By Jasmina Lara

SAN JOSE CALIF. – A coming-of-age comedy-drama about a teenage girl who lives in Los Angeles named Devi Vishwakumar, is on a journey through the critical years of her life, high school.

“Never Have I Ever” was released on Netflix during the beginning of the pandemic, April 27, 2020. The series is about an Indian-American high school student dealing with the sudden death of her father. Throughout the first season, we see Vishwakumar overcome personal struggles that occurred during her freshman year of high school by developing a crush on the school’s heartthrob, Paxton Hall-Yoshida . Vishwakumar’s arch nemesis calls her a nerd, which triggers her to decide to start an intimate relationship with Hall-Yoshida. Vishwakumar felt the need to prove her nemesis wrong due to her lack of self-worth and the wanting to accomplish something in her social life. 

During the rest of the season, we see Vishwakumar deal with obstacles, such as finally dealing with her father’s death. “ I protest, I shan’t use my legs either,” Eleanor Park, Vishwakumar’s best friend, told Vishwakumar in support, with a light hearted tone, when she wasn’t able to use her legs due to her father’s death. The season ended with Vishwakumar and her mom, Nalini Vishwakumar, spreading her dad’s ashes. 

When I first heard about the show, it was a year or two after the first season came out. My parents and I were looking for a show to watch and noticed “Never Have I Ever.” I felt excited to be able to see characters that were the same ethnicity as I am, since growing up there weren’t many characters that were Indian or even Latino. 

I am half Indian, and my mom and I both thought it was finally nice to see representation in our culture. I feel that representation in shows is really important, because the audience should be able to relate and not feel alone when seeing characters go through similar situations they have gone through. With having representation on different ethnicities in the entertainment industry, you’re able to learn about different cultures, and seeing my own makes me feel included. 

As I was watching the show I would sometimes have to pause it due to Vishwakumar making bad decisions in situations or even making very embarrassing choices that would make me feel second-hand embarrassment. “I felt it was really hard to watch especially with Devi’s actions but it shows the realities of high school.”Alyssa Lopez, senior at Silver Creek stated. I liked seeing how relatable each character’s experience in high school was and how different each experience was their own. I would also like to add how well “Never Have I Ever” demonstrated the main character wanting academic validation, even when she was going through a difficult time period of her life. As well, it was nice to see a high schooler you can somewhat relate to with Vishwakumar’s journey of self-discovery. 

The show did touch on serious topics which they portrayed moderately well in this first season. I personally felt that they could have touched more on what the other characters were going through, such as Vishwakumar’s mother. Hinted at the struggle of losing a significant other but never really went into depth with it. Other than that, being able to see the raw emotions Vishwakumar went through after the loss of her father was shown very well. I personally think it is important to portray these topics correctly, because it can help viewers get a picture of what other people go through and learn how to help. The show also offers support to viewers who are going through the same struggles and gives them the comfort that they aren’t going through their hard times alone and can relate to Vishwakumar.