Never Have I Ever will charm and romance its way into your heart

Netflix’s latest teen comedy from Mindy Kaling, Never Have I Ever, delivers a sweet and funny show about family, grief, and friendship.

Netflix’s latest teen comedy, Never Have I Ever, follows Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) as she sets her sights on becoming popular by landing a hot boyfriend in an effort to avoid grieving for her suddenly deceased father.

Devi’s path to romance is not an easy one, but all the tropes we know and love are there along the way: dorky teachers, Black Lady Therapists (tm), high school parties, Tik Tok dances with best friends, and, of course, a solid love triangle.

Co-created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, Never Have I Ever feels like the little sister to The Mindy Project (also created by Kaling, with Fisher serving as a writer and producer). Ramakrishnan shines as Devi, effortlessly charming and adorable while also being vulnerable and awkward in equal parts.

Like The Mindy Project, Never Have I Ever clings strongly to the tropes of its genre. Also similarly, it takes a while for the tropes to grow beyond archetypes into fully formed characters and ideas.

This includes best friends Fabiola and Eleanor who are initially so defined by their stereotypes (geek and drama kid, respectively) that they barely have character traits beyond that. The girls are later given arcs of their own that are quite lovely, but due to the short episode order, nothing ever gets fully told. (Related, I much prefer Sex Education‘s more modern take on queerness than Never Have I Ever‘s dated approach.)

However, some of the tropes are also so painful it’s apparent that Kaling and Fisher did little more than googling “teen movie stereotypes.” (The blundering gross fat kid, Eric, is boring evidence of this. Hopefully, if there’s a second season, they’ll rectify this with some more depth.)

The series makes one other odd narrative choice–utilizing heavy voiceover via John McEnroe to tell Devi’s story. It’s one that’s explained in the pilot, but it doesn’t make it feel any less odd, especially in the show’s moments that are specific and sensitive to Indian culture.

In other words, having a gruff white guy narrate the series’ Ganesh Puja episode feels a little off. It does allow them to do some other things narratively that have some emotional payoff in the final episode, but I’m not sure that couldn’t have been achieved otherwise.

All that said, the central core of the show is compelling. Kaling and Fisher have crafted a central character brimming with teenage hormones and emotions who has to find a way to control her feelings, something everyone needs help with.

And the love triangle is a classic Kaling setup:  popular hot guy with a heart versus uber-smart and kind of mean Jewish guy who also has a soft side. (Ben may very well be the teenage equivalent of Adam Pally’s Peter from Mindy.)

By the season’s end, viewers may have a strong feeling on Team Paxton or Team Ben, but that would be missing the deeper message in Never Have I Ever about family, grief, and friendship, one that’s worth learning for viewers of all ages.

Never Have I Ever is currently streaming on Netflix. Have you watched the series yet? Tell us what you thought in the comments below!