The Pasupu is back after a much needed break! Welcome to the long awaited review of Season 2 of Never Have I Ever! In this post we will cover our take on the post, what teams we’re on (Paxton vs. Ben etc.), and our hopes for season 3!
Kamala's Work Situation
We absolutely love Kamala for being a woman in STEM, however, she is treated extremely disrespectfully off the bat. Kamala has started working in a lab: a lab where she is the only woman. The head of the lab doesn’t pronounce her name correctly, and doesn’t try to correct himself too. The situation gets worse: Kamala doesn’t even do any lab work, she is forced to clean the beakers and get coffee for the head.
Kamala is as deserving as anyone else that is in that lab, and she deserves to research. But, simply because she is a woman, she is being forced to do these meaningless tasks. In order for her boss to like her and to give her opportunities, she is forced to suck up to him, which unfortunately is the case for many women today.
Even Prashant told Kamala that she should just deal with her submissive co-workers, which caused her to be disappointed that not even her own fiance supports her.
In the end, Kamala’s name is not written on a research paper, research that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for her. She decides to stand up for herself, which is not something many women do. We applaud Mindy Kaling for including such realistic work discrimination within NHIE, because it is extremely common. We are glad that Kamala was shown as powerful, rather than submissive, and stood up for her hard work.
Nalini's Family
Nalini visits India because she plans on moving there since Mohan passed away. Surprisingly, her parents didn’t show much excitement when she came to visit. In fact, her parents wanted to remarry her immediately. Being a widow in the South Asian Community is looked down upon, and usually it is extremely difficult for widows to get remarried.
It’s upsetting to see Nalini’s parents so eager to send her off to another husband; her late husband had only passed away one year ago, and Devi was nowhere close to accepting the fact that her father is gone. Nalini, in our opinion, is thriving as a single mother. She’s working a full time job, taking care of the home, and still dealing with Devi’s adolescent mood swings. Nalini proves that there’s no need for a man to swoop in and save the day. Devi’s mother has a lot on her plate, and when she started venting to Dr. Jackson, it made us extremely happy. South Asian mothers deal with hundreds of things everyday. They grew up in a society where therapy was word nonexistent in their dictionary, and had no positive coping mechanisms. Nalini speaking out about her emotions is great: a recently widowed mother needs to have an output for all her thoughts.
Let’s talk about Mother-In-Laws.
South Asian mother-in-laws are stereotyped as overprotective, evil, rude, and stingy. However, this was not the case with Nalini’s. We saw Nalini’s mother-in-law putting oil in her hair and cooking her favorite foods. NHIE broke some extremely common stereotypes and proved that wives can have strong, loving relationships with her husband’s parents.
Devi's Suspension:
It’s clear that Devi is the stereotypical brown girl. She is super smart, a social outcast, and has high expectations for her future. However, during season 2, Devi gets suspended.
Brown girls are usually seen as the goody-two-shoes. This act of Devi getting suspended is something extremely abnormal. Putting Devi in this extremely uncommon situation was an amazing twist to the show: it broke stereotypical norms. Although Devi is still the typical Indian girl, her getting suspended built up her character, and proved that not everyone is perfect. Everyone is bound to make mistakes. South Asians live in a community where mistakes are considered scary, but mistakes are life.
Something we forgot to mention in our Season one post is Devi going to therapy. Although South Asians going to therapy is slowly becoming less stigmatized, it is still considered a taboo, and is going to take many years to get South Asians to be fully supportive of Mental Health. Devi attends therapy because of her father’s death and her prior health issues with her legs. However, we see in the show that Devi uses her therapist to talk about everything that is bothering her, which is an extremely healthy coping mechanism. Never Have I Ever, including, Devi’s therapist encourages viewers to go to therapy.
Nalini's Relationship with Dr. Jackson:
Nalini is a mother who deals with too much, but has nowhere or no one to vent to. As we all know, being the mother of Devi isn’t the easiest, and now, Nalini has to take care of her mother-in-law, niece, deal with the death of her husband, and worry about her medical practice. South Asian mothers go through so much everyday. They are always there for their kids and family, but who is there for them? They need someone to talk to about their emotions, because they can’t hold it all in for so long. Nalini finally breaks down with Dr. Jackson about everything she is feeling, and this representation is good- it shows how hard working mothers are and how they need someone to listen to them too.
The addition of Nalini and Dr. Jackson’s romantic relationship is a must for breaking down racism. Dating someone black is extremely taboo within the South Asian community, and NHIE makes this interracial relationship extremely normal. Nalini doesn’t think twice about dating a black man, and follows through on her date because she knows that he is what makes her happy.
South Asian Girls- You are wanted, You are loved:
Devi is given the nickname of “Crazy Devi” throughout the show, and always feels embarrassed of her heritage and is always worrying about whether or not she is attractive.
Throughout mass media, brown girls are never chosen. They are the weird, smart, nerdy girls that are never portrayed as beautiful. In the end, Devi needs to learn self love, before she can even move onto loving someone else. She hasn’t understood the concept of “if they want you, they’ll do anything” because she’s been trying too hard to become something that she is not.
South Asian girls: you are the most exquisite of them all. You are beautiful and you shouldn’t define your self worth based on male approval!
Introducing Aneesa:
If you read Ashley Singh’s Interview, you’d know we talked about ✨Brown✨. This term was invented by TikTok. The South Asian TikTok Community split into ✨Brown✨ and Brown. ✨Brown✨ consisted of “beautiful” girls that had a big following, and these girls were considered the beauty standard. But, in the end, the girls who didn’t consider themselves ✨Brown✨ put themselves down for their features. Everyone is Brown with sparkles.
When Aneesa first showed up at Devi’s high school, Devi was immediately intimidated by her. She hated that Aneesa was prettier than her, started dating Ben, and that she was more liked by her peers. She saw Aneesa as competition, rather than a friend. In a way, Aneesa is ✨Brown✨ in Devi’s world, because she wishes she could be her. The South Asian Community is extremely competitive with looks, intelligence, and wealth; this natural instinct simply fueled Devi because this ideology is what she grew up with.
The Pasupu absolutely loved Aneesa’s character. Many times in media, the female muslim character is usually a hijabi, and their character almost ends in them unnecessarily taking off their hijab. The media portrays Muslim women as extremely oppressed, and that their hijab is the root of their oppression. We liked that NHIE included a non-hijabi muslim character because it’s pretty common for a Muslim woman to choose to not wear a a hijab; in fact many of our Muslim friends don’t wear one.
We also loved how NHIE called out the Desi Community’s toxic relationship with body image. Aneesa unfortunately suffers from anorexia, and although the root of her issue was never mentioned, a Desi person openly having an eating disorder is very rare. Our community is extremely toxic when it comes to food, and it was nice to have Aneesa open up about her issues.
Whose Team are we on?
Paxton or Ben: So far, we are Team Paxton because Devi has always liked Paxton, and she’s finally with him now. Ben is dating Aneesa, and yes, he was jealous of Devi at the dance, but if he really wanted to be with Devi, he wouldn’t be with Aneesa.
Dr. Jackson?: We are team Dr. Jackson because Nalini and him get along very well, and we also think the enemies to lovers idea is so cute! We think Dr. Jackson is a great way for Nalini to slowly move on, but it’s understandable why Devi is against her mom dating again.
Prashant or Mr. Kulkarni: Right now, we are team Prashant. We obviously weren't big fans of his sexist comment that he made towards Kamala, but we really like their Chemistry. There was definitely something between Mr. Kulkarni and Kamala, but we think their relationship isn’t developed enough yet.
Our Hopes for Season 3 🤞🏽
Brown Boy Representation:
How cute would it be to have a new brown boy start attending Devi’s school, and they have a little spice going on between them? Not only would the addition of a Brown boy add to the diversity, but we believe that it could create a beauty story and it could help Devi appreciate her own culture.
Expansion of Aneesa:
Personally, we find it a little weird that Devi and Aneesa are the only brown people in their entire school located in SoCal. We hope that Aneesa won’t fade off, and will continue to be a big role throughout the show. We loved that Devi was able to appreciate her culture more through Aneesa, and we hope that Devi will be more accepting of Indian heritage with the help of her new friend.
Stigma of Rushing Marriage:
We believe that Kamala was extremely rushed into getting married. I mean, she ran away from Prashant and his family when he came to visit. Obviously, marriage is a huge commitment, and anyone would be scared. But, we hope to see Kamala stand up for herself and say that she wants to get married when she is ready.
Inclusion of More Culture:
Although a new Desi character was added, and Nalini visited her in-laws, we still felt that the show lacked culture. We hope the show includes more Tamil culture, and dives into some Islamic values as well.
Thanks for reading! The Pasupu again apologizes for the irregular posting. Our lives completely changed after going to college, and we are still figuring out our schedule! We will not be posting as frequently as before, but we will be continuing the karam content! Stay tuned!