- By Alia Arora
I am probably ridiculously late doing this as the last season of the show came out a while ago and it was the rock that I was living under that made me forget that this was happening.
I spent many hours in the night binge watching Season 4 of Never Have I Ever. It was in the early hours of today that I realised how society has become entrapped by the likes of Netflix. Just because it exists, we have to consume it all right away. It explains many habits of today, doesn't it? Just because there's a chocolate bar in the fridge, I must eat it all. Just because there's oil in the world, I must sell it at a profit and use it for industrial gains without giving the teeniest amount of shit about the consequences. Just because there's a 10-episode series available on Netflix, I must watch all the episodes in one night. Never mind the fact that they will still be available tomorrow for my viewing pleasure and I pay to subscribe to this service for the entire month and not just one night.
After that dark commentary of the failures of society, let's dive into it.
Devi Vishwakumar is an incredibly selfish, dramatic and chaotic teenager who cannot bear the hear the truth. She is self-centred, has a massive tantrum and anger problem, and does not respect friendships and boundaries much at all. In short, she is human.
One of the good things about the show is that it shows a very human side to people and relationships and from a multi-cultural perspective. There's Paxton who dropped out of uni and went home and his white, hippy Mum fed words of encouragement into his tiny little brain because of how lost he felt. There's Devi and her family who follow the Brown norm of applying enough pressure on the student until they break. There are the two widows, Paati and Devi's Mum, who both want to 'get out there' and start dating again. After having spent enough time mourning the loss of their husbands, feeling judged by the wider society, they find love when they are given a little nudge of support and encouragement. The series shows the struggles that come with being human regardless of culture.
Another thing I particularly laud is the fact that even though Devi's life revolves around boys at this stage (as do most teenage girls'), she doesn't lose sight of what is important. Going to Princeton and becoming a successful woman. It is extremely important for young women to know that setting goals for yourself is the way forward. All the leading ladies of the show had spectacular goals in mind. Eleanor wanted to be a film star, Fabiola was the Queen of Nerds with Robotics, and Devi wanted to be a Supreme Court judge who also happened to be a hip-hop artist.
While some goals may be more relatable than others, I was happy to see that all the women had goals and stuck to them from start to finish. Not once did you hear anyone say that they were going to give up something to be with someone. Fabiola did not give up on her Robotics dream to be with Addison. Devi did not give up on her Princeton dream to be with Ben. And that is how it should be. It was time we moved away from depictions of love where someone (almost always the woman) had to give something up to find love. That's not how love should be. That love will one day boil down to form the residue of resentment. But that's for another day.
The series also ensured character development. I was not the biggest fan of Devi- as I think you can tell from my introduction. She was always incredibly selfish and angry and problematic, but in the final series she evolved enough to not yell at her Mum for wanting to date the Latino hunk (Happy Father's Day to that Daddy by the way), despite getting angry with Fabiola for wanting to go to Princeton. But she grew up and that's what matters.
Overall, the show gets my thumbs up for:
Diversity
Representation of the LGBTQ community without making the show all about it
Relationships aside from romantic ones
Character development
The show also gets my thumbs down for being oh, so American. When I went to University, we spent a couple of weeks packing and shopping. I got 'the talk' from my Father of all people about drinking and drugs and sex. I got one 'I will miss you' and even that was cringe-worthy. On the show, however, there were many tears, so many hugs and so much drama. It was all very American.
But well done, Mindy Kaling, for bringing this brilliance into our lives.