The Mindy Project (FOX) - Series Premiere: Synopsis and Review

Created by Howard Klein and NBC’s ‘The Office’ star Mindy Kaling, a new comedy show was commissioned by NBC under the title ‘It’s Messy’. In January 2012, however, the pilot was presented to other networks, and FOX decided to pick the show up. With the title now changed to ‘The Mindy Project’, the show premiered on September 25th at 9:30/8:30c on FOX. The pilot episode is available on the network’s website, iTunes and Hulu, just like the other new FOX comedy ‘Ben and Kate’.

The series centers around Mindy Lahiri (Kaling), an OB/GYN that happens to be addicted to romantic comedies of the likes of ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and ‘Notting Hill’. At the start of the pilot episode, she tells her story to a police officer that arrested her for public intoxication, theft and disorderly conduct.

It all started when Mindy showed up at the wedding everyone expected her to avoid, the one of her ex-boyfriend. After four glasses of vodka, she decides to have a speech about how she was dumped by the groom because she was too old, and about things he used to say when they were having sex. Afterwards, she goes out riding a bike and ends up in somebody’s swimming pool.

At that point in her story, her friend Gwen (Anna Camp, ‘True Blood’) arrives at the police station to bail her out. At home, Gwen points out that Mindy is no Sandra Bullock or Meg Ryan; her life simply doesn’t work that way. Mindy isn’t convinced, and is determined to find her own Hugh Grant.

In the mean time, one of Mindy’s patients goes into labor, but her colleague Danny (Chris Messina, ‘The Newsroom’) delivers the baby before she gets to the hospital. Afterward, her other colleague Jeremy (Ed Weeks) tries to get her into bed again, without wanting to commit to a real relationship with her.

When Danny gives Mindy clothing advice and says she should lose some pounds, she hates him for it and almost sleeps with Jeremy after all. Yet when Danny meets her on her way to her date, he notices she dressed the way he told her to.

The date turns out to go very well, but then Mindy gets called away to perform an emergency C-section. Later that night, she winds up booty calling Jeremy while at the same time telling Gwen on the phone that she is really into her date and that she is changing her habit of sleeping with guys with whom she has no real future.

The Mindy character is definitely a believable and relatable thirty-something woman searching for the love of her life, yet of course in an exaggerated fashion. The supporting characters are much more one dimensional, at least for now, and therefore predictable.

This episode makes you smile from time to time, but it doesn’t draw the big laughs. It is a good introduction into the life of Mindy, and shows that there is some potential for the future, but it is just not a great comedy show. Perhaps subsequent episodes will improve on that area, then ‘The Mindy Project’ will be a nice (female oriented) comedy show.