EGN NEWS DESK
For the early punks, lots of them white British blokes, their music was about declaring themselves outdoors the bigger society. The Sex Pistols dreamed of “anarchy for the U.Ok.” The Clash howled for “a riot of my very own.” To be punk was to provide offense, to make one’s self unpalatable, to decide on to face aside.
But what’s punk when your society has already made you an outsider? This is the musical query that the raucous, cheeky comedy “We Are Lady Parts,” returning Thursday for its second season on Peacock, seeks to reply.
The first season, again in 2021, launched Lady Parts, a punk band of Muslim girls in London: Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), the caustic lead singer; Ayesha (Juliette Motamed), the fearsome drummer; and Bisma (Faith Omole), the earth-motherly bassist. Together with their manager, Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse), a savvy Malcolm McLaren in a niqab, they recruit a reluctant lead guitarist, Amina (Anjana Vasan).
Amina is nobody’s thought of a rock star, least of all her personal. She is an introverted microbiologist who worships Don McLean, with a extreme case of stage fright that causes her to heave her guts whereas performing — and never in a defiant, Iggy Pop approach. (Vasan offers Amina a fascinating nerd-hero power, just like Quinta Brunson in “Abbott Elementary.”)
Over the six-episode season, Amina finds that Lady Parts offers her a approach of defining herself quite than being outlined, whether or not by the conservative suitors who inform her “Music is haram” or by her free-spirited mom (Shobu Kapoor), who needs Amina would wait to hunt a husband.
The root conflicts of “We Are Lady Parts” are acquainted rock-band woes — having no cash, having no gigs, being judged by household and by hipsters. This is the place making the collection about Muslim girls rockers accomplishes greater than representational box-ticking: It makes an previous story new and nuanced.
For Amina and the remainder of the band, rebel is difficult. It means being Muslim girls musicians, with equal stress on each adjectives. (The identify Lady Parts itself seems like a solution to the anatomical identify of the Pistols.) It means proudly owning their sexuality and spirituality, seizing the fitting to outline what being Muslim means to them and affirming their Muslim identification, as mirrored of their sly, successfully catchy songs (co-written by the present’s creator, Nida Manzoor).
“Voldemort Under My Headscarf” embraces the normal garb as a badass assertion as defiant as any ’70s punk’s security pin. (“I’m sorry if I scare you/ I scare myself too.”) “Bashir With the Good Beard” addresses a sure sort of haughty, elusive boyfriend. (“Are my garments too tight?/ Do I chuckle an excessive amount of?”)
The collection has some resonance with the lately ended “Reservation Dogs,” although its humorousness is extra rowdy and brash. It, too, is a narrative about younger folks asserting their individuality whereas affirming their neighborhood quite than rejecting it. The first season’s climax, actually, entails the band being mischaracterized by an article profile that labels them “Bad Girls of Islam.”
Season 2 finds Lady Parts within the flush of minor success. (The present additionally reveals indicators of getting hit the massive time, attracting visitor stars together with Malala Yousafzai.)
The band has completed a camper-van tour of England and is planning an album. Their fan base now consists of not simply Muslim children, however Muslim children’ dad and mom, in addition to middle-aged white folks, whose cringey reward recollects the backyard party visitors from “Get Out.” Amina has mastered her stage fright and — with occasional wobbles — is embracing her assured “villain period.”
The present’s sophomore outing is as brassy as the primary, however provides layers of theme and character. Early on, the band discovers it has competitors in a youthful Muslim band, Second Wife. (“That’s good,” Ayesha grudgingly acknowledges of the identify.) Rather than arrange a battle of the bands, “We Are Lady Parts” places a twist on the “There can solely be one” mentality that pits underrepresented artists towards one another.
As the band progresses, and Amina grows into her romantic confidence, the season performs with the best way a sort of fetishizing adoration might be as poisonous as rejection, each artistically and personally. Being stared at due to your head scarf, in post-Brexit Britain, is alienating, however so is being requested to maintain your head scarf on to guard your Muslim-punk model.
Over six episodes, the season fleshes out its supporting characters, wrestling with who they’re and what they need to say. Bisma, who’s married and has an adolescent daughter, begins to really feel typecast because the group’s maternal determine. (“I’m Mommy Spice. I’m Wholesome, Boring Spice.”) Ayesha is relationship a girl however is reluctant to come back out to her dad and mom, which makes her fear that she’s letting down her homosexual followers. Saira, essentially the most old-school-punk of the group, itches to department out from “humorous Muslim songs” and write extra pointedly political materials, however that dangers hurting the band commercially.
It’s arduous to not see this final story as a meta-comment, intentional or not, on what the collection itself can get away with saying, on a serious media platform, with these characters. There is reference, for example, to Saira wanting to talk out on how Muslims are being persecuted all over the world, however much less reference to any particular battle, be it in Gaza or elsewhere.
One placing scene makes this sense of invisible boundaries literal, as Saira struggles to place her politics into tune type. She runs by way of a verse: “It’s like dying and the maiden / Dancing with my company / I received’t point out the w—” The what? The world? The conflict? We by no means hear. Her mouth is pixelated as she tries to complete the road, time and again; she strains and screams however the phrase received’t come out. Whether “Lady Parts” chooses to not full her lyric or can’t, the picture of asphyxiating silence is potent. (The episode closes with a tune by the Palestinian singer Rasha Nahas.)
Of course, getting silenced by the trade is one other perennial story of rock ’n’ roll, amongst different vocations. As in Season 1’s getting-the-band-together arc, the challenges of constructing it are superficially acquainted from different music tales: What is promoting out? How do you distinguish development from compromise? Can you make it large with out abandoning any of your mates?
But the execution and the small print are captivatingly particular. What works about “We Are Lady Parts” is what works about nice punk. You can nonetheless trend one thing new out of the identical previous three chords. You simply want a particular voice.
