'Never Have I Ever' review: A high on love season that misses the mark

The third installment of the popular Netflix series 'Never Have I Ever' is finally here. The first two seasons of Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher's teen rom-com introduced us to Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a “modern-day first-generation Indian-American girl", who is traversing through high school, dealing with teenage issues, heartbreaks and romantic mishaps.

The 10-episode third season, however, is all about love: It's mushy, it's romantic, it's soppy!

In the third season of the popular Netflix series, Devi's dream of dating the hottest guy comes true as she finds love in Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet). The series picks right from where it's predecessor ended. Aneesa Qureshi (Megan Suri) and Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison) are a thing now, while Fabiola Torres (Lee Rodriguez) and Eve Hjelm (Christina Kartchner) are going strong. This season, however, sees a newer romance: Trent Harrison (Benjamin Norris) is officially dating Eleanor Wong (Ramona Young)! This season also intoduces Des (Anirudh Pisharody), a small and good-looking Indian student that sweeps Devi of her feet!


But as it is with our protagonist, chaos and confusion makes her move from one boy to the next, repeating the same mistakes again and again. And she blows it up with multiple people.

This season also gives ample space to supporting characters with major storytelling development. Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan) finds a new friend in Rhyah (Sarayu Blue), Kamala Nandiwadal (Richa Moorjani) is in love with Manish Kulkarni(Utkarsh Ambudkar) but faces stiff opposition from Devi's grandmother Nirmala (Ranjita Chakravarty).

With its two successful seasons, 'Never have I ever' tries to explore the biggest issue facing the diaspora kids: straddling between two cultures. While the third season tries to stick to this subject, it does feels like any other high school rom-com in some instances, drifting away from a series about brown people and becoming more and more like shows that just happens to have brown people in it.

Poorna Jagannathan delivers a power-packed performance. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan's growth as an actor is quite visible in this season. Ramon's performance as Eleanor also stands out.

The right mix of heartwarming storytelling, hilarious moments, fantastic one-liners and awkward encounters wins again for this season. What doesn't work is the twisted plotlines, that are discarded quickly even as one starts to enjoy them. To be short, it is exhausting to keep up with fast-changing plots.

Despite it's shortcomings, 'Never Have I Ever' Season 3 stays true to its nature. The third season is now streaming on Netflix.