Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Tahir’s House’ On Netflix, Where An Ambitious Son Changes His Family’s Fish Shop To A Store Selling Risky Herbal Treatments

Characters at the center of sitcoms don’t have to be “likable”, but they have to have at least some redeeming, human characteristic for viewers to connect with. When the central character is just a scheming sad sack, it gives viewers pause. Netflix’s first Saudi Arabian comedy has a central character that starts off on the wrong foot, but with a fun group of characters around him, can the series redeem itself?

TAHIR’S HOUSE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Four people stare worriedly at a laptop. “Making a mess and getting told off by your family is normal,” says a voice over. “What’s not normal is messing up big time, with your sister, your father, and your father’s mother-in-law and you sitting there and observing it together.

The Gist: Three months earlier, Yousef (Alhashimi Alfaisal) finds himself being summoned to the headquarters of the company for which he’s interning. He thinks it’s a formality to a permanent job offer, but he ends up being terminated for poor performance.

In the meantime, the family fish shop, always doing well when Yousef’s mother was still alive, seems to be going down the drain under the management of his father Jumaa (Mohammed Bakhash). Jumaa’s mother-in-law, Luftia (Naimah Ahmed), fields customer complaints about spoiled fish, and Yousef’s little sister Aziza (Joud Alsufyani) is looking at the books and seeing lots of red.

When Yousef learns he’s fired, he goes back to the fish shop, lamenting that he’ll work there forever, and he’ll never be able to move back in with his wife; he promised her he’d find a steady, career-oriented job before returning back home.

Yousef’s cousin Karim (Mohammed Alfaraa) gets him a modeling gig; he’s bringing photographic equipment and the fashion designer using it, Leen, is taken with Karim. As the three of them talk, she mentions an herb named Habsa, which has certain, um, medicinal properties that may help men in a particular area. Leen’s uncle can get Yousef and Karim a license to sell it. Yousef hatches a scheme: Convert the fish shop, which is failing, to an herbal shop, and feature Hasba. It’s in high demand and not a lot of people sell it. But there’s a big problem, as they go to an herbal shop to buy some: it’s not very legal.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? We’ve seen articles that describe Tahir’s House as a cross between The Bear and Modern Family; we’d agree more about the latter than the former.

Our Take: Tahir’s House, directed by Sultan Al-Abdulmohsen and written by Yaser Hammad, tries really hard in its first episode to situate Yousef as an everyman who is just down on his luck, but he comes off more as a guy who’d rather find a quick way to riches than do what his family have done for generations, which is work hard selling fish. And the season will likely consist of how the family rallies around Yousef’s scheme, even if some of them have their doubts.

To be honest, the other characters around Yousef intrigue us a lot more. Aziza is ready to go study in South Korea, and her sponsor is footing a lot of the bill. Grandma Luftia seems to be the brains of the family, and likely someone who will save Yousef from himself. Jumaa is still mourning the loss of his wife, which is taking his eye off the ball for running the fish shop. Even Leen looks like she has more going on with her character than Yousef, who just seems like a scheming sad sack.

But we’ll see how things develop. Yousef’s character flaws might not matter as much if the others around him become well-rounded, funny characters in their own right. We hope that’s what happens, because otherwise, the show will collapse with the thin character of Yousef at its center.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: At a family dinner, all hell breaks loose when Yousef lets it slip that Aziza is going to Korea. Aziza then reveals that Youself lost his job, which reveals to Yousef’s wife that he lied to her. Jumaa revokes Yousef’s power of attorney when he proposes selling herbs instead of fish.

Sleeper Star: Joud Alsufyani’s character Aziza seems to have a lot of determination for someone so young. It’s too bad she’ll derail her Korean ambitions to help the shop.

Most Pilot-y Line: Before the photo shoot, someone hands Yousef a toddler boy who’s wearing the same outfit. Leen comes in and asks, “is he yours?” Yousef answers, “You can say that.”

Our Call: SKIP IT. Tahir’s House does have a chance to succeed. But the main character strikes us as more toxic than funny, and that’s not a good sign.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.