There are many reasons why people want to immigrate to America, but mainly, it’s because they want to live a better life and have opportunities that their countries can’t offer. Well, at least, that is the ideal portrait that immigrants are dreaming of when they decide to move to the United States. But of course, achieving it is a whole different scenario. They have to work twice as hard than those who were originally born in America, while at the same time facing inevitable prejudices from their surroundings. This duality of living in the U.S. is what Little America, the newest AppleTV+ show created by Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon, and Lee Eisenberg, perfectly captures. The show reflects on the struggles that immigrants have to face in America, but in telling so, it also underscores the liberation, victory, and prosperity that immigrants can achieve if they get a fair chance to do so.
Though several TV shows have previously explored this subject (see: One Day At A Time, Fresh Off The Boat, Master Of None), what essentially makes Little America refreshing is its anthology format in which each episode is directed and written by different people, featuring different actors, and following different stories with different tones of music that represent the homeland of the immigrant told in each episode. Of course, utilizing this episodic format can be risky. Each episode may feel disjointed due to the directors’ style differences, or because of the different characters they introduce in each vignette, the show may not be able to engage its audience. But Little America manages to mitigate those risks by immersing us directly to experience the personal journey of the immigrants as they overcome their daily struggles. The result is a universal yet intimate show: one which reminds us that immigrants are like everybody else, people who just want an opportunity to have a better life.
The first episode ‘The Manager’, follows the story of a boy named Kabir who’s left to run a motel by himself at a very young age after his parents get deported back to India. Where most show would likely use this setup to explore the complicated business of immigration and deportation in the U.S., Little America instead chooses to focus on the bruising impacts it causes to Kabir, digging deep into how being separated from his parents affects him emotionally and psychologically. It’s a bleak note that sets up the tone for the rest of the show, but in telling so, never once does it feel overtly political, as if it wants to be propaganda against Trump’s zero-tolerance policy. If anything, Little America is very hopeful, showing us how even at their lowest point, immigrants can always be resilient and find ways to strive again.
Kabir’s story isn’t the only vignette that highlights the relationship between parents and their children. But while episode one mostly focuses on the impacts of parents’ absence on a child, the other episodes highlight parenting in broader spectrums, varying from the difference between immigrants and the first generation born in America, to stories about the sacrifice that most immigrant parents are willing to take so that their children can have a better life. The third episode, ‘The Cowboy’, follows a grad student from Nigeria who hurls himself into cowboy culture as an attempt to fill the hole caused by the distance between him and his parents. The fifth episode, ‘The Baker’, is about a Ugandan woman who tries to prove to her mom that she can succeed in America in her own way. And the seventh episode, ‘The Rock’, follows a Persian father who’s determined to build a dream house for his family despite some serious obstacles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCke0hXoCf8
Where the three aforementioned episodes mostly focus on how parents will do everything to create a better life for their children in a delightful way, the sixth episode, ‘The Grand Prize Expo Winners’, explores the subject from a more tragic angle. The story follows Chinese-Singaporean single mom Ai, who after years of desperate attempts, finally won a free Alaskan cruise trip for her two children. But when she finally gets on the trip, instead of feeling happy, Ai is extremely sad because her children choose to spend time with their friends rather than with her. The whole episode is built around Ai’s struggle of coming to terms with her children slowly drifting away from her. But as the audience discovers more about her through snippets of tragic flashbacks, we get to see that when she was a child, her father gave her away to a stranger, and that is why her children’s physical presence matters so much to her – she doesn’t want what happened to her to also happen to her children.
Episode eight, ‘The Son’, in which a gay Syrian man named Rafiq seeks asylum in the United States after his father burns his hand when he discovers that his son is gay, is as heartbreaking as episode six. But just like the other episodes, this vignette ends on a very positive note: Rafiq is granted asylum in America and finally gets the freedom and liberation he always wanted despite a lot of challenges first. This is what’s interesting about Little America: even though each episode underscores the difficulties that immigrants are facing, the show makes sure that every vignette leaves a sweet aftertaste by featuring the victories that its main characters have achieved.
All of these hopeful endings may seem a little too saccharine for a show that props itself as an anthology exploring different immigrant experiences. And at times, due to its positive endings, it even feels like the show is avoiding the true conversation of how difficult it is to be an immigrant in America. But when we look more closely, Little America is actually not afraid of showcasing the struggles and hardships of being immigrants in the United States too: many of the characters we meet are still facing prejudice, and we see how immigrants have to work twice as hard than Americans to achieve their dreams. But mostly, what the show understands best is how it’s able to position itself among a significant conversation about immigrants without being too self-serious and rather by simply reminding us that immigrants, too, deserve a chance to have a better life in America.
While every episode is unique because it focuses on different stories, what eventually solidifies them all is the grounded performances from the cast – who, impressively, are mostly newcomers to the industry. Among many others, Uchenna “Conphidance” Echeazu (episode three), Jearnest Corchado (episode two), and Angela Ai (episode six) stand out in their roles, offering vulnerability and empathy that makes us love their characters easily. What’s more, the ending of each episode that features the latest news of the immigrants told in the show also gives the story even more emotional resonance, one that will surely make you feel satisfied and optimistic when the end credits roll.
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