Warning! SPOILERS for Never Have I Ever season 3 ahead.Never Have I Ever’s apt use of the coming-of-age genre’s tropes and themes mirrors many teen dramas, but one element sets it aside and makes Lang Fisher and Mindy Kaling’s dramedy shine. The coming-of-age drama’s seasons 1 and 2 were already critically acclaimed for the freshness they brought to the genre and the way the cast perfectly worked to bring Devi and her friends’ stories together, but Never Have I Ever season 3 seems to be following suit, based on its Rotten Tomatoes score of 94%. However, one unique detail makes Never Have I Ever even more original and commendable.

Never Have I Ever season 3 opens with Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) feeling highly confident in her social status compared to the past, as not only Devi’s feelings for Paxton (Darren Barnet) are reciprocated, but they are also officially dating. While Never Have I Ever seasons 1 and 2 might have seemed heavier in the themes they explored compared to Never Have I Ever season 3, the latter actually delves into a new stage of Devi’s grief following the death of her father, Mohan (Sendhil Ramamurthy). The one element that sets Never Have I Ever apart from other teen dramas appears even more clearly when exploring that specific storyline and how it intertwines with Devi’s burgeoning social life in Never Have I Ever season 3.

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Despite Never Have I Ever having always explored grief and how it affected Devi’s life in more disparate ways, it similarly detailed Devi’s ambitious plans for her school, social, and dating life - as many other teen dramas often do. Unlike other teen dramas like Gossip Girl – both the original and its 2021 sequel – though, Never Have I Ever never portrays its teenage characters as adults. Instead, Mindy Kaling’s dramedy manages to convey simultaneously the silliness and the overbearingly strong feelings of the teenage years, resulting in characters that look and act their age and appearing as much more realistic than their counterparts from other teen dramas as a result.

Why It Is Important Never Have I Ever Treats Its Protagonists As Teens

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi Vishwakumar and Utkarsh Ambudkar as Mr. Manish Kulkarni in Never Have I Ever

The way Devi can explore grief or her complicated relationship with her mother, Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan), and, at the same time, giddily execute her plan to convince her dream boy and crush Paxton to have sex with her makes for a highly engaging, grounded TV show. Not only does Never Have I Ever switch between heavy themes and teenage goofiness at will to create good comedy, but it also portrays a fairer and somewhat more realistic image of teenagers.

Never Have I Ever portraying teens as fundamentally flawed, realistic people is meaningful because it doesn’t hide its characters’ true age by making them fashionably act older. Instead, Never Have I Ever lets its teen core cast keep their age’s whimsical oddities as they face the challenges of growing up. This genre peculiarity grants Never Have I Ever a relevant place in the coming-of-age TV landscape, making the Netflix dramedy truly stand apart from its contemporary competition.