Will someone puh-leeze write a South Asian part for the small-screen that doesn't involve wielding a gun or driving a cab? I already griped about this in my post about Heroes, but obviously the terrorist-or-taxi motif isn't irritating anybody else but me, as it's happening again tonight in a new show called The Knights of Prosperity:
Back home in India, Gourishankar "Gary" Subramaniam (Maz Jobrani) was a superstar lawyer, but here in New York City he drives a cab to make ends meet. Reluctant to join the group at first, Gary has a change in heart when Eugene reminds him that, although he was a winner at home, here he chauffeurs old ladies to Broadway matinees. (Source: SAJA)Jobrani's not even Indian to begin with, so now we have an Iranian-American actor forced to fake a generic Indian accent. Yippee. Meanwhile, my son's just used part of his iTunes gift card to download The Office's Diwali episode. I'm hoping that watching with him might help me lighten up and ignore the omnipresent life-in-the-margins commentary that goes on in my head. That inner voice reminds me of a certain type of tweedy guy you date only once -- they're both politically aware but relentlessly mirthless.