If you’re a younger millennial who spent any time at all on YouTube during its vlogger heyday just over a decade ago, and particularly if you’re from the GTA, then you know Jasmeet Singh Raina, a.k.a. Jus Reign.
The Guelph native was one of the most popular Canadian YouTubers at the time, and made a name for himself by poking fun at, well, growing up brown in the West. Later, he became one of Much Digital Studio’s original creators, but “retired” from YouTube in 2018. He’d burned out, and begun to feel like a “caricature” of himself.
He’s back now, and with a very big bang: he’s written, produced, and stars in his own comedy series for Crave, called Late Bloomer, which is also produced by fellow local comic Russell Peters.
The eight-episode series, which is set and shot in Toronto, premiered January 19 on the streaming network, and tells a familiar story as it follows content creator Jasmeet juggle his pursuit of online success and his commitment to his community. To illustrate, the first episode sees him lose his laptop — which happens to have his nudes on them, natch — and attempt to get it back before it shames him and his entire family.
Seeing a turban-wearing man lead a television series marks one hell of a milestone. We get to see him visit the gurdwara while speaking Punjabi, among a list of countless other cultural details familiar to so many Canadians, and yet rarely seen on-screen. Like, for example, how so many of us feel like we’re living on an eternal delay.
“The idea of a ‘late bloomer’ is something that a lot of people within the South Asian diaspora can relate to,” he says. “We’re always straddling these two worlds, within the culture that we grew up in, and Western culture. So we’re always trying to navigate and figure out who we are on that spectrum. In a sense, it gives us a feeling of being behind. For ‘regular Canadians,’ because they don’t have the same pressures and expectations, it feels like they have a head start.”
As Raina tells it now, he’d been working on the series as soon as he took his break from YouTube in 2018, carving out the world and fleshing out its characters. A year later, he pitched it to Peters, who was instantly sold. While it might seem like a major departure from making short-form internet videos, Raina says it’s actually felt like “a natural progression.” After all, he adds, it’s still storytelling, just with a bigger budget, team, and space to play with.
“The idea of a ‘late bloomer’ is something that a lot of people within the South Asian diaspora can relate to. We’re always straddling these two worlds, within the culture that we grew up in, and Western culture. So we’re always trying to navigate and figure out who we are on that spectrum. In a sense, it gives us a feeling of being behind. For ‘regular Canadians,’ because they don’t have the same pressures and expectations, it feels like they have a head start.”
Jasmeet Raina
That being said, when you’re producing a project with Bell Media, quite a few suits tend to have quite a few things to say, and tend to get their way. While Raina says the company was incredibly supportive, his team did hit one interesting snag: the network typically only allows a minimal percentage of a language other than English to be spoken in its television series. Raina challenged this, and his team had to put together a committee just to push the exception through. In his mission for authenticity, this felt essential, and in a time after an Oscar-winning Parasite (and director Bong Joon Ho declaring subtitles king), it was ultimately not impossible.
“When you’re in this space that’s never had a show like this, there’s a certain structure set in place, and it doesn’t always accommodate for something new,” explains Raina. “So you really have to push to change the system and the game itself. That was an interesting part of the challenge, because you think you’re just making a show, but you’re also paving these new roads.”
That happens to lead in a few different directions. For instance, as a South Asian who, at one time, took offence to some of Raina’s early YouTube content and his penchant for putting on an accent and mocking family members not unlike Lilly Singh, I was curious how he might make the transition from stereotype to representation, between which there can be a very thin line. The show does smartly flick at this, by the way, with character Jasmeet’s sister suggesting he’s only pursuing social media for the “validation of the white man.” (After all, who else can be the audience when we make fun of our own accents?)
“When you’re in this space that’s never had a show like this, there’s a certain structure set in place, and it doesn’t always accommodate for something new. So you really have to push to change the system and the game itself. That was an interesting part of the challenge, because you think you’re just making a show, but you’re also paving these new roads.”
Jasmeet Raina
While, at first glance, Late Bloomer does seem chockfull of brown cliches in just its first 10 minutes, Raina says it’s all part of his fight for an authentic snapshot of a brown Canadian family.
“I’m not aiming to create a stereotype, I’m aiming to bring people into this world and show them that it’s normal,” he says. “Like, why is it a bad thing that we live at home, at 30, with our parents? That can be a beautiful thing as well, because we are community- and family-oriented. I don’t know if I could have done that on YouTube. I can maybe understand that criticism, but I think people should probably give it a chance, see what we’re trying to do with the show, and where the story is heading.”
And besides, he adds, people don’t want to see him talking about the Leafs game; that’s just not him. He adds, “Sometimes, these things can be beautiful, sometimes they can be ugly. But if you don’t create the space to have these discussions, then it’s going to remain this taboo that we don’t address, and I don’t think that’s healthy. … We have to look at all aspects of life, not put up a facade.”
He’s got a point. And here’s the thing: when those moments do happen on screen, there’s no laugh-track this time around aimed at the accents or the strong-smelling food or the moment for prayer. Which means, when it comes to Late Bloomer, it might indeed be worth giving it time to, dare I say, grow and evolve.
Now, as cliches go, here’s a big one a lot of us can relate to: Raina originally went to university to become a doctor, solely to make his immigrant parents happy. But as he exploded on YouTube, and continued making sketches on the side, comedy won over. In that sense, being behind and in front of the camera, at this larger scale, suggests Raina has not only made it, but come full-circle.
His parents, today, couldn’t be prouder, and even visited the set during production, championing him through all the challenges. Raina says, “The show is a love love letter to [their] generation; I want their perspectives to be shown. I didn’t think YouTube would be able to do that.”
And if this still hasn’t convinced you to at least give Late Bloomer a try, the pilot offers up a little, shall we say, cheek. Bare cheek. Now, did Raina opt for a butt double or was that indeed him?
“I’ll let people speculate,” he says, smirking. “If the hair to butt ratio seems like it matches my face to beard ratio, well, you know…”
Late Bloomer is streaming now on Crave.
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