*Spoilers Alert - Don’t read if you haven’t watched all three seasons
When Never Have I Ever first came out, it was refreshing to see a show that featured brown people as the main characters in the story. It made me excited to see Asian representation and a diverse cast. So as a brown woman living outside India and feeling out of touch with my roots, I had high hopes to see how this show would spotlight the intricacies of Indian culture and give teenagers an Asian role model to look up to, or relate with. But although Devi Vishwakumar was lovable, dramatic, hot-headed and relatable, oh did she fall short of being empowering.
I realize that my take on this show isn’t necessarily what others would agree with, but because I am Indian there were certain expectations and hopes I had about this show that were extremely shattered. Devi Vishwakumar is supposed to be an ‘Academic’, further portraying the stereotype of Indian geniuses, but she spends very little time focussing on her studies and much more time obsessed with what people think and what boys think. And although many teens are obsessed by gossip, drama and what people think, people who are supposed to care about their studies wouldn’t completely change their personalities just to be liked.
What the show got wrong
Let’s talk about some of the cultural inaccuracies: Indians would not even be allowed to dress the way Devi does. Our mothers wouldn’t even let us leave the house in a skirt below the knee or a sleeveless top. And although we did see Nalini as a strict mother who didn’t allow Devi to wear certain clothes at times, throughout the show Devi mysteriously got away with hemlines that got lower and lower as the seasons went on.
Second, this is supposed to be a show featuring a diverse cast, so why did they get a random white athlete to be the narrator? John McEnroe can barely even pronounce Indian names, say the word ‘Chennai’ or pretend to understand the cultural nuances of Devi’s life, so doesn’t the choosing of a white successful jock make him kind of a weird choice as a narrative storyteller for an Asian-centric show?
As the Indian express so accurately puts it, “Netflix’s Never Have I Ever is becoming less and less a series about brown people and more like an American show that just happens to have brown people in it.” At best, the show simply recycles Indian stereotypes. I expected better from Mindy Kaling. Even the ‘typical Indians’ which are portrayed in this show, such as Kamala - so clearly have an over exaggerated Indian accent that is neither real, nor an accurate representation of what Indians sound like.
This show is supposed to pay homage to Indians, and yet they hurl their main character from white boy to another. In fact the only Indian love interest that was presented to Devi, functioned only as a distraction from her “destiny romance” with one white boy or another. Not that there’s anything wrong with interracial dating, but the way Devi operates is as though she believes in white supremacy, and, simply put ‘that white boys are hotter than coloured boys’.
Devi’s embarrassment and prejudice towards her own culture is meant to portray a realistic picture of Indian Americans, but what it actually does is not challenge the racism and instead degrade Indians even more. For example, why are Indians referred to by Devi as ‘nerds’ or ‘uncool’? Devi didn’t even think Rhyah’s son Nirdesh was going to be cool until she saw how attractive he was, which makes her seem both incredibly racist and shallow, which Nirdesh very correctly called her out on. It was childish, stereotypical and extremely shallow behavior on her part. Indians have felt for too long like they need to be ashamed of their embarrassing culture, their strong accents, and traditions - Netflix’s show could have challenged those perceptions by exalting the culture rather than stereotyping and shaming it. It isn’t enough to feature brown people, we need to develop their character to the point of respectability. For the most part, all I see in Devi Vishwakumar is a wannabe white girl - from the way she talks to the clothes she wears and the boys she dates.
And how about her obsession with sex? American television seems to want to show that teen sex is good, is ok, and in fact if you’re a virgin then that makes you seriously uncool and undesirable. This is setting such a bad example for the rest of this impressionable generation to follow. Devi starts the series off by talking about wanting a guy to ‘rock her all night long’ and then ends the third season with a precursor to her about to get down to it, finally, with whom we can only assume is the guy she’s meant to be with: Ben Gross.
Things I actually love about this show
Let's talk about the things this season did right though.
1. Family values: From the very first season until now, we see how Devi’s relationship with her mother has evolved and how she went from hating her at times to now crying because she felt she wasn’t ready to leave her mother and go off to a different school. That was such a powerful emotional mother-daughter moment that made me a little teary as well.
2. Nalini’s mothering: In the first season, Nalini came across as a bit cold and struggled to show her love and emotion towards Devi, but now we can see her really trying, seeking advice on parenting and trying to do the best for her daughter even when she doesn’t agree with her decision-making and constant troublemaking. Nalini is a strong female character, probably the only woman in Never Have I Ever that I actually fully respect. And can we please stop for a second to applaud the way Nalini defended her daughter to the fake Rhya? Definitely my favorite moment from the whole season.
3. Paxton’s maturity: From what Paxton was in the beginning to how he’s shown up now is a huge improvement and a lot of that can be attributed to Devi. Even the way he broke up with her, he did it for the right reasons, dealt with it in a mature way and then actually checked on her to see that she was okay when he was dating someone else, rather than being immature and rubbing his new relationship in her face, like she so childishly did with him.
Even though I was very disappointed that Devi’s relationship with Paxton only lasted for about 3 episodes, he dealt with it and with her in a very emotionally intelligent way. When Paxton told Devi that she needed to love herself in order to love someone else, he was actually sending a very important message to young women on self worth and identity when it comes to dating. But unfortunately, we don’t really see Devi doing the work on herself, we see her rebounding with a cute Indian guy and then eventually hooking up with Ben Gross. I also loved how he took care of Ben when he got sick when he could’ve very easily reverted to his old immature ways and made fun of him.
In closing, here are my two cents. Is this show littered with cultural stereotypes? Yes. Is it very racist at times, when it could do so much better? Yes. Is it a bad example for teenagers? Yes. But, it also tackles themes of grief very very realistically. And a huge reason why myself and the rest of the Never Have I Ever fanbase doesn’t hate on Devi is because they see their own coping mechanisms on display in Devi’s problematic behavior. She is just a teenager who will eventually grow up and mature with time. But, she’s come a long way and has a great family support system. All-in-all this show isn’t half bad. It’s one of the good ones, but occasionally - trashy nonetheless.
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