Pop Culture Pick: Should You Invest In Deli Boys?
Checking out the new comedy
Image credit: Hulu
Welcome to Pop Culture Pick, a catch-all for subjects I want to highlight outside of the usual weekly Weekend Watch columns. In this edition, a delightful deli discovery. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite, Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite and Blue Sky: @jammerwhite.bsky.social
Even given my job covering movies and TV, there are shows that slip past my radar. In this case, Hulu put out the entire season of new comedy Deli Boys with little fanfare (and no screener offered, unlike, say the Marvel or Star Wars shows on sibling streamer Disney+).
I decided to check out Deli Boys partly because the concept sounded funny and mostly thanks to the presence of Poorna Jagannathan, of whom I’ve been a fan for years now and was particularly entertaining in Netflix series Never Have I Ever.
And Deli Boys certainly doesn’t disappoint.
Created by Abdullah Saeed and developed by Jenni Konner and Nora Silver with Michelle Nader as showrunner, it’s the story of Mir (Asif Ali) and Raj (Saagar Shaikh), two pampered Pakistani American brothers who lose everything when their convenience store-magnate father suddenly dies.
To make matters worse, they’re suddenly forced to reckon with his secret life of crime and reluctantly take up his mantle in the underworld of Philadelphia.
Ali and Shaikh make for an appealing and funny lead pair, squabbling siblings who nevertheless have each other’s backs when the moment truly calls for it.
Around them orbits a variety of characters, including Brian George as their endlessly frustrated uncle Ahmed (Brian Green), who had dreams of taking over their dad’s secret drug-smuggling operation himself and Matthew (Jake Prizant), the oddball white man who was their father’s assistant and devoted follower.
Yet it’s Jagannathan who really walks off with most of the scenes as Lucky Auntie, the real power behind the throne, who is not above murdering people to get her way. She’s endlessly funny and charismatic, putting the boys (and everyone else) in their place, but also bighearted and always ready to defend the family she was brought into.
With some excellent character-based laughs, and a situation that slowly turns up the pressure on the main characters, generating plenty of hilarious misfortune for our central duo, it’s the sort of show that might not soar at the Emmys, but deserves to see some recognition.
All episodes of Deli Boys Season 1 are on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK. I’ve seen the whole season.