In June 2015, just a few months before the premiere of Master of None‘s first season, Aziz Ansari (along with sociologist Eric Klinenberg) released the non-fiction book Modern Romance: An Investigation. The book delved into the modern day struggles and pitfalls that come with online dating: the pre-date social media research, the ubiquity of Tinder-like apps and, relevantly for this episode, the paradox of how the endless supply of potential partners actually leaves us feeling more alone and unlikely to find a match than ever before. Ansari is clearly fascinated by this topic and so it comes as no surprise that Master of None would delve into this territory some point. Ansari, as he mentions in the book, is happily in a relationship and feels lucky that he doesn’t have to currently engage in this exhausting world of meaningless meet-ups. Dev, however, has no such luck and in this episode he plunges himself head-first into a countless amount of dates in order to try and find a match.
‘First Date’ sees Dev exploring the paradox of endless choice by going on date after date after date in the same bars, wearing the same suit and hoping for something new to come out of his meetings. As the night wears on, Dev doesn’t seem particularly upset or disappointed when the vast majority of these dates either fizzle out or crash and burn. After all, if you have an endless amount of potential dates at your fingertips, then why worry about the one that you are currently on working out? If the girl/guy that you are currently meeting with isn’t quite perfect then simply dispose of this date and head back to your app to find the next person who responds to your mildly witty opening line (you can even do this whilst on your date, as happens to Dev in this episode).
I was reminded yet again of The Bell Jar’s fig tree analogy from the opening moments of the episode where people swipe away on a whim in all walks of life. Bored at a funeral? Swipe. Grocery shopping? Swipe. On the toilet? Swipe. The amount of figs on this tree is endless and potential matches evaporate because you decide you don’t like somebody’s profile picture; or they potentially bloom because you say ‘fuck it’ and swipe right once in a while. Entire potential relationships live or die based on nothing but arbitrary whims. However, even if you decide to swipe right and make a connection, ‘First Date’ suggests that there isn’t much chance of this leading anywhere particularly good anyway (I somehow don’t see Dev and the girl at the funeral ever making a real connection if they happen to match).
It isn’t long into the episode before it becomes clear that this is not going to be the story of Dev and just one girl who he meets on the app. The episode quickly shifts from story to story, lingering on some moments and breezing past other necessary questions that have to be asked on a date but that nobody really lingers on (You have to ask each other about your respective siblings to be polite, but nobody actually cares how many siblings you have. Ever). The only constants throughout the episode are the bars that Dev picks, and the clothes that he wears. Whilst this helps to keep some level of consistency in the viewers’ minds, it also rings true for how somebody like Dev would act on a date. If you find a bar that works once, then why not head to that same bar every time? If a date compliments you on your choice of clothing, then keep wearing that same clothing on your first dates until you feel its luck has run out. For a man like Dev, who is obsessed with researching every potential food and drink establishment to within an inch of its life to find the best one, this definitely fits his behaviour. It also, however, speaks to the severe lack of ‘magic’ that Dev is hoping for on these dates. The same clothes, the same bars, and the same conversation: we use these crutches because we know that they have a certain level of success ingrained into them, but there is a limit to how much you are going to be wowed by somebody if you already have a fairly exact blueprint in your head of exactly how the night is going to go. There is nothing wrong with being formulaic if you only care about the ‘possible boning situation’ that Dev describes to Diana (one of his many dates for the episode). But from what we know about Dev, this ultimately isn’t going to be fulfilling for him (and this is proven by the episode’s ending). Perhaps tellingly, the episode is titled ‘First Date’ (singular) and not ‘First Dates’ (plural). Despite their differences, they are all essentially one in the same in many, many ways.
The episode splits into four main locations (The Four Horsemen bar; the walk from this bar; the rooftop bar; and finally the taxi ride home) that clearly Dev has honed into believing will bring the best chance of success with them. Some of Dev’s dates make it through all four sections and others crash out before they even make it out of The Four Horsemen (Girl who escaped after 5 minutes to do coke: you never had a chance). Cleverly, the episode doesn’t simply pick all the ‘good’ dates to make it all the way through and all the ‘bad’ dates to crash out early. As happens in real life, sometimes people are too nice to kill something that is going nowhere and let it ride out for longer than they should. There is also a certain level of apathy towards the whole situation with this approach. Why not just let bad dates ride out for as long as possible? If you just want to hook up then you may still get lucky. And besides, what else are you doing with your life tonight? (Dev even agrees to meet up with Stephanie again, despite her having a boyfriend, presumably because it’s just something to do with his time). Likewise, Dev’s date with Priya appears to not be going too well at first as she rudely spends time on her phone while they chat, but she ends up being the only date that feels like a real romantic connection has potentially been made by the end of it.
As the dates finish up in the taxi ride home we get to see the gamut of things possible to happen once you reach that moment. Dev attempts to kiss every person who makes it to this point and he is fairly successful with his attempts: although two of his dates reject his advances, the other two kiss him back. Dev and Priya share a romantic kiss and seem to legitimately suggest that they would like to take things further on another night (in what is probably the only legitimately fulfilling moment of the episode for Dev), whilst he and Christine share a passionate, arousing kiss and head up to her place to have sex. However, just because they have sex, doesn’t mean the night has ended completely successfully.
As Dev reaches over to grab a condom from Christine’s supply, he is appalled by the racist black caricature that houses her condoms. Dev is not put off enough to not have sex with Christine, yet still feels it important enough to mention to her before he leaves her place, and, in the funniest moment of the episode, has no adequate response for her questioning of his motives:
“So you think I’m a racist now, but you still had sex with me?”
“……yeah… I did… I was caught up in the moment…”
“Don’t you think that’s a little hypocritical?”
“It definitely doesn’t reflect well on my principles, no.”
Ansari’s slight smirk as he delivers these lines says it all. Dev wants to focus on how problematic Christine’s racist symbol is and yet he can’t deny his own problematic behaviour of willingly ignoring the racism until just after he was able to get what he wants from her. Despite any of Christine’s character flaws, she is correct to feel angry and wronged by this and kicks Dev out of her apartment.
The episode ends with Dev returning home from Christine’s place to dejectedly crash out on his couch. Although none of the strands connect Sliding Doors style at this point, I think it’s fair to assume that this scene can be read as how he returns from pretty much all the dates: disillusioned and tired with the hollowness of the dating scene. However, it doesn’t stop him from pulling out his phone and immediately sending his favourite line to his new matches. Dev, presumably, doesn’t expect anything different from these new matches than what he had from the many in this episode. The excitement of receiving a match in the cold open of the episode is completely gone; it is just yet another part of the routine for him now. The programme doesn’t seem to be negatively commenting on Dev’s behaviour, or attempting to suggest a better way to go about the dating game. It is merely pointing out how tiresome and lonely the current dating scene is for all involved. Dev dates at least 10 different people in this episode: one date ends in sex and another ends with the potential of future fulfilment. That’s a 20% success rate at best (and that’s only if you can call the horrific ending with Christine a success). Aziz Ansari knows these figures; he’s written a book about them! He knows the infinitesimal chances of success and yet he knows there is very little choice in the modern world of dating. This episode isn’t trying to warn us away from the world of dating apps, it’s just looking for a big collective acknowledgement that it’s a tough situation all around.
Unconnected Thoughts
- The opening credits musical choices throughout this season have been consistently excellent and this episode did not disappoint again with Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer Love’ providing a catchy yet foreboding examination of things to come:
Another lonely night
Another lonely night
Stare at the TV screen
Stare at the TV screen
I don’t know what to do
Don’t know what to do
I need a rendezvous
I need a rendezvous
- “I did read somewhere that black women and Indian men have the least chance of success on these apps” – Would that somewhere happen to be your own book, Mr Ansari?
- The camera work on the walk between the bars suggests that it could possibly have been done in one take, despite there being 3 different dates taking place on the walk. Again this adds to the feeling that it all may as well be the same night.
- Exactly how much time do these dates span? Whilst on his date with Diana, a fan comes over to Dev and tells him that Clash of the Cupcakes helped get his friend through chemotherapy, meaning Dev must have been back in New York for at least a few months by now.
- If nothing else, at least this episode gave everybody a new opening line to try out on Tinder.
