Riz Ahmed's Bait: A Surreal Comedy Tackling Race and James Bond
This week brings conflicted feelings as I watch Bait, the new comedy created by Riz Ahmed. Starting an acting career shortly after him, I lost every good job to Ahmed for a decade, watching his projects and realising just how talented he is. Now, I must write this while suppressing Salieri-levels of malcontent—wish me luck.
Bait's Premise: An Asian Actor as James Bond
Bait follows Shah Latif, an Asian actor lined up to be the next James Bond. The series dives into the internet's toxic response to rumours, using it to explore racial palatability, Britishness, ambition, and authenticity. It's funny, surreal, provocative, and features an incredible array of hot young British-Asian actors.
In real life, Bond casting has become a lightning rod, with many seeing the secret agent as a statue to be climbed or pulled down. The show references Nikhil Parmar's 2022 play Invisible, which explored similar ideas. In Bait, Shah's ex-girlfriend Yasmin dismisses his dream, calling Bond a totem of white neocolonialism. "If I played him, he wouldn't be white!" protests Shah, to which she retorts, "Yeah, but you would be."
Humor and Family Dynamics in Bait
Interestingly, we don't clamour for other franchises like a Filipino Harry Potter or neurodivergent Paddington Bear, though the marmalade fixation suggests that call might come from inside the house. Bait doesn't forget to have fun—a lot of it. Guz Khan as Shah's cousin Zulfi prods, "How are you going to win hearts and minds with your horny meerkat face?"
The show shines in family scenes, with passive-aggressive Pakistani aunties sniping at each other's Eid celebrations. One dotes unreasonably on her Dubai-living son, introduced in an over-the-top Bollywood spoof where he literally walks on water. When uncles tease Shah for not making Pakistani films, his father defends him: "This fanny speaks Urdu like a white boy." Bait capitalises on jokes no one else is allowed to make, giving it a jaw-dropping freshness—it's the brownest thing on TV since that Hovis advert.
Riz Ahmed's Creative Genius and Showbiz Connections
Oscar- and Emmy-winning Ahmed, educated at Oxford, surely has a proud family. Bait is a clever show, evident from its title screen using steganography to conceal messages via colour theory and filters that reveal episode titles. The name Bait itself carries an Urban Dictionary-style translation, highlighting playing to a privileged audience while doing it.
Credits thank Jesse Armstrong and Chris Morris, with whom Ahmed worked on the groundbreaking satire Four Lions. Bait shares that film's appealing silliness, playing off harder themes and racial attacks. It's far warmer than shows like Atlanta, which deals with blackness and aspiration in the US. An early sequence where Shah attends a white-washing gala to unveil a "restored Buddha of Bamiyan" had me howling—it looked less Easter Island, more like a dropped Easter egg of Shrek.
Star-Studded Cast and Ahmed's Performance
Ahmed's showbiz Rolodex leads to an embarrassment of riches. Himesh Patel feels underused as Shah's suave rival Raj Thakkar, but these are champagne problems. A foul-mouthed voiceover by a Very Famous Actor runs through the series, delightful alongside many self-aware Dev Patel gags. Nabhaan Rizwan is almost too handsome, while Guz Khan can steal any scene, even ones he's not in.
Meanwhile, Ahmed as an increasingly fractured Shah is superb, balancing emotional intensity, physical comedy, and self-mockery. He truly is the best of this country, and Bait is the latest proof of his licence to thrill. Goddamn you, Riz—why are you so undeniable? I coulda been a contender!
