First Impressions: The Mindy Project ‘Pilot’ – Even Barbie Has A Boyfriend

I never really got into the American version of The Office, so much of the hype around Mindy Kaling’s pilot script that was dropped by NBC and picked up by Fox earlier this year was lost to me. Not that I have anything against her – more female driven network comedies is a good thing, especially when they’re deeply involved behind the camera. And with some of the creative minds and writers on board The Mindy Project, I was intrigued enough to place it in the top 3 of my pre-season Pilot Power Rankings, although I was a little worried about the show’s premise of embracing and rejecting the typical rom-com plots of the last twenty years. My worries were fully justified in a messy half hour of television, one that spent way too much time trying to establish a desperation in its protagonist, to the point where it undermines the character (and as a by product, the show).

The biggest problem with The Mindy Project is simple: Mindy. Her character is beyond desperate – to the point where her obsession with finding a Prince Charming destroys a date, turns an embarrassing evening into a night in jail, and drags down her character like a 40,000 lb weight. Every other word out of her mouth invokes some tired reference of a 1990s romantic comedy, giving us multiple examples of her wanting to embrace the realities of the movies she loves, rather than improve the reality of life she’s in.

The easiest comparison to on-screen Mindy is Abed on Community – their inabilities to navigate simple social situations without falling on the comfort of referencing movies and television shows is a simple parallel to make. But where Abed is lovable weird and tempermental, Mindy’s character comes across as paranoid – partly due to poor plot construction, which dictated that Mindy reflect on a growth she really didn’t go through in the episode. Her arrest after her ex’s wedding is supposed to represent her catalyst for change, but as the episode ends, she throws change out the window to fall back on the same decisions that she explicitly knows are taking her nowhere in life.

I watched this with my girl, who was equally appalled at how The Mindy Project presents women in a terrible nature, babbling emotional messes who operate within the delusion of making changes “tomorrow”, but never really showing us any real sign of progress. Would most girls continue to sleep with a man (knowing full well they want to start building a family) after they tell them they wouldn’t want to sleep with them in ten years? I really hope this isn’t how single women in their early 30s are dealing with the disillusions they grew up with in Meg Ryan’s Hollywood hey day – it’s not funny, and in many ways, it’s scary.

With all its time spent revolving around Mindy, jumping from experience to experience with no real anchoring except “I’m on this crazy journey, and I’m resisting anything good that’s happening to me,” there’s no time to establish other characters. Danny is obviously the doctor interested in Mindy (not Mr. Britain Sex Pot), which I think undermines their friendship in the final scenes, leaving Mindy as nothing more than a sexual or romantic object in the eyes of most of her male counterparts – save for the head doctor (played by Stephen Tobloswsky), who isn’t really around enough to give Mindy a real sidekick.

There’s no doubt The Mindy Project has the talent involved to right the ship, but the pilot is a mess of incoherent plot structure, unfunny references to bad, bad romantic movies… but the worst problem is how negatively it paints its own protagonist. Of the two FOX comedy pilots from last night, The Mindy Project’s muddled patho ethos and cliche pop culture references put it squarely behind the oddly charming Ben and Kate.

Grade: D

Other thoughts/observations:

– really disappointed in how Mindy’s character is handled, from the constant focus on her weight, to her determination of making any situation some kind of romantic movie spot. Didn’t she learn that when she got dumped for a Belgian girl with a fucked up grille?

– The end frustrates me to no end:  she continues to delay her own personal growth by inviting Jeremy over, ten seconds after talking about how she believes she’s making progress. Delusional people (male or female) scare me, and her character’s ignorance of her own reality is troubling.

– Her friend is the governor’s daughter? Wait… what?

What did you think of The Mindy Project? Hilarious, or overrated? Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments below!

(quick note to answer some email questions: I’m working on the second installment of the pilot rankings, once I can catch up on the second and third episodes of some shows. Look for it in the next two weeks.)