Never Have I Ever Season 4 Review: A Sweet, Satisfying, if Predictable, End of an Era

Never Have I Ever Season 4 doesn’t quite live up to past seasons, but it provides a sweet and satisfying conclusion to a beloved series with almost too many subplots and characters, which is no easy feat.

The show really does have the feeling of being the end of an era as viewers watch the golden trio they first met as awkward freshmen grow into well-adjusted high school graduates with the world at their feet.

Nearly the entire season focuses on Devi Vishwakumar, Eleanor Wong, Fabiola Torres, and Ben Gross determining where they’ll be after high school. However, it also explores the futures of the Vishwakumar family and Paxton Hall-Yoshida.

While the ending is satisfying enough, it is also quite predictable. Most viewers will know after the first episode which college Devi is going to and which boy she ends up with.

Additionally, the paths of the rest of the cast also become quite apparent within the first few episodes. This means that the conclusion feels a bit underwhelming, and the absence of the typical twists and tangled webs of love triangles and teen problems is noticeable.

However, it is understandable that the show doesn’t introduce anything it can’t finish before its end, allowing itself to tie up almost every loose end.

Surprise and overly complicated story arcs aren’t all that is missing from the season, though. There’s also a little less emotional depth, some of the humor misses its mark, and some of the charm has started to wear off.

Devi’s chaotic antics have always been the highlight of the show, making her reminiscent of literary heroines, like Ramona Quimby and Anne Shirley, who have an affinity for scrapes but endearingly wholesome spirits.

This season, though, her antics feel a little more forced and repetitive. Especially because the show does try to show how she has grown over the years.

It just feels a bit strange when one moment she’s making similar decisions she made in freshmen year, but the next moment suddenly she’s matured and grown tenfold.

One flaw that has also carried over from other seasons is the feeling of being rushed. Dr. Nalini Vishwakumar and Nirmala Vishwakumar both have whirlwind romances.

Their partners are hardly developed, and there’s little exploration of how they reached this point of moving on from Mohan’s death.

Characters like Ethan, Aneesa, and Margot all also get glossed over, with Margot and Ethan disappearing without explanation once they play their part in Devi’s story.

Despite these flaws, the season did have many positives. While some of Devi’s storylines are a little repetitive, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan still offers her typical marvelous performance.

She adds so much charm, heart, and emotion to the role of Devi that it’s simply impossible not to love and be rooting for her the entire time.

Ramona Young and Lee Rodriguez as Eleanor and Fabiola, respectively, also have spirited performances and complement Devi beautifully, making the three of them one iconic friend group.

It’s lovely and heartwarming to see a show depicting three young women as powerful, lovable, talented, kind, loyal, and deeply intelligent and to see them hold each other and take their friendship to new heights, despite the changes in their lives.

Paxton also gets one of the most developed and enjoyable story arcs of the season besides Devi. The way that the show has fleshed him out and realistically matured him over the seasons is delightful to watch.

The chemistry between Ben and Devi is another highlight of the season. Ramakrishnan and Jaren Lewison play off of each other brilliantly.

In every scene they are in, they will have viewers either smiling over their sweetness or laughing at their sarcastic trolling of one another.

The crown jewel of Never Have I Ever Season 4, though, is the final two episodes. While the first eight episodes stray a little bit from the depth and spirit of the series, these final two reclaim it.

This is because Devi finally shows us who she is and goes back to what started this whole wild journey, which is her father.

She finally stops shelling out her list of accomplishments to impressive colleges and pinpoints Mohan as her inspiration for everything she has done so far and everything she hopes to accomplish in the future.

The flashbacks with Mohan and Devi’s final personal college essay about the impact of his life and death are beautifully done and mark some of the most emotionally impactful scenes of the whole series.

The idea of a parent always being with their child, in both life and death, and the power of a parent who acts as a role model, are thought-provoking concepts that the show illustrates vividly.

The series could’ve even ended with that essay because all viewers really needed to know was that she found herself. What college she went to or which boy she dated were minor details in the face of her finding closure, peace, and her true self.

However, it is still nice that the series ties everything up very neatly. Everyone ends up with a partner, a plan, or a college decision that works perfectly for them.

Even though viewers can easily guess all these final arrangements, it is still a very sweet and happy ending.

Viewers may walk away feeling a little underwhelmed, but still content in knowing that these characters they’ve grown close to over the years all made it through their various trials and triumphs and, from the looks of things, will all be just fine.

What did you think of this season of Never Have I Ever? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Never Have I Ever Season 4 is streaming now on Netflix.

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