Netflix's August schedule looks hot, hot, hot — partly due to the return of the simmering teen love triangle on Never Have I Ever season 3. The Mindy Kaling-created comedy, one of the best Netflix shows, is back with its penultimate installment.
Yes, Never Have I Ever will end after a fourth season, due sometime on Netflix in 2023. Turn that frown upside down (for now), because 10 new episodes are dropping in just a few weeks.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan stars as Devi, a 15-year-old Indian-American girl living in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. At the start of the series, she is dealing with grief for her father, who recently and suddenly died. Devi struggles to process her emotions, often lashing out at her mother Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan).
At school, she gets entangled with her crush, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), and her academic rival Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison).
Netflix is releasing Never Have I Ever season 3 on August 12, so this is the perfect time to binge-watch you've never seen this excellent series (or rewatch if you're already a fan).
What is Never Have I Ever about?
Loosely based on Kaling's childhood experiences, Never Have I Ever follows 15-year-old Devi Vishwakuma as she embarks on her sophomore year just months after the death of her father Mohan (Sendhil Ramamurthy). In her immediate grief, Devi lost sensation in her legs and was forced to use a wheelchair, turning her into a social pariah at school.
Back in good physical, if not emotional, form, Devi is determined to become cool. She extracts promises from best friends Eleanor (Ramona Young) and Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) to get boyfriends to boost their popularity.
On her end, Devi propositions her crush, Paxton, who agrees to have sex with her. But when the moment arrives, she isn't ready to take that step. They try being friends, although things get complicated when Devi lies to classmates about their relationship.
She also begins to bond with Ben, who previously annoyed by for competing for top grades in their classes. Even as they get closer, Paxton comes back around and asks her out. Devi finds herself in an honest-to-goodness love triangle!
Meanwhile, her family is also dealing with their own romantic conundrums. Devi's cousin Kamala (Richa Moorjani), who is staying with them while completing her Ph.D, is engaged in an arrange marriage while secretly dating athlete Steve. Later, she also gets involved with one of Devi's teachers, Mr. Kulkarni (Utkarsh Ambudkar).
As for Devi's mom, Nalini, she develops an attraction to fellow dermatologist Chris Jackson (Common) but it might be too soon after Mohan's death to get into a new relationship.
Why you should watch Never Have I Ever
Kaling's shows, like The Mindy Project and The Sex Lives of College Girls, share some similarities. They put women front and center, they are genuinely funny yet also emotionally rich, and they tackle real issues faced by real people, such as sexism and racism.
Never Have I Ever is a coming-of-age teen comedy that mines humor from the horror story that is high school and the awful awkwardness of adolescence — which almost everyone can relate to. It feels like a realistic depiction of teen life, somewhere between the wholesome Wonder Years and the shock value of Euphoria.
And coming from an immigrant family myself, I really appreciate how deftly the show handles Indian-American culture and Devi's attempts to balance respect for her heritage and her modern teen sensibilities. These cultural issues also come up in Kamala's conflicted desires about arranged marriage and Nalini's plans to move back to India.
If you need more convincing, critics love the show. Season 1 has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while season 2 is 94%.
What it will take to binge watch Never Have I ever
To be ready for Never Have I Ever season 3 on August 12, you'll need to watch the first two seasons consisting of 20 episodes.
Each episode runs around 30 minutes, so that's 10 hours in total. A day-long marathon isn't completely out of the question, especially if you're in a place beset by a heat wave. Otherwise, you can easily watch both seasons over a weekend.
If you want to forego a binge entirely, parse out one episode a day. That should lead you right up to August 12.
Read next: Here are the new movies and shows to watch this weekend. Plus, this new must-see HBO Max show is 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and Netflix's new No. 1 show just beat Stranger Things. You can also learn how to disable autoplay previews on Netflix.
