The Paradox of Choice:
Master of None and The Zeitgeist of the Millennial Generation
We exist in a world where you can ask the machine in your back pocket any question and get the correct answer within milliseconds. I can have the same conversation with my friend across the table with my friend across the Pacific Ocean, and I wouldn’t need to move an inch. I could meet my future partner with a swipe of my finger while sitting on my couch, and if I really wanted, I could decide to go anywhere in the world, book a ticket, and be on my way there within the same hour. The unknown world is diminishing with the amount of information and connections between us, and as we broaden our horizons, someone comes up with another horizon to add to it.
Yet in this time where we never have to be alone, never have to be without anything to do, and have the possibility to do whatever we aspire to, it is ever more important to be an individual. This is the idea behind Master of None, a Netflix original series, starring comedian Azis Ansari. Due to the fact that current technology and cultural norm basically allow for anyone to be any form of individual, it allows for unlimited possibilities, or an unlimited amount of choices, and this is the zeitgeist of this rising generation.
This show is a perfect representation of this notion. In an interview for NPR on both his new Netflix series and new book Modern Romance, Azis Ansari calls it “the paradox of choice”, that is unique to this current generation. Ansari comments that in these times, we exist with possibilities that were not even imaginable for those even a generation older. The paradox is that the options are endless therefore the decisions are endless. Master of None poses the question: in this time, where you have the possibility to be the happiest version of yourself, how do you make the right choice if there is simply too much too choose from? The everyday life of Ansari’s character, Dev Shaw, is an attempt to answer this question. While it might be unconventional, Master of None teaches a lesson to viewers about how to react to reality in this time. We learn how to fall in love, how to deal with the differences between generations, how to change your life with one decision, and how to find the best taco in NYC without walking out the front door.
The show itself is essentially about nothing. For this reason, it feels very approachable, and honest. We watch as a low-level commercial actor goes about his life and laugh at the modern absurdity. Very few jokes are made, yet viewers burst out laughing in the ridiculous observation the show makes about our lives. “Ansari plays Dev as the protagonist but not the star, a mirror and not a window,” says Maureen Henderson in her article in Forbes. There isn’t anything dramatized or flashy about it. Master of None “portrays the realities of what it looks like to be aging out of your most dramatic young years of student loan debt, bad roommates, ill-suited relationships and stop-and-start self-discovery in favor of a quieter contemplation of adulthood.” The plot and the tension of the show comes “from his reflection on the kind of adult he (and, by extension, the audience) wants to be,” says Henderson. “The show feels relatable not because the characters necessarily are, but because the world they navigate and their reactions to it seem true to life” (Henderson).
It is the unapologetic authenticity that gives the show the perfect ability to capture the zeitgeist of the time. Every episode deals with a different question of a potential life choice, like the pilot episode, on the decision to have children. According to Julia Felsenthal in her article for Vogue, “each episode feels like a thoughtful, nuanced, multidimensional take on a very relatable conundrum. The story lines often carry real emotional weight” (Felsenthal). In the first episode, viewers are hit with a broken condom, a Google search to find a 24 hour CVS, and an awkward uber ride to get Plan-B™. A problem, an instant solution, and no one had to drive. Everything can be solved in some form by an app on a cell phone, making it almost too easy. But in a time where everything is easy, real decisions are ever harder to make. This broken condom fiasco leads the main character to start questioning his own intentions of having children in his life, and in turn relates a very heavy conversation to the viewers.
One of the most successful examples of this decision-making conundrum occurs in an episode where Dev Shah decides to get tacos for lunch one day. It is in this exact scenario that Master of None allows us to see the problems behind the amount of ability and information we have in this age. As Ansari explains, the possibilities are limitless, yet “the more options you have, the harder it is to make a decision, and so you end up being less satisfied.”
In this episode, Dev Shah opens by saying “there should be an app to analyze your tongue and tell you what you want to eat.” He is having a dialogue with his friend, (who arguably in this scene represents the contrast to modern behavior). His friend warns him that an app like the one he is imagining is basically a mind reader, and in the wrong hands could be disastrous. Dev argues it would be worth it, as not being able to decide what to eat causes terrible “pain and suffering.” He then struggles to decide to eat tacos, yet is determined to eat the best taco in NYC. “There are so many taco places, we have to make sure we go to the best one,” says Dev.
Before leaving his apartment, Dev takes a little while to do research on many platforms; group texts, Facebook, Yelp, Google, instagram, etc., for the best location to get a taco. In doing so he finds what he believes to be the best taco truck, but when the duo arrives, they find that the shop “ran out of tortillas a half hour ago.” Ironic. The decision they finally arrived at became obsolete during the time they measured all the choices. This is exactly the problem of modern thinking, as Ansari explained in his interview.
This applies to more than just tacos. In his NPR interview, Ansari laughs that modern dating is one of the hardest constructs yet. Hence the reason he co-wrote his book, Modern Romance. He sees it as positive that online dating and new applications let millions of people connect whereas they may have never even known of one another’s existence. “There is an insane amount of love that would not even be there if not for these things,” he jokes. But this is the reason that modern love is so unique. The dating pool has extended for 3 to 30,000, and if you meet someone today, “if you wait for another two days you could find someone better” (Ansari). In turn, here is one of the greatest examples of this paradox of choice. How can one decide on one person if there is potentially always a different option looming around the corner?
This notion is the culminating problem of the series, as Dev Shaw finds himself wondering what to do with his current girlfriend. The final episode deals with the modern conception of marriage. Master of None sets up marriage as unique in the modern age. It proves that no longer is getting married a requirement for all, and the constructs of marriage can vary per couple. This being said; however, Dev is conflicted because as he gets more deeply involved with his girlfriend, he knows what the next logical step would be. The two exist without problem until they arrive at an impasse, a time when they finally are forced to make a decision about what to do before they can continue in life. His girlfriend gets an offer to work her job in Chicago, which sparks the idea of the seriousness of their relationship. They finally break down in a fight, when Dev finally declares the whole tension behind the series. “I feel like when you are younger, in your 20’s—the road ahead in life—it’s not as clear, you don’t know where its going, there’s turns you don’t expect, there’s surprises,” he vents to his girlfriend. “Then as you get older the road is a little bit clearer, and you just know where you’re going to go, and there’s less surprise and less excitement, and you see what’s ahead.” He is struggling with the fact that “at this age whatever you are doing or whoever you are with, that’s maybe it.” Dev is ultimately conflicted because he can’t choose which road ahead he wants to be seeing.
His girlfriend becomes upset, feeling as though this is a declaration they shouldn’t be together because he isn’t totally sure about it. He defends himself “Even if I wasn’t sure, does that make me a horrible person?” Then, reverting back to his common theme of researching to find answers, he invents a game where they both write a percentage down of how sure they see themselves together in the future. She writes 70%, he writes 80%. He asks, “shouldn’t we have both written a hundred without even thinking about it?” This, however, is the problem of thinking in the modern age. There are endless possibilities. How can someone possibly be 100% about any decision when they could always be wondering “what if”?
After a bit of separation, Dev’s girlfriend returns to him, embodying exactly this mentality. He’s taken too long to decide he wants to be with her, and when he finally does, she’s cut her hair and holds tickets in her hand for Tokyo. She explains she doesn’t want “to wake up one day and wonder what would it have been like if [she] went to Japan.” She exclaims to Dev, “the time in our lives to do crazy sh**t is already winding down and I don’t want to wake up one day and see the window is already closed.” She has made the choice that will allow her to not wonder “what-if” and hopefully in doing so she will find her happiness. Perhaps this is something we can all take away from the show.
When the generation before us was growing up, Master of None argues that in order to enter into adulthood they had to get married and settle down. No longer is this the case. Why would someone settle down, when in two days, they could meet the greatest person on earth via a Facebook friend, and then two days later do the same thing standing in line to get the newest iPhone? The definition of adulthood is being redefined. Adulthood currently isn’t settling down, it’s starting a career, finding something to occupy yourself with, and learning and growing each day with the new opportunities that will arise tomorrow. You can do anything, but if you choose that one thing, you may be loosing the opportunity to choose another. This is the zeitgeist of current times, this paradox that the choices are endless, but getting lost in making the decision to decide can be the ultimate downfall. As is said very eloquently in the metaphor Dev reads of a fig tree from The Bell Jar during the season finale of the series, “I wanted each and every one of [the figs], but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” Master of None warns us that if we choose to be the jack-of-all-trades, we will in turn be the masters of none.
Sources:
Ansari, Azis, and Alan Yang. Master of None. Netflix. 6 Nov. 2015. Television.
"Aziz Ansari: Talking Modern Love With The 'Master Of None'" National Public Radio. 17 Nov. 2015. Radio.
Felsenthal, Julia. "Modern Romance in Aziz Ansari’s Master of None." 5 Nov. 2015. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.
Henderson, Maureen. "Is Aziz Ansari's 'Master Of None' The Show That Aging Millennials Have Been Waiting For?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 19 Nov. 2015. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.
Safronova, Valeriya. "The Places They’ll Go (Thanks to ‘Master of None’)." The New York Times. The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2015. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.
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The unknown world is diminishing with the amount of information and connections between us, and as we broaden our horizons, someone comes up with another horizon to add to it.