Mo's town

Mo Amer's Netflix show was a funny, moving look at life as a Palestinian immigrant in the USthen 7 October turned everything on its head

- Stuart Heritage

Moments before I'm due to talk to Mo Amer, a notification pings on my phone. After 15 months of unthinkable violence, Israel and Hamas have agreed on terms for a ceasefire. As his Zoom window clicks online, I'm parsing the news for details. As a man who has found himself becoming one of the most prominent Palestinian voices on Earth, so is he.

The news can't help but colour the interview, because it is to promote the second season of Mo, the Peabody-winning Netflix comedy show he co-created, co-writes, directs and stars in. A semi-autobiographical retelling of his life as a refugee in the US - he and his family fled Kuwait during the Gulf war, and spent 20 years hustling for cash while they waited to be granted citizenship - season one saw Mo working as security in strip clubs and selling knock-off goods from cars, while trying to inch his family's asylum case forward. It manages the rare trick of being just as funny as it is heartfelt. You can feel the humanity pour out of every frame.

"It makes me feel good when you say that," Amer replies. "Really, it's a show about doing your best to not allow people to break your spirit, your mental state, your heart. It's this constant battle within yourself. It's not just what this Pales tinian family on television is going through but a metaphor for everyone that's trying to hold on." The perfect demonstration of this comes early in the new season when, after some misadventures crossing the Mexican border without the proper documentation, Amer's character finds himself being held in an immigrant detention centre. In a lesser show, the officer who gruffly processes his case would have been depicted as a two-dimensional monster. Mo, however, takes a moment or two to show that he is trying to hold on just as much as everyone else.