Sometimes all you need from a comedy is an interesting premise and one or two big laugh lines. Given how most comedies need time to find their footing, it feels that shows that have those things have a leg up on the competition. A new comedy about spoiled brothers who are the sons of a successful Pakistani businessman is definitely in this category.
Opening Shot: We see the front of a deli in Philadelphia. Suddenly, a man runs out wearing only socks, tighty whities and a paper bag over his head. Two guys in aprons run out after him.
The Gist: Three days earlier, we see an investment video for DarCo, whose CEO (Iqbal Theba) started the company with a single deli in Philly, soon after he came over to the US from Pakistan. Now the company, which owns dozens of delis and a major Pakistani food manufacturer, is expanding into golf courses. He also invented the Mega Glug, a massive drink cup that somehow still fits in a car’s cupholder.
We see both Mir Dar (Asif Ali) and his brother Raj (Saagar Shaikh) wake up in the morning, in very different situations. Raj wakes up in a sea of naked bodies with his shaman, Prairie (Alfie Fuller). Mir, on the other hand, is in a suit getting ready to work out. He tells his fiancée Bushra (Zainne Saleh) that he’s going to ask “Baba” to make him CEO. “Baba” is what Mir and Raj call their father, who is the aforementioned CEO of DarCo.
The three meet on the golf course, and while Baba celebrates his new venture, a wayward ball smacks him in the head, killing him. Before his funeral, Baba’s closest confidant, Lucky (Poorna Jagannathan), soothes Mir and Raj, who call her “Lucky Auntie.” We also see Ahmad (Brian George), who has a rivalry with Lucky. Both are on DarCo’s board of directors.
Mir decides that he should take over as CEO, and goes to the board meeting to assert himself. But just as he’s doing it, the FBI raids the offices, arrests Lucky, who claims she’s the interim CEO, and seizes all of the company’s assets — including the furniture and other things in both sons’ apartments. Agent Mercer (Alexandra Ruddy), who leads the operation, is elated that she’s on her first raid, which the feds executed only after Baba died.
One business that wasn’t related to DarCo, though, is Baba’s original deli. Figuring it’s a place for a fresh start, Mir and Raj decide to start regrowing the business from there. But what they don’t realize until Lucky comes in, armed and ready to silence anyone who betrays them, that Baba’s business enterprise had “expanded” over the years into drugs and other illegal and dangerous activity.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Deli Boys feels like The Pradeeps Of Pittsburgh crossed with Breaking Bad.
Our Take: Created by Abdullah Saeed (Michelle Nader is the showrunner and Jenni Konner is one of the EPs), Deli Boys is a fun show because it starts subverting expectations almost from the first minutes of the episode. Much of the comedy is over the top, like the scene where Baba gets fatally injured by that stray golf ball, which sometimes hits and sometimes misses. But what does hit can be laugh-out-loud funny, which gives us hope that the series will have a bold and consistent voice through its first season.
Despite the crimes that Baba, Lucky and most of DarCo engaged in, family is still at the heart of Deli Boys Mir and Raj are polar opposite in personalities, but both privileged and soft in their own particular ways. They love each other despite their personality clash, and are determined to carry on their father’s legacy. But how they’ll reconcile the fact that he hid his company’s criminal activity from them from so many years will be the crux of the first season of the series.
But as we see in the first scene, with the guy running out with a paper bag over his head, the Dar boys are going to find out that DarCo might not have been the most expertly-run criminal organization out there. Even Lucky, the most cold-blooded of Baba’s confidantes, might not be as cold-blooded as she thinks she is. One thing she does know, and she tells this to the boys: She’s now fully in charge, and they work for her.
We’ve enjoyed Poorna Jagannathan’s performances for years, especially during her recent run on Never Have I Ever, and she’s well-suited to play the aptly-named Lucky. Her characters are often businesslike and tough, but with some vulnerabilities poking through here and there. We’re curious to see just how Baba’s sudden death affects her, even as she pushes forward in order to keep all the criminal wheels turning.
Sex and Skin: When Raj wakes up with Prairie, there’s a lot of naked people, though we somehow don’t see any naughty bits on camera.
Parting Shot: Agent Mercer rides by the deli, and says “nothing yet” into a recorder.
Sleeper Star: Alfie Fuller is funny as the hippie-dippy Prairie. We also want to recognize how much we like watching Brian George (best known as Babu Bhatt in Seinfeld) in just about any role.
Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m super into corporate tax workarounds, but this seems irresponsible,” Bushra says to Mir as they stand in his now-empty apartment.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Because of the funny moments, and the idea that these two coddled young men are now going to have to get into hardcore criminal activity, we are feeling pretty good about the prospects that the first season of Deli Boys will be entertaining.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.