Conflicted emotions for me this week, watching Bait, the brand new comedy created by Riz Ahmed. I began a profession in acting shortly after Ahmed, you see. For a decade, I lost every good job going to him. What made it worse was watching all of these tasks and realising precisely how good he was. Anyway, I’m going to strive to write the remainder of this whereas suppressing Salieri ranges of malcontent. Wish me luck.
Bait is the story of an Asian actor, Shah Latif, who finds himself lined up to be the subsequent James Bond. The collection covers the web’s poisonous response to the rumours, utilizing it to dive deep into a dialog about racial palatability, Britishness, ambition and authenticity. It’s humorous, surreal, provocative and boasts an unimaginable array of scorching younger British-Asian actors. Which jogs my memory, I should rewatch Sliding Doors.
It’s an astute premise. In actual life, the casting of the secret agent has turn into a lightning rod. For many, Bond serves as a kind of statue – demanding to be climbed, or pulled down. The Asian actor Nikhil Parmar wrote a very humorous 2022 play, Invisible, exploring precisely this concept. In Bait, Shah’s ex-girlfriend, forthright film-maker Yasmin, dismisses Shah’s dream, describing the MI6 agent as a totem of white neocolonialism. “If I played him, he wouldn’t be white!” protests Shah. “Yeah, but you would be,” she shoots again.
Interestingly, we don’t do that for different franchises. No one seems to clamour for a Filipino Harry Potter, or a neurodivergent Paddington Bear. Although the marmalade fixation does recommend that decision could be coming from inside the home.
Bait doesn’t overlook to have enjoyable. A variety of it. “How are you going to win hearts and minds with your horny meerkat face?” prods Shah’s cousin Zulfi, performed by Guz Khan. Bait is greatest in these household scenes. Pass-agg Pakistani aunties snipe at one another’s Eid celebrations. One of them dotes unreasonably on her Dubai-living son, who is launched in an over-the-top Bollywood spoof, actually strolling on water.
When Shah is teased by his uncles for not making Pakistani movies, his father steps in on his behalf. “This fanny speaks Urdu like a white boy” is the defence he provides. Bait capitalises on jokes nobody else is allowed to make, giving it a jaw-dropping freshness. It’s the brownest factor on TV since that Hovis advert.
The Oscar- and Emmy-winning Ahmed was educated at Oxford, so I’m certain his household are pleased with him – have to be good. And this is a intelligent present. Its smarts are obvious from the title display, which makes use of steganography: a approach of concealing a message inside textual content. In this case, it’s unlocked through color idea, utilized filters that reveal every episode’s title. The collection title itself, Bait, carries an Urban Dictionary-style translation – pointing up the thought of taking part in to a privileged viewers, whereas additionally doing it.
Bait’s credit thank Jesse Armstrong and Chris Morris, with whom Ahmed labored on the groundbreaking satire Four Lions (and I didn’t). There is a few of that movie’s interesting silliness right here, taking part in off the present’s tougher themes and racial assaults. It’s far hotter than, say, Atlanta, the creative FX comedy that offers with blackness and aspiration within the US. An early sequence, wherein Shah attends an institution, white-washing gala to unveil a “restored Buddha of Bamiyan”, had me howling. It appeared much less Easter Island, extra like a dropped Easter egg of Shrek.
Ahmed’s showbiz Rolodex rolls deep. This can lead to a humiliation of riches. Himesh Patel feels underused as Shah’s suave, politically savvy acting rival Raj Thakkar (shades of Ray Purchase, for any Toast of London followers). But these are champagne issues. A foul-mouthed voiceover by a Very Famous Actor, which runs by the collection, is pleasant – as are the numerous self-aware Dev Patel gags. Nabhaan Rizwan is nearly too good-looking, whereas Khan can steal any scene, even ones he’s not in.
Meanwhile, Ahmed himself as an more and more fractured Shah is excellent – balancing emotional depth, bodily comedy and self-mockery. He actually is the perfect of this nation, and Bait is the most recent proof of his licence to thrill. Goddamn you, Riz. Why are you so plain? I coulda been a contender!
