'The Mindy Project' is Currently Under Construction
It’s an odd time for The Mindy Project. Not long after Mindy Kaling’s Mindy Lahiri had a baby with Chris Messina’s Danny, they broke up and now most of the show takes place in various workplace sites (Mindy is running more side-projects than James Franco), and the character is about to throw herself into the dating pool again. Add the recent prominence of the sly Garret Dillahunt as Dr. Jody Kimball-Kinney — and the exceedingly clever Fortune Feimster as his sister, Colette — and you have a show that has a different feel and which… really misses Danny.
To be sure, there are still quite a few laughs. The current episode, “So You Think You Can Finance,” features good jokes about Netflix’s Narcos and sodoku, along with a funny subplot featuring the return of Cristin Milioti as Whitney, who used to date Ed Weeks’s Jeremy (and who allows Milioti to indulge a nicely wacky side).
There’s a less funny subplot about Jeremy dating an older woman played by the terrific Valerie Mahaffey, whose Juliette is there to spark punchlines revolving almost entirely around Juliette being an “old woman.” I’m sure Mahaffey had no problem with this, but the casual ageism of presenting 63 as being a laughably ancient age isn’t the stuff we’ve come to expect from the forward-thinking Kaling.
But that’s not the crux of The Mindy Project’s dilemma right now. Mindy and Danny’s baby, Leo, appears and disappears as any random scene calls for — the child is pure baby-prop, and humor revolving around Mindy as a first-time mom would seem to be potential comic gold. I assume Messina is coming back (he’s been off making movies and such), and it’s clear the show really needs his character. Danny and Mindy, opposites attracting, had become the most successful creative aspect of the series.
If Danny continues to recede, though, I am bit worried about the show pushing Mindy into the arms of Dillahunt’s Jody. Jody is a fun figure — Dillahunt knows how to play his Southern courtliness for just the right amount of ridiculousness — but as a suitor for Mindy, he becomes another prim man attracted to her: Danny with a mint-julep drawl. It’s not the most fruitful line of action for the show.
Oh, and just a thought: I didn’t really laugh much when Mindy implored Whitney to help her with her finances: Mindy Lahiri may be a proud airhead when it comes to her tastes in reality TV and trashy celebrity mags, but she’s a super-good doctor and business-person. Shape up, Mindy Project!
The Mindy Project premeires new episodes every Tuesday on Hulu.
