Get Up Offa That Thing

High school is tough. Believe me, I know. I went to four of them. And of course, I've got a different view of it with two kids in high school. And there have been so many good and bad portrayals of high school life on TV and movies over the years, it almost seems pointless to try another one.

But last night we started watching Never Have I Ever, a new comedy on Netflix from Mindy Kaling, and man, is it great. It's the story of a young Indo-American girl beginning her sophomore year and bound and determined to change her social status and get a boyfriend. Kaling has been doing great work since she was on The Office; I never watched The Mindy Project, but I read some advance press on this show and figured we'd give it a shot.

I was a little nervous to watch it with the girls just because a lot of the early focus is on the lead character losing her virginity (not because they haven't seen stuff like that on TV, but because it's awkward, man), but the show handles it well and ends up going down different avenues for comedic effect. She's also a top student balancing the loss of her father and dealing with the clash of cultural expectations with her desire to be a typical American teen. One great touch is that it's narrated by tennis legend John McEnroe, and he does a terrific job. We ended up watching 6 of the 10 episodes last night and I expect we'll finish it off tonight. Definitely worth your time, and let's face it, you've got the time right now.

The show is loosely based on Kaling's childhood growing up in the Boston area. I can definitely relate to the culture clash, although only one of my parents was Hindu and we weren't raised as such, but instead as Christians by our mother. But we also had to deal with the multiple moves while I was in high school (my brother was still in elementary school during those years) thanks to my dad's ever-changing jobs. There was also the added challenge of not only being the new kid in school, but being new brown kid. Everything turned out fine in the end, but it wasn't without its bumps along the way. That's one reason I swore we weren't going to move while the kids were in school, and I'm happy that we've been able to maintain that stability. It's nuts to think that we've got one kid almost done with high school, but that's a topic for another day.