Following several multi-generational families originally from India who are now taking America by storm,
For decades, the best-known desi on TV was Apu, from “The Simpsons.”
Later, there was Aziz Ansari’s Tom Haverford, on “Parks and Recreation,” a character whose whole shtick was to veer asymptotically toward whiteness. Today, Hasan Minhaj addresses a “New Brown America” on “Patriot Act,” and Lilly Singh holds a spot in the historically white, male late-night lineup. One of the better episodes of Ansari’s “Master of None”—“Indians on TV”—even managed a meta-reflection on racism in popular media. “Family Karma” strikes me not as an extension of the mainstream desi media that’s come before but as a counterpoint to it. Marriage, dating, parents’ and children’s opposing wills—“Family Karma” shares these preoccupations with “Master of None,” Gurinder Chadha’s “Bend It Like Beckham,” and Kumail Nanjiani’s “The Big Sick.” Unlike “Family Karma,” however, those earlier stories were often about second-gen kids fighting to date or marry white. “Master of None” and Mindy Kaling’s “The Mindy Project” saw their leads making out with so many cute Caucasians that I wondered if their creators were trying to make up for a thousand spurns on middle-school dance floors. In “The Big Sick,” Nanjiani’s alter ego, who’s pursuing a white woman against his parents’ wishes, stuffs photos of potential Pakistani brides into a cigar box.
By contrast, on “Family Karma,” brown people mostly date other brown people, and the dramas often stem from dating within one’s race. The engaged couple pursues a formal Indian engagement ceremony, to make peace with one side of the family. Brian, the cheery, reformed playboy, woos his brown best friend, a self-proclaimed “traditional Indian girl” he wouldn’t have considered a few years ago.
We are finally getting TV about the Indian-American community unto itself, not about its struggle to assimilate.
Family Karma chronicles the lives of a group of first-gen Indian-American kids—and, to a lesser degree, their parents—living in Miami. These young adults are all part of the same community of Indian immigrants; many of them have known each other for most of their lives.
At the outset of the pilot, we have a key group of main characters to follow: Vishal is a self-admitted “man-child” engaged to Richa, a career woman (they’ve been engaged for over two years without any movement on the wedding). Brian and Monica are best friends who act like a couple without any physical intimacy or a title. Anisha is a fashion entrepreneur who recently moved home after living in NYC for 10 years. Amrit is a successful lawyer who recently came out to his parents.
Though they have less screen time, their parents are crucial characters within the story as well. Most of the parents had arranged marriages and created the close-knit community in Miami. When there’s drama, it often seems to stem from the gossip mill, aka the aunties. One of the main tensions in the first episode can be attributed to Vishal and Richa’s moms who openly despise each other, despite being on the verge of becoming family.
As is often the case with Indian families in real life, much of the dialogue and conflict revolves around dating and marriage, but is less focused on topics like career or religion. Time will tell as to whether Family Karma expands its focus, but for now love and lust are driving the story forward.
