It stars Adhir Kalyan and Parker Young, with Elizabeth Alderfer, Kelli Goss, Dean Norris, and Farrah Mackenzie in supporting roles.

The series follows Al (Kalyan), an interpreter from Afghanistan who moves to Columbus, Ohio, with his friend Riley (Young), a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

Released to mixed reviews, United States of Al was criticized for its humor, use of antiquated tropes, and casting of an Indo-South African actor to play an Afghan lead with an inauthentic accent.

On October 10, 2019, it was reported that a television pilot titled United States of Al from Chuck Lorre, David Goetsch, and Maria Ferrari had received a large production commitment from CBS.

[62] In November 2020, on Veterans Day, CBS gave the project a series order, scheduling it to premiere on April 1, 2021, for the 2020–21 United States network television season.

[77] However, the Los Angeles Times journalist Lorraine Ali examined reviews from several critics, and summarized them as illustrating "the minefield that exists around good-intentioned efforts to diversify scripted television" due to their ignoring of the cultural representation of the main character and the show's attempts to diversify television, calling the reviews "damaging to future representations of Muslims".

"[82] Afghan journalist Ali Latifi shared his criticism of the show in an op-ed for Business Insider and said "it's all flat characters, and cheap, uninspired jokes.

"[83] While giving praise to Lorre's television series The Big Bang Theory, he also shared a quote from a conversation with Afghan-American social rights activist Mariam Wardak, who he quoted as saying "rather than showing Afghan interpreters as brave men who are putting their lives on the line and are risking being ostracized in their community, we have a short, scrawny awkward brown man standing next to this GI Joe.