It’s hard to pigeonhole Never Have I Ever, the new Netflix offering of a young Sophomore student in Los Angeles, who, having witnessed her father’s last moments before dying at a music recital, faces into a pivotal year in High School with grief and trauma sliding, apparently, to one side, to make way for what appears a standard exploration of a teenage crush.
Classified as a comedy-drama, is on the surface accurate enough. With Mindy Kaling {The Office’s Kelly Kapoor} part of the production team, but also part of the creation process with Lang Fisher. At which point they thought former tennis player John McEnroe would be a good fit as the shows narrator, would be of real interest to know. More so, the fact that it would work as seamlessly as it does, could never have been predicted, you would think.
Either way, the genesis of an idea blossomed and the touches of quality from the production and writing, are what carries it though a sometimes benign opening flurry of episodes, into something with real emotional depth and that all-important connection with us, the viewers. Worth sticking with.
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector, continues on Sky week. You can catch up if you missed the fifth episode last week tonight {00:00, Sky Two} or indeed glut on the opening tranche of episodes that tie-in with Jeffrey Deaver’s writings, and Denzel Washington’s big-screen portrayal.
If it is a continual narrative you are looking for, with more twists and turns then a Ricky Villa shuffle, you may think you are in luck. But the promise of quality ends there, although Irish actor Brian F. O’Byrne, does portray real menace in a rushed production.
The pace may well be fast, but the quality of what that entails leaves a pretty empty feeling. In fact if you have suffered and stuck with this through its opening salvo’s, you clearly have no issues with commitment. But folks will be entitled to ask you, “why bother?”
Starting with the always appeasing Brennan brothers, At Your Service {RTÉ One, 19.30}, an evening replete with repeats, fills the void tonight. In fact, apart from the Nine O’Clock news, nothing on RTÉ one will be new, original programming. That aside, Pat Shortt, the Brennan brothers and Dermot Bannon all provide kicks in various ways.
It would just be nice for some of these kicks to be new ones.