"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Relationship Spotlight: Dr. Danny Castellano & Dr. Mindy Lahiri (The Mindy Project)

 
There’s so much to love about The Mindy Project, as I’ve said before, but I’d say the largest chunk of the credit goes to the interaction between these two doctors.  In most romantic comedies I see, at least half of the central couple isn’t terribly interesting to me, and TV shows of any genre have a dangerous habit of homogenizing well-written female characters once they get into a relationship, turning them from a person into a generic “girlfriend” type.  No such worries here.
 
Early episodes of the show give Mindy and Danny a rather combative relationship.  They spar with each other, mainly out of annoyance at the other’s more irritating tendencies (which both have, especially in relation to one another.)  Mindy rolls her eyes at Danny’s prickliness and penchant for pooping on parties, and Danny groans over Mindy’s frivolous attitude and over-the-top love of pop culture.  For the most part, it’s lighthearted, but each knows the other’s Achilles heel (Mindy’s body image and Danny’s failed marriage) and aims for it when pushed.
 
So far, this might sound like a clichéd love/hate romance, but it’s rooted in one of the relationship’s strongest components – how well Danny and Mindy know one another.  If neither had a true understanding of the other, they wouldn’t have such silver bullets.  And while this is where we first see their dynamic at play, their mutual knowledge is rarely used for evil.  It also informs how they playfully tease each other as their friendship develops.  Mindy’s Danny impression, for instance, is totally adorable.  It plays a major role in how they help one another.  When Mindy is struggling with push-ups, Danny uses a bunch a silly celebrity scenarios to motivate her (“Michael Fassbender’s trapped in a well!  […] Anne Hathaway is trapped under a car.  You gotta push her out.”)  Finally, it’s what allows them to be vulnerable with one another.  They can open up about their fears, shames, and neuroses, because each knows the other will get it.
 
As a ship, I also like it because both characters have a good mix of admirable and unappealing qualities.  There’s no sense that one is a mess that needs to be saved by the other.  Rather, they’re both messes (but endearing ones.)  By getting together, each could help the other, and as a team, perhaps they could save themselves.  That’s a huge draw for me, particularly since the woman usually comes out looking bad no matter where she falls in the imbalance.  If she’s the lesser one, she’s a weak woman who needs a man to sort her out, and if he’s the lesser one, she’s a cypher who only exists to prop a man’s story.  Neither is a good place to be, and I love that Mindy and Danny are drawn more equally.
 
Beyond that, they’re just plain entertaining.  Whether they’re teasing, fighting, teaming up, hanging out, or opening up, their scenes together pop.  They’re sexy, earnest, and wondrously funny (the first episode of the series that really caught my attention involves Danny insisting that he can be Mindy’s doctor without their friendship making it weird, and their resulting game of exam-room gynecological chicken is absolutely hilarious.)  In only two seasons, their relationship has evolved a lot, and I can’t wait to see how the dynamic develops further in season three!

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