Mindy Kaling Is Getting Heat for the 'Never Have I Ever' Season 4 Ending

Michael Hein

06/10/2023 11:22 am EDT

Never Have I Ever just aired its final season this week, and some fans are not satisfied. On social media, many commenters are tearing into co-creator Mindy Kaling, blaming her for the things they dislike about the ending. Fair warning: there are spoilers for Never Have I Ever Season 4 ahead.

Never Have I Ever is a coming-of-age sitcom about an Indian-American high school student, co-created by Kaling and Lang Fisher. Kaling has described the show as loosely based on her own childhood or "in the spirit of my childhood," so it's no wonder that viewers are holding her responsible for the direction of the story. The show premiered in July of 2020 and aired another season each summer since then. Its fourth and final season premiered on Thursday, June 8 on Netflix, and some fans are already finished with it.

As you might expect, many fans are disappointed that the series is ending and wish that there were more episodes coming, so on some level the ending was bound to be unsatisfactory for them. Still, some have very specific gripes with the resolutions the story reaches. The season reintroduces Devi's (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) original crush Paxton (Darren Barnet), but still ends with her in a relationship with her rival-turned-friend-turned-lover, Ben (Jaren Lewison).

Some fans were disappointed in this ending – either because they did not think Devi should be with Ben in particular, or because they didn't think the resolution should center around a teenage romance at all. Meanwhile, others fans disliked the way their favorite secondary character ended their story, or felt that there were nagging plot holes and thematic inconsistencies.

Never Have I Ever is a Netflix original series, so all four seasons are streaming now on Netflix. Here's a look at how fans have reacted to the ending of the show overall.

Predictable

Kaling is a fan of romantic comedies and has written and starred in many of them herself, while creating self-insert characters like Devi in others. Over the years, fans have noted a patter in the type of man her characters seem to end up with and many are tired of it. With conversations about diverse representations evolving over Kaling's career, many fans hoped her on-screen representations would evolve too.

Preference

Other gripes were about less lofty things than representation – they were about personal preference. Many fans were heartbroken that Devi didn't end up with another character like Paxton or Ethan (Michael Cimino). "Shipping" should come as no surprise in the romcom genre, and hyperbole should come as no surprise on social media, but hopefully Kaling can avoid the comments that call her out specifically by name for her own sanity.

Hypocrisy

Kaling had some defenders, and many of them pointed out that other writers, actors and producers have been just as predictable as Kaling in the past. They felt that the only reason Kaling was taking so much criticism for it was because of her race and gender.

Praise for the Cast

Some fans made a point of praising the cast of the show while they criticized Kaling, showing that their take wasn't entirely negative.

LGBTQ+ Representation

Many fans were disappointed in the resolution for Aneesa (Megan Suri) and Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez). With limited LGBTQ+ representation in the first place, some viewers wished this couple had gotten more screentime or more nuance in some places.

Speculation

Fans have speculated for years that Kaling's rom-com couples are all subconscious representations of her and her real-life friend and collaborator B.J. Novak. Jokes about that pairing resurfaced here, though there are no reliable reports of Kaling and Novak dating in earnest.

Other Shows

Finally, the ending of Never Have I Ever had some fans relitigating the endings of Kaling's previous works – most notably The Mindy Project. Never Have I Ever is streaming now on Netflix while The Mindy Project is streaming now on Hulu.

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