Call it the Sopranos effect: Over the last two decades, more tonally depressing crime shows have hit our screens than I care to count, despite the fact that the HBO mob series that spawned them all was nothing if not funny and sartorially inventive. And worse, beyond being grimmer than they need to be, these knockoff shows are frequently too visually dark for their own good. As a great tweet once put it: Men of LA, stop becoming influencers! We need gaffers!
Maybe that’s why Hulu’s Deli Boys thrilled me so much this year. The show, about a pair of spoiled Pakistani-American brothers forced to take over their CEO father’s crime syndicate, doesn’t skimp on drama, but it’s also a Technicolor explosion of family chaos, a thoughtful portrayal of New York’s vibrant South Asian communities, and a vehicle for some truly great looks—from Poorna Jagannathan’s Aunt Lucky and her mob-mama-chic leopard and fur jackets and Gloria Steinem-reminiscent tinted aviators, to standout Amita Rao’s Nandika and her commitment to Princess Mononoke cosplay.
While Deli Boys doesn’t miss the opportunity to go deep on the divisions among the religious and ethnic identities it portrays, it does so with no trace of preachiness and a genuine sense of curiosity about how the world—even the underground crime world inhabited by protagonists Mir and Raj—might be improved by greater understanding.
“Obviously, this is a time when, in India and beyond, Muslims are being severely oppressed, and in Pakistan religious minorities—Hindus, Christians, Ismailis, and Shias—are being oppressed. It goes every single way, right?” Deli Boys creator Abdullah Saeed told Vogue in March. “Man, call me a hippie if you want, but I just want us to all get along.”
Luckily for those of us who devoured Season 1 of Deli Boys like so much Caca Brand Achar (the pungent mango pickles whose jars are used to smuggle cocaine on the show), Hulu announced in August that the show would be coming back for a second season, with Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen joining the cast as a series regular. I’m looking forward to seeing how Raj and Nandika’s engagement—which will stretch on for four years, per the terms of the distribution arrangement that Raj and Mir secured with Nandika’s parents—is shaping up; I need all the details on Raj’s hippie-dippy ex Prairie’s collaboration with the feds; and I really can’t wait to see what Lucky Auntie will be wearing next season, as she makes all the men in her orbit look like fools.
