When “The Office” started to go south a few years ago, I hoped the show would shift its focus to underused secondary characters such as Mindy Kaling’s Kelly Kapoor. That never happened, and I gradually lost interest.
Now, better late than never, my wish is sort of coming true with “The Mindy Project” (8:30 p.m. Central Tuesdays, Fox, starts Sept. 25), which stars Kaling, who is also the creator and a principal writer.
The pilot episode (which can be sneak previewed on Hulu) is not great, but it also shows signs that a great show will emerge as it progresses. “The Office’s” Kelly was an amusingly one-note character obsessed with pop culture and having someone to date. “The Mindy Project’s” Mindy is all over the place, and that makes the pilot episode hard to completely embrace.
On one hand, Mindy has a one-track mind based on the romantic ideal of “When Harry Met Sally.” In flashbacks showing Mindy’s maturation through the years, we see that she loved the movie as a kid. Then we cut to college and pan up the floors of a dormitory: We pass a party floor, and then see Mindy watching “When Harry Met Sally.” See, she didn’t go through the usual steps; she was always a hopeless romantic.
That’s a great visual gag in and of itself, but “The Mindy Project” contradicts itself by showing Mindy gone wild — she drunkenly maneuvers her bicycle into a swimming pool and gets arrested. Later, in another great scene — when viewed on its own — she’s on a date with Ed Helms and struggles with whether to invite him back to her apartment. She doesn’t do that anymore, she says. But then she DOES do that, only with her regular sex date, co-worker Jeremy (Ed Weeks), instead.
Most blatantly illustrating the show’s indecision about Mindy’s lot in life is that she’s both a doctor and a flaky person. Is such a dichotomy even allowed in reality? Well, maybe, but then there’s a scene where she rushes to the hospital from her date so another doctor can’t deliver her patient’s baby for her. This combination of flightiness and competence doesn’t quite ring true.
Furthermore, although it’s probably not possible for Kaling to be downright unlikeable, she does give it the ol’ college try, drunkenly shouting “Racist!” at a car that nearly hits her swerving bike and being quickly offended by a co-worker who says she could stand to lose 15 pounds, even though she had said as much in a voiceover.
Maybe it’s because Mindy (by the writers’ design) doesn’t have it all together that I have a hard time pinning down this show and saying I flat-out like it. At any rate, I expect to like it at some point this season. Just as soon as I get a grip on who the heck Mindy is.
What are your thoughts on the first episode of “The Mindy Project?” Share your thoughts in the comment thread.
