The second season of the 2020 Golden Globe-winner Ramy is now available to binge watch on Showmax. The hit series centres on Ramy Hassan (creator Ramy Youssef), a first-generation Egyptian American in New Jersey, as he tries – and fails repeatedly – to be a good person.

 

Season 2 is up for three Emmys this month – Best Actor in a Comedy and Best Director for Youssef, as well as Best Supporting Actor for two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, True Detective), who joins the cast this season as magnetic Sufi imam Sheikh Malik.

 

Youssef said he was surprised by the show’s success. “I felt like we were making something that I was very proud of, but because it was so specific, I really didn’t know how many people it would hit. What surprises me is how many people see themselves in the character of Ramy… The first week after the show came out, I got an email from this guy who was like, ‘I’m an evangelical Christian father of three in Montana, and I am Ramy.’ I was like, ‘Wow! I didn’t know that you would feel that way.’”

 

What’s cool is the fact that the show is a comedy. “To address issues through comedy,” Youssef says, “you don’t have to be right. You don’t have to be factually correct. You don’t have to be politically correct. You just have to be emotionally correct.”

 

Ramy has also been nominated for both this year’s Black Reel Awards (Ali) and Critics Choice Awards (Youssef), while Season 2 is currently at #24 on Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the Best TV of 2020 So Far, with a 97% critics rating.

 

As Rolling Stone put it, “There is no other show quite like Ramy, because there is no other character quite like Ramy… Superb.”

Main Image: Hollywood Reporter