REVIEW: ‘Mo’ Season 2 Captures Resiliency, Pride, And Texas

Mo Season 1 was the best snapshot of Houston, Texas as a television series. In fact, for comedy, it captured Texas’ absurdities and its beauty through its communities. Centered on Mohammad Najjar (Mo Amer) and his family, the series focuses on their journey to have their asylum granted. Stuck in the courts for over a decade, this propelled the narrative. Mo Season 2 picks up where the last season ended, with Mo making a new life in Mexico after being unwittingly kidnapped.

The award-winning series is created and executive produced by comedians Mohammed Amer (Black Adam), who serves as the series’ lead actor, and Ramy Youssef (Poor Things, Ramy). It’s executive produced by A24 and Harris Danow, and features returning director Solvan “Slick” Naim, with Amer directing three episodes. The series also stars Farah Bsieso, Omar Elba, Teresa Ruiz, Tobe Nwigwe, Walt Roberts, Moayad Alnefaie, Lee Eddy, and Cherien Dabis.

Mo Najjar straddles the line between two cultures, three languages, and all the red tape in the world as a Palestinian refugee on the path to U.S. citizenship. With his family’s asylum hearing fast approaching, Mo has been in Mexico for six months. He runs a successful falafel taco truck, has friends, and is in a mariachi band. But despite living well enough, Mo wants to go home. He has to. This isn’t his life, and despite Maria’s (Teresa Ruiz) tias giving him help, it’s not his family.

Mo Season 2 starts by unpacking the absolutely terrible conditions that detained migrants go through while they await hearings. After getting caught while trying to cross the border in order to make it to Houston in time for the hearing, we see the inside of a detention center.

Some people stopped believing that detention centers were run by officers who didn’t see migrants as people or that, somehow, the conditions drastically improved when the administration changed hands in 2020. Mo Season 2 shows that it really didn’t. While it is just a show, it does capture the repeated reports shared from facilities that have remained consistent, just under a different name.

A24’s Mo Season 2 explores the indignity and bureaucracy of the immigration system. 

What comes next is life as a stateless refugee without a passport. We follow Mo as he goes to court, and even after a compassionate judge grants his family asylum, he isn’t so lucky. Marked for deportation, Mo is scared, but ultimately, you can’t deport a stateless person.

But while Mo gets to stay in Houston, his problems aren’t solved. Instead, the rest of the season shines a light on the continued shaming that Mo endures thanks to the monitor around his ankle and the limitations of his citizenship status, especially when he realizes that visiting Palestine with his brother and mother may become impossible.

All that Mo knows is how to hustle, charm, and talk his way out of problems. But it gets more complicated as everything in his life begins to crumble. Maria has a new boyfriend, who moved on after he reactively told her not to wait while he was stuck in Mexico. His friends have taken her side. His brother is in charge of the family business, leaving him just to pour the olive oil tasters. No matter what good happens, his temper pushes him backward.

Mo Season 2 is as funny as the first. The comedy is dark and heartfelt and ultimately helps showcase how the genre can get to the core of who we are as people. The series’ ability to lodge a full-throated critique of the systems depriving the Najjar family of their rights is what makes it strong. Its humor is what makes it hit. And the way that the series captures Texas is what makes it stick.

Mo learns to manage his anger in Season 2 because sometimes you have to smile.

Mo is extremely unlikable this season. The first time I watched it, I was just continuously mad at him and unable to understand why he couldn’t see the mistakes he was making from a mile away. The second time, it all fell into place. Mo messes up continuously. He hurts people in his life unintentionally; he hurts himself even more. Mo’s trajectory this season is one of perpetual panic. At first, he’s just unlikable, but when you let it sit with you, Mo’s just trying to survive.

His erratic behavior is caused by a consistent need to find a way to survive in a world that routinely casts him out, whether it’s the love of his life, the immigration system, the family business, or his friends. Mo causes his chaos, but only after he begins to stagnate and stew. When his shame rises high, and he is pushed to flee or fight, he always fights.

Mo’s pride is intrinsically linked to his outbursts and his anger. Raised to be proud of his heritage, of himself, his inability to push down the jagged pill is too much to carry. Rage is, ultimately, easier than shame. I’ve felt this all too often, and after being beaten down enough, I started to question if shame was all I had. But like Mo, I had to learn that pride isn’t something that you give away with every indignity. It remains there, even when we’re told we’re nothing.

But his mother grounds him. She is stern, but she is kind. When he tells her that he couldn’t help but lose his temper, she says, “You could.” Yusra (Farah Bsieso) accepts his apologies, but she pushes him to do better. It’s a balanced look at parenting that cares about confronting the truth without being callous about it, either.

Sameer is given more agency in Mo Season 2.

This season of the A24 and Netflix series also explores more of the rest of the Najjar family. It highlights the importance of listening to your children even when you think you know what’s best. This is shown when Nadia (Cherien Dabis) arranged for Sameer (Omar Elba) to get tested and diagnosed for his Autism. The series’ approach to discussing the topic is tender. It highlights that Yusra just wanted to help Sameer feel comfortable and know that he’s loved. Only with that comes the assumption that being different is bad.

As Sameer begins to learn how to ground himself in stressful situations, Mama Najjar begins to understand. While her stubbornness speaks to generational divides, her kindness also speaks to her motherly love. She wants Sameer to feel cared for and at peace. It’s the only thing she’s tried to give him. Ultimately, this is dealt with an understanding of both sides.

From this narrative point, we also see Yusra and Nadia bumping heads over Sameer. Seeing a therapist is something most people can understand. While Nadia has been presented as the child who has assimilated the most, it doesn’t mean that she has forgotten where she came from. It’s the primary point of contention as her mother reads every bit of news from Palestine, all of which details the murders of civilians at the hands of settlers or the IDF.

When the two talk about it, Mo Season 2 shows the generations meeting. The mother longs for the place where she grew up and aches for the children and others who are killed every day. The daughter, who sees how helpless she is in the United States, is left with only one guiding principle: to live for the people they have lost.

But Yusra isn’t only defined by her children. Mo Season 2 also gives her time with Buddy (Walt Roberts). While you can see that the two have chemistry, the focus lies squarely on how the two have dealt with losing their spouses. We learn more about Yusra’s husband, Mustafa, their relationship, and what they lost when they fled Palestine to Iraq and then the US. It’s a poignant exposition, not because she’s speaking to the audience, but because she’s speaking to Buddy.

Yusra’s gift to her children is resiliency, even when it feels like they can only break.

Mo Season 2 is a devastating look at Palestinian resiliency. It’s funny, it’s heartbreaking, and it highlights just how many generations of Palestinians have lost their home. Yes, the physical four walls and a roof are gone, but they’ve also had their land stolen, their legacies, and their history destroyed. The beauty of Mo Season 2 is found in its final moment. Mo is being harrassed by Israeli security, the camera with the last remaining VHS of his father cracking under the officer’s finger. And, he smiles.

When Mama Najjar tells her son that we can’t stop the world from seeing us through their bigoted eyes, but we can remember who we are, I started sobbing. She tells Mo that “we know who we are” and asks him to smile. That is the reality of living under someone’s boot.

You have to learn how to find peace in knowing the people you come from, leaning on their strength, you have to grit your teeth and smile. I’ve done that too many times. I’ve seen my mother do it too many times, and we both learned from our grandmother, who lived her whole life doing it. We may not all be Palestinian, but for anyone who has had to feel the indignity of having to stand silently lest you give the bigots what they want, we know what it’s like to smile.

Mo Season 2 continues the series’ status as one of the most Texas television series created. It also represents the reality for many immigrants, refugees, and their children in this country. The Najjar family represents what makes this state strong and the people who have always made us who we are. Mo Season 2 is about family, triumph, and understanding that through all the pain, we owe it to those who weren’t given the opportunities to live.

Mo Season 2 is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.