As Master of None returns, it's still hard to think of Aziz Ansari without remembering his sexual misconduct scandal

Paste Magazine

Ansari isn't the focus of Season 3. Instead, the Moments in Love-themed season puts a spotlight on Lena Waithe's Denise. "Still, Ansari sits at the helm as writer/director and creator of Master of None, tainting the show’s portrayals of food and sex," says Fletcher Peters. Master of None was, he says, "the perfect show...The comedy was as smooth as the handmade carbonara Ansari’s Dev twirls in the penultimate episode of Season 1...The show was incredible, but in a way where you could always expect more from the next episode and the next season." But after Babe.net reported in January 2018  an anonymous woman's horrible, violating night spent with Ansari, it's been hard to see Master of None the same way again, says Peters. "Amidst the whole 'art vs. artist' debacle, Ansari stands as one of those creators whose art is him," says Peters. "Art equals artist, nearly, when it comes to Master of None. So, if Dev Shah were to pull the same type of harassment Ansari’s accused of, would we, as an audience, forgive him? I suppose we might be expected to sympathize with him, as we so often do when we watch the series." Peters also points out that, in retrospect, Ansari has troubling associations. "As I read profile upon profile of Ansari, peeling through interviews and news write-ups like they were cloves of garlic, I did start to notice a trend," says Peters. "Many of Ansari’s influences, his idols and his mentors, were folks piling up similar allegations. "Aziz Ansari Gets His Louie,” wrote Vulture about the first trailer for Master of None, referencing Louis C.K.’s similar comedy series. In the Grantland interview, Ansari noted his dream director would be Woody Allen. Ansari continually idolizes R. Kelly. Even David Chang, who did the GQ Tokyo tour with Ansari, was recently exposed for toxic hostility against staffers in his kitchens. We need not blame Ansari for the behavior of these men, nor for aligning himself with their work before huge allegations hit the mainstream. But this tendency to idolize overly-masculine figures is still worth noting. Perhaps it’s not a mere coincidence Ansari’s befriended and revered a handful of troubling men. Something was appealing about their sense of humor; the way they talk about lust, women, sex; the way they feed their appetite—these factors add up."