So Mindy Kaling Got Her Own Sitcom

The pilot of Mindy Kaling's new sitcom "The Mindy Project" popped up in various places last week, so I gave it a look. I'm rooting for Kaling on principle, and I'll admit that went in wanting to like it, and trying to give it every possible benefit of the doubt. I'm not much of a sitcom watcher anymore, so I knew there were probably going to be some hurdles, but the old Asian solidarity compulsion is a strong one. And it was easy for me to relate to Mindy's character on the show, Dr. Mindy Lahiri. Here is a professional minority woman in her early thirties, surrounded by white people, with a disastrous personal life. The obsession with pop culture and the probability that she spent most of her twenties consumed with academic and career advancement were certainly familiar. Some might argue that Mindy seems a little old to be fixated on romantic comedies and hampered by their unrealistic ideas about love, but I still know a few holdouts in real life. I'm sure most people do.

But does that mean I want to watch a sitcom built around this character? Let's add a few more details here. Dr. Lahiri is a recently minted OB/GYN whose last boyfriend just married someone else, plunging her back into the dating pool. Her life is hectic, so dating often has to take a backseat to work. However, she has two potential love interests at the hospital, Dr. Reed (Ed Weeks), the one with a British accent who is a walking open invitation for casual sex, and the caustic Dr. Castellano (Chris Messina), who mocks and challenges Mindy's notions about romance and relationships. Oddly, the two actors look almost the same, and their matching scrubs don't help. Minor players include Mindy's best friend Gwen (Anna Camp), an older mentor figure, Dr. Shulman (Stephen Tobolowsky), receptionist Zoe (Betsy Putch), and office manager Shauna (Amanda Setton), who was way, way, way too made up to be manning a hospital station in the pilot.

Most of the cast members only have an introductory line or two, and the overwhelming majority of the time is spent following Mindy around during a busy day, so it's far from clear how the ensemble is going to shape up. I think I got a good sense of the character of Mindy, however, and the primary impression that I came away with is that she's exhausting. The pilot has her literally sprinting to the hospital twice, getting herself into multiple trysts and almost-trysts, and then there are her drunken escapades at her ex's wedding, which land her in jail for the night. I like that she's awfully self-centered, that she doesn't put her ethnicity front and center immediately, and that her social skills need some serious work. On the other hand, I think her personality needs to be toned down a few notches in future episodes, because her casual rudeness and never-ending drama was really starting to grate after twenty minutes. Kaling is smart and charming and talented, and not enough of that is coming through in her character, who has the emotional maturity of a twelve year-old.

And frankly, "The Mindy Project" is not my kind of show. I don't mind a little romance, but it's hammered home multiple times that romance is the major selling point here, and we should be expecting lots of "Grey's Anatomy" style, will-they, won't-they romantic tensions. Of course there's nothing wrong with "Grey's Anatomy." My cousin, an actual, real-life OB/GYN watches and enjoys "Grey's Anatomy." I, however, do not. I like my medical professional-themed sitcoms to be workplace comedies first and relationship shows second. I was hoping for something with a humor/romance ratio more like "Becker" and less like "Ally McBeal." Okay, my references are out of date, but you get the point. "The Mindy Project" is aimed right at the typical romantic comedy crowd, and features all the cliches that tend to drive me up the wall. In abundance. There are signs that we're going to see some subversive, anti-rom-com themes here as well, but I'm not holding my breath.

Also I find the whole premise weirdly unchallenging for a rare sitcom starring a minority woman. Why is Kaling the only member of the regular cast with a noticeably darker skin tone? Why are her views on love and marriage so unsophisticated and why is the hunt for a mate dominating her life to such an extent? It's not that I expect Mindy to be some kind of trailblazing standard bearer for modern women, but this seems like a step backwards from the single working-gal travails of "Ugly Betty" and "30 Rock." That said, I want "The Mindy Project" to succeed. I like Mindy Kaling from her appearances on "The Office." She's written herself a nice, positive, non-stereotypical role that has a lot of potential. But I think it could be a lot better, and I hope it'll improve.
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