A selection at TIFF this year, the Toronto-set “Sort Of” adds a much-needed perspective to the ubiquitous “20-something trying to figure things out” subgenre of comedy. Like “Girls'” central quartet and Abbi and Ilana of “Broad City,” Sabi Mehboob (series co-creator Bilal Baig) is an overeducated, underemployed young adult navigating life and love in the big city. Unlike those aforementioned upper-middle-class white women, however, Sabi is gender fluid and a second-generation Pakistani-Canadian.
In certain respects, it’s more apt to compare “Sort Of” to “Insecure” or “Ramy,” other comedies centering somewhat confused 20-something characters of color, that are informed and strengthened by their cultural specificity. Then again, perhaps I’m shortchanging “Sort Of” by examining it against other shows — it is very much its own thing, and quite possibly the first narrative series to revolve around a queer, nonbinary person of color.
Sabi is straddling a lot of different lives when we first meet them. They live openly as nonbinary and femme-presenting around their friends, sister, and work colleagues, but aren’t quite ready to come out to their parents. Sabi’s ending a relationship with a white cis fuckboy, considering a move to Berlin with their best friend, queer artist 7ven (Amanda Cordner), and working as a nanny and a bartender. Sabi is somewhere between Mary Poppins, an older sibling, and a guru to their wards, Violet (Kaya Kanashiro) and Henry (Aden Bedard); Sabi also acts as a sounding board and confidant to the kids’ parents, Bessy (Grace Lynn Kung) and Paul (Gray Powell). Their general aimlessness annoys and amuses their businesswoman sister, Aqsa (Supinder Wraich), and you get the sense that Sabi mostly just baffles their mother (Ellora Patnaik). Suffice to say, Sabi is dealing with a lot — and even more falls on their plate when the family they nanny for suffers a crisis.
The fact that Baig and series co-creator Fab Filippo are exploring the well-worn territory of millennial ennui from a queer and Brown vantage point is reason enough to seek out “Sort Of.” But Baig is the reason you’ll keep coming back to it. I haven’t enjoyed a deadpan performance this much since Aubrey Plaza’s turn in “Parks and Recreation.” Sabi’s sarcasm comes from a place of deep weariness — as a visible nonbinary person in a transphobic world, they have plenty of reason to be worn out — yet it’s unwaveringly hilarious.
Stories about millennials who can’t quite seem to get their shit together are a dime a dozen. Even for those of you who are over that trope, please give “Sort Of” a chance. Becoming an adult in the 2020s is hard enough, but this show lovingly reminds us that it can be especially hellish for anyone who isn’t straight, cis, or white.
“Sort Of” is now streaming on HBO Max.
