Anna Daniels
Mindy Kaling has ruled the romantic-comedy TV landscape lately, with her acclaimed Four Weddings and a Funeral reboot, which followed her fun but uneven comedy series The Mindy Project. But now she’s tackling girlhood, and all the ups and downs that come with it, in the Netflix comedy series Never Have I Ever. More specifically, her own girlhood, as an Indian-American teen growing up in suburban Massachusetts. Newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan plays Devi, a fictionalized version of Kaling, who introduces herself to her family’s altar of Hindu gods (and to us) in the first Never Have I Ever teaser.
Never Have I Ever Teaser
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b0XhByYzv4?feature=oembed&w=740&h=416]
Co-created by Kaling and The Mindy Project collaborator Lang Fisher, Never Have I Ever is a 10-episode series will follow the trials and tribulations of a first generation Indian American teenage girl. Announced back in March 2019, the coming-of-age series went through a nationwide open casting call to find the perfect Devi, a first-generation Indian-American teenage girl who would be the fictional surrogate for Kaling.
After going through over 15,000 submissions, Kaling landed on 17-year-old Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who makes her TV debut in the series. And judging by the short teaser, Ramakrishnan has got Kaling’s self-deprecating and awkward wit down, addressing her family shrine in prayer: “Hey gods, its Devi Vishwakumar, your favorite Hindu girl in the San Fernando Valley… What’s popping?”
Kaling made her name as a writer and star on The Office before graduating to her own show, The Mindy Project, and becoming the go-to rom-com TV writer, with Hulu’s Four Weddings and a Funeral reboot becoming a modest success. And throughout her works, Kaling’s distinct voice shines through — it’s why she’s great at writing thinly veiled fictionalized versions of herself like in The Mindy Project or Late Night. But as much as I liked The Mindy Project, I have to admit was incredibly inconsistent and sometimes veered on grating. But with Never Have I Ever‘s short 10-episode run and another actress playing a version of Kaling, perhaps the Netflix coming-of-age series could be just the right dose of Kaling cringe comedy.
Here is the synopsis for Never Have I Ever:
Never Have I Ever is a new coming-of-age comedy about the complicated life of a modern-day first-generation Indian American teenage girl. The series stars newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi, an overachieving high school sophomore who has a short fuse that gets her into difficult situations. Never Have I Ever is created by executive producer Mindy Kaling, with Lang Fisher serving as executive producer, showrunner and writer. The Universal Television project is also executive produced by 3 Arts Entertainment’s Howard Klein, David Miner, and Tristram Shapeero.
Never Have I Ever premieres on Netflix on April 27, 2020.
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