From the horrendous Tamil spoken by the characters to the rather haphazardly put-together plot, the third season of Mindy Kaling’s teen drama, Never Have I Ever, has left the audience rather disappointed. 

Never Have I Ever navigates the high school life of Indian American, Devi Vishnukumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and her crazy love life. The season starts with her walking hand in hand into school with her boyfriend, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), the boy she’s been trying to get with since the first episode of the show. This is ironic because not only does she break up with him a few episodes later, but she finds another boy quickly afterward. Since Paxton had such a big influence on the plot from the beginning, his getting sidelined so quickly is quite surprising, leading me to believe that the season was put together rather carelessly. 

While the show did a decent job giving recognition to the South Asian community in previous seasons, it feels as if the producers will only go so far. At first, I found it refreshing to hear the perspective of a first-generation Indian woman, like me, trying to achieve the “American dream” but at the same time attempting to preserve their culture and heritage. However, I quickly realized the producers ended up following the exact stereotypes they had set out to break.

We see the nerdy Indian trope as Devi desperately seeks to be popular. Kamala Nandiwadal (Richa Moorjani), Devi’s older cousin, is constantly being pressured to get married and settle. And when she tries to first pursue her dreams, she is told she must do what her family wants. Similarly, stereotypes of conservative, over-protective parents and mean aunties are interlaced within the season. The casual Islamophobia tossed in there doesn’t help the case either.

However, this season comes with a few unexpected positives. A lot more depth is shown with characters such as Paxton who we learn isn’t just a pretty face. Along with that, we see more of Devi and her mom handling grief and loss together in a heartwarming way.

It’s confirmed a season four will drop soon, so this season’s blandness may be building up to the grand finale. But until then, this season might be better off skipped.Aug