*Premise spoilers.*
Girls5eva was the main reason I was glad my family scored a yearlong free trial of Peacock, but getting to watch We Are Lady Parts has been the biggest perk of the streaming service so far. This sitcom is so much fun, with engaging characters and a lot of intensity and heart. So glad it was renewed for a second season!
Amina is a young woman looking to do all the right things: work hard towards her PhD, be an impeccable best friend to her recently-engaged bestie, and find her own devastatingly-handsome nice Muslim man to marry. Life throws her a curve, however, when she comes face to face with Lady Parts, a punk band made up of Muslim women and in need of a lead guitarist. Amina has the skill they need, but between her crippling performance anxiety and misgivings about whether playing in a band would be halal, she might miss out on one of the best things that’s ever happened to her.
This show is fantastic. There’s so much to love about it—Amina’s over-the-top romantic fantasies styled after Regency romances and old Hollywood movies, Lady Parts’ wicked repertoire of down-and-dirty punk songs (“Bashir with the Good Beard” is a total banger,) and of course, the lovely story of growing friendship between Amina and these four other women, who help her understand she gets to design her own road map for what being a Muslim woman means for her.
Speaking of which, the representation is aces. The women of Lady Parts are diverse in color, background, dress, and sensibility. Angry, guarded Saira is their lead vocalist and ferocious leader, moving through the world with a chip on her shoulder against anyone who would try to box her in. Bisma is a potty-mouthed earth mother who’s killer on the bass when she’s not busy selling her artwork or raising her daughter to be a fierce feminist. Drummer Ayesha is almost equal parts cynic and romantic, turning a world-weary eye toward others’ woes even as she herself falls as hard as a teenager. Momtaz, their manager, is shrewd and badass, hustling for the band any way she can while she rocks a niqab. And then there’s prim, dorky Amina, who’s an excellent guitarist but gets nauseous at the thought of anyone watching her, who’s eternally beholden to what other people think but slowly learning to unleash her inner punk.
In six tight episodes, we get a full introduction to the band, with short individual stories for all of them and an overarching plot about their quest to gain notice. We also get multiple romance plots, jokes aplenty, and all kinds of great punk tracks. It’s as honest as it is funny, by turns biting and vulnerable.
Anjana Vasan, who I recognized from Behind the Beautiful Forevers, is a goofy, endearing delight as Amina, and she plays wonderful off of Sarah Kameela Impey’s raw, spiky Saira—when these two share the screen together, the episodes just sing. They’re well backed up by Faith Omole as Bisma, Juliette Motamed as Ayesha, and Lucie Shorthouse as Momtaz. I also recognize Zaqi Ismail, who plays Amina’s crush Ahsan, as the interpreter from the great “Under the Lake” / “Before the Flood” story on Doctor Who.
Warnings
Language, sexual content, drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements (including sexism and Islamophobia.)
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