Never Have I Ever - Season 1
NEVER HAVE I EVER - NETFLIX
In the world of television, depicting adolescence faithfully is a task that few shows have been able to complete. These showrunners and writers are forced to peer into a wide-eyed perspective that they are fundamentally detached from and will never have to truly embody again. Therefore, sitcom veterans Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher subvert this by tapping into a unique perspective with a new angle: depicting adolescence through the eyes of someone forced to grow up too fast. Never Have I Ever is every bit as youthful and starry-eyed as its title might suggest, but the show’s secret weapon is its deceptive exploration of loss and the ensuing stages of grief.
At the center of this story is Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a young Indian American high school girl from Sherman Oaks, California, faced with both the recent loss of her beloved father (Sendhil Ramamurthy, at his most heartwarming) and her full recovery from a resulting psychosomatic paralysis of her legs. These recent events make her the talk of the school, and not in the way she wanted. The show (narrated by a surprisingly funny John McEnroe) follows her as she tries to navigate her friendships, her growing crush on her classmate Paxton (Darren Barnet), and her tumultuous relationship with her mother (Poorna Jagannathan).
Though the show initially presents itself as a basic coming-of-age sitcom, the show’s underlying heart slowly reveals itself as Devi’s trauma and grief take center stage. What starts as a colorful teen comedy gradually unravels into something deeply personal and powerful. Kaling and Fisher skillfully merge typical teen growing pains with the harsh realities of a life faced with immense loss and use their characters to delve deep into the uncomfortable emotions young people often try to repress. Though the show explores a wide variety of difficult subjects, at its core it reflects the idea that adolescence can be about more than just popularity, AP tests, and school crushes. It can also be about coming out to your family, dealing with both loss and loneliness at a young age, mending broken relationships with those you care about, and the fear of both disappointing and being abandoned by your own family.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan proves vital to the show’s success, as she carries an underlying current of sadness, self-destructive tendencies, and crumbling defense mechanisms underneath a facade of ordinary teen angst and ambitious social climbing. Her performance carries the weight of her tragedies and always keeps them in the periphery of both the character and the viewer’s mind . Her comedic timing is sharp, and her facial acting is what really sells the character’s internal journey.
Where the show stumbles slightly , is with how it utilizes its sizable ensemble cast. Not every character is given all that much to do, and some of their arcs are left unexplored and resolved much too quickly. As well, not every character gets a chance to be funny, and sometimes the show struggles with consistency in its characterization. However, when it balances its relatable sense of comedy with an underlying heart, and confronts its characters’ issues head-on, it firmly cements itself as one of NETFLIX’s newest gems. .
NEVER HAVE I EVER is streaming exclusively on NETFLIX
