Never Have I Ever Seen So Much Representation
Illustration: Abdullah Sarışen
This article is part of two-part series, investigating the Netflix Series Never Have I Ever. To read Sharanya Deepak’s article Never Have I Ever and the Commodification of Identity Politics, click here.
I didn’t have a Netflix subscription until I got one for this show and I don’t regret it even one bit. If you know anything about me or my childhood, you’d know I was obsessed with chick-flicks and shows about high-school when I was growing up. You could say I was a chick-flick connoisseur.
However, most chick-flicks of my childhood revolved around white girls and let’s just say, girls of colour like me never completely felt at home watching them. The teaser for Never Have I Ever on Netflix came out on March 20th. To say the least, I was extremely excited.
The teaser didn’t show a lot while showing so much at the same time. The Mahogany hues of 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar’s room glimmered in sharp contrast with the blue and gold gleam of the statues of Hindu gods in her room. In the teaser, Devi, played by the phenomenal Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, is seen having a candid conversation with the gods, asking for maybe an increase in social status at her school as compensation for how much last year sucked.
Despite the fact that I have been invested in the show since the teaser, completing it introduced me to all the things that merely watching the teaser or trailer could not. I was obviously very excited about the brown representation in the show. I don’t get to see a lot of people who look like me on American television so to see a desi girl living her desi girl life with her desi girl problems was a delight. Devi is not a token character and there are so many complex layers to her. You can really tell that Mindy Kaling was coming from a place of personal experience when she was writing the show.
Her character is a mirror in which many brown kids, or any kid of colour for that matter, can see themselves reflected. I could relate to Devi a lot. Maybe it is because Devi wears striped shirts and mom jeans — things I wear every day, like a cartoon character -- maybe it’s her way of dealing with trauma, maybe it’s that the only emotion she expresses in public is anger and that she is constantly fixated on doing things that would look good on her university applications, or maybe it’s simply her relationship with her mother.
I could point out how aspects of desi culture were etched very intricately into the script, from desi aunties and their unsolicited judgement to Devi’s mother saying therapy is for white people. You also will see the good old arranged marriage and the forceful breakup carried out for its sake, but that is a subplot that will end up spiralling into something unexpected anyway. The show is full of twists after all.
There are heaps of racial representation, but it does not stop there. Things are much more multifaceted and have so much more depth than just that. The intricacies of the script really shine through as the show tackles serious topics such as mental health, therapy, trauma, familial tragedy, identity politics, culture, disability, queerness, sexuality, coping mechanisms, friendship and self-love. The show also does its part in normalising going to therapy!
Every character is thoughtfully written and refined. Everyone has a back-story with very complex issues of their own. This is especially something I didn’t see a lot of in the chick-flicks of my childhood. While watching Mean Girls, I always wondered what Damien’s life was like outside of school, but I had no such complaints from Never Have I Ever.
The show almost felt like an amalgamation of Girl in Progress, The DUFF, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Sex Education and Princess Diaries. It also felt a lot like Unfabulous from Nickelodeon. I saw quite a lot of cinematic parallels between the show and other things I’ve seen and loved: When Paxton sat in front of Devi in History class, it felt a lot like the way Aaron Samuels sat in front of Cady Heron. When Devi had a friend-breakup with her two best friends, Fabiola and Eleanor, it struck a chord of familiarity within me because I had seen Jess and Casey’s friend-breakup with Bianca in The DUFF.
One very important thing to witness is Devi’s internal conflict with her own culture, something that resonates with a lot of struggling brown kids. Devi calls her cousin, Kamala, “too Indian” and also enters into conflict with another community member, Harish, who genuinely enjoyed Ganesh Puja even after going off to college.
Devi’s relationship and interactions with mother and cousin are so nuanced and almost tactile. Her mother, played by Poorna Jagannathan, clashes with Devi because her tough love and rules contradict almost every area Devi wants her autonomy in, which is also something a lot of brown kids would relate to.
One of the million things I love about the show is the fact that high-schoolers look like actual high-schoolers and aren’t played by 30-year-olds. As someone who is in high-school but looks 12, I owe the casting director one. Another thing I loved was the fact that while there was a love triangle situation in the show, it was a lot more realistic than what we typically get to see. This review is supposed to be spoiler-free because I genuinely want people to watch the show so I can’t give away too much of that, but the realism was refreshing, to say the least.
Once you watch the show, you’d probably have to agree that the show was a heart-wrenching emotional rollercoaster. It might give you goose-bumps, or make you cry, or both, but you won't find out unless you watch it!
Finally, I’d like to cite some of my favourite lines from the show that genuinely epitomize the concept behind the show. I believe they sound just as cool even out of context:
“Winning over old-ass teacher types is my superpower.”
“If women didn't learn to accept each other’s apologies, The View would grind to a halt”
“I’m a modern man. I know that you’ll want to work, until you have children. All sons. Fingers crossed. “
“If you really need to talk to us that urgently you should also learn to hydrate our lovers.”
“They’re so elite, they don't even count Penn and Cornell as Ivies!”
“So basically I’m the Hester Prynne of the Indian Community”