Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mo’ On Netflix, Where A Palestinian Refugee Lives In Houston, Hustles, And Waits For Asylum

Ramy Youssef broke through with his self-named series Ramy three years ago, showing the conflict young Muslims have between tradition and just living their lives like everyone else. Mohammed Amer was a supporting player on that series, and the two of them have collaborated to make a series showcasing Amer’s perspective, playing a character who is looking for citizenship via asylum, but he’s been waiting awhile… like 20-plus years.

MO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Hamoodi “Mo” Najjar (Mohammed Amer) pulls up in his car, then we see a drone shot of downtown Houston and the surrounding suburban area in the city limits.

The Gist: Mo is a Palestinian refugee who has been living in Houston pretty much his entire adult life. He’s been waiting for his asylum case to be heard so he gets a path to citizenship, but the government has been keeping him waiting, well, almost his entire life. He’s the best tech at the cell phone store where he works, but his boss (Basseem Youssef) has to let him go because ICE has been putting pressure on him for employing undocumented workers.

So he has to go back to his original hustle, which is selling knockoff designer goods out of the trunk of his car. He’s determined to make money for his family. He has the support of his girlfriend Maria (Teresa Ruiz) and buddy Nick (Tobe Nwigwe), of course. But he doesn’t want to tell his mother Yusura (Farah Bsieso) that he had to be let go.

Oh, Maria isn’t Muslim, which is also something that gives Mo grief. He even asks her to don the “basic Muslim package” when he really meets his mother for the first time, meaning covering her “titty cleavage.” His brother Sameer (Omar Elba) is also threatening to tell their mother about Mo’s tattoo if Mo doesn’t get the only food his spoiled cat will eat.

When he finally gets to the store to pick up the cat food, he’s schooling a sample lady on why chocolate hummus is a travesty — he brings his own olive oil everywhere — when shots ring out. He’s only grazed, but he passes out; he makes sure he doesn’t go to the hospital to make sure he’s not in the sights of ICE. But when his mother sees the wound, she sees something else that alarms her more.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Given that Ramy Youssef is one of the creators, along with Amer, of Mo, it’s not a stretch to say that the show is similar in tone to Ramy.

Our Take: Like Ramy, Mo shows the push and pull between tradition and modern American life that affects young Muslims. But in the case of the fictional Mo, he’s also got to worry about living his life and providing for his family while waiting for the federal government to finally get around to his asylum case.

Mo definitely displays an undercurrent of annoyance at his circumstances; he’s a great worker but can’t hold a job due to his immigration status. He can actually make OK money hustling bootleg goods, but Maria and Nick are concerned that if he’s arrested, that’s an even quicker ticket back to the Palestinian territories, where he hasn’t been since he was a kid. Mo personally feels like a man without a country. “I’m a refugee free agent,” he tells Maria and Nick.

But the key to Mo is that, despite that annoyance, Mo isn’t angry or bitter. He’s just trying to do what he needs to do to make the life for himself, Maria, and his mom and brothers that he thinks they all deserve to have.

There are funny moments in the first episode, most of which are character-driven. We do wish the first episode were a bit funnier, but at least Amer and Youssef have done a good job to set up what’s going on in Mo’s life and the personalities of the people in it. It’s a promising sign for a first season that will have a good story arc as well as a few big laughs.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: While Mo emotionally talks to his mom about the tattoo he got with his late father’s name on it, Sameer peers his head over the railing and tells Mo that the cat started eating the other food that was there, so he didn’t need to get the cat food. “Shit,” Mo sighs. We then see a shot of the cat.

Sleeper Star: It was fun seeing guest stars like Bassem Youssef and Alan Rosenberg, who plays Ava Weinberg, an Israeli regular at the hookah bar Mo goes to.

Most Pilot-y Line: When the waiter at the hookah bar calls the hummus he serves Mo “sexy,” Aba tells him, “Learn English, kid. Hummus ain’t sexy.” Aba hasn’t thought of all the ways to use hummus.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While it could be a touch funnier, Mo is very watchable because of Mo Amer as well as its cross-cultural focus.

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.