I have got to get out of the habit of starting to watch things when I’m sleepy. I wanted to watch this series so bad but I kept falling asleep. Finally, I changed the time I watched the show and was able to finish it in a day and a half. Let’s discuss why you need to watch this today or this weekend because….you ain’t got nothing else to do while we wait for a vaccine.
Dani is an Indian-American teenager whose dad had a heart attack and died during her orchestra performance. Later, she lost the feeling in her legs and spend a year or so in a wheelchair. Tough, right? This series chronicles her trying to reinvent herself. If you watch closely, and pay attention to the flashbacks of her family with her dad, it seems as though she wants to live her life freely like her dad did. He was the reason she started to play the harp. The reason why they moved into their house. The glue between her and her mom. It’s hard to lose a parent like that and we see Dani struggle with that emotion but pretend that she’s ok. Havoc ensues.
Meanwhile, she has a friend who finally decides to come out. Another friend who has mom issues and an overprotective Indian mother. For minorities, you know what that means. Her mom thinks she’ll go to a party, get drunk and then get bulldozed by a car or a pack of wolves. There is no middle ground with minority parents. Everything leads to death. Why is that? Someone poll their parents.
Back to the show. What I love about shows like this and Atypical is that they show us the lives of people we don’t often come in contact with. Not like we don’t come in contact with Indians or Indian-American people but how often do we see the real life of these people that isn’t exaggerated or on the History channel. The juxtaposition between Dani, who is very American, and her cousin, who is traditionally Indian, was very interesting.
The main plot line of this show, as I gathered, was freedom. Everyone, in some respect, wanted to be free of some burden they were holding. I loved Niecy Nash as the therapist. The scene between her and Dani’s mom was classic! Minorities do not trust doctors and they especially don’t trust therapists so the dig made me clap and laugh.
I appreciate Mindy Kaling and the crew giving us this really funny yet really insightful show through the eyes of Jon McEnroe, which I found absolutely hilarious and the last episode brought that full circle.
Take your weekend, your lunch break or both to give “Never Have I Ever” a lookie-lou (is that working for anyone?). It’s on Netflix right now and it’ll make you laugh, cry, cringe and maybe look at your TV sideways at times. And just wait for her uncle.
BLACK WATCH 