Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ramy’ On Hulu, About A Young Muslim Man Caught Between Tradition And The Modern World

Following family or religious traditions are tough, especially when you’re young and carefree. You can’t eat that cheeseburger because you keep kosher. You gave up Facebook for Lent. You always go to your cigarette-puffing aunt’s house for Thanksgiving. It sucks, but you do it because it’s been drummed into you since you were a baby. That’s the theme of Ramy, comedian Ramy Youssef’s series about being a young observant Muslim in America who still wants to do things people his age do. Read on for more…

RAMY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A young man gets dropped off by his mother at a mosque to do his daily afternoon prayer. His mother thinks that her single son can find a girl while he’s praying.

The Gist: Ramy (Ramy Youssef) is the son of Egyptian immigrants, and still lives with his parents in Jersey City. He dearly wants to adhere to his Muslim faith, but he’s constantly questioning the ritual and customs involved in having to do it. For instance, when he goes to the mosque, he escapes the line where the men clean themselves and go to an unused bathroom in the basement, cursorily “washing” his ears and his sock-laden feet. An old man sees this and tells Ramy that he has to wash between his toes if he really wants to show God he’s clean.

Ramy is also starting to realize that he is looking to settle down with a Muslim woman and not just screw around with non-Muslims. As another friend gets married, Ramy’s married buddies Mo (Mohammed Amer) and Ahmed (Dave Merheje) warn him that he’ll die alone if he doesn’t find a Muslim woman soon; when he says he’s got a nice thing going with a White girl named Chloe (Anna Konkle), they guffaw, because, as Ahmed says, White girls “walk barefoot. They jump into stuff, naked.” In fact, after he has sex with Chloe, he checks the condom for leaks to ensure that he doesn’t get her pregnant by accident. He also never mentioned to her that he doesn’t drink.

When Ramy expresses to his parents that he wants to marry a Muslim girl, his mother Maysa (Hiam Abbass) is ecstatic, but his father Farouk (Amr Waked) warns him that Muslim women are “serious”, “not like the others. Are you ready for that?” His sister Dena (May Calamawy) is just pissed; if he gets married, her parents scrutiny will turn to her, wondering when she’ll settle down and start making grandchildren.

He does get set up with a woman named Nour (Dina Shihabi), and they get along really well. But when she wants to have sex in her car, he demurs. But she figures out that he doesn’t want to take it slow, he wants to take it slow with her because she’s Muslim, and kicks him out of the car.

Our Take: It’s not often to see a comedy that deals with religion honestly, especially the aspect where people who are young are constantly being tugged between tradition and just wanting to live their lives. It’s even less often when the religion in question is Islam. Which is why Ramy, created and written by Youssef playing more or less a fictional version of himself, so remarkable.

In Ramy, Islam isn’t treated as political topic; it’s just another religion that flummoxes a young man who wants to live an observant life but just doesn’t get some of the rules he needs to follow. Why does he need to clean between his toes? Is God really going to judge him for that? Why not have pre-marital sex with non-Muslim women? But then again, he’s also faced with the fact that he’s got his own views and biases that are colored by the way he grew up; Nour is completely frustrated that Ramy puts her in a “little Muslim box in your head” and that he doesn’t see her as anything more than virginal marriage material. “I’m not supposed to come.” It’s a gut-punch moment that’s all too familiar to anyone who is looking for a traditional, religion-based relationship.

It doesn’t matter what religion you grew up in, or even if you’re not religious; Ramy’s plight is relatable to everyone. Whether it’s religious traditions, family traditions, or traditions that have aspects of both, everyone has had a moment in their lives, especially when they are young, that they’ve questioned why those traditions exist and why they have to so blindly follow them. So, despite the fact that Ramy is only in his 20s and he’s Muslim, the conflict he was going through made us nod in recognition.

Sex and Skin: We mention the two scenes above; did we mention that Nour responds to Ramy’s reluctance to have car sex by saying she’ll just finger herself while he chokes her?

Parting Shot: Ramy sees the old man again in front of the man’s restaurant; as he goes off on a monologue about why God cares that he does things like have sex before marriage or have a desire to try mushrooms? The old man responds, “You jerk off too much. And wash between your toes.”

Sleeper Star: One of Ramy’s co-workers is Steve (Steve Way); he’s pretty funny, and the fact that the show sees him as just another character even though he’s disabled is a bonus.

Most Pilot-y Line: Ramy’s date — which is chaperoned — is interrupted by two brotastic buddies that are likely bridge-and-tunnel guys like he is, raving about the falafel sandwich.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Ramy‘s point of view is unique, but the subject matter isn’t. That’s what makes it, and Ramy Youssef, such a compelling watch.

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, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream Ramy on Hulu