citizenship. Director Solvan “Slick” Naim finds a loose rhythm that swings between the Najjars and occasional flashbacks to Mo’s childhood when Mo’s father (Mohammad Hindi) was still alive with lived-in ease. Years after his family fled Kuwait, and unable to return home to Palestine, Mo’s now an affable hustler selling designer replicas out of his trunk while juggling jobs that will look past his lack of U.S. Over eight half-hour episodes, “Mo” drops us into Mo’s life in Texas in the months before he gets to this hearing. Even as they’re all doing their best to keep themselves and their family in one piece, the show keeps finding ways to let Mo and the rest of the Najjar family remain entirely themselves.
Their flighty former lawyer (Cynthia Yelle) smugly parades her current client in front of their new lawyer (Lee Eddy), who’s perfectly competent but immediately loses points for not being Palestinian. Meanwhile, Mo’s brother Sameer (Omar Elba) briefly goes missing to chase an apparently rare finch. Yusra, who’s spent years waiting for this day, can’t stop fixating on Mo’s accusation that her giving Maria a cuff bracelet to hide her crucifix tattoo was not, in fact, an entirely altruistic act. Mo tussles with a security guard who refuses to share his water when the vending machine breaks.
As with most every episode of “Mo,” Netflix’s new series created by Amer and Ramy Youssef (“Ramy”), the stakes are as high as Mo’s escalating blood pressure.īut “Mo” is also a comedy with a fast-talking lionheart at its center, and as such, even this incredibly stressful time can vibrate with frissons of the ridiculous. Fresh off a fight with his girlfriend Maria (Teresa Ruiz), worried sick for his mother, Yusra (Farah Bseiso), and in disbelief that his Palestinian refugee family might actually be getting the asylum they’ve needed for so long, Mo’s so overwhelmed and impatient that he can barely stay in his seat. At a Texan courthouse, while waiting for his family’s number to be called for a long-awaited hearing, Mo ( Mo Amer) starts having a sweaty meltdown at precisely the least convenient moment.