Mindy Kaling’s sweet coming-of-age Netflix series Never Have I Ever wasted no time in rocketing all the way to the top of the streamer’s most-watched TV ranking for the US, following the release of its 10-episode fourth and final season just days ago. It’s currently out-performing other popular Netflix series in the US like Fubar and Manifest Season 4 — and doing so at a time when I’d also argue that there aren’t enough quality, feel-good shows like it, something that audiences are clearly hungry for.
Everywhere you turn, it feels like, there’s one bleak, depressing, gross, and wildly explicit TV series after another (HBO’s The Idol, Showtime’s Yellowjackets, and Apple’s The Crowded Room being a few that come to mind). As for what Netflix’s Never Have I Ever is about, it’s the story of a modern-day, first-generation Indian-American teenage girl named Devi, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan. She’s an overachieving high school student whose tempestuousness gets her into all kinds of difficult situations.
Kaling created the series along with Lang Fisher, who serves as the showrunner. “Never Have I Ever,” Netflix explains about the series, “has allowed viewers to be wallflowers at Sherman Oaks High for four seasons as Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and her best friends Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) and Eleanor (Ramona Young) navigate their formative teenage years.
“Whether one of them is dealing with personal growing pains or the collective group is trying to get laid, the three awkward, nerdy, and ambitious friends have experienced the highs and lows of high school.”
Other Netflix series like Never Have I Ever
If you’re like me and always looking for feel-good content from Netflix, meanwhile, here are some shows to check out next on the streamer if you’re a fan of Never Have I Ever and searching for more shows like it.
- Ginny & Georgia: This mother-daughter drama has two seasons available to binge right now, with a third on the way. The series begins by introducing us to Ginny and her family as they’re desperate to put down roots in New England after years on the run.
- Derry Girls: One of my all-time favorite Netflix series, this coming-of-age comedy focuses on a group of friends in Northern Ireland as they deal with the normal travails of adolescence — set against the backdrop of regional tension in a changing world.
- Sex Education: Another YA Netflix series, this one is about Otis Milburn — a socially awkward high school student living with his sex therapist mother. In season 1, Otis and his friend Maeve set up a sex clinic at school to capitalize on his talent for sex advice.
