Anybody watch the new Aziz Ansari special on Netflix? I saw that he had taken a little bit of heat in some early reviews for not addressing the accusations made against him to the reviewers' satisfaction, but I actually thought it was a fairly thoughtful hour. Most of it really is addressing how we deal with our problematic faves, including him. I thought he addressed it about as candidly as I could have expected while still making it a stand-up special, and without making the accusations the subject of the jokes themselves (aside from one kinda cringey moment in the first couple of minutes).
I was curious, because out of everybody who has been outed in the Me Too era, Aziz is one of the ones I was watching for the most, to see how and what he would do in the aftermath. I ended that special thinking that he *sounds like* he gets it, even if he's not discussing it publicly, in detail. Does he apologize or admit culpability? Not in the special. But he does talk a lot about reflecting on what kind of person he's been, and trying to do better. Of course, he centers himself in that, and not the person who made the accusations against him, but again, within the context of stand-up comedy I'm kind of relieved that the comments he did make weren't targeted at or about her in any way. It's not the right setting for that. I don't know; it's walking a very tricky tightrope, but I thought he did an okay job.
Anybody else? How did you feel about it?
