Everybody needs a comedy show to watch while doing the dishes — and, in that regard, Never Have I Ever has become the best show of its kind. That's not a backhanded compliment, but a reflection of how the show mixes big-hearted sweetness with laughs while remaining light and perfect for marathon viewings. With Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Kim's Convenience and Schitt's Creek having recently completed their runs, Never Have I Ever is fully hitting its stride.
Three seasons in, the Mindy Kaling co-created series is still following roughly the same formula, with high-schooler Devi Vishwakumar (Mississauga's Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) getting into all sorts of complicated romantic entanglements while screwing up and putting her foot in her mouth at every opportunity.
The first couple of seasons dealt with some heavier subject matter: Season 1 addressed the still-raw death of Devi's father Mohan (Sendhil Ramamurthy), while Season 2 had storylines about infidelity and eating disorders. Season 3 still deals with those subjects, but in a generally breezier manner; relationships come and go in a way that feels natural for teenagers, and Devi feels guilty about the fact that she is moving on and healing from the grief of her dad's death.
At the start of Season 3, she's dating the cool kid Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet) — something that's not a spoiler to reveal because the main press image for the season shows the two of them holding hands. But frenemy Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison) is still in the picture, and more romantic possibilities and complications pop up along the way.
It's a similarly fun, lively season for classmates Eleanor (Ramona Young), Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) and Aneesa (Megan Suri), while loveable teenage dirtbag Trent (Benjamin Norris) has gone from bit part to delivering many of the season's most hilarious bits of half-baked wisdom. Tennis legend John McEnroe is still the narrator, and somehow the WTF-factor of his presence is still as funny as ever.
With each of the 10 episodes running around half an hour, they absolutely race past. By the time the episode is over, the dishes are clean and I barely even noticed I was doing them.
(Netflix)Three seasons in, the Mindy Kaling co-created series is still following roughly the same formula, with high-schooler Devi Vishwakumar (Mississauga's Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) getting into all sorts of complicated romantic entanglements while screwing up and putting her foot in her mouth at every opportunity.
The first couple of seasons dealt with some heavier subject matter: Season 1 addressed the still-raw death of Devi's father Mohan (Sendhil Ramamurthy), while Season 2 had storylines about infidelity and eating disorders. Season 3 still deals with those subjects, but in a generally breezier manner; relationships come and go in a way that feels natural for teenagers, and Devi feels guilty about the fact that she is moving on and healing from the grief of her dad's death.
At the start of Season 3, she's dating the cool kid Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet) — something that's not a spoiler to reveal because the main press image for the season shows the two of them holding hands. But frenemy Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison) is still in the picture, and more romantic possibilities and complications pop up along the way.
It's a similarly fun, lively season for classmates Eleanor (Ramona Young), Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) and Aneesa (Megan Suri), while loveable teenage dirtbag Trent (Benjamin Norris) has gone from bit part to delivering many of the season's most hilarious bits of half-baked wisdom. Tennis legend John McEnroe is still the narrator, and somehow the WTF-factor of his presence is still as funny as ever.
With each of the 10 episodes running around half an hour, they absolutely race past. By the time the episode is over, the dishes are clean and I barely even noticed I was doing them.
