Sad news today, Mindy fans – Adam Pally will be leaving the series in early 2015 (although apparently he will be making guest appearances as time permits). I can’t tell you how sad this makes me, as even if he’s only in the episode for a couple of minutes – as in this week’s offering – he still manages to kill it week in, week out, and is one of the best parts of The Mindy Project as a whole. It saddens me so much that I had to get that out even before I wrote the review of this week’s episode. Hopefully Pally decides to guest star frequently, as the show will surely be missing him.
Now that the bad news is out of the way, let’s talk about “How to Lose a Mom in Ten Days”. Mindy is sick of Annette (guest star Rhea Perlman) being around Danny’s apartment all the time, so she sets her up on a date with an older doctor at the hospital. Danny certainly isn’t thrilled that his mum is getting back out there, but Annette is loving it. Morgan also finds himself back on the dating scene when Tamra breaks up with him. Peter is unable to stand moping Morgan, who has now taken up a spot in his office, and makes Morgan an online dating profile, and who should he match with but Mrs Castellano. Danny is certainly not thrilled now, and Mindy suffers for it. Meanwhile, Tamra realises that she made a mistake dumping Morgan and does everything she can to get him back – but unfortunately Mindy’s attempts to cheer Morgan up have boosted his confidence a little too much.
“How to Lose a Mom in Ten Days” was largely a Mindy/Danny affair, although Morgan finally returned to prominence after weeks on the sideline. Ike Barinholtz’s lovable weirdo act can get really old, really fast, and at times it falls on both the charming and annoying sides in this episode. His scenes with Rhea Perlman are fantastic though, and I’m actually loving her presence in the show – not only is Perlman fantastic and game for anything Kaling and Co. throw at her, but having Annette there gives us great insight into Danny’s character – I’m really hoping we see more of Mindy’s family soon. It’s also nice that the writers haven’t gone down the mother-in-law-hates-the-girlfriend route – Mindy and Annette get on quite well, and Annette seems to really accept Mindy now, even asking for her advice for her date and calling her after it all goes well.
Someone that’s really emerging as a great character is Xosha Roquemore as Tamra. She’s really been given room to move this season, and it seems like they might be preparing for her to fill Adam Pally’s comedic shoes when he leaves the show. She’s gone from being a one-liner generator to an actual character with an actual storyline, and I hope they continue to make good use of her – which is not something that The Mindy Project has a great track record with.
“How to Lose a Mom in Ten Days” continues the line of the ‘fine’ episodes that The Mindy Project has produced lately. I unfortunately don’t mean that in the great sense, but only that they’re OK. They’re average. They give us a couple of laughs, but nothing substantial. With Adam Pally leaving soon, The Mindy Project will have to really step it up a notch if they want to fill the massive space he will no doubt leave behind.
Review Score: THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Mindy Project screens in Australia on Channel 7
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