FOX's The Mindy Project - Episode 2.15 French Me, You Idiot / 2.16 Indian BBW
Mindy and Danny confront the consequences of their kiss. Meanwhile, Jeremy and Peter devise a plan to poach patients from a competing practice that has shut down. Then, Mindy discovers an incriminating video of herself that is floating around the internet, and she enlists the help of Peter to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
The Mindy Project is still a very messy and inconsistent show. It's finally found a collection of characters it's wanted to stick with for more than five episodes. However, the show also has a good grasp on two of them - Mindy and Danny. Everyone else is just these funny archetypes that Mindy and Danny have to interact with when they are not together. It also presents itself as a romantic comedy a genre that Mindy loves and strives for the cliches of the movies to happen in her own love life. Week in and week out, she would interact with a new hot guy. And yet, it all felt like the show was just marking time until they could put Mindy and Danny together. Sure, some of those love interests were fun - Anders Holm's Casey and Glenn Howerton's Cliff. But the show also made sure to end each of their romantic arcs by turning these male characters into terrible people to always make Danny as the right person for her to end up with.I don't know if I want Mindy and Danny together long-term. However by forcing them together in the middle of the second season, it gives the show such a stronger narrative drive. There always would be the possibility of them hooking up in every interaction they had if the show stayed the course of throwing a million male suitors at Mindy while also trying to be an office comedy. Instead the show just dives into the relationship. They kissed in the last episode - way back in January. Now, they quickly decide that an actual relationship with each other is exactly what they want. Sure, it makes Mindy seem like a total jerk to Cliff - as she strings him along because she doesn't know how or when to break up with him. But Mindy and Danny is what we should be rooting for so it's totally justifiable, right? Not completely.
However, I do think that Mindy and Danny as a couple is fun and interesting. It's the show just discovering its next level of quality. Of tonight's two episodes, I enjoyed "Indian BBW" more because it allowed the two of them to figure out how to be a couple without all the messy and complicating stuff with Cliff hanging over them. They aren't sure if it's something that they should go public with yet. But they know that it does feel special. Mindy wants to take things slow with Danny. For her, that's a big step up from the swallow, pop-culture obsessed person she frequently is. They both realize how big a positive influence the other is in their lives. They make each other the best version of themselves. So while they're taking the time to figure everything out about being together, I'm back in on enjoying The Mindy Project.
Some more thoughts:
- "French Me, You Idiot" was written by Jack Burditt and directed by Paul Lieberstein.
- "Indian BBW" was written by Jeremy Bronson and directed by Michael Spiller.
- During the hiatus, FOX already picked the show up for a third season. That was a tad surprising. I was expecting them to see how it did with these spring episodes before the renewal. But enough of the show is good right now that I'm glad it will have the opportunity to grow and become even better.
- I also got a big laugh out of the Mindy and Danny try to have sex in a plane bathroom scene.
- Danny's brother, Richie, is pretty great. He should be on the show more often.
- I have no clue what the point was of that ballerina subplot in "French Me, You Idiot."
