Netflix has done an incredible job of creating exclusive content that we love and at the top is the recently-released Never Have I Ever. From Mindy Kaling comes a wonderfully delightful coming-of-age drama about a young Indian-American teenager dealing with the stress of high school and the pressures of her own culture all while trying to figure out just where she fits into it all.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan stars as Devi Vishwakumar, a high school girl who wants to up her social status at school but life, culture, family, and everything in-between keep getting in the way. Devi’s close friends Eleanor Wong (Ramona Young) and Fabiola Torres (Lee Rodriguez) are also finding themselves among Devi’s drama, oftentimes at the wrong end of it, all while dealing with their own assortment of teenage issues. Adding to the weight of it all is Paxton Hall Yoshida (Darren Barnet), the popular jock and object of Devi’s affections and constant distraction that stands between Devi and quality decision-making.
Oh, and professional tennis star John McEnroe narrates the show.
Without going into spoilers, season one’s 10 total episodes are easy to sit through in one go as you will likely find yourself getting sucked into Devi’s world and feeling for her and her friends while relating to their issues of teen life. Plus, with Mindy Kaling at the helm, the show’s focus on an Indian-American teenager is accurate to the letter, likely pulling from many of Kaling’s own experiences.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan beat out more than 15,000 submissions for the role of Devi and her performance shows. NHIE‘s solid writing and brilliant cast flow extremely well with one another and provide chemistry that will surely project each of these young actors’ careers forward into superstardom.
Never Have I Ever is one of our favorite shows, and for many a good reason. If you don’t believe us, you will need to watch it for yourself to see. But we are more than confident that you will not only like it, you will probably end up telling your friends to watch it so you can have others to discuss it with.
