Created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher,Never Have I Everpremiered on Netflix in 2020. The show follows Indian-American teenager Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) after a family tragedy. Her father, Mohan, died during a concert in her freshman year, and the trauma caused her to lose the ability to walk for a few months. Able to walk again, she enters her sophomore year with hope, only to fall into a lot of drama in her family and at school. Salon praises the show for itsdepictions of diverse and realistic teenage life. The show also deserves praise for how it depicts Devi’s mental health. Here are some ways the show gets mental health right.
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It Normalizes and Properly Addresses Mental Illness
An important aspect of the show is how it doesn’t ostracize Devi for her mental health issues. In most ways, she isa normal teenager, crushing on Paxton (Darren Barnet) and getting herself in and out of trouble. She also happens to see a therapist, Dr. Ryan (Niecy Nash), to help her through her father’s death. This addresses and normalizes Devi’s mental health challenges. She’s not made to feel weird or ashamed because she needs therapy. The show also doesn’t present her situation as overly dark, and balances it well with great humor. At the same time, the show properly acknowledges that she went through something horrible and heartbreaking, and that it’s understandable for her to not be okay. It doesn’t downplay her experiences or how they’ve impacted her, presenting a sympathetic view of mental illness.
This portrayal of mental health also extends tothe other characters. For example, Aneesa (Megan Suri) is introduced in season two, and becomes friends with Devi. After Devi makes a joke about Aneesa being anorexic, we find out that she used to be. She had to be hospitalized for treatment, and transferred to Devi’s school after bullying at her old school. Devi’s joke aside, the issue is handled well, and presents a raw, realistic look at an eating disorder.
Another example is Devi’s mom, Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan). Devi is often at odds with her mother after Mohan’s death. She doesn’t like when Nalini wants to get rid of her father’s motorcycle, and feels that her mother doesn’t care about her father. However, Nalini has her own memories of Mohan, and wants to get rid of the motorcycle because it feels too painful. Nalini also joins Devi in a therapy session, which allows them to better acknowledge each other’s feelings, and show the different sides of grief.
Devi Isn’t Magically Cured of Her Problems
With many on-screen portrayals of mental illness, a common phenomenon is that the audience will see the character mention their illness once or twice. After that, it’s often never mentioned again, with viewers left to assume that the character is magically cured of their illness and their problems. Though Devi does recover from her inability to walk, the rest of her issues aren’t solved as easily. Talking to Dr. Ryan helps her see her own situations more clearly, but she still has to solve the problems on her own, like her feelings for Paxton, or whether to visit the prestigious school she was accepted to. At times, she might even go against what her therapist tells her and make choices that end up harming her, like fighting with her friends. The show effectively portrays Devi as a normal teenager who isgoing to make mistakes, even as she tries to improve herself.
Similar to her still having problems, her mental illness also doesn’t magically disappear; we even see Devi get frustrated and consider a new therapist when Dr. Ryan can’t instantly make her life better. Devi has hallucinations of her father throughout the first season, and finds her grief spilling into her social life. In season three, Devi is about to perform at her first concert since her father died. Despite feeling good about it, she later hallucinates him there, and has a panic attack about his death. This heartbreaking scene reminds us that even when getting help, there are still bad days with mental illness. Devi has been through something unbelievably tragic, and she continues to struggle with it. However, she also continues to live her life, and successfully performs at the concert. The powerful scene feels like she is processing her grief and trulybeginning to move on in her journey.
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Accurate Portrayals of Therapy
Finally, the way the show features Devi going to therapy is realistic. Many people will likely think of the stereotypical therapy experience often seen in the media, where characters lay on a couch and tell their problems to a cold psychologist.Never Have I Everpresents a more realistic view. Yes, there is a couch in the office, but Devi normally sits on it, and her sessions feel more like a genuine conversation between her and Dr. Ryan. Dr. Ryan is also caring and kind, not cold. She often meets Devi where she’s at and even jokes with her, almost like “a wise friend,” per Psychology Today.
Similar to characters mentioning their illness once, many portrayals of therapy also show a character attending a session just once. However, Devi has many scenes at therapy in each season. She also doesn’t want to talk about her father in the beginning, and instead focuses on school and family problems. As she attends more sessions and builds trust in Dr. Ryan, she eventually shares how traumatic his death was for her. The latter two seasons show them having a trusting, honest relationship, as Devi opens up more. This shows that therapy is a continual process, not an instant fix. Devi has to work at talking about her feelings honestly, and working through her trauma.
