Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj

Did You Know?

• All episodes, exclusives, and deep cuts were also available on the show's YouTube channel.
• Legal action threatened by female producers for a hostile work environment was settled out of court.

Production

On March 1, 2018, Netflix ordered a weekly series created by Hasan Minhaj and Prashanth Venkataramanujam, with a first season of thirty-two episodes split into several volumes. Executive producers initially included Minhaj, Venkataramanujam, Michelle Caputo, Shannon Hartman, and Jennie Church-Cooper, with production companies Art & Industry and Haven Entertainment. Jim Margolis joined as showrunner and executive producer on June 7, 2018. The series was titled Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj on August 9, 2018, and premiered October 28, 2018. Volumes 3 and 4 aired in May–June and August 2019, respectively; Volume 5 released November 10, 2019. Volume 6, scheduled for March 29, 2020, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Netflix canceled the series after six seasons on August 18, 2020. During writing, Minhaj frequently excluded or limited researchers' roles and could be dismissive of fact checkers.

Reception

The series received widespread critical acclaim upon its premiere. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.79 out of 10 based on 15 reviews, with the critical consensus stating that "Patriot Act stands apart from other like-minded comedy shows thanks to Hasan Minhaj's masterful blending of thought and feeling, catharsis and criticism." Metacritic assigned a score of 78 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. In October 2018, the episode "Saudi Arabia" included reference to the term "Negro Blood" from an online manual for US troops deployed to Saudi Arabia; following the episode's release, U.S. Central Command issued an apology and removed the manual. On January 1, 2019, that episode was removed from Netflix in Saudi Arabia after the country's Communications and Information Technology Commission requested its removal over criticism of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, though it remained available on the show's YouTube channel. The March 2019 episode "Indian Elections" criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government, discussed Hindu nationalism, the Kashmir conflict, and mob lynchings, and included an interview with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, generating controversy in India. The May 2019 episode "Brazil, Corruption and the Rainforest" covered the 2019 Philippine general election, criticized President Rodrigo Duterte, and addressed the Philippine drug war, drawing controversy in the Philippines and a response from the Malacañang Palace attacking the show. Time included Hasan Minhaj on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in April 2019, and The Daily Show host Trevor Noah described Patriot Act as a "groundbreaking Netflix show."