![]() ![]() Nathan from Insecure or Devi from Never Have I Ever serve as more realistic depictions of characters dropping the “I have it all together” mask. Flawed characters who highlight the internal struggles we sometimes face in real life. In the past few seasons of television, we have watched as more complex characters are introduced to us. ![]() Thankfully, with recent TV series such as Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, HBO’s Insecure and NBC’s This Is Us, it appears that things are starting to finally shift. Leaving most viewers feeling triggered by what they just watched. The mental health experiences of these characters were often sensationalized and/or stigmatized. The difficulties we faced were hidden from the world and certainly not accurately reflected in the characters we watched on our television screens. The show can give him a million jokes to milk the oddity of his presence, but he still has to deliver them with something like finesse.There was once a time when talking about mental health was considered taboo. But even these winky moments don’t make up for the inherent disconnect between Devi and her thoughts as relayed by McEnroe. Just about every episode sees McEnroe point out how weird it is that he’s the one telling Devi’s story, whether literally or by reacting to her adolescent misadventures with a world-weary sigh. As aforementioned, Hadid immediately admits that she might seem a strange choice to narrate Paxton Hall-Yoshida’s life. The difference between an actor who knows how to narrate and a person enlisted for the fun of it becomes even more stark in “…been the loneliest boy in the world,” an episode that trades Devi’s inner monologue for that of her school rival Ben (Jaren Lewison), whose pithy voiceover came courtesy of comedian Andy Samberg.Īt the very least, the “Never Have I Ever” scripts are self-aware about the jarring clash between the characters and their narrator counterparts. After hearing him try to express teenage excitement over the course of 10 episodes, it became clear that his commentating career didn’t necessarily prepare him for one in voiceover, a specific and trickier than meets the eye form of performance that requires more nuance than McEnroe’s flat affect ever grasps. Pressing play on the second season, though, I was rather hoping not to hear McEnroe’s voice. Waiting for that connection to reveal itself was one of the first season’s initial hooks, and on an emotional level, it pays off. In the first episode of Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher’s series, McEnroe introduces himself as our guide to Devi, eventually revealing that he was her father Mohan’s favorite tennis player before his sudden death. But Hadid’s voiceover quickly proves just as flat and unnecessary as McEnroe’s, exposing a frustrating flaw in an otherwise very entertaining teen comedy. In the world of “Never Have I Ever,” which features former tennis phenom John McEnroe voicing the innermost thoughts of Indian-American teen Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), it’s as logical a choice as any other. Hadid is a replacement for the episode’s original narrator, Chrissy Teigen, who got caught up in yet another internet controversy and was subsequently scrubbed from the series altogether. Mutual beauty aside, that’s not entirely the reason for this particular narration. “Believe it or not, I relate to this kid.” “You might be wondering, ‘why is old Geegers taking time out of her busy sched to narrate the story of a 16 year-old boy?’” supermodel Gigi Hadid asks the audience as resident teen heartthrob Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet) broods in his garage. Three episodes into the second season, a new voiceover (briefly) takes over the Netflix show. “ Never Have I Ever” is a great teen comedy - with one glaring, omnipresent exception. ![]()
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