There is very little in this world I love more than Mindy Kaling’s writing, so undoubtedly I’m a bit biased when it comes to her show, The Mindy Project.
The rom-com/workplace comedy has been in the midst of filming its third season for FOX, (you can find adorable pictures of the writers and cast on Mindy Kaling’s Instagram), but instead of a full, 22-episode season, it was only picked up for 15 episodes.
While the network may be losing faith in The Mindy Project, I certainly haven’t and you shouldn’t either, because if anything, the show has only gotten stronger.
By trimming down the cast and honing in on what makes the show special—Mindy Lahiri and Danny Castellano’s relationship—Kaling has made a Meg Ryan-type romantic comedy work for the small screen.
It’s hard to pick a favorite Mindy/Danny moment; the Aaliyah dance he performed, the airplane kiss, the gym training sessions or the season two finale—they’re all so perfectly written.
And let’s not forget how important it is to have diversity in media. There are only a handful of shows with minority leads, let only women minorities. To have a successful, sassy, smart Indian-American woman on-screen should be commonplace by now.
Mindy Kaling’s character is not that different from her real-life self and it’s so wonderful to see a woman in charge of her own show. If women make up half the population and even more of the television viewing audience, shouldn’t we be telling their stories?
The Mindy Project isn’t as high-brow as 30 Rock or as popular as The Big Bang Theory, but its second season was consistently a bright spot in my week and in many others’.
It doesn’t matter whether young women see the character of Dr. Mindy Lahiri as a role-model or not, because when you take all the gender politics aside, it’s a seriously witty and charming show. If any network show deserves a full-season pickup based off of quality, it’s this one.
