Why Mo Amer chose not to tackle October 7 in season two of Netflix comedy

The Palestinian-American star speaks to The National about using more of his own life experiences to inspire his hit series Mo

Here’s a small spoiler for season two of Mo – Netflix’s Peabody Award-winning series about a Palestinian family living in Texas – the final episode ends on October 6, 2023.

This, its co-creator and star Mo Amer explains to The National, was a statement of defiant intent. “I opted out of talking about October 7, but it wasn't opting out of talking about the event,” Amer explains. "It was opting about the whole show being swallowed up by this event. There’s 80 years to talk about before that happened.”

Mo, of course, has never existed to be a history lesson nor a lecture on current events. From the start, it has been a series that asserts the humanity of its Palestinian characters, exploring individual personalities and niche interests that extend far beyond identity – but never forgetting that identity either, even for a moment.

That is why the second season of Amer’s show, which releases on Thursday on the platform, begins where it left off. His character Mo Najjar is stranded in Mexico unable to get to his home in Texas to see the woman he loves, having spent most of his life unable to gain legal residency.

It’s a situation that leads to laugh-out-loud slapstick comedy – Amer is a comedian, after all. However, it’s also a reflection of the dispossessed existence of Palestinians around the world, who have been cast out of their homeland since 1948 – Amer being one of them. “My experience has been consistent, as has my family’s," he adds. "That’s why I didn’t want to talk about October 7 – this has been going on for quite some time."

Nevertheless, Amer couldn’t resist commenting on certain aspects of what life has been like for Palestinians living in the diaspora since the Israel-Gaza war began – though indirectly. In perhaps the most powerful scene of the season, Mo’s mother Yusra and sister Nadia, played by Farah Bseiso and Cherien Dabis respectively, discuss Yusra’s obsession with watching the news from Palestine, bearing witness to Israel’s atrocities against their people.

Nadia tells her mother: “We’re more than our pain and suffering, Mama. But you wouldn’t know it watching this news.”

Amer directed several episodes in the second season, his first time behind the camera for the series. Photo: Netflix

Amer admits that this was inspired by his own family as the war continued. He says: “I would have to pull myself away. I’d say, rather than read this, I’ll call my cousins. I’ll speak to my aunts. I’d rather hear their voice and have some comfort. But my mom was just obsessed and would watch 24/7. We all did it over the last year, but that’s also been our every day. Part of our lives is waking up in the morning and seeing what’s going on over there.”

The scene, which Amer says is one of his favourites of the show, was filmed with the two sitting on an old wooden dock by a lake. Amer was behind the camera, directing the scene, as he did much of the second season – after not having directed a single episode of the first.

“I’m just so happy that I was blessed to have them, and I was able to direct them and bring them there,” Amer says, wiping the tears from his eyes. “I remember looking around and seeing that everybody was crying. Including myself, I was just a mess. I was like: ‘We nailed it. Let’s keep going.’ That was a special moment for me.”

In many ways, the scene proves how vital Mo is in this moment, a time in which the plight of Palestinians has perhaps never been more conscious in the public mind. Since October 7, people around the world have woken up to the tragedy, which has caused a renewed interest in stories from Palestine, both old and new.

And while many of those stories across film and television are beautifully told, few capture the everyday humanity that Mo does. Bseiso says: “I wish our show could make a change. What I love about this show is that it educates in a respectful way. It says a lot in a peaceful, smart, kind, loving and passionate way. There’s no hatred. There’s no violence.

“We need to give hope for our people, and we need to tell a nice story. Hatred will only lead to more hatred. Our show offers hope.”

While nearly the entirety of the show is set in North America, the last episode finds its lead characters finally able to go to Palestine – for the first time in Mo’s life. In it, they visit their relatives and their family’s land in the West Bank, scenes full of hope and joy – scenes that are often interrupted by the realities of life under occupation.

The sequences in the episode are perhaps the closest the show gets to true autobiography. Amer himself got his US passport in 2009 and immediately travelled to Palestine. “I weaved in my most personal experience, and what it was like for me when I went back for the first time,” says Amer. "That’s genuinely what happened to me."

In one scene, Mo visits the mosque in his family’s village, trying his hand at the call to prayer over the loudspeaker. The imam hears him, coming into the room to inquire who he is. When Mo explains who he is and what family he comes from, the imam is shocked – as it was Mo’s late father who installed the sound system that Mo had just used before he left Palestine.

The scene really happened to Amer during his 2009 visit. “I wanted to make sure that this scene was as realistic as possible, which is why I wanted people to get a peek into how I really felt in that moment,” says Amer.

From left, Mo Amer as Mo, Walt Roberts as Buddy, Omar Elba as Sameer and Farah Bsieso as Yusra in the penultimate episode of the second season. Photo: Netflix

While the difficulties of actually shooting Palestine meant that most of the interior scenes and some of the exteriors were filmed in Malta, the rest of the exterior, Amer says, was filmed in Palestine. “We had to set a splinter unit to get different shots there," he adds.

The Palestine-set episode, one of the longest in the series, features a range of tones with moments of heartfelt nostalgia juxtaposed with scenes of Israeli settlers tear-gassing Mo and his family as they attempt to protect their olive trees, for example.

He adds: “It was really hard. You’re picking at a scab. You’re picking at memories at a very difficult time, with everything that’s going on. It was important to be as honest as possible, as grounded as possible. I just had to dig deep and push my own feelings aside and make sure that we made a realistic portrayal of what it’s like to be in the West Bank as a Palestinian.”

In 2023, it was announced the second season would be the last for Mo. But Amer himself has not given up hope – hinting that perhaps they could explore what life was like as a Palestinian in America after October 7 in a potential third season.

But regardless of whether the show continues or not, this will not be the end of Amer as a creator, as the show has helped the comedian find his footing as both a writer and a director, something that he plans to continue long into the future.

“I’m just getting started,” says Amer. “I’m still Mo, still cooking. If this is the last season, I’ve still got so much to do. There’s so much to tell. I have so many scripts behind me. I’ve got another comedy special to film. It doesn’t end here.”

Mo season two is now streaming on Netflix