Only about one-third of the jokes not delivered by Mindy landed, a sure sign that the good material needs to be spread around a bit more. The Mindy Project has assembled a capable cast ( Poppy, we’ve missed you!), but they haven’t congealed just yet. What happens next shows the work that still needs to be done. Then it all goes to hell when she finds out that Tom didn’t tell her about his new baby because she’s a “pathetic spinster with no prospects,” because it wouldn’t be fun otherwise. Kaling played her new character’s resilience well, casually mentioning the blond guy and pretending not to know Tom’s new wife’s name, but also seeming genuinely concerned about the damage she did. Lahiri is not only more professionally competent than Kelly we also know that, as much as she’s a hopeless romantic, she doesn’t need a man to define her the way Kelly did. It’s going to take a while for Kaling to differentiate Mindy Lahiri from Kelly Kapoor, but this scene already showed us a few things. There was plenty of both tonight, and it’s encouraging that the show can tone it down a notch for things like the lovely scene where Mindy and Tom (played by a surprisingly restrained Bill Hader) reconnect after she ruined his wedding and then slammed a door in to his head. (But also, duh, of course he is.) How much cringe humor from Kaling’s old gig is in the mix? (The DMV stuff was just a 7 on the uncomfortable scale.) And what is the right mix of character moments and humor beats for this show?
Will it be knowingly meta like episode writer Chris McKenna’s old show, Community? This show has already played with the idea that Kaling is narrating her life like it’s a prime-era Meg Ryan flick, but the extended riff on why Inigo Montoya is way better than Westley seems like something from Jeff Winger’s mouth. Is The Mindy Project going to be hyperreal and almost cartoonlike in the mold of 30 Rock? The stray feline coming out of nowhere because it sensed a potential cat lady was a very Liz Lemon joke. (Once again, television recapping changes people’s lives.) The entire episode centers on the idea of insecurity and indecisiveness, which seems appropriate, as The Mindy Project is still trying on a number of different tones to see what works. She later decides to go after bumping into her ex Tom, then gets discouraged after she can’t find the right costume, then changes her mind again after her best friend’s daughter recounts the plot of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. She isn’t sure she wants to go, so he threatens to invite one of his many backup Caitlins. Mindy gets invited to a costume party during a morning date (replete with world-music CDs and a French press) with Josh the Pushy Sports Lawyer. “Halloween” (clearly Kaling has adopted Greg Daniels’s utilitarian approach to episode titles - though it also shares the same name as last night’s episode of sister show New Girl) is pretty light on plot, though at this point it seems clear this is going to be more of a hangout show than a narrative-driven one. But I won’t be remotely surprised when The Mindy Project gets a lot better, because I can already see the hard work being done to get there. I’m sure most showrunners would prefer that recapper types just left well enough alone until then, but that’s just not how we do things around here. It’s not until the seventh episode or so that the producers can take a breath and get audience feedback on what’s working and what’s not.
The first five or six episodes of any sitcom are usually made around the same time. Which is honestly just fine at this stage of the game. There were a few memorable lines and nice sight gags (Dirty Harry Potter probably being the best, though Chris Messina’s sad little smile when hitting on his driving test instructor should not be discounted), but taken as a whole, this introductory run of episodes has so far veered from promising to just likable enough. To be fair, it’s overall funnier than Parks and Recreation was by its fourth episode, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. This is worth keeping in mind when considering his former Office co-worker Mindy Kaling’s new show.
Parks and Recreation showrunner Mike Schur recently told GQ that “if there were one wish that I would have for the critical community, it would be that people would stop being amazed or even remotely surprised that comedies get better as they go along.” Michael Tedder is filling in for Jennifer Armstrong this week, who has found herself without electricity as a result of Hurricane Sandy.
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