? It’s especially ridiculous for sketch comedy or improv. Bowen Yang was hilarious playing Fran Liebowitz on SNL. And that’s great! And if it means their best impressionist plays Kamala Harris instead of Maya Rudolph, I don’t see how that’s blackface. (Unless there’s literal dark makeup). Also, why do you need a LGBTQ actor to play LGBTQ characters?
The context is the actual hiring practices in American culture, where yes, actors are hired to act and should be able to take on any role they can be convincing in—but the arbiter of convincing has always been white culture, and often the line has actually been only convincing to the dominant culture. If there was practical opportunity to make a career for a non-white actor to be regularly hired for roles that haven’t for generations defaulted to “white” there’s more of a case for it. So the thinking is that roles should be going to the groups that characters represent because those actors are not going to be thought of for other roles and that un-credible (or inauthentic, thought I don’t love that description) representation is already commonplace. The centrality of actual effect on hiring takes precedence over color-blind casting when so many unconscious cues are in constant effect. I’m ambivalent about it myself, but I understand where it’s coming from and think that the entry of more voices into every field will generate more diversity out of specificity.It’s very likely that white guy with dark hair playing Cuban or Greek or something else is very much a thing that people mind now. That white actors do have more opportunity is still true, so this is one of the responses, even if it constrains other ethnic groups. Things aren’t quite changed yet. Bowen Yang wasn’t even a hire five years ago—and diversity for SNL has been a long campaigned for thing, casting any actor fit of for the role is more an intellectual wish than actual.I do think this approach has issues and sometimes feels superficial. I don’t know if you know the Netflix Marvel shows, but Iron Fist caught a lot of flak for existing (and also being terribly written)—and it caught public attention because the character is white and is all about appropriating Asian culture. What’s off to me though is that the character is a white man appropriating Asian culture, that’s part of the point. While Daredevil’s appropiation wasn’t questioned. And villains across the MCU more generally are transformed from Asian stereotypes into someone else or commentary (the Mandarin, the Ancient One, the Hand) which all resulted in more erasure of roles. But non-white Jessica Jones or Daredevil (Catholic and boxing fan would be non-Irish now, I think) Dr. Strange or whoever else remain their default. But huzzah, Shang Chi is being made into a movie—a character buried in Asian tropes that I personally don’t know why it’s so worthy of celebration, but I’m not as an individual the barometer of the people even if I am Asian American.I think it has it’s limits, but that’s how culture is correcting itself right now, culturally specific roles are reserved for the actors of those backgrounds and culture until such time that all the active and inertia of cultural biases gives everyone more opportunity.
Sure. Ideally, generic roles shouldn’t default to white. Romcom leads should be any colour, and not have it be a black movie or an Asian movie. We’re starting to see that. Same with generic action heroes. Not just the rogue cop who plays by his own rule, but the villain should be black/Asian/Latino without it being seen as racist to have a black/Asian/Latino criminal. I agree with that. It shouldn’t be seen as white being a universal and anything else is niche. If the idea is, until there’s more race-neutral casting generally, we need to be protectionist of parts specifically written FOR non-whites makes sense on paper, sure. But it still doesn’t explain why it’s bad to cast a South African actor to play an Afghan.
There’s more categories than white and non-white though, and non-white groups aren’t interchangeable. This is a specifically Aghan role, no? This isn’t one of those open roles, or just a loose one. I bet when Kalyan invariably messes up the pronunciation of some Pashto an Afghan American family that’s watching will wince, even while watching every episode anyway. Yes, there are accomodations and generalizing, but this doesn’t seem like asking too much. (See Eddie Huang and Fresh Off the Boat for an example of actually asking for too much.)The way I think it actually works and changes is that these kinds of roles do go for a specific category of actors. But having filled the cast of Crazy Rich Asians with Asians, now other movie makers have seen someone like Henry Golding and will cast him roles that aren’t race specific. He’d probably audition and for some ineffable reason a probably white actor would be cast without the exposure, so these roles which are not remotely common, still have to created and then guarded.Despite real horror stories most of what goes against diversity is implicit biases, assumptions, or expectations. And it’ll take intentional decisions and casting to get over that—goodwill and trust won’t get it done.
Crazy Rich Asians is actually a good example. All the roles on that show are supposed to be ethnically Han Chinese. But Henry Golding is half white, half indigenous Malaysian, Akwafina and Ken Jeong are Korean. I don’t think that’s bad. Being obsessed with getting the ethnicity right would have cost them. And whoever they cast to play the Afghan role on The United States of Al is an actor. Pronouncing things right is their job. I don’t see why an ethnically Afghan person who grew up in the West would do any better with the accent. And all those millions of movies set in Boston, no one cares if the actor is genuinely from Southie. They hardly ever are. They do the South Boston accent, it’s hardly ever good, no one cares. It doesn’t bother me that on The Goldbergs, only two of the 6 actors are Jewish. Or on Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, a Chilean national is played by a half black, half Italian actor. Or that Don Eladio, the leader of the Mexican cartel, is played by a Cuban actor. I’m not saying leave it to the free market. I’m all for being proactive about diversity. I just think it’s better if it comes from the other direction.
While Daredevil’s appropiation wasn’t questioned.’Yes, it was. It was just simply praised for better writing than Iron Fist as well.
hcd4 said it well.
The underlying problem is rooted in the historical tendency to default every role to “white person unless otherwise specified”. And even when otherwise specified, there’s still the long-running habit of, “yeah, this part is specifically non-white, but maybe we can get away with casting a white person in the role, anyway.”
Once upon a time it was absurdly overt (John Wayne as Genghis Khan, for example) but even though there’s been some improvement over the years, it’s still the tendency of producers, casting directors, etc.
Which ultimately blocks out huge segments of people from representation on-screen. Now, the counter-arguments are either, “well, the part should go to the right actor, regardless of their specific background,” or “we wanted a known actor in the role.” but those arguments are flawed because, in the first example, it assumes that out of ALL of the actors with a specific background, NONE of them are right for the role. (So, in this case, you have to wonder if are NO Afghan actors anywhere in the world are right for the role of an Afghan character, maybe somebody ought to rethink the character.) And the problem with the second argument is that it means that a vast, VAST majority of “known” actors are white, plus a handful from other backgrounds. (Which is what happens when 99% of roles default to “white person”). So, you want a character from Indonesia as the lead in your movie, you literally can’t find a “known” actor from that background because actors from Indonesia can’t get known because they never get cast in anything that would allow them to get known. So it’s, “Oh, we’ll cast Sandra Oh or Lucy Liu. Close enough.”
It’s similar for LGBTQ representation. Out gay people pretty much always get pigeonholed as playing gay characters, but straight actors play gay characters all the time. The same thing goes for Trans actors, actors with a disability, etc. So even with the best of intentions, the result ends up being, if you’re a straight, white actor, you can play anything. But if you’re NOT a straight white actor, you’re EXTREMELY limited except for the few actors of different backgrounds who have broken through, in which case the same few representatives are cast in EVERYTHING even vaguely in the neighborhood.
Maybe, eventually, when diversity becomes the natural default, we won’t have to work so hard at proper representation. But, for now, it’s important to make a focused effort to find those people and voices that are out there and put them on the screen.
OK I certainly see that we should strive to be race neutral as much as possible. But demanding gay people play gay roles and Tamil people play Tamil roles hurts that. I’d rather see Zachary Quinto and Neil Patrick Harris playing romcom leads and action stars and straight historical figures in Oscar-bait biopics. Let’s make that the focus. Let’s not care if Adhir Kalyan is Afghan, and ask why can’t Modern Family be about a South Asian immigrant family where the rich grandpa marries a Latina trophy wife and the dad is a bumbling dork and the mom is an uptight shrew who hates him and the daughter is an idiot and the other daughter is a genius obsessed with getting into a good college. Would that work? Does Modern Family have to be white? I can see why some roles have to be white (Mad Men, The Middle are specific to a culture, time, and place) but what happens is Modern Family is South Asian? Do the jokes still work?
Not sure how to read your post, it comes off as a bit of a JAQ-off session, tbh.Representation matters, always. What you’re arguing for is at least, pure laziness that covers for bigotries that hold people back and will still hold people back, until people like you hold off on being “apolitical” and confront the shitty studio systems.
The colorless broadcasting system strikes again.
It’s a chuck lorre comedy. Thats about as good as you can expect.
I think the premise is good for a sitcom, but it would have to be done very well.
I saw a trailer for this and said “it feels like the kid from Aliens In America grew up and is now in another stupid sitcom” and holy fuck. It’s the same damn guy. How bad are the optics on that. Muslim representation on American TV is so bad there are so few shows where a main character is Muslim and two of them, it’s the same guy!I really wish they would stop trying to make these fish out of water foreign Muslim man comes to America shows and movies. Just have a Muslim American character in a show who is no even an immigrant. Just a normal person in a circle of diverse friends. Also while we are at it. Let stop casting Indians as ever type of brown person from Northern Africa through Malayasia. I know white folks all think the are the same but they really aren’t.
I really did like Aliens in America though. It had moments
If you think everyone in Afghanistan speaks Pashto, you’re gonna have an interesting visit LOL
“United States Of Al seems to be trying to flip the script on the white savior trope” – frankly sounds more like the Magical Negro trope but make it brown.
Can someone tell me why from a distance I thought the set was The Big Bang Theory?I know it’s the same people but what about this is the same? Is it just that it’s heavily decorated to the point of clutter (even though the specifics decorations are different)? Is it the color pallette? I just can’t put my finger on why they look so similar.
Don’t care about this show but just want to say that Parker Young was very good on Imposters.
Wait, so this show isn’t an April Fools joke?
It’s here that Lizzie asks her brother—who spent years in Afghanistan—what language is spoken there. It’s hard to believe she wouldn’t already know considering Riley’s time in Afghanistan and Al’s profession as a translator. Have you ever met an American?
CBS: Cursory Representation Though Dated Comedy Tropes™