{"id":485163,"date":"2026-03-20T03:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485163\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T03:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:33:10","slug":"riz-ahmeds-sharp-amazon-comedy-about-identity-and-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485163\/","title":{"rendered":"Riz Ahmed’s Sharp Amazon Comedy About Identity and Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen it comes to referendums on national identity, few are more arbitrary than the periodic debate over who should play James Bond<\/a> in the next cinematic adaptations of Ian Fleming\u2019s venerable spy franchise.<\/p>\n

\n\tLike candidates for the Supreme Court, Bond-obsessed pundits fall into two camps: strict constructionists, who believe that every descriptive word in Fleming\u2019s books must be adhered to directly (even though Fleming died in 1964 and, according to some media reports, the world has changed since then); and loose constructionists, who figure that Fleming wrote about spycraft and geopolitical relations in a time before cell phones, the invention of chicken tikka masala or common acceptance of the Big Bang, so maybe it\u2019s acceptable if James Bond doesn\u2019t directly resemble Hoagy Carmichael.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBait\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tFull of potential.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAirdate: Wednesday, March 25 (Prime Video)
Creator: Riz Ahmed
Cast: \u00a0Riz Ahmed, Guz Khan, Sheeba Chaddha, Sajid Hasan, Aasiya Shah, Weruche Opia, Ritu Arya\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe question of \u201cWho will play James Bond?\u201d invariably becomes as much \u201cWho gets to be considered to play James Bond?\u201d And that, in turn, becomes very close to \u201cWho gets to be considered sufficiently British to play James Bond?\u201d And finally \u201cWho is British?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe progression of those questions is at the heart of Riz Ahmed<\/a>\u2018s new six-part comedy series, Bait<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tPresenting as TV\u2019s latest entertainment industry satire, Bait is ultimately less like Hacks<\/a> or The Studio<\/a> or The Franchise<\/a> and more like Disney+\u2019s Wonder Man<\/a> (mixed with a dash of Baby Reindeer), in which the main character\u2019s dream of taking on a franchise-leading role in a blockbuster becomes a proxy for unresolved trauma and a desperate need to find a place in a world that has tried to exclude him.<\/p>\n

\n\tLike its main character, Bait is a series that feels like it\u2019s constantly on the verge of a breakthrough, constantly on the edge of finding a next gear either satirically or emotionally. Instead, it\u2019s more interesting and worthy of admiration than necessarily great, but you can see the greatness on the periphery. (This, incidentally, was also how I felt about Wonder Man. It\u2019s a tough genre to get right, apparently. But I probably prefer the deeper aspiration of Bait and Wonder Man to the more fulfilled, but limited aspirations of The Studio.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pilot, written by Ahmed and directed by Bassam Tariq, begins with Ahmed\u2019s Shah Latif freezing up partway through an early audition for James Bond.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTell me, when it\u2019s just you all alone, how do you live with yourself? Do you even know who you are?\u201d Shah\u2019s audition co-star, playing what is presumably a Bond Girl, asks him.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe existential question, the driver for the entire show, causes Shah to freeze. He screws up the audition. A production assistant shows him out of the studio, leading him out the back door because a paparazzi photographer is perched at the front. Light bulb coming on in his head, Shah feigns that he forgot something, ditches the assistant and exits through the front door.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy the time he gets to dinner with his family, Shah\u2019s phone is blowing up with rumors that he might be the next James Bond.<\/p>\n

\n\tShah\u2019s parents, Tahira (Sheeba Chaddha) and Parvez (Sajid Hasan), are hopeful but skeptical. His brother-cousin Zulfi (Guz Khan) hopes that Shah\u2019s newfound fame will help boost his Uber-for-Muslims rideshare business. His sister-cousin Q (Aasiya Shah) is excited and somehow never mentions in six episodes that she shares a name with a beloved 007 character.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis agent Felicia (Weruche Opia) sees this as the potential climax of a career that has included more failures and near-successes than actual success.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Internet is\u2026the Internet, and soon Shah is facing escalating threats and disapproving media coverage, including a column by his ex (Ritu Arya\u2019s Yasmin), arguing that a Pakistani-British man playing James Bond won\u2019t erase the character\u2019s neo-colonial stench, so why bother?<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Shah? Well, he isn\u2019t sure what to think. Growing up in a London plagued by decades of anti-immigrant sentiment in general and anti-Pakistani sentiment specifically, he has a lot of internalized self-hatred and easily triggered memories of bullying and abuse (to say nothing of all of the times he\u2019s been confused for Dev Patel).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series takes place over a four-day period between Shah\u2019s disastrous first audition and the unexpected callback that he received as a result of the media attention, a period that includes Eid al-Fitr, the conclusion of Ramadan.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis makes it an opportunity for Shah to take both personal and professional inventory, to think about what it would mean to play James Bond and what it means to be Pakistani in contemporary London.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a big swing, and probably a bigger swing than six half-hour episodes can contain \u2014 especially when it becomes clear that the Latifs have a family history of mental illness that dovetails uncomfortably with Shah\u2019s newfound determination to believe that the implausible might be possible. Reality for Shah becomes tenuous, which is less than ideal when you\u2019re going through the biggest days of your life on an empty stomach.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhmed, co-showrunner Ben Karlin and directors Tariq and Tom George have built the four days and six episodes around a number of pivotal events, including a podcast taping with an unexpected star, multiple family gatherings, a museum gala for the opening of a controversial exhibit and a semi-romantic evening spent on East London\u2019s Brick Lane (one of several distinctive neighborhoods given a vibrant showcase).<\/p>\n

\n\tBig events add opportunities for zaniness that\u2019s recognizably comedic, in addition to bringing in some recognizable guest stars. Himesh Patel (Station Eleven<\/a>) and Nabhaan Rizwan (Kaos<\/a>) are fittingly dapper as Shah\u2019s professional and familial rivals, respectively, two men with the Bond-ian confidence that Shan lacks. Rafe Spall is unexpectedly funny as a security expert who responds to a threat at the Latif house, with the strong suggestion that he wants the prestige of offering his services to the next Bond.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat the zaniness also does sometimes, though, is make it hard for Bait to live with some of the dramatic elements that it introduces and then rushes away from. Some of the psychological complexities are audacious, and I kept wondering how much the show would follow through with certain decisions, with the answer always being \u201cvery little.\u201d It says the things it wants to say, but says them quickly, especially in a finale that ties several thematic elements together a little too neatly.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhmed has given himself a challenging role, one that clearly has certain autobiographical elements even if the bigger picture isn\u2019t autobiographical at all (though Ahmed would make a fine James Bond). He has excelled in dramatic roles going back to The Night Of <\/a>and Sound of Metal<\/a>, but it\u2019s nice to see hints of the comic chops he displayed back in Four Lions, especially in his scenes with Khan, who finds an undercurrent of anger to Zulfi\u2019s entrepreneurial desperation.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe best episode for Ahmed, and my favorite episode in the series, is the fourth \u2014 basically a two-hander with Arya \u2014 as Shah\u2019s frustration with Yasmin\u2019s column becomes a brief East London odyssey that lets them each air grievances about their relationship. I really liked Arya in The Umbrella Academy<\/a> and Polite Society and this is a small, but thoroughly appealing part.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmazon<\/a> isn\u2019t calling Bait a limited series and the finale is conclusive enough, but the show is so close to the brink of being something special that I wouldn\u2019t mind if Ahmed wanted to reopen the narrative, and his character\u2019s spiritual wounds, to see what could still be uncovered. It\u2019d be especially fun to get a second season timed for whenever Amazon is finally ready to reveal the next James Bond, who\u2019s unlikely to actually be an actor like Shah Latif.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to referendums on national identity, few are more arbitrary than the periodic debate over who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2151,146070,96,5453,2839,25924,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-485163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-amazon","tag-bait","tag-entertainment","tag-james-bond","tag-movies","tag-riz-ahmed","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}