Ramy HULU Review: Is It Worth Watching?

The HULU Original Ramy is daring and unprecedented and offers an insight into the lives of Muslims living in America. It is a show about a man trying to strike a balance between his old culture and his current life in America.

Ramy won a Golden Globe for its first season and upped the ante in the second, offering episodes in which the story was told from the perspective of Ramy’s mother, sister, or uncle.

1. Quick Review

Ramy highlights the nuances and struggles for identity faced by immigrants. It tells the story of a man who is in constant conflict with himself. He wants to be inherently good and tries to reconnect to his Muslim ideals and teachings while trying to find room for alcohol, pornography, and one-night stands. It introduces Ramy Youssef as a talent to watch.

2. Info & Watch Links

3. Is It Worth Watching?

Ramy is worth watching because of the unique themes of the show and how the story is told. It is rare when a show that depicts Muslims in a positive light and examines their culture and lifestyle in America gets the opportunity to take center-stage. Ramy was renewed for a third season in July 2020.

Ramy: Series Trailer (Official) | Hulu

I. Is Ramy A True Story?

Yes, Ramy is a semi-autobiographical account of the life and personal struggles of the creator and writer of the show Ramy Youssef, and his life in America. His fight for identity, his love for his culture, and a desire to blend in and Americanize himself is the central conflict of the series. The show gives you a realistic depiction of a Muslim family living in America.

II. Plot

Ramy follows Ramy Youssef, a first-generation Muslim-American man living in New Jersey. He is the son of Egyptian immigrants and is trying to reconnect with his faith. The show’s central theme is that Ramy is profoundly religious and wants to embrace his culture while also going about his daily life and breaking the rules of Islam.

Ramy says that he follows some rules, breaks some, and goes to Friday prayers in the local mosque before going out on the town on Friday. The show also has many episodes and stories from Ramy’s family and friends’ point of view and encompasses various aspects of the life of an immigrant.

III. The Second Season

Season Two of Ramy started with him saying that he would be less self-centered, and the show did just that. Roping in Mahershala Ali to play a Sheikh who acts as Ramy’s spiritual guide, the show broadened its horizons with many guest stars. It is one man’s trek towards meaning and spirituality, but it doesn’t overshadow other subplots.

The second season sees Ramy’s quest to attain more significant meaning collapse as the materialistic and rough world digs his claws into him. It explores a man trying to immerse himself in the Egyptian community that is rigid, religious, and views life as a test.

But Ramy is a millennial brought up in America, and despite his inherent desire to be right, he cannot completely give in to the Old Ways.

The ninth episode told from the Point of View of the casually sexist and Anti-Semitic Uncle Nasser is the highlight of the season. This also proves that the show doesn’t need the protagonist for every subplot and character arc.

IV. Visuals

Ramy is shot in and around Queens and brings the vibrant Immigrant culture that exists there in front of the camera. Other movies and shows have Immigrants who are shown to be caught between two worlds, or often a version of them filtered for White Audiences are brought to the screen. Ramy brings the Arabic community in New Jersey to the forefront.

Ramy embraces the Old World with open arms, and the neighborhood, mosques, restaurants, and friends are all Arabic and unapologetically so. He also lives at home with his mother, and audiences to see familial conflict, expectations, and struggles in a Muslim household like never before.

4. Grade

5. Final Thoughts

Ramy is the kind of television that is rarely made, and it is treated with great care. It shows a unique aspect of immigrants’ lives and highlights the struggle for identity that they face.

It also shows us how people in their community will be quick to pass judgment, and a young person has to balance every aspect of his life to be at peace with the Old and the New.