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2 hours ago
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Conflicted feelings for me this week, watching Bait, the new comedy created by Riz Ahmed. I started a career in acting shortly after Ahmed, you see. For a decade, I lost every good job going to him. What made it worse was watching all of those projects and realising exactly how good he was. Anyway, I’m going to try to write the rest of this while suppressing Salieri levels of malcontent. Wish me luck.
Bait is the story of an Asian actor, Shah Latif, who finds himself lined up to be the next James Bond. The series covers the internet’s toxic response to the rumours, using it to dive deep into a conversation about racial palatability, Britishness, ambition and authenticity. It’s funny, surreal, provocative and boasts an incredible array of hot young British-Asian actors. Which reminds me, I must rewatch Sliding Doors.
It’s an astute premise. In real life, the casting of the secret agent has become a lightning rod. For many, Bond serves as a type of statue – demanding to be climbed, or pulled down. The Asian actor Nikhil Parmar wrote a very funny 2022 play, Invisible, exploring exactly this idea. In Bait, Shah’s ex-girlfriend, forthright film-maker Yasmin, dismisses Shah’s dream, describing the MI6 agent as a totem of white neocolonialism. “If I played him, he wouldn’t be white!” protests Shah. “Yeah, but you would be,” she shoots back.
Interestingly, we don’t do this for other franchises. No one appears to clamour for a Filipino Harry Potter, or a neurodivergent Paddington Bear. Although the marmalade fixation does suggest that call would be coming from inside the house.
Bait doesn’t forget to have fun. A lot of it. “How are you going to win hearts and minds with your horny meerkat face?” prods Shah’s cousin Zulfi, played by Guz Khan. Bait is best in these family scenes. Pass-agg Pakistani aunties snipe at each other’s Eid celebrations. One of them dotes unreasonably on her Dubai-living son, who is introduced in an over-the-top Bollywood spoof, literally walking on water.
When Shah is teased by his uncles for not making Pakistani films, his father steps in on his behalf. “This fanny speaks Urdu like a white boy” is the defence he offers. Bait capitalises on jokes no one else is allowed to make, giving it a jaw-dropping freshness. It’s the brownest thing on TV since that Hovis advert.
The Oscar- and Emmy-winning Ahmed was educated at Oxford, so I’m sure his family are proud of him – must be nice. And this is a clever show. Its smarts are apparent from the title screen, which makes use of steganography: a way of concealing a message within text. In this case, it’s unlocked via colour theory, applied filters that reveal each episode’s title. The series name itself, Bait, carries an Urban Dictionary-style translation – pointing up the idea of playing to a privileged audience, while also doing it.
Bait’s credits thank Jesse Armstrong and Chris Morris, with whom Ahmed worked on the groundbreaking satire Four Lions (and I did not). There is some of that film’s appealing silliness here, playing off the show’s harder themes and racial attacks. It’s far warmer than, say, Atlanta, the inventive FX comedy that deals with blackness and aspiration in the US. An early sequence, in which Shah attends an establishment, white-washing gala to unveil a “restored Buddha of Bamiyan”, had me howling. It looked less Easter Island, more like a dropped Easter egg of Shrek.
Ahmed’s showbiz Rolodex rolls deep. This can lead to an embarrassment of riches. Himesh Patel feels underused as Shah’s suave, politically savvy acting rival Raj Thakkar (shades of Ray Purchase, for any Toast of London fans). But these are champagne problems. A foul-mouthed voiceover by a Very Famous Actor, which runs through the series, is delightful – as are the many self-aware Dev Patel gags. Nabhaan Rizwan is almost too handsome, while Khan can steal any scene, even ones he’s not in.
Meanwhile, Ahmed himself as an increasingly fractured Shah is superb – balancing emotional intensity, physical comedy and self-mockery. He truly is the best of this country, and Bait is the latest proof of his licence to thrill. Goddamn you, Riz. Why are you so undeniable? I coulda been a contender!
