From: The Scene Blog
“The Mindy Project” Recap: Secrets and sexism
NOHODAMON, FLICKR
Note: This post contains spoilers for season three, episode eight of “The Mindy Project,” entitled “Diary of a Mad Indian Woman.”
This season, “The Mindy Project” has done a great job at taking common relationship issues and translating and/or co-opting them for comedic value. In this episode, Mindy Lahiri’s (Mindy Kaling, “The Office”) boyfriend, Danny Castellano (Chris Messina, “The Newsroom”) reads her diary while staying over at her apartment. In the diary, Danny learns that Mindy wants him to propose before Christmas. The plot’s integral use of the diary pays homage to “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and pokes fun at both characters’ inner monologues, most notably Mindy's eating habits.
Meanwhile, Mindy must teach medical school interns at the hospital, and faces a sexism complaint from a male student. “The Mindy Project” takes a stab at playing on “Grey’s Anatomy”-style medical drama tropes, such as medical interns’ romantic feelings, to humorous effect and much to Mindy’s chagrin.
Mindy never notices that Danny read her diary, and Danny continues to stay over at Mindy’s apartment. Although the episode closes with a happy ending, I feel concerned about the future of the Danny/Mindy relationship. Danny is starting to feel pressured, and he’s beginning to deceive Mindy. The breakdown of communication will ultimately doom their relationship, and I know my heart will not be the only one broken.
Some other thoughts:
- “Aren't we all?” - Mindy, on everyone being Samanthas from “Sex and the City” at heart. Actually, no, I'm a Miranda.
- Mindy documenting her hunger in her diary was a great character moment.
- Morgan Tookers (Ike Barinholtz, “MADtv”) thinks Danny and Mindy are both turning 50 soon.
- Jeremy Reed (Ed Weeks, “The IT Crowd”) only wants to use his ability to forge handwriting “for good,” like some kind of depressing superhero. (Speaking of superheroes: Tuesday nights are also home to “The Flash” on The CW, my new favorite!)
- "I believed in you. And I believe in NOTHING, okay?" Mindy, about one of her interns, and also me about the Bills.
- "All along, the person I was mentoring was me!" "No!" - I love these little nods to common tropes/cliches.
- I don’t know if I emphasized this enough, but I'm worried about Mindy and Danny! Stay tuned to see if this fear is justified.
Tune in to “The Mindy Project” on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on Fox.
