Review: The Mindy Project 1x04, "Halloween"

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder; in the case of The Mindy Project, that cliche held true for me. When the show finally returned last night after a two week break, I was pretty pumped for a new episode.

"Halloween" focused on two storylines. The A story dealt with Mindy's relationship with Josh and her quest to find the perfect costume to wear as Josh's date to a Halloween party. The B story consisted of Danny and Jeremy's quest to get their driver's licenses.

I feel like being mean, so let's talk about the B story first. There was almost nothing I liked about this storyline. I mentioned in my last review of The Mindy Project that Danny is growing on me, and I didn't necessarily dislike the idea of his character in this episode. In practice, however, he just wasn't that fun to watch. I suspect that this was largely due to his sharing the storyline with Jeremy.


I really don't like Jeremy's character. His story in "Halloween" centered around his supposed ability to charm anyone, but I had a hard time buying him as charming when I dread watching his scenes. More than anyone else on the show, he feels forced and unoriginal. He just drags down the show, and it would be much better off without him.                                

There were only two somewhat positive things I have to say about the driver's licenses plot. One, I thought it was kind of funny that Danny had taken the test enough times that the DMV workers recognized him. Second, I liked that there were touches of Halloween in this portion of the episode like costumes and trick-or-treaters walking about but that it wasn't really a Halloween story. It was an interesting choice to balance a non-Halloween storyline with a more festive one; it's just a shame that it wasn't a better story.

Fortunately, the Mindy portion of the episode was more enjoyable.

While I don't necessarily like him, I continue to be intrigued by Josh's character. I'm honestly not completely sure what to make of him. I'm used to rom-com love interests being classified as either the good guy or the jerk. The better rom-coms might introduce a third category of okay guy that's just wrong for our heroine. Josh seems to fall into all three, although he probably fits best into the jerk one.

Bragging about taking a model to last year's Halloween party and talking about all the Caitlins in his phone definitely fall into the jerk category. Plus, there's something about Josh that's slightly serial-killer-esque. While it could maybe still be classified as serial-killer-esque, dressing up as Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride after finding out that it's Mindy's favorite movie showed that Josh at least has a genuine interest in Mindy. That seems to reveal that he's at least a little bit of a good guy. However, the two don't have a lot of chemistry together or much in common. These two things along with the likely future pairing of Mindy and Danny mean that Josh also falls into the third category.

In addition to the Josh stuff, Mindy also spent much of the episode in search of a costume. Costumes are one of the best parts of Halloween episodes, and this was a fun way for us to see a bunch of them. I have to admit that I was partial to her Tinkerbell Tailor Soldier Spy costume, but I liked that her costume ended up being something she threw together at the last minute. It was a little bit ridiculous that Mindy and her coworkers seemed to spend the whole work day trying to find her a costume, but it was still fun to watch.

I didn't feel like the reappearance of Mindy's ex-boyfriend Tom (Bill Hader) contributed much to the episode (other than giving Mindy a reason to accept Josh's invitation), but I did greatly enjoy his and Mindy's conversation about Breaking Bad spoilers.

The funniest part of the episode for me was when the stray cat suddenly appeared in Mindy's lap. It reminded me a lot of an episode of Happy Endings where Penny finds stray cats in her "haunted" apartment, but Mindy really sold the moment.

It's hard to give an enthusiastic two thumbs up to an episode where I really didn't care for half of it at all, but the other half of the episode was strong enough that I can it at least give one thumb half-up and maybe a pinky. The Mindy Project still has quite a few kinks to work out and doesn't feel like it's hit its groove yet. Still I'm probably going to miss it when it's preempted by election coverage next week, and that's a good sign.

Review: Grey's Anatomy 9x03, "Love the One You're With"

Grey's Anatomy has had its ups and downs over the years. Those downs have been pretty low at times, but it's always, in my opinion at least, been able to recover. After the first two episodes of this season, I was started to wonder if it had finally hit a bottom it couldn't come back from. The episodes bored me, and I couldn't bring myself to care about what was happening. I liked both Sloan and Lexie a lot, but their deaths didn't even affect me.

I think my biggest problem with the current state of Grey's Anatomy is there's far too much trauma. Look, I appreciate some trauma on Grey's Anatomy from time to time. I loved the Denny storyline, and the season six finale with the hospital shooting was what convinced me to go back and watch from the beginning.

However, the trauma has reached a point of saturation on the show. A lot of beloved characters have died: Denny, George, Lexie, Henry, Sloan and for a brief period of time Meredith (Remember that time she drowned? Although I can't quite remember if she technically died.). There's been a shooting at the hospital, a bomb, a car crash for Arizona and Callie, a plane crash and worst of all a musical episode. I won't even go into all of the relationship drama that has taken place of the course of the show. I feel like I'm drowning in the trauma, and I need some fun and humor to keep me from becoming overwhelmed.

That's why I mostly enjoyed last Thursdays's episode, "Love the One You're With." While it wasn't a perfect episode and was still bogged down with some drama, it was a breath of fresh air compared to the first two episodes of the season.


My absolute favorite storyline to come out of last night's episode was the relationship between Mr. Feeny (whose character is technically named Dr. Thomas, but there's about zero chance I'll be able to refer to him as that) and Cristina. I love Cristina's misanthropy, but I always enjoy seeing her bond with another person. The budding friendship between her and Mr. Feeny was incredibly sweet and exactly what she (and the show) needs right now. I want sweetness and humor not tragedy and tears. I will even suffer through the awkward product placement iPad scenes if it means that Cristina stays in Minnesota for a while and we get more Mr. Feeny.

While Cristina's storyline provided sweetness to the episode, Bailey's was a nice dash of humor, at least initially. Bailey's exasperation with Meredith and company joining the attendings' lounge was fun to watch and reminded me of her relationship with them in the earlier days of the show. I laughed at the camera panning to her during April and Jackson's relationship conversation and her sticky-noting everything. I was really annoyed with the motivation for Bailey's actions that was tacked onto the storyline: that Bailey's upset about everyone in her life moving on. I was so appreciative to have this silly, fun plot, and then of course Grey's had to make into an emotional thing.

There were also some fun, small moments in the episode that I liked. Jackson and Meredith talking about the chief's relationships with their mothers was a nice way to give the two a bonding moment (and I got a kick out of Meredith asking if he was talking about Owen), and Cristina's attempt at a smile was funny.

I was somewhat ambivalent about Alex's story. The new girl, Jo, is a little annoying and reminds me a little bit of a second-rate Lexie. Even though I wasn't crazy about her, I didn't enjoy Alex's being a jerk towards her. However, I'm hoping that their probable relationship will be a nice, normal one and will lead towards a permanent, positive change in Alex. I'm tired of seeing Alex go through some character development towards becoming a nicer person, only for it to be retracted. I'm also tired of seeing him in disastrous relationships. So while I didn't exactly enjoy his portion of this episode, I'm hoping it will lead towards good things.

My two least favorite storylines were Derek's and Arizona's. Unsurprisingly, these were two of the more dramatic elements of the episode.

Before I start talking about Derek's portion of episode, I'm going to give a warning that you might want to skip the following paragraph if you're a Derek fan. I'm definitely not a Derek fan, and it's hard to not go into rant mode when I'm when I'm writing about him.

I found Derek incredibly annoying in this episode. His speech about not accepting the settlement was one of his most self-righteous moments in the show (no small feat). I'm not saying that it was necessarily a bad idea to reject the settlement, but he went about it in the most self-righteous way possible. Not only did he hold back on sharing his thoughts on the matter until they were actually in the meeting, he gave some long-winded speech about how doctors are better than people who work in airlines. Plus, this means that the plane crash plot is going to be dragged out even longer. Great, more melodrama. The only tragedy I want to see right now is Derek's death.

I'm finding Arizona's story very annoying as well. I understand that losing a leg is a huge deal, and the scene where Arizona was lying in the bathroom was pretty sad. However, the segments with Arizona really drag down the show. I don't want to see this angry, bitter Arizona; I'd rather see the cheery Arizona who's great with kids. Like I've already said, I'm tired of watching tragedy. I want fun, and this storyline is not bringing it.


My hope for the rest of this season of Grey's Anatomy is that it will abstain from inflicting tragedy on the main characters and leave it for the patients. I want good things to happen to them (other than Derek of course) and for the show to lighten up a bit. Both the characters and we desperately need it.

Review: The Mindy Project 1x03, "In the Club"

When I reviewed The Mindy Project's pilot a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that the show didn't quite live up to my expectations and that I was hoping for improvement in future episodes. While The Mindy Project still has some growing to do, I do feel that the show has made some strides in the two episodes following the pilot.

Last's night's episode, "In the Club," featured a club night outing for Mindy and her coworkers. I didn't completely love the episode, but it was pretty fun and wisely fleshed out some of the supporting characters. Because "In the Club's" primary accomplishment was allowing us to get a better idea of who these characters are, I'm going to spend most of this review talking about them.

One of the biggest surprises to come out of last night was that I realized I'm warming up to Danny. I was pretty harsh on him in my review of the pilot. While he was somewhat more likeable in the second episode, I enjoyed Danny far more in this episode. I was expecting him to spend the whole episode feeling like a fish out of water in the club setting, but it was a good choice to let him dance and show off his fun side. Given that The Mindy Project is deeply rooted in the romantic comedy genre, it's important that the leading man be likable. While the writers have some work to do before I'm fully team Danny, "In the Club" proved that Danny can be more than a jerk who tells Mindy to lose fifteen pounds.

I was somewhat surprised that Morgan was added to the work crew last week. While I found him pretty funny, he seemed more like a ridiculous one-off character. However, I surprisingly enjoyed his pretending to be an attendant in the bathroom. I think the writers are going to have to be careful not to let Morgan get too out there if he's going to be a regular part of the show (Moments like the roofie joke are a little much for me and err on the wrong side of the line between endearing weirdo and overly broad caricature.), but he can actually be pretty funny and fits into the group better than I expected.

I don't really have strong opinions about Shauna or Betsy, but it was nice to see them get more than a line or two in this episode. Jeremy, on the other hand, is just a weak link in the cast. I felt no connection to his character, and frankly, I find him cliche and grating. In both this week's and last week's episodes, his storylines have been somewhat disconnected from the main cast (other than a pep talk from Morgan this week) and could have easily been cut without much of a effect on the episode. Because I've managed to warm up a bit to Danny after hating him in the pilot, I'm not going to say that Jeremy is a completely unsalvageable character. However, the writers need to majorly retool him and figure out how to use him or cut him out completely.

While Mindy's coworkers got some additional screen time in this episode, Mindy's sister friend Gwen only had one brief scene. I was excited to see Anna Camp in the cast list when The Mindy Project premiered, but she's been underused so far. Given that this was a very contained episode focused on Mindy's work crowd, it's understandable that this wasn't a Gwen-heavy episode. Still, I'd love to see her used as more than one-an-episode sounding board for Mindy.

Steven Tobolowsky's character Marc Shulman was also missing from the episode. While I think Tobolowsky is great, he got enough screen time last week that I didn't really miss him.

"In the Club" was a very loose episode and light on plot. While plot-light episodes can be great, in this case, it felt a little bit scattered. There were a couple of stories thrown in like Mindy's ovaries before brovaries (sorry, I can't resist a Parks and Recreation reference) dilemma, Jeremy's seduction of a bachelorette, Shauna's infatuation with Danny (This felt a bit hasty, considering that he won her over solely with his sweet dance moves. This isn't Grease, you guys. Then again, Danny kind of won me over with his sweet dance moves. So who am I to judge?), and Morgan's imitation of a bathroom attendant, but they felt uneven and disjointed.

Still there were plenty of jokes and fun moments scattered throughout the episode to make it worth watching. I loved Mindy quizzing the NBA players and Josh on their favorite Tom Hanks rom-com.

Speaking of Josh, I'm kind of intrigued by his character. He gave off creepy vibes, and I was fully expecting his storyline to take a "jerk who's trying to take advantage of Mindy" path. However, his gift of a limo ride home and return of Mindy's pashmina suggested otherwise. IMDB suggests that Josh will return in a future episode. While I'm not sure what the writers were going for with his character, I have to say that I'm intrigued.

"In the Club" was a fun installment of The Mindy Project and provided some much needed character development. I'm finding it hard to unbiasedly judge the show because I'm watching through Mindy-Kaling-loving glasses, but I feel like it's on its way to becoming to a really fun show.

Edit 11/21: I'm not sure why I assumed Mindy and Gwen were sisters, but apparently that's not the case. I've corrected my mistake above.