Real Heroes: Kumail Nanjiani & Emily V. Gordon Penning Immigrant Series For Apple
At this very moment, we're witnessing one of the worst atrocities committed by a sitting President, with children being ripped away from their parents and placed into detention centers. Last night, Rachel Maddow even choked back tears on air while reporting about 'tender age' shelters, constructed specifically for separated migrant kids 13 years of age or less. This is one of the darkest periods in American history, a country literally founded by folks not from this land.
Every day, it seems like there's new ugliness being offered up by the Trump Administration in this department, constantly reminding us that they not only care very little about the lives of human beings who don't hail from the same roots as they do, but are willing to imprison them in order to make a political point. It's a shameful time to be an American. This regime is an embarassment, and only seems to be graduating to greater levels of evil with each passing hour.
Thankfully, we have artists who are looking to shine a light on the experiences of individuals who have found happiness after settling in the United States. Now, Deadline reports that Apple has officially greenlit the half-hour anthology series Little America from The Big Sick writers Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon.
The project has been in development at Apple for a few months now (having originally been announced in February), and will be an immigration-themed show based on true stories featured in Epic Magazine, described as “a small, collective portrait of America’s immigrants - and thereby a portrait of America itself."
The series is written by Lee Eisenberg (SMILF), who will serve as showrunner and EP, along with Nanjiani and Gordon. Alan Yang (Master of None) will also executive produce alongside Nanjiani with Universal Television. That's a pretty solid line-up assembled to help bring what sounds like an important piece of poignant - not to mention timely - comedy to the screen.
It's incredible to see these creatives highlighting the tales that truly make America great, and this show sounds like it's as much an important political statement as it is a potentially great piece of entertainment. If you're one of those types who hates "everybody injecting politics into everything these days", it's time to re-think your position. Every work of art is political, even those explicitly designed to make us laugh. Little America sounds like an essential new collection of storytelling, and I can't wait to see it continue to develop.
