Teen shows are a dime a dozen on Netflixbut few are as funny, charming, chaotic and emotionally grounded as Never Have I Ever. The series, created by Lang Fisher and Mindy Kaling, follows the exploits of Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan in her first role), a brave, opinionated Indian-American teenager on a repeatedly thwarted quest to kiss boys, get into a good college, and feel good again after the unexpected death of her father ("Heroes" alum Sendhil Ramamurthy).

The show opens with the precocious, adventurous Devi eager to lose her virginity, her sights set on the most popular boy in school. Thankfully, though, the show doesn't bog down high school-virgin tropical territoryand instead evolves into a surprisingly beautiful (and consistently wacky) take on the complexities of teenage relationships, self-esteem, and more. His final season is a masterstroke, and the series finale is far better than it has any right to be. Honestly, Never Have I Ever sometimes feels like Kaling's show The Mindy Project could have ended before it went off the rails. It's a coming-of-age comedy, but it also has a lot of love for the rom-com genre, and it ends its happily-ever-after perfectly — even if, due to the resolution of its central love triangle, it no doubt left some shippers behind. feeling neglected.

When "Never Never" began in 2020, his romantic angst was focused on one big love: Paxton Hall-Yoshida, the popular heartthrob whom Devi proposes in the very first episode. Paxton, who played him Road House and Chicago Med actor Darren Barnettagrees despite Devi's outcast status, and although the pair actually end up dating much later, the dream of hooking up with the object of her love drives Devi through the series.

Meanwhile, there's Ben (Tag actor Jarren Lewison). Once Devi's bitter academic rival, the geek with a secret soft spot eventually comes to terms with his insanity, and the pair's relationship blossoms—and crumbles—in surprising ways over the course of the series. At the end of Season 3, Devi brings Ben the "friends with benefits" pass he half-jokingly gave her and ends up losing her virginity to him. Sex doesn't solve everything, though, as she and Ben go through a lot of growing pains and spend most of Season 4 seeing other people and focusing on their college plans.

Ben and Paxton are the show's two main love interests, but Devi explores her sexuality, experiences early heartbreak, and discovers what she wants out of a relationship with several other boys. In the third season, she dates Des ('9-1-1' actor Anirudh Pisharodi), whom she is surprised to find herself in despite the fact that he is the son of a close friend of her mother's. When Des imagines Devi, assuming she's still in Paxton, she kisses an awkward but musically inclined guy named Alejandro (Matias Salas Silva) to get her groove back, but they don't end up dating and she and Des later make up.

Eventually, Des and Devi break up when she learns that his mother has been pressuring him to break up with her because she thinks Devi is "crazy". It's really sad, but the moment strengthens Devi's bond with her mother, Nalini (The Night Of star Poorna Jagannathan), who cuts ties with Des' mother. In Season 4, Devi also meets a bad boy named Ethan (Love, Victor's Michael Cimino), who she's pretty hot and heavy with until he turns out to be very bad. She dumps him when he steals her Ivy League contact's wallet.

Maitreya Ramakrishnan, who beat out thousands of other young actors for the role of Devi, was diplomatic about the "Tim Paxton or Tim Benn" question throughout the show's run, but she finally spilled to Variety when the show ended. "Yes, I'm Tim Devi, but now I can make a decision: I'm Tim Paxton," Ramakrishnan revealed, explaining that he thinks the pair oppose each other in interesting ways and that they might still end up together. "It could still be on the table later." Listen to me," she told the outlet, noting that the pair "have that undeniable chemistry where they push each other in more ways than one."

Lewison, on the other hand, is (as expected) Team Ben. "I'm definitely biased." I will always be Tim Ben,” he told Variety in the same interview, while acknowledging that Ramakrishnan made great points about Tim Paxton. In interview with GQhe said he loved the "enemies of lovers" trope that "I've never used" so skillfully when it came to Devi and Ben. "If you look back on this series, Ben and Devi have always had this magnetism about them," he reasoned. "They have always been in times of strife and great triumphs." And I don't know if that makes them soul mates, but I think that says something."

Barnett, meanwhile, Tudum said that he favored Team Paxton, but that Devi's happiness was most important. "I never want the message of the show to be that you need someone to make you happy," he explained. “So I think part of the journey of the show is Devi finding happiness within herself.

Devi finds that happiness, and the show's final episode does a brilliant job of focusing on all the parts of her story that matter — from her family life to her friendships to her academic future to her grief over the loss of her father — before hooking up. with bows to things with a romantic epilogue. After several seasons of longing glances, awkward encounters, and chaotic missed connections, Devi and Ben finally hit it off when he returns from an internship in New York to tell Devi how he feels about her before she leaves for Princeton.

The pair end up sleeping together that night, making up for their less-than-stellar first time earlier in the season. They also decide to date, although the show makes it pretty clear that love and dating aren't necessarily as serious as Devi expected them to be in her younger days, so there's no telling if they end up together or not. forever. Instead, we get to see them a few months in the future, watching a movie together in Devi's dorm. The entire episode is sweet and surprisingly worthwhile, proving once again that Never Have I Ever is not just a teen comedy, but one of the best TV rom-coms in recent years.

Although Devi doesn't end up with Paxton, he still finds plenty of happiness - and remains friends with the strange girl who changed his life when she inexplicably asked him to have sex with her a few years earlier. In Season 4, Paxton struggles to find his place at Arizona State University, with one of the show's more realistic and relatable storylines seeing him go from being a super popular kid in high school to someone who doesn't immediately charm his classmates and teachers in college.

Paxton drops out of college and ends up working as an assistant swim coach at his old high school, where he reconnects with Devi and the pair share one last kiss and a heart-to-heart talk. By the end of the show, he has formed a new relationship with substitute teacher Lindsey (Genneya Walton, "Black AF") and decides to return to ASU. This time, however, he takes up teaching — a sweet full-circle moment for a character who used to struggle with academics.