Riz Ahmed’s maverick Prime series oscillates from boldness to hilarity — sometimes in the same instance — throughout all six of its under-25-minute episodes. It’s that potent balance that makes it one of the smartest and best streaming shows you’ll watch this year.

Riz Ahmed’s Bait is extraordinary and daring.

It begins with a simple premise, but flies quickly off the rails in service of some of the most volatile, self-reflexive comedy-drama you’re likely to stream this year.

All those detours, breezily paced in sub-30-minute episodes, ultimately return to the series’ overarching ideas about what it costs — culturally, commercially, personally, domestically, romantically, professionally — to exist as a minority within a majority. Bait is most intriguing when it refuses to answer that question in a tidy way.

Delivered in brisk, 25-minute episodes, “Bait” emerges as a portrait of a nervous breakdown brought to you by the entertainment-industrial complex, rendered with bustling London street energy and a touch of absurdist wit. The series is bursting with ideas, sometimes more than it knows what to do with. .... But “Bait” never feels derivative; it has a pulsating urban energy and ribald family dynamic all its own.

It’s more interesting and worthy of admiration than necessarily great, but you can see the greatness on the periphery.

Given more room to stretch out and experiment, “Bait” might look a little more like its apparent influences ["Ramy" and "Master of None"] .... “Bait” has glimpses of such potential at its margins. .... But before long, it’s back to the mission at hand: poking at the Bond legend while ultimately, respectfully propping it up.