Never Have I Ever became the first Netflix based web-series, based on an Indian teenage girl raised in Los Angeles, US. Her mother is a strict, desi, brown parent, and remains quite stern about every decision Devi takes in her life.
Devi who is raised in the US finds it too difficult to be completely Indian like her cousin Kamala, or the young girls she meets at the Ganesh Puja, neither can she fit in a white American crowd completely. The entire web series is based on Devi's effort to be a popular girl in high school. While she is an A-grade student she also has an innate desire to have sex with Paxton Hall Yoshida, the senior with the best of looks.
**SPOILER ALERT**
The series ended on the note, where Paxton's sister Rebecca convinced her brother to date Devi and he takes her advice. Meanwhile, Devi was kissing her arch-enemy, Ben Gross, in his car after spreading her father's ashes. We have listed a few pros and cons about the two boys, Paxton Hall Yoshida and Ben Gross.
Paxton Hall Yoshida.
Devi had a crush on Paxton for the longest time. Although she had been quite absurd around him, Paxton had managed to overlook her shortcomings and allow Devi to be who she is.
In a certain shot sequence, Devi can be seen waiting outside the school campus for Paxton to come out after his swimming class. She directly approached him and asked if he was willing to have sex with her. Despite the awkward encounter, Paxton nodded and agreed, without asking too many questions or drawing attention to the moment.
One could call it a brave act on Devi's part, or just inappropriate. Paxton could have easily used that incident to gain extra fame in high school by wrongly spreading rumors about her, (like Devi did in her UN trip). But he didn't.
Instead, Paxton saved Devi when she got attacked by a coyote, or from the pool when she had drowned after a humiliating breakup with her friends, Fabiola and Eleanor. He safely dropped her home and kissed her passionately when he started growing feelings for Devi.
Paxton had been the popular boy in high school but that was mainly for the right reasons. However, despite his 'nice guy act', he uttered the truth to his sister Rebecca when he confessed the actual reason why he would never ask her out. He always thought of himself as the 'cooler' person than Devi, since she was a straight-A student.
While that was quite cold of him to even think lowly about Devi, can you really blame him? Devi's mother wrongly insulted Paxton when he took care of her, brought her home safely, and the anger is bound to show up in some form. Except, he didn't choose to be violent but made up excuses to avoid being in a relationship with Devi.
Ben Gross
It's quite easy to hate Ben Gross when you see him from the perspective of Devi Vishwakumari. The makers of Never Have I Ever dedicated an entire episode for Ben and that was when we came to know the story of this poor, little, rich boy.
Ben may have had all the money in the world, but he didn't get love from his parents and hence chose to be a dedicated top A student. Scoring points in class made Ben happy and when Devi tried to give him competition in that sphere, he became unreasonably annoying to Devi and to the rest of her friends.
Ben never had the chance to be groomed by his parents and thereby hardly knew how to act in public. However, when he developed the consciousness about where he had gone wrong with his attitude, he chose to be a friend of Devi rather than the arch-nemesis. Remember the time when he did not let out Devi's secret in front of her mother?
In various ways, Ben may have appeared to be obnoxious, but when you try to think about it, Ben had pushed Devi to be one of the top students in her class by giving her real competition. Ben forced Devi to do better in class and allowed her to stay with him when Devi needed to move out of her parent's house. How many friends do that?
Ben Gross or Paxton Hall Yoshida? Who do you think deserves to be Devi's boyfriend?
Never Have I Ever is expected to release the second season in July. It will be streaming on Netflix.
