Years
watching The Office put The Mindy Project on my radar, and my
adoration for Mindy Kaling helped me stick with this workplace rom-com through
its early growing pains. Though it took
a bit of time to figure itself out, it’s shaped into a likeable, irreverently
funny show.
Kaling
wears the multiple hats of creator, writer, and star in this sitcom. Dr. Mindy Lahiri is equal parts dedicated
doctor (an OBGYN in private practice,) flighty pop-culture addict, and cockeyed
romantic optimist. She grew up on a diet
of romantic comedies, favoring the likes of When
Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail,
and endeavors to manufacture her own rom-com moments in the story of her
life. Unfortunately for her, her dating
life is insane at best and dreadful at worst, and her tendency to force perfect
romantic moments isn’t entirely blameless on that front.
Mindy
is absent-minded, frivolous, fiercely loyal, overdramatic, professionally
adept, deeply loving, and more than a little self-absorbed. In other words, she’s a wonderfully-drawn
character with a nice balance of flaws and attributes, an entirely rootable
character. Since she’s played by Kaling,
she’s of course Indian-American, and her ethnicity informs her character
without defining it.
I’m not
the biggest rom-com fan, but I’ve seen enough to know the beats, and Kaling has
a fantastic knack for turning the conventions on their head. All of Mindy’s attempts at the Big Moments
are dashed by a harsh dose of reality.
She stands on the sidewalk to have a heart-to-heart with her boyfriend
at his bedroom window, and all his neighbors eavesdrop and weigh in on the
conversation. A sexy shower for two, it
turns out, is overly crowded, and it devolves into shoving, scattered shampoo
bottles, and unflattering naked angles.
When she visits the Empire State Building on the days leading up to
Valentine’s Day in the hopes of meeting someone on the observation deck, she’s
grabbed by security (who think she may be scoping it out for a potential
terrorist attack.)
The
show is rounded out by an ensemble of quirky coworkers at Mindy’s
practice. My personal favorites are
Morgan, a nurse, and Danny, a fellow doctor.
Morgan is an ex-con with a dim-witted heart of gold. He collects best friends like they’re going
out of style, and his brand of loyalty is unwavering, extremely hands-on, and
often not entirely wanted. Danny is a
pessimistic curmudgeon, a divorcee with a cynical outlook on just about
everything. Despite this, he’s deeply
sensitive, and when he opens up to someone, he lays himself bare.
In case
the above description didn’t give it away, there’s just possibly a will-they-won’t-they thing going on between Mindy and
Danny. I really enjoy it – they’re
friends first, and they get one each other’s nerves as often as they come to
each other’s aid. They have great
chemistry (in my admittedly uninformed view,) and no matter what stage their
relationship is in at any given time, the show always maintains its sly,
character-driven sense of humor.
Warnings
No comments:
Post a Comment