KC BAILEY/NETFLIX
The first season landed on several year-end best lists.
Among the biggest surprises from Netflix's news announcements Sunday at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour was the notable absence of one: a second season renewal for Aziz Ansari's Master of None.
The comedy, produced by Universal Television and created by Ansari and his Parks and Recreation cohort Alan Yang (with Parks boss Mike Schur on board as an EP), wound up on several critics' year-end best lists and was hailed by Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos during his opening remarks to the press Sunday.
Ansari and Yang addressed the future of the series during their time in front of the press corp, where they also used the opportunity to thank critics for their overwhelming response to the series.
In terms of season two, Ansari and Yang noted that they were still "figuring out" what a second season would entail and noted how personal the stories in many of the stand-alone themed episodes were — which also complicates the show's future.
"I need some time to refil my head," Ansari confessed. "The first season was so personal and I want to make sure that what ever we do for season two lives up to what we did for season one. We'd love to do it; we're figuring it out."
Ansari noted the material that comprised season one was drawn from his stand-up specials, many of which took years to craft, as well as his recent book and beyond.
"[There were] things that happened to me hears ago, like the Indians on TV [episode] — that was something that definitely happened to me when I was starting out in my career," Ansari noted. "Alan and I are not holding anything back."
Ansari and Yang noted that they put everything they creatively had into season one with the approach that they didn't know how the show would be received or if it would come back.
"The well is empty but hopefully it will be refilled," Ansari confessed.
Yang, who also expressed a desire and excitement to do more of Master of None, remained mum on if all of the show's cast — which includes Noel Wells, Lena Waithe, Kelvin Yu and Eric Wareheim — would return. Wells was especially interested given the way in which season one ended.
"We sold this show 2013 and worked on another season of Parks — we had a lot of time for writing [Master of None]," Yang said, adding that they had years to discuss what shape their Netflix comedy would take. Yang also noted that some of the stories in the series were pulled from a busted pilot he did a few years ago for NBC — including some of the material in the critically praised "Parents" episode that featured Ansari's actual parents.
"We put a lot of aspects of ourselves in the show; that's why we don't want to rush season two, we want to go through some life experiences and put that in the show," Yang said.
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