Firstly of Deli Boys, the brand new Hulu collection from author Abdullah Saeed, brothers Raj (Saagar Shaikh) and Mir (Asif Ali) are having one hell of a foul week: First, their dad dies in a (freakishly comedic) golf accident. Then, they discover out that their late father Baba (Iqbal Theba), a Pakistani immigrant who based a series of profitable delis, was additionally a drug kingpin, a growth that comes with some main penalties — and raises some main questions — for the Dar brothers. Now that they’ve tenuously inherited this drug operation, what occurs subsequent?
The one assure? Pure chaos. The very first thing viewers see is a largely bare man, bloodied and with a paper bag over his head, working out of the ABC Deli. We shortly study that Baba immigrated to the USA with simply $3 in his pocket, constructing an empire of ABC Delis in Philadelphia and past on the again of the Mega Glug, a gallon-sized, reusable mug that may nonetheless match right into a automobile’s cup holder. All of the whereas, Baba was constructing an equally massive unlawful enterprise, importing cocaine from Peru, and fascinating in an entire host of fraudulent actions in pursuit of the American dream.
His sons, after all, couldn’t be extra completely different from their father — or one another. Raj is a pot-smoking, shaman-dating bon vivant, and Mir is a neurotic over-achiever who can’t cease speaking about his Drexel College diploma and his need to be named CEO of his father’s firm, DarCo. They’re each spoiled brats completely unaware of their father’s illicit enterprise, making them ill-prepared to step up into his function as a fearsome drug lord. Luckily, they’ve acquired their tough-yet-glamorous auntie Fortunate (Poorna Jagannathan) to point out them the ropes, despite the fact that she thinks they’re each idiots and has her sights set on taking on Baba’s enterprise herself. It’s this tenuous, and unsubtle, ally who exhibits them how their father got here up with the ingenious thought of stuffing kilos of cocaine into pungent jars of achaar, or South Asian pickles, to confuse the noses of drug-sniffing canine.
Issues get much more sophisticated when the FBI busts into DarCo headquarters, arrests Auntie Fortunate, and accuses the late Baba of participating in many years of fraud and tax evasion, shutting down the delis completely. That’s all earlier than the brothers discover out about “darkish DarCo,” the hidden facet of the enterprise by which the delis are used as a entrance for a complicated cocaine operation.
With the delis out of fee, Fortunate, Raj, and Mir are tasked with growing a brand new distribution route for his or her cocaine. Mir has the sensible thought to run the jars of achaar by means of an Indian restaurant, which he says wouldn’t increase suspicion. Nevertheless, he shortly runs into his household’s personal anti-Indian racism — and a extremely shrewd restaurant proprietor — as they attempt to negotiate the deal. From there, the hijinks solely go additional off the rails because the brothers Dar attempt to dodge rival gangsters with a watch on their territory, the cops, and their very own incompetence.
All through its 10 episodes, Deli Boys proves itself to be a deeply Philadelphia present, regardless of being filmed largely in Chicago. It incessantly goes nicely past the TastyKakes on the cabinets of ABC Deli to make use of meals for example its love for town. There’s a philosophical meditation on the cheesesteak (an argument asserting it because the true exemplar of one thing that’s greater than the sum of its elements), and it’s surprisingly profound. At an Eagles-watching occasion in one other episode, followers of the reigning Tremendous Bowl champions will discover a gentle pretzel sculpture within the likeness of Nick Foles, the quarterback who helped the franchise win its first Tremendous Bowl in 2018. In step with different Philly-set exhibits like It’s All the time Sunny in Philadelphia and Abbott Elementary, Deli Boys revels a bit in its house metropolis’s gritty, rough-around-the-edges repute.
In case you love the breakneck depth of The Bear, which additionally airs on Hulu, Deli Boys will seemingly be proper up your alley. It’s decidedly a darkish comedy with no scarcity of gore and violence, most of that are performed for laughs. Stabbings, shootings, and even dismemberment will encourage a chuckle or two in most individuals watching, however anybody who’s slightly extra squeamish will in all probability be turned off by its gratuitous use of pretend blood. What the 2 exhibits obtain, although, is an exploration of sibling dynamics and household expectations in opposition to the unrelenting chaos of working the household enterprise. It’s simply that on this case, the household enterprise additionally entails working medicine.
The present additionally takes an irreverent have a look at the expectations heaped onto the shoulders of the youngsters of immigrants, who’re typically anticipated to dwell a model of the “American Dream” that simply doesn’t really feel doable anymore. It in some way manages to deftly navigate turning heavy points like racism, assimilation, and Islamophobia into the butt of many jokes. There are not any flat “mannequin minorities” or different stereotypes right here, only a bunch of sophisticated (often horrible) folks attempting to determine tips on how to promote slightly cocaine.
What actually sells the slapstick jokes and gratuitous violence, although, is the present’s solid. For all of the violence, that is actually a meditation on what it means to be household, and there’s an entire lot of coronary heart between the gunshots and cocaine-cooking. Poorna Jagannathan is great because the tough-as-nails aunty whose backstory with Baba is extra sophisticated than Raj and Mir know. A feat solely achieved as a result of the on-screen interaction between Raj’s stoner sensibilities and Mir’s neuroses is simply that good, I might consider that Saagar Shaikh and Asif Ali have been really brothers in actual life based mostly on the nuances of their seemingly long-simmering grudges and ill-timed spats. Even its transient performances, like Queer Eye trend professional Tan France’s shocking flip as a gun-wielding gangster and the hopeless bumbling of FBI Director Simpson (Tim Baitz), are equally compelling.
Deli Boys is just not explicitly a meals present, which really feels slightly refreshing on this context. It doesn’t use platters of biryani to convey its cultural competence, as a substitute using inside jokes and “if you already know you already know” references to discover the layered identities of its characters. There are nonetheless some nice meals moments, although — the aforementioned pretzel sculpture really is a marvel — to get you thru the remainder of the mayhem and violence.
Deli Boys is streaming on Hulu on March 6.
