Ramy review

★★★★★

Release date: April 19, 2019

Director: Ramy Youssef 

Producers: Ramy Youssef 

Main cast: Ramy Youssef, Steve Way, Mohammed Amer, Amr Waked, Hiam Abbas, Dave Merheji

Ramy follows a young Egyptian Muslim Immigrant man navigating life in New Jersey. This show highlights Ramy's relationship with his religion and idenity while living in America. As a young boy freshly moved to America Ramy was in school when 9/11 happened, and from that day forward, like many Arabs, his life changed forever. Ramy had to fit in the only way he knew how which was to fully embrace the western culture, but at the expense forgetting his own. His parents and sister eventually also subcome to forgetting who they are, and trying desperately to find themselves. The show dives into how taboo things like masterbating, pre martial sex, and gambling is to the Arab and Muslim community, but that it's so heavily apart of Western culture that it's hard to stay away from. In season three Ramy visits Palestine; which was a change in pace and theme compared to the rest of the seasons and episodes. The episode respectfully lacked comedy unlike the rest of the show, and more so focused on the reality of wars happening in Palestine. It was filmed in Palestine and we were able to see raw footage of the tragic reality that is happening in Palestine. One of the episodes focused on a young boy stealing Ramy's jacket. Ramy, being unaware of the consequences made a bigger deal out of the jacket than he should have, which ended with the Israeli police getting involved. After the altercation with the boys family and the police, they killed the young boy. This was a wake up call for Ramy, and so many viewers of the privileges that come with living in America. This changed Ramy's perspective and brought him closer to finding his relationship with not only himself, but his heritage and religion. 

This show was beyond made well. From the producing, the acting, the directing, the music choice, the writing, and even the locations it couldn't have been done better. Being an Arab Muslim American this show brought a lot of comfort and realness to watching it. I don't think the struggle of balancing two opposing cultures at the same time is talked about enough in the Arab and Muslim community. What is talked about a lot is life being hard in America for who we are, but I enjoyed the different rhetoric in Ramy. It didn't focus too much on negative stereotypes that we face, but more or so the inner struggle of being in a country that goes against everything your religion and culture stand by. Ramy really showed vulnerability and realness of what so many people go through but won't talk about, while keeping the comedy hilarious. Another thing I really loved that the show touched base on is the pressure and expectations that the Muslim community holds, which often times push people away from the actual religion- which I find happens in many religions. Ramy really captured the seesaw of emotions it is to juggle to cultures, do you stay in the comfort of what you knew and grew up in, or do you embrace the culture you were brought into and need to stay in, in order too stay relevant. 

Out of fifteen thousand IMDb users, Ramy was given a 8/10 rating. Out of that fifteen thousand, 22% of those voters gave Ramy its highest rating of a 10/10, and 4.3% gave the show its lowest rating of a 1/10. Out of every single move we have watched this semester I believe that this has been the highest percentage of voters that gave the show a 10/10. I was pleasantly surprised to see that so many people gave it a 10/10 because I truly loved this show. It touched so many different tones and themes, while having such comedic humor, but being serious when needing to be. I truly enjoyed this show so much and would recommended it to anyone and everyone.