Stream It or Skip It: ‘Never Have I Ever’ on Netflix, a New Teen Comedy from Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling and her Mindy Project collaborator Lang Fisher make their Netflix debut with Never Have I Ever, a teen comedy about a 15-year-old girl navigating high school, grief, and her mom’s traditional Indian values. The show’s a classic teen comedy, so how does it compare to all the other high school shows available to stream?

NEVER HAVE I EVER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: High school sophomore Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) praying to the gods for her school year to not suck, because last year sucked.

The Gist: How bad did last year suck? Well, Devi’s dad died of a heart attack while attending her spring orchestra concert and then she was stricken with a sudden, inexplicable paralysis that lasted for months. Now that her psychosomatic paralysis is behind her (seeing high school hottie Paxton Hall-Yoshida across a grocery store parking was the cure), Devi is determined to make her sophomore year better than her freshman year. It definitely cannot get any worse, can it?

Our Take: Never Have I Ever is a true high school comedy, through and through. It has everything viewers have loved about the genre from the heyday of John Hughes in the ’80s through the rise of the WB in the ’00s, all the way to current shows like Sex Education and PEN15. But that’s not a slight against Never Have I Ever. It couldn’t be, because while there are plenty of shows and movies like it, NHIE comes out of the gate with a vibe that is so confident, unique, and fun that it immediately enters the top echelon of the teen genre.

Seriously, everything you love about angsty high school TV is present in Never Have I Ever. There’s the underdog quasi-loser lead, an overbearing mother (a perfect, precise performance from Poorna Jagannathan), a perfect cousin she can never compare to (Richa Shukla), her ragtag band of quirky friends (played with aplomb by Ramona Young and Lee Rodriguez), aforementioned super hottie Paxton (Darren Barnet), and a snooty rival who you will love to hate (Jaren Lewison’s Ben). They’re all stock characters you’ve seen before, duh, but these tropes shine bright when they’re put in orbit around Devi.

Devi makes the show, and her experience as an Indian-American daughter of immigrants makes the show stand out. Mindy Kaling served as co-creator/executive producer and co-writer of the pilot alongside her frequent Mindy Project collaborator Lang Fisher. The combination of their lived experiences and excellent ear for punchlines (Ben’s “Shut up, my dad’s hot!” had me cackling) gives this show a voice unlike anything else on TV today.

Never Have I Ever is further separated from the crowded field of teen content by its willingness to get weirder and more emotional, sometimes in tandem. Never is that more evident than in the choice to have tennis legend and beloved hothead John McEnroe serve as narrator. It’s a kooky choice, one that the show immediately acknowledges, but the payoff is a total heartstrings-puller.

Never Have I Ever is just about as perfect of a teen TV comedy as you can get. Yeah, you’ve seen show like this before, but you’ve never seen it done like this.

Parting Shot: After a surprise handshake agreement, Devi writes a declaration in her grief journal that bodes well for her sophomore year. Surely. Nothing can go wrong. Right?

Sleeper Star: I know it’s inaccurate to say that the series lead is a sleeper star, but it’s impossible to not mention Maitreyi Ramakrishnan when you realize that this is the start of her IMDb page. Ramakrishnan beat out 15,000 hopefuls for this role, and you immediately see why. She’s an epic discovery and her ability to convey pure, unbridled teenage rage is unmatched. You root for Devi and, now that you know this is her first role, you’re also rooting for Maitreyi.

But if I have to pick a supporting character, you gotta give it up to low-key TV icon Niecy Nash, who plays Devi’s child psychologist. This is a far cry from her characters on Reno 911! and Claws, and Nash slays in her own, immediately recognizable way.

Most Pilot-y Line: I love this bit of narration from McEnroe, which so perfectly captures the show: “So today, Devi returns to high school. Can she shed her old identity as the paralyzed Indian girl, whose dad dropped dead at a school function? It’s not likely. Those things are pretty unforgettable.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. This show is exactly the pick-me-up that literally every single one of us needs right now.

Stream Never Have I Ever on Netflix