'Never Have I Ever': A deep dive into mental illness and its social manifestation among millennials
Spoilers for 'Never Have I Ever'
Devi Vishwakumar is a young modern-day Indian girl who has intense anger issues, and an overbearing need to keep away from sadness well in sync with millennial tendencies. Her gang of two best friends, Fabiola Torres, robotics team captain, and Eleanor Wong, president of the drama club are her supporters as Devi draws up a plan to make sure their sophomore year would wash them off of their uncool status.
While this may seem like typical teenage issues, the series also places its importance on how these young peeps fair when it comes to dealing with grief, social pressure, family responsibilities and simply speaking their mind. Glamours women of color and race, they already stand out as a trio but are well versed in highschool knowledge to be able to retaliate to cold-hearted bullying.
Devi, who lost her father due to a heart attack during her orchestra school function refuses to deal with her grief. She has episodes that echo PTSD as she sees her father in her dreams, and can't stand to play orchestra without being reminded of the events that led to her father's death. An interesting point of view, in the series, is that from the beginning, Devi is set up with a child psychologist, doctor Jamie Ryan, and through Devi's therapy sessions we see that she opens up more to her therapist than she does her mother.
This might ring a bell to young women who grew up hiding their innate grief socially. The series, in the start, do not explicitly show Devi ignoring her feelings, but as time goes by her actions definitely echo the sentiments of many young women. From wanting to try drugs to wanting to lose her virginity, she would do anything to not talk about her father, "he's dead, I was sad, there's nothing to talk about," she tells her therapist.
Meanwhile, she raises a fit when her mother tries to sell her father's old scooter - it's a subtle reminder that kids, no matter age or color, are able to easily hide their grief to avoid social retaliation. Her peers don't let her forget that her father died during a school function, that's a lot for anyone to bear.
The series seems to tackle many issues that irk mental health such as disability, bullying, racism, sexism, reproductive issues, down syndrome and much more. While the series shows how the characters fair when it comes to being open about their mental health, it also mirrors the views of many in the real world. Devi, who constantly thinks she's ugly and isn't deserving of love because she can't get a boyfriend or a guy to sleep with her, her cousin Kamala's breakdown when she has to break up with her boyfriend because her family wants to get her marriage arranged, and Devi's mother, Nalini, who we see might have suffered reproductive issues.
Mind you, you see all of this in the first few episodes. Using comedy, the series quite elegantly raises inherent topics that, although may not be as stigmatized as it used to be, is still stigmatized too much.
'Never Have I Ever' is currently streaming on Netflix.