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Season 2 never have i ever4/2/2023 Still, Never Have I Ever, now in its sophomore season, struggles with the same sort of identity crisis of its protagonist. Though Common's wooden performance as her love interest leaves the subplot a little cold, it's still nice to see the writers explore the character's humanity and sexuality. We see more of her at work, dealing with her own toxicity in a professional space, and even begin to date. She goes to her teenage relative for advice on how to maneuver the issue after her colleague, who is also of Asian descent, suggested she "keep her head down and chin up."Īnother plus this season is that the always wonderful Poorna Jagannathan, who plays Devi's mother Nilani, gets more to do other than play an at-times thankless maternal role. Byrne) who takes credit for her contributions. In other more satisfying storylines, Devi's biologist cousin Kamala (Richa Moorjani), who evaded an arranged marriage last season, contends with being marginalized at work by her white male peer ( P.J. His pithy one-liners may capture her voice, but not her experiences, like trying to convince "a stubborn Indian mother to change her mind." It's increasingly clear that he's merely reciting lines with little authenticity. Can an older white man like McEnroe authenticate that? Obviously not. The responsibility of accurately portraying a teen girl of color includes expressing her sexual urges, what it feels like to navigate the world looking like her, and her personal conflicts about being a girl who refuses to buckle to the mainstream but craves acceptance at the same time. Though it makes sense that tennis star John McEnroe would return as the narrator of her story in Season 2, it still is incomprehensible why he was ever fit to be the voice of a teenage South Asian girl's inner monologue in the first place. Still, as much as Devi has proudly come into her own as a bicultural young person moving through the trauma of watching her father die in front of her as she redefines what it means to be cool in a school filled with popular cliques, whiteness is often centralized throughout her journey. So, she was, and remains, occasionally messy and all over the place socially and emotionally. She also figured out how to steer, and articulate, her newfound sexual thirst for some of her male peers. Last season, she lost her dad ( Sendhil Ramamurthy), which sent her down an emotional spiral to the point where she began seeing a counselor (the great Niecy Nash) and narrowly avoided being uprooted from her new school back to her native India with her family. What to Watch on Netflix's Top 10 TV Show RankingsĪnd Ramakrishnan is delightful to watch as she embodies an outspoken young woman, and an unapologetic nerd, in flux. And she's quick to protect those she loves, like her friends ( Ramona Young and Lee Rodriguez), from issues including abusive relationships and bullying. She's enlightened in that she has an inclusive group of close friends, joined the Model UN, and is unafraid to call out patriarchal standards - even when her sometimes erratic behavior gives her the moniker "Crazy Devi" at school. On one end, Never Have I Ever has given us a protagonist, by way of Maitreyi Ramakrishnan's charismatic portrayal of Devi, who is flawed, angsty, and navigating real issues like grief. But there's always been something a little awkward about the way this series handles it sometimes. It's obviously a conflicting journey indicative of many modern adolescent experiences, especially for young people of color, which makes it so resonant. Perhaps the most fascinating thing Never Have I Ever, created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, has done is explore a teenage Indian American girl simultaneously wanting to belong and wanting to be her own person.
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