Never Have I Ever Season 4 Review: Capable Of Captivating The Viewer With Its Genuine Characters
Cast: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Darren Barnet, Jaren Lewison, Richa Moorjani, Megan Suri, Poorna Jagannathan, Lee Rodriguez, Ramona Young
Created By: Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Never Have I Ever Season 4 finally arrived for streaming on Netflix from June 8th, 2023. When it is announced that a season will mark the end of a series, many viewers prefer to dose the episodes and make the good feeling that they make them feel last as long as possible. But there are series with which it becomes almost impossible to fulfill this purpose because they invite you to devour their episodes in one sitting. A good example of this is, the teen series created by Mindy Kaling (The Sex Life of College Girls) and Lang Fisher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), which has just returned to Netflix with the premiere of its fourth and final season.
With these final episodes, the journey that began three years ago will come to an end and viewers will say goodbye to Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who, although somewhat chaotic, has managed to move forward and accept her flaws and traumas, and is ready to start a new journey new stage. The time to say goodbye to Devi Vishwakumar has finally come. Barely a year after the release of the third season, Never Have I Ever Season 4 returned to Netflix with a fourth and last chapter that will see our protagonist busy facing her last year of high school at Sherman Oaks High School. A four-year journey led Devi from being a shy and awkward girl to becoming a woman aware of her worth. As we will see in our review of Never Have I Ever Season 4, the TV series created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher is confirmed, for the last time, as a fresh and entertaining show, capable of captivating the viewer with its genuine characters and captivating thanks to its constant twists and turns.
Never Have I Ever Season 4 Review: The Story Plot
We had left Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) back from a difficult decision: to give up a special program at a prestigious Colorado college to stay at Sherman Oaks High School and finish her high school studies surrounded by the friends with whom she started it and by the love of his family. However, it is not only this that tormented our protagonist at the end of the third season but also the fact that she is the only one still a virgin in her group of friends. In the final episode, we then saw You have to pluck up the courage and head to the house of the boy she realized she had feelings for, Ben (Jaren Lewison).
At the beginning of this fourth season, we find the two in the boy’s bed, after having had their first time together. However, things don’t go as planned by Devi and he rejects her, preferring a milder relationship, with a girl who doesn’t make him lose his mind. Three months later, the last year of high school begins for our protagonist and her friends: Ben is engaged to Devi’s archenemy, Margot, Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) is grappling with problems in the robotics club and Eleanor (Ramona Young) is no longer sure of her relationship with Trent. But they all have a common thought: what will be their future, and, above all, which college will they go to? Meanwhile, Paxton (Darren Barnet), who has already entered college, realizes that perhaps this is not the most suitable environment for him.
Never Have I Ever Season 4 Review and Analysis
Never Have I Ever Season 4 has defined itself as a youthful, adventure-based comedy by its creator Mindy Kaling, but even if it had this cover, it won us over because of the bond Devi shares with her family, and especially because he shares with his father. For this reason, her final piece had to be a tribute to both Devi’s complicated evolution and the strong ties she has with her mother, cousin, and grandmother. She continues -and will surely continue- tripping over the same stones and will make her world wobble many other times, but in this installment, something has changed. The protagonist has finally learned to let go of what prevents her from moving forward and accept her failures.
Throughout its first three seasons, the series has always been a refuge to go to, and the fourth season has once again confirmed that Never Have I Ever Season 4 is one of the best Netflix youth series. Her freshness keeps her more alive than ever and reminds us three years later why it was so easy to fall in love with Devi Vishwakumar and his family and friends. It will not be easy to say goodbye to them. This will be one of the most bittersweet farewells of the year, but it will also be one that we will remember fondly for its way of claiming that what defines us are the experiences we have. The changes that Devi had feared so much during all the previous seasons of the series are now inevitable. We already feel it from the first episode of this new and last chapter: if until now a certain centrality was given to the girl’s family context, the latter is now more marginal, as if to represent the slow but physiological detachment of Devi who, at the end year, he will have to leave for college.
The love of her all-female family – consisting of apprehensive mother Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan), eccentric grandmother, and kindly cousin Kamala (Richa Moorjani) – always emerges, as it always will, in the young girl’s life. But he silently steps aside from her, to allow space for Devi’s new experiences and new needs. In the same way, we also witness her farewell from her father Mohan, who died years earlier but is still present as an imaginary interlocutor in the girl’s life. It’s time to move on, but her family will always be there to support her. The last year of high school represents for Devi a journey towards reaching maturity, physically and, above all, emotionally. Compared to the first season, in which Devi was an awkward and insecure girl, she is now a woman with great self-confidence, aware of her worth.
She has also learned to manage her competitive and prevaricating character, internalizing the fact that, for the good of the people you care about, sometimes it’s right to step aside. Finally, she’s no longer that desperate nerd who begged for attention from others, but she accepts that everyone may not like her, and she manages to be grateful for what she has by stopping and focusing on what she lacks. In the same way, her friends have also reached important awareness: Fabiola no longer feels like the strange one but has learned to value her exceptional characteristics. Eleanor has understood that to be successful in her life, she doesn’t necessarily have to follow in the footsteps of that mother whom she wants at all costs to impress her; and Paxton, now that he has stripped himself of the role of “coolest in school”, proceeds confidently on the path that he has chosen for himself and not to appear perfect in the eyes of others.
That of Never Have I Ever Ever in all its four seasons, looks more like a group of friends moving around the screen bringing the complex lives of teenagers to the fore than a cast chosen at the table to interpret the TV series. Every single character, none excluded, is perfectly placed in the role, without ever appearing artificial or over the top; no stereotypes or banalities emerge in recounting a life at Sherman Oaks High School, but only all the contradictions and disturbances typical of an age that is very difficult to represent.
As happened in previous seasons, although Devi is at the center of the narration, Never Have I Ever Ever finds its strength in the chorus: our protagonist, played by an increasingly casual and genuine Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, is certainly the fulcrum of all the events, but even the narrative arcs of her schoolmates are not left out, becoming a tangible and very important part of Devi’s life. Precisely for this reason, we regret that we can no longer follow the vicissitudes of these kids, now that their lives have moved to college; even if, the ” for now ” pronounced by the narrative voice at the end of the last episode, gives us hope for a change of course concerning the decision to close the series forever.
Never Have I Ever Season 4 Review: Final Words
Never Have I Ever Season 4 is confirmed, for the last time, as a fresh and entertaining show, capable of captivating the viewer with its genuine characters and captivating thanks to its constant twists and turns. You have enjoyed Devi’s evolution throughout the series and are looking for a perfect ending to the story. You want to see what the final phase of the journey of the protagonists will be like. You loved this series and its way of standing out among other fiction of the genre.
