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!
No comments:
Post a Comment