REVIEW: ‘Mo’ Captures Texas Perfectly

Houston is the fifth most diverse city in the United States and while so many people dismiss Texans as white Republicans in cowboy hats, cities like Houston have a stunningly diverse population, having served as a place for refugee communities to build lives, like other cities in the I -35 metroplex. From A24, Mo is created by Mohammed “Mo” Amer and Ramy Youssef, with Solvan “Slick” Naim serving as series director. It stars Mo Amer, Teresa Ruiz, Farah Bsieso, Omar Elba, Cherien Dabis, and Tobe Nwigwe. Mo captures Houston in a way that makes it one of the best representations of Texas on screen that I’ve ever seen. And it’s because it’s through Mo Najjar’s eyes.

Mo, as a series offers classic comedy, dark comedy, and some serious dramatic elements. The titular character, Mo (Mo Amer) straddles the line between two cultures, three languages, and a ton of racist systemic issues as a Palestinian refugee constantly living one step away from asylum on the path to citizenship. His family —including his resilient and spiritual mother, sister, and older brother — flee to Houston, Texas. Laughing the pain away, Mo learns to adapt to his new world, though he’s not exactly the most successful, selling “high-end replicas” of designer products and working wherever he can, to say he’s just trying to stay afloat is an understatement.

Mo is both a heartfelt comedy and an intimate look into life, family, and trauma. Most specifically, the trauma you carry with you when you realize your family’s story. In one moment, the series is making jokes about mechanic butt cracks and Kanye and in the next, it’s exploring generational trauma and the pain of trying to succeed when the world isn’t built to help you. As Mo shows viewers his life throughout different parts of Texas, we get to see the different microaggressions, the joys, and the ways Texas, well, sucks.

Mo is clearly a love letter to the Palestinian experience in the United States, showcasing the struggle but never letting it overshadow the beauty and connectivity of the community. The series also doesn’t side-step darkness. There is a shooting at a grocery store, struggles with Lean (a drink that’s prepared by mixing prescription-strength cough or cold syrup containing codeine and promethazine with a Sprite that originates in Houston), gang violence, and some racism to boot. It bridges sadness and comedy in a way that holds each of them in high esteem. The drama is as important as the humor and ultimately this is what makes the series unique and extremely well-done.

But one of the best things about Mo is that it captures the fluidity of moving through a multicultural space like Houston. Mo is fluent in Arabic, English, and Spanish and the way he switches between each of the languages is not only fluid but sounds just like the people I know. Even down to him turning on a Texas twang when he speaks to white people he’s trying to hustle. With his girlfriend Maria (Teresa Ruiz), he speaks Spanish to make her feel comfortable in front of his mother Yusra (Farah Bsieso) while he speaks Arabic to his mom at the same time. Their life together is multi-lingual and it feels real. On top of that, Maria isn’t just a girlfriend. She’s a businesswoman who owns her own automotive shop. She works hard and cares about Mo harder, all while dealing with her family history.

And of course, Mo and his family look at the difficulties that arise from living between two cultures both internally and externally. While we get a simplified look at the convoluted asylum-seeking process, we get a larger look at what happens when families drift apart. More specifically the issues that come from marrying outside the culture and how these complexities create large caverns between the people we love, and how we can start bridging the gap. There is an intimacy and emotion that runs throughout the series that has to be experienced.

From Mo to his siblings Sameer (Omar Elba) and Nadia (Cherien Dabis), and of course their mother, the Najjar family never feels one note. Instead, each character is dynamic with their own driving factors, emotions, and identities. Add in Mo’s friends and the story has enough levity to make even the harshest moments a little bit better. The series pulls itself together around love as much as anything else. Whether it’s a wedding celebrated with a Palestinian Zaffa or Mo’s mom learning to welcome Maria into the family, the beauty of this series is about relationships.

Mo is beautiful and complicated at the same time. It’s filled with love and heartache and it’s so deeply intimate and funny without missing a beat.

Mo is streaming exclusively on Netflix now.