Never Have I Ever

Never Have I Ever is just about as perfect of a teen TV comedy as you can get.

A comedy that’s also an incredible exploration of grief. It’s not the first comedy to manage that feat, but it’s a hell of a peak to climb, and the air up there is rarified. ... “Never Have I Ever” is not Mindy Kaling’s funniest comedy, but it is perhaps her most honest. In short, it is terrific.

Kaling and Fisher have created a shockingly intimate first-gen portrait that's as comforting as your mother's chai and as salty as the gossip served with it.

Comedy is never safe; the best comedy is totally unsafe; and “Never Have I Ever” is the teen-sitcom equivalent of running with scissors, used hypodermic needles and a fully operating chain saw. It may also be the meta high-school series of our time. ... [Devi's} hilariously intemperate. Her wit is wry, especially when dueling with Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison), her rival for class brain. To call anyone a supporting player doesn’t quite do it—everyone is supporting everyone.

There are so many pleasures in this series, none of which would work if Devi weren’t such a delightful protagonist, an ideal mixture of understandably selfish, self-blind, legitimately funny, fundamentally good, and deeply caring.

“Never Have I Ever” soars in its irreverent yet authentic depictions of an Indian-American girl growing up in the San Fernando Valley. ... This is one of the best new shows of the year.

While The Mindy Project was content with stretching out a rom-com over several seasons, Never Have I Ever has greater emotional depth.

Jagannathan and Moorjani channel enough complexity into their performances to make their characters' respective emotional evolutions as vital to the story's success as Devi's circuitous trek. Through them and, to a lesser degree, the concurrent revelations Fabiola and Eleanor experience while their friend is busily finding herself, "Never Have I Ever" becomes a smart, heartfelt guide to several versions of a woman's awakening, acknowledging that for women expressing desire and feelings can be a trickier business than TV or film typically presents.

Overcoming the saturation of coming-of-age titles, Never Have I Ever adds fresh wrinkles to an old formula, thanks in part to a breakout turn by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as a high-school sophomore adjusting to a life turned upside down. Sweet, funny and occasionally flat-out weird, it's the latest show that brings an independent-film sensibility to the half-hour comedy format.

It’s a very kind, warm, smart show to visit, and each half-hour episode breezed right by.

The overpacked clunkiness of that first half-hour — really, the first half of Never Have I Ever's 10-episode debut season — might give some Kaling loyalists PTSD flashbacks to The Mindy Project. ... The great joy and relief of Never Have I Ever is that, at least in the latter half of its first season, the series streamlines into a deeply moving exploration of a teenage girl falling apart because she can't bear to deal with her grief.

With enough self-awareness and empathetic acting to ground and elevate it, “Never Have I Ever” makes for a smart, refreshing, and frankly overdue change of pace.

A breezy, delightful season of television, practically built for quarantine marathon-watching. Its twists are fairly predictable, and its drollery is openly derivative of other teen hits—Riverdale, Glee, and Sex Education, in particular. But you don’t watch something like this because it’s innovative; you watch it because it feels good to consume as much of it as possible.

“Never Have I Ever” is a lot of fun and a must-watch for teen girls thanks to its focus on the little things. The rush of excitement when a hot boy considers you a friend (never mind he’s flirting with every other girl) or the frustration at having a mother who doesn’t understand you. Though the series takes a few episodes to find its stride, once it does, it’s magic.

Though not a perfect ride and likely to be overhyped out of starvation mode for any teen comedy resembling the actual diversity, horniness, and profanity of being a teenage girl, Never Have I Ever gets there, eventually. The series’ back half settles into a storyline balancing emotional depth with outbursts, and what emerges is a moving and original portrait of a teenage girl grappling with grief. It’s a bummer that it couldn’t have arrived at this version faster.

With Kaling involved, if you thought it would be funnier than Never Have I Ever turns out to be, you wouldn’t be alone. The dollops of “sweet” and rare laughs are especially hard to come by in the first few episodes.