By Amy Nancarrow
Mindy’s back after a two week hiatus and, surprise, surprise, Danny and Mindy are having relationship troubles again. This time, Danny is angry that Mindy is late to everything: to work, to dates, to the Italian stand-up comedy night that Danny likes – and Mindy can’t understand why it’s such a big deal to him. Dr Fishman (guest star Niecy Nash) is still concerned that Danny has mental health issues after he and Mindy lied to Fishman and her girlfriend to cover their tracks. She forces him to take her new mental health seminars, led by none other than Brendan Deslaurier (recurring star Mark Duplass). Mindy, to make it up to him, agrees to take Danny’s mother Annette to run errands while Danny’s at the seminar, and it’s safe to say that a) it doesn’t go well, and b) Mindy learns her lesson about tardiness when Annette makes them late for every appointment. In therapy, Danny’s deep seeded daddy issues are uncovered – his hatred of tardiness stems from the day his father left him – and he agrees to be less uptight about her being late all the time, while Mindy agrees to change her ways.
Meanwhile, Morgan and Tamra set Peter up on a date with Tamra’s friend Abby, because he’s “mad lonely”. He goes to the date expecting to find Tamra’s twin, but instead finds that Abby is Tamra’s complete physical opposite, but is charming, intelligent and successful. Peter skips out on their date early, but when chastised by Tamra, goes to Abby’s book signing to apologise. Instead, he reads her book and realises how brilliant she is – but it’s too late, and she wants nothing to do with him. Peter wins her back by writing a story “A Titanic Mistake: A Sunken Romance”, a historical romance that begins with the sinking of the Titanic and ends with he and Abby being carried to safety by dolphins. Abby hates the story, but agrees to a second date with Peter.
This season of Mindy has been lacklustre to say the least, but has had moments of brilliance. The bad thing about that, however, is that these moments of brilliance are happening in the subplots, not in the Danny and Mindy storylines. I feel like I say this in every review, but the best parts of every Mindy Project episode are those that involve Adam Pally. He’s really turned Peter from an offensive slob to a three-dimensional, funny and kind character that is a joy to watch. Kaling and Co. need to write more storylines with the Mindy Kaling and Adam Pally team, because they work so well together and have great on-screen chemistry. Likewise, he and Allison Tolman have great chemistry and banter, and I hope that Tolman stays around as Peter’s love interest for a while.
I’m getting a bit sick of nearly all Danny and Mindy storylines involving some sort of disagreement or fight that they have. The best episodes are when they’re working together – episode five was one example – and when we see exactly why they’re a couple. It’s getting way too formulaic – they are happy, they fight, and by the end of the episode they’re stronger than ever. Now Mindy is running the risk of just being boring, which is a shame for a show that I’ve loved for two seasons. I really hope that soon The Mindy Project shakes things up, finds its strengths, and tries to break the Danny and Mindy rut it’s found itself in.
Review Score: TWO AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
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