Review: In the Hilarious ‘Deli Boys,’ Two Nitwits Discover Their Family is a Criminal Empire

***Caution: Mild Spoilers Ahead ***

I confess to not having heard of Hulu’s new comedy “Deli Boys” when all 10 episodes of Season One launched on March 6. An East Coast friend sent me a text recommending the new series, so I gave it a whirl. I’m now through the first two episodes and have thoroughly laughed and enjoyed the setup of the show.

Brought to us by Disney’s Onyx Collective brand, which produces projects from or about communities of color and other underrepresented groups, the show revolves around brothers Raj and Mir Dar, two very different Pakistani-American brothers in Philadelphia. Their father, who they just refer to as Baba (played by familiar Pakistani-American actor Iqbal Theba), has built an entire empire out of a chain of convenience stores.

Mir is the more straight-laced son, a bit preppier and tightly wound and desperate to be the heir apparent to Baba’s convenience store empire. Raj is the more laid-back of the two, dresses like a DJ, and kind of floats through it all. They both look up to Baba with great reverence and why not?  He came to the U.S. with almost nothing, worked his way to owning one convenience store, and then grew the business into hundreds more. In addition, he has also created a recreational real estate empire with several major golf resorts making up their overall brand.

Unfortunately, while playing golf with his sons one afternoon, Baba is struck by a speeding golf shot right in the temple and dies before Mir and Raj’s eyes. They are devastated, but Mir is quick to try and claim his place at the mantle of the business. But not so fast. Along comes Auntie Lucky (played brilliantly by “Never Have I Ever’s” humorless mom, Poorna Jagannathan). She’s an even tougher customer in this series, and when she comes to one of the shops to see the boys, she sees a competitor on the Board of Directors and shoots him. Blood spatters all over Mir and Raj, who now must insist on knowing what’s going on. She lets them in on the dirty truth, and they are in disbelief.

Meanwhile, the real power struggle begins. Certainly, no one is going to let either of these two dumb dumbs run a huge criminal organization awash in drugs and money laundering. They don’t know how nor do they have it in them. Lucky insists to the all-male Board that she does most of the work anyway, knows where all the bodies are buried, and is the natural choice to become the leader. She is challenged, however, by Ahmad (played by familiar Iraqi-Indian-American actor Brian George, who famously told Jerry Seinfeld he was “a very bad man.”), who argues Baba’s expansion into golf resorts was a huge mistake that’s costing them dearly.

It isn’t as if no one is on to the Dar empire. At one point, we see a woman with a head covering keeping an eye on them at the local mosque. It turns out that’s Agent Mercer, who leads a raid of the business and begins seizing assets and evidence. The boys, of course, are completely innocent and know nothing of the illegal side, but try telling Agent Mercer.

Speaking of, there’s a great bit about how Agent Mercer has to overcome the boy’s club that exists within the FBI’s Philadelphia office, run by the egotistical Director Simpson (“The Righteous Gemstone’s” Tim Baltz). But when she tells Simpson the level of score she can take down, he gives her his full support.

By the way, the man Auntie Lucky shot in the store didn’t die. Later on, he’s seen running out of the store in nothing but his underwear and a paper bag over his head. In an attempt to track him down, the brothers plant some food out in public hoping he’ll come calling. When he does, they catch him and take him to an apartment above one of the convenience stores. They tie him to a radiator, but when Lucky tells them to finish him off, they, of course, don’t have it in them.

I can’t wait to see where else this show takes this story of an inept organized crime family. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m sure you’ll agree it’s worth a half-hour of your time over several evenings. Enjoy!

And that’s what Todd’s watching.