Mindy’s Project quietly has become among the best comedies currently showing. If you’d tell me when I watched the nice but far from great pilot episode I’d tell you you are nuts, but approximately every character has grown tremendously since that shaky first season. There was obviously one exception and her going by the name Beverly whose one line (“I always speak my mind. You look terrible today!”) made her perfect from the start. The real strength of this show is how versatile it can be from scene to scene, for example in this episode we have Danny yelling at Mindy that Charlton Heston told him to get to higher ground and ending with a tough conversation with Mindy about the big one. the decisions they face.
This episode more than any other so far this season feels like an enormous game changer, to be honest if I did not know better I would have thought this was the end of the season (particularly after the last phone call between the wise Dr. Prentice, Adam Pally’s farewell, and Mindy) . Things move around, we have Peter Prentice leave the practice, Danny buys a dilapidated rat-infested palace to move in with Mindy, and Dr. Gurglar being bi-polar offers a terrific opportunity for Mindy who will need Danny and Mindy to move to….San Francisco (I love how liberal San Francisco is TMP, like the idea of a methadone clinic for dogs, is quite inspired). Unlike most sitcoms, all of this action has weight and genuine emotion behind it. Instead of feeling like a casual wish-they-wouldn’t them sitcom dynamic, the aforementioned conversation between Danny and Mindy feels like something an actual couple would experience when one partner finds out what they want and how much things can really change. (Pally, did you get the meta when you told Mindy that people are allowed to change?).
With such an emotional tone, you’d think this episode was light on the laughs, but you’d be dead wrong. Everyone was firing on all cylinders but I believe it was Morgan who had the best joke, giving Peter a touch in the face saying goodbye, talking about moving…… into his grandmother’s attic. While it is absolutely among the best ensemble casts I’ve seen on television in years, it reminds me of The Office in its best years. That’s really the highest compliment I can give a sitcom. Mindy’s Project You hit all the right notes, keep up the nice work!
Grade: A+
“No More Mr. Noishe Guy”
Mindy’s Project
Season 3, Episode 14
