One of the finest episodes of the peerless cringeathon that is Curb Your Enthusiasm is titled Palestinian Chicken. If you haven’t seen it, the basic premise is that Larry (Larry David) ends up at the centre of a tug of war between his new favourite restaurant (a Palestinian-owned chicken joint) and his largely Jewish group of friends, who think he’s committing treason. Chosen by David as his favourite ever episode, it deftly treads the most difficult of faultlines – injecting comedy where you least expect it, and highlighting the power of poultry to bring people together.
And so to the second – and apparently final – season of Mo, which is a spiritual successor to that Curb episode and surely one of the most heart-rending things you’ll watch on TV this year. It brings together food, identity, immigration, family and Middle Eastern politics in a way that’s as fresh and intriguing as the falafel tacos that become central to the plot.
