I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to work from home throughout the pandemic and thus haven’t had oodles of quarantine hours to fill, so over these last months, I haven’t really been watching more TV than I usually do. But as COVID halted productions and seasons ended early or started late, that means I haven’t had as many of my usual shows to watch over the summer and fall, so I’ve instead had time to check out plenty of streaming stuff on my neverending “to watch” list. This new high-school sitcom from Mindy Kaling is still finding its feet a little, but it’s fun and brings some strong heart.
Devi is determined to make a stronger showing at school this year. Reluctant to process the unexpected death of her dad the year before or deal with her combative relationship with her mom, Devi is focused on the social status of her and her friends, determined that this is the year they’re finally going to be cool. For Devi, she’s pretty sure that means getting a boyfriend, and while she entertains other, more attainable options, the guy she really wants is her crush: an older boy, the popular/handsome jock Paxton.
We’ll start out with some of the stuff I like less about the show’s first season so I can spend the rest of the review on the good stuff. Mostly, there are places where the humor gets a bit clunky because it’s just underlined a little too much. For instance, the show is narrated by John McEnroe (who Devi relates to as a fellow high-achieving hothead,) and while he has some pretty funny lines, a sizable chunk of the narration just comes down to McEnroe describing what’s happening onscreen, banking on the inherent humor of McEnroe voicing the thoughts of a 15-year-old Indian American girl. Also, the main love triangle – Devi being totally into the cool but kind of self-centered Paxton while having this love/hate thing going on with her academic rival Ben – gives me season-1 Mindy Project vibes with shades of Mindy/Jeremy/Danny, and 1) it’s hard for anything to match that season-1 Mindy/Danny energy, and 2) the angle just doesn’t work as well for me here.
But the show can easily settle into its comedic voice and play around with the romance dynamics, because it has a lot of other great qualities going for it. I love that, despite being nerdy and fairly awkward, Devi frequently tries to project the confidence of a superstar (leaving her delightful, even-nerdier friends in awe.) I like that she’s a total mess and it isn’t always pretty – she can be selfish, she lashes out at others when she’s hurting, and she has very misguided ideas about what she needs at this point in her life. The lives of the major, supporting, and recurring characters are all peppered with fun details that make them pop. Again, I love Devi’s friends Fab and Eleanor, and I get a particular kick out of the trying-painfully-hard-to-be-“cool”-and-relatable history teacher. (I think my biggest laugh in season 1 comes when he stumbles over the wastebasket while dabbing.)
My favorite aspect of the show is Devi’s home life: her present-day fraught relationship with her mom Nalini and the flashbacks both of them have about their past relationships with Devi’s dad Mohan. For a show that can be overly broad now and then, pretty much everything about these family dynamics feels very well-drawn and specific. “Teenager with overly-strict immigrant parent” may be a well-worn trope, but the individual beats Never Have I Ever brings to it are fun (like Nalini getting Devi’s textbooks blessed by a Hindu priest,) and the different ways that both of them continue to grieve Mohan’s death lead to a rich overarcing thread between them. And the flashbacks of Mohan are just *chef’s kiss*. What a wonderfully endearing character – I know it’s easier to make someone seem flawless when they’re already dead, but I have a thing for dad-daughter stories, and Mohan is giving my beloved Capt. Crewe a run for his money.
The young cast does pretty well with the material they’re given, though you can tell some of them are still growing as actors. As Devi, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan rises to the challenge of the heavy lifting, and she has a nice back-and-forth with Lee Rodriguez’s Fab and Ramona Young’s Eleanor. The acting standouts, unsurprisingly, are the older, more experienced members of the cast. Ramakrishnan is often at her best when she’s acting opposite Poorna Jagannathan, who plays Nalini, and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder from Heroes!) is utterly warm and winning every time he appears as Mohan. (Side note: after seeing this show, I thought back over the different things I’ve seen Ramamurthy in, and I’m pretty sure he’s an actor I’ve never seen perform with his actual accent. I wonder how frustrating that gets to be.)
Warnings
Sexual references/content, language, teen drinking, moments of violence, and thematic elements.
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