The concept “Netflix Teen Series” It’s undeniably lazy: streaming has accustomed us to such bland, superfluous and empty products that it almost seems like a miracle that ‘I have never’ survived to three seasons, to which a fourth and final season will be added next year. And it is that in this third part, which could keep the basics and show a simple comedy full of love triangles and beautiful people, the series talks again about grief management, personal growth, the impossible decisions and analyzing the spectrum of relationships as a teenager in the 21st century. A marvel.
The class nerd
The most fascinating thing about these three seasons of ‘I have never’ is the evolution of characters and how the series has learned to see beyond stereotypes and armor little by little showing people inside: they can be simple stereotypes (the protagonist, the athlete, the list, the actress, etc.), each chapter chooses to give them more layers and complexity instead of settling for what fans would want to see. Devi is not the same person who started the series: her evolution and maturity (within her absolute madness) are as tangible as fascinating.
But the best-cared character during this batch of episodes is Paxton: the one who started out as the goofy, handsome jock has ended up being perhaps the best person of a series full of characters who strive to improve. Paxton believes that he has changed for and with Devi, but he has really become the best version of himself that he always wanted to be, even if it costs him health and frustrations. It is the voice of reason, the demonstration that it is possible to change, the moral compass of a series with a sometimes wayward morality.
During these ten new episodes there is no character who is not left without their own plot that serves as preparation for the last season. The problem is that with so much distribution, not all of them can be shown in the right way and some protagonists, like Aneesa or -sadly- Fabiola are a bit blurred. ‘I never’ is one of the few series that genuinely needs more episodes, not only to be able to accurately tell everything that happens at the same time, but also because, as viewers, we want to see more of the characters we’ve grown to love.
One free boink
The accumulation of plots and the little time to solve them (no matter how satisfactory the plot lines are) is one of the two serious problems that the series has in this third season. the other is the hackneyed repetition of the love triangle in which Devi is constantly involved and which, it seems, will be the focus of much of the fourth season. But this is not what we should stay with.
And it is that ‘I never’ is a work about maturity, but also about overcoming a trauma: Devi is an absolutely fascinating character who, no matter how much she goes on, you do not stop feeling with an impossible emptiness to fill in your heart and with unexpected anxiety crises. She is not the person who ended up in a wheelchair from stress but she is also not prepared to remember her father with a smile without breaking down. And this is what leads to one of the best scenes of the season (and of the series)in which the rejection for being who she is could have sunk her deeper without her mother’s salvation.
Devi’s family nucleus, Nalini (support and punishment of her daughter) apart, provides the biggest laughs of the season thanks to Nirmala, the grandmother, who represents the union of the series with the Hindu tradition but without neglecting her discovery of pop culture, but also brings the most bland and elongated plots (Kamala leaving home, Nalini finding a new friend). It is clear that, at this point, the series is ready to face its final season and at the family level there are no more chips to put on the board because, a priori, everything is already counted and it is a mere formality. With this saturation of plots and characters we could have done without the Nirmala and Kamala drama.
Never have I ever finished a season on cliffhanger
I can’t help but compare ‘I never’ to another absolutely prodigious series that went beyond what was asked of it at all times: ‘Crazy ex-girlfriend’. Like her, the strong core of each season marked an evolution in the traumas and manias of the main character, it focused on an impossible love triangle and the secondary characters were the real sauce. And, in fact, my intuition tells me that between Ben and Paxton, Devi is going to choose, based on advice from the latter during this season, the path of rachel bloom series. In a year we will see if I am Nostradamus or if my crystal ball has broken.
I understand all the criticism that can be made of ‘I never’: it’s too adolescent (obviously), the main character can be irritating, she is the center of her group of friends, her love interest isn’t even the best for her… Yes, of course she is. And at the same time, it is very difficult not to fall in love with the personality of a series that, from the moment she chooses John McEnroe as narrator (with Andy Samberg and Gigi Hadid in special episodes) you know that she is not willing to settle for being part of the Netflix catalog background.
‘I never’ can think about retirement with his head held high, knowing that there is no series like it. She has her own sensibility, charisma, dedicated actors, characters loved by the public and a voice of her own with something to say that goes beyond the fabulous starting point created by Mindy Kaling. He is able to make difficult things easy. and turn a series of teenage love affairs into something remarkable and worthy of scratching within an increasingly clone Netflix catalog.