TV Retrospective: The Mindy Project - Season 1

Left to right: Zoe Jarman, Ike Barinholtz,
Chris Messina, and Mindy Kaling
It is hard to look back at September 2012 and determine which of the shows was actually worthy of breaking out of the Freshmen elite. In fact, the critical darling Ben and Kate quickly bit the dust and NBC continued to have trouble with shows like Go On and Animal Practice. Still, what is more impressive is the shows that actually managed to make it back for another year when Upfronts were announced last month. Still, the Fox sitcom the Mindy Project is not necessarily the show that I wished would make it.
Looking back at the TV season as a whole, there wasn't much promising in the way of new programming. That is reflective on the lack of new shows sticking around for September 2013. Still, I was attracted to the Mindy Project for numerous reasons. It is not because I am a fan of creator and writer Mindy Kaling. It is more because of what the modern era represents by allowing shows like the Mindy Project to exist. To put it bluntly: I like to support shows that think outside of the male-centric box.
In the past three years, it has felt like a revolution of women becoming credible voices in the sitcom world. While the most notable may be Lena Dunham on Girls, basic cable has also caught onto the trend, and while shows like Best Friends Forever bit the dust, there is New Girl, which managed to convince Fox after a successful first season to attempt to make a Tuesday night comedy block. The partners? Raising Hope, Ben and Kate, and the Mindy Project
To sum it up, I am more impressed with what Kaling did than what she executed. When I saw her listed in Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People of the World, I was not against it. It is one thing for a female to create and produce a show. It is another when she is also an Indian American. The spectrum of shows produced by non-Caucasian is staggeringly low, and for the Mindy Project to exist is proof alone that maybe we're starting to get something right in society.

Left to right: B.J. Novak and Kaling
That is the precise reason that I gave this show a chance and watched all 24 episodes. Support. Still, I realized from "Pilot" that maybe this show was not going to be for me. Kaling plays Mindy, an OBGYN who is trying to live life, go out on dates, and just put her priorities in order. A very simple premise that is reflective of the title. Still, what I found striking about "Pilot" was how inept I found the Mindy character almost immediately. While she was meant to be out of control, the logic of an OBGYN who got drunk and drove a bike into a pool seemed a little contradictory. To say the least, the rest of the episode gave me even less to grasp onto.
The show as a whole would improve upon this as time went on. Still, with a rotating cast that included Stephen Tobolowsky and alternative comedians like Bill Hader, B.J. Novak, Mark Duplass, and Seth Rogen, the show definitely earned the title of "project." This season as a whole was just a mess on the casting front. By the end, it felt like they had established a strong cast, but the road there was a long and treacherous one that even if the guest cameos were often at times amusing, it was hard to get attached to anyone in particular.
Another big issue for the show as a whole was the tone. While not entirely being familiar with Kaling's comedy, I found it striking how the show handled everything. Looking at the first half of the season, almost every episode feels like it comes from a place of hostility. Mindy is consistently insulting her friends and there's several egos that are almost too big to work in an OBGYN. Almost everyone was painted as unlikable. That is what essentially made episodes like "Josh and Mindy's Christmas Party" hard to enjoy. The show was aggressive in making the humor come from a place of inflated egos. Mindy was probably the biggest offender, which didn't bode well for the rest of the cast.
The Mindy character also felt created from a realm that I feel is becoming the modern Fox girl. Where New Girl started with Zooey Deschanel playing a total Lord of the Rings nerd, we have Mindy playing a romantic comedy obsessive. It is a theme that comes up time and again, including an important plot twist in "Harry & Mindy" in which she takes her date on a semi-Sleepless in Seattle based outing. Where New Girl eventually dumped the concept, the Mindy Project just toned it down. 

Left to right: Kaling and Seth Rogen
The overall feeling that I got with the Mindy Project was underwhelming. Where New Girl strove for dissecting the book of cliche sitcom plots, the Mindy Project at least strove for something original. What is fascinating is that the show actually grew beyond selfish characters. We saw Mindy go on dates with the likes of Novak and Rogen for entire episodes. It almost seemed endearing to watch this play out as a gateway into what makes her a promising lead. She is the girl who wants life to be like the movies, and nobody can fault her on that. 
The rest of the case is varying degrees of memorable. Of those that survived, the most notable is probably Danny Castellano (Chris Messina), who due to Mindy's obsession with romantic comedies, always makes me mistake his name for My So-Called Life's Jordan Catellano, a gesture I hope I'm not the only victim of. He plays confidence smoothly and adds a sense of professionalism to a cast that otherwise feels like a rotating week of person with a problem of the week. Of course, Morgan (Ike Barinholtz) is probably on the other end of the spectrum on annoyance, though it is also just me trying to figure out when Barinholtz became credible enough to appear in every sitcom, including Eastbound & Down.

Allison Williams
Coming out of season one of the Mindy Project, I have trouble really giving it a positive recommendation. The show had a very rough season trying to figure out what it wanted to do. Even then, I do not feel like it did it to a spectacular degree. Still, I want to commend it from rising above the mediocre first half to finding some semblance of consistency. Even introducing characters like Mindy's brother Rishi (Utkarsh Ambudkar) allowed the show to manage to become a universe populated by interesting supporting characters. They may not have always had great material and often came off as simple gimmicks, but this is definitely an interesting "project," if just in observing how it evolved.
Of course, there is another way of looking at everything that the show has done and considering it a bigger success. Where it feels like a somewhat ambitious but not always interesting sitcom, it reached what the Mindy character wanted. As stated previously, she wanted her life to be just like a romantic comedy. Depending on your level of tolerance for this genre of film, you'll realize that for all of the episodes, including the finale "Take Me With You," she had those weird dates, friend conflicts, and overcoming adversity just like a romantic comedy. It may be that this is geared more towards women than the more universal New Girl is, but I applaud it for despite not being great, knowing what it wanted to be and going for it.
Will I be back for season two of the Mindy Project? Not unless reviews for it are through the roof. I am familiar with the notion of shows getting better after a rough first season. As it stands, this isn't an embarrassment on the level of Whitney or 2 Broke Girls, so we're already having somewhat of a success story. In fact, Kaling's ability to improve as the season went along and even reach her goal actually is remarkable. I doubt that this show will ever be amazing, but if it achieved one thing, it is proving that we need more diverse talents in our basic cable TV shows. Even if it doesn't always work, it is different, and that is so much better than watching the same thing every week.


Overall rating: 3 out of 5

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