Review: The Mindy Project 1x01, "Pilot"

I love Mindy Kaling. I find Kelly Kapoor, her character on The Office, to be hilarious. I particularly enjoyed Kelly's music career. I read both of Mindy Kaling's blogs, The Concerns of Mindy Kaling and Things I've Bought That I Love. I check her Twitter fairly often. Most of all, I loved her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).

All of this is to say that it was pretty much a given that I'd be watching her new show The Mindy Project. When I saw that the pilot had been released early on Hulu, I was really excited, and of course, watched it instantly.



Given how much I like Mindy Kaling, I'd pretty much committed myself watching The Mindy Project before even watching the pilot. It could have been completely wretched, and I'd still probably watch a minimum of half a season. Thankfully, it is far from wretched. However, it is also fairly far from perfect.

One of The Mindy Project pilot's weaknesses is that it doesn't offer much new. It focuses heavily on rom-com cliches and fails to add a fresh twist to them. I particularly didn't care for Mindy's drunken wedding speech. The whole scene feels particularly tired and a bit lazy. Rom-com cliches can be fun, but I'm hoping that The Mindy Project will eventually find a way to help its use of them to feel a bit fresher.

I enjoyed Mindy Kaling's character, but I'm a bit iffy on some of the supporting characters. Anna Camp who plays her sister friend Gwen doesn't have a lot to do in the pilot but does well with what she is given, and I enjoyed the appearances by Bill Hader and Ed Helms. Everyone else is either bland or unlikable. The two main love interests are particularly disappointing. It took me a while to tell them apart, and when I finally did, it was mostly because of Jeremy's accent. Mindy's British-accented fling Jeremy is like a watered down, doctor version of Russell Brand. The show is presumably setting up Danny as Mindy's hate-turns-to-love romantic interest; he has the hate part down pat, but I'm curious how convincing the love part will be because Danny isn't very likable.

After all of that criticism, you might be starting to think that I hated The Mindy Project, but I actually did enjoy it. I'm a sucker for Mindy Kaling's brand of comedy: cute, girly, slightly shallow, and a little immature. The Mindy Project reflects all of these concepts. Most of the pilot's references, ranging from Downton Abbey to Sandra Bullock, are right up my alley. The pilot had plenty of fun lines, although none really stick out in my mind. Most of all, I thought it was a really likable show; I want it to succeed.

So yes, The Mindy Project's pilot is a little rough, but I strongly believe that it's going to find its voice.  Mindy Kaling's brand of humor isn't for everyone, but if you're a fan of hers, I suggest you give The Mindy Project a shot. I know I'll be sticking with it for a while

If you want to check out The Mindy Project, you can watch the pilot now on Hulu or wait to watch its television premiere Tuesday, September 25 at 9:30/8:30c on FOX.

Have you seen The Mindy Project yet? Did it live up to your expectations? How do you feel about the romantic interests? Do you plan to keep watching? Let me know in the comments.

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. 

Go On: 1x01, "Pilot"

I wasn't planning on watching Go On. I love Chandler Bing as much as the next person, but Go On's promotion didn't appeal to me. However, I changed my mind when I saw that NBC was going to air Go On's pilot early. Go On is the first fall pilot I've seen pop up this year, and that was enough for me to give it a shot. What can I say? I'm easily swayed.



Go On isn't completely terrible; I like the show's concept, and I like Matthew Perry. One of the problems with Go On, however, is that it feels second-rate in several ways. Its setup is similar to Community, but I far prefer Community's community college environment and cast of characters (It's been a while since I've seen Community's pilot, but I feel it was much stronger at these aspects even then.). Matthew Perry's Ryan King is definitely Chandler-esque, but he's a muted version saddled with emotional baggage.

In fact, most of Go On has a muted feel to it. I didn't really connect with the show's comedic moments or its dramatic ones. The emotional aspect felt forced and most of its comedy felt stale. I didn't feel like these elements were balanced particularly well either; it was as if the show tried for both and ended up with neither.

I do have to give Go On some credit for its standout scene. The March Sadness bit was pretty funny and a nice way to introduce the therapy group. It was definitely the freshest moment of Go On. It was pretty presumptuous for Ryan to propose such a game after spending only a few minutes in therapy, and I thought the show seemed to overly glorify his methods while treating the group's leader Lauren like a joke. Perhaps future episodes will do a better job with that balance.

For the most part, however, I didn't really enjoy Go On very much. It wasn't particularly bad, but other than the March Sadness scene, it just didn't work for me. With its setup, it could very well turn into a fun show, but without some changes, I'm going to have to give it a pass. I'm probably not going to watch again, but if I hear good things about future episodes, I may give Go On another go.

7 TV Show Substitutions to Tide You Over Until Fall

If you're like me, you're eagerly waiting for the return of your favorite fall shows. Sure, there are some great summer shows (such as Breaking Bad and shockingly Teen Wolf), but fall programing offers a much wider selection. While you're waiting, here are substitutions for some popular fall shows.

1) If you like Once Upon a Time, you should try The 10th Kingdom.



If you're still watching Once Upon a Time, you're clearly fine with cheesiness. You may find this hard to believe, but Once Upon a Time isn't the cheesiest of them all. The 10th Kingdom, a mini-series from 2000, is quite possibly the cheesiest show I've ever seen, and I devoured all 400 or so minutes of it in one weekend. Like Once Upon a Time, it mixes the fairy tale world with our world; a girl and her father from our world are sucked into a magical world with an obligatory evil queen. There's also plenty of familiar faces, including Ed O'Neill as a troll and Gilmore Girl's Scott Cohen as a werewolf.

2) If you like Hart of Dixie, you should try Everwood.




Admittedly I've only seen about one and a quarter episodes of Hart of Dixie, but Everwood's premise is so similar that I feel it would make a good substitution. Both shows feature a city doctor's move to a small town. Granted, widowered father of two Andy Brown of Everwood is somewhat different from the shorts-wearing young woman Zoe Hart of Hart of Dixie; so if you're just watching Hart of Dixie for the hot southern guys, you may not fill that void with Everwood. If you, on the other hand, love the small town medicine in Hart of Dixie, Everwood might be right up your alley.

3) If you like The Vampire Diaries, you should try Buffy the Vampire Slayer.



I have such a weak spot for supernatural teen dramas. The Vampire Diaries started out as Twilight-esque mess worth of little more than eye rolls, but by the middle of the first season, it had developed into a fun, twisty ride worthy of only a few eye rolls here and there (although season three drew quite a few more of them). If you're a Vampire Diaries fan and have never experienced Buffy the Vampire Slayer, get thee to Netflix and get your marathon on. The shows share more than a few elements in common, and there's seven whole seasons of Buffy to tide you over until The Vampire Diaries returns. You might be thrown off by the extreme 90s cheesiness of Buffy at first, but once you get to season two, you may even find yourself looking forward to the next Buffy episode more than the next Vampire Diaries one.

4) If you like How I Met Your Mother, you should try Happy Endings.



Unlike the other substitutions on this list, Happy Endings is actually still on the air. It's such a great show that I couldn't help but include it. It doesn't have the same framework as How I Met Your Mother, but they both fall into the group of Friends-esque comedies. While I was ready to swear off Happy Endings after its lackluster pilot, it quickly found its footing. Season one had some great episodes, but season two was full of them. There's nothing wrong with just re-watching How I Met Your Mother reruns of FX (particularly if they're from the golden years of HIMYM), but if you're looking for some new material, Happy Endings shouldn't disappoint you.

5) If you like Castle, you should try Firefly.



On the surface, a police procedural and a sci-fi western may not seem to have that much in common. Okay, they may not have that much in common internally either. What they do have in common, however, is Nathan Fillion. It's hard to imagine Castle achieving the level of success it has had without Fillion's charm, and those of you suffering from Nathan Fillion withdraw can get that fix from Firefly. Don't be turned off by the show's genre; a sci-fi western didn't sound very appealing to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed the show's short run. Plus, after watching Firefly, you'll be able to understand the references to it on Castle.

6) If you like The Office, you should try Summer Heights High



If you've never seen Summer Heights High, you're in for a treat. Like The Office, it's a mockumentary featuring kooky cast of characters. Unlike The Office, the three main characters are all played by the same actor.  Chris Lilley plays all three excellently, but I'm partial to snobby, private school girl Ja'mie. While Summer Heights High features a similar off-color humor as The Office does, I should give a warning that the language used on it is somewhat stronger than the language on The Office. I doubt that many people are actually looking forward to The Office's next season (sorry, I had to throw a jab in), but if you are or are looking for a show that's reminiscent of The Office in its glory days, you should check out Summer Heights High.

Alternative: I hated to give another currently airing show as my main suggestion, but fans of The Office should also consider watching Parks and Recreation if they've yet to do so. It's similar to The Office but with more heart. It starts out a bit weak but really finds its footing starting in season two. It's hilarious, and the characters are fantastic.
 
7) If you like Revenge, you should try Veronica Mars.



I confess: I raked my brain for any current show resembling Veronica Mars because it felt wrong to write a list of TV show recommendations and not include it. Revenge and Veronica Mars aren't exact matches, but they have plenty of similar elements. Although Veronica is more of white hat and and Emily's more of a black hat, both enter their series with revenge for a loved one on their mind. Both are strong female leads, both go on undercover missions, and both pilots start in medias res (okay, the similarities are getting little thin). I'd recommend Veronica Mars to just about anyone, but I feel like Revenge fans will particularly enjoy it.


What fall shows are you eagerly awaiting the return of? Do you have any suggestions of TV show substitutions? Leave a comment, and let me know.

Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-man

While I was watching The Amazing Spider-man, I was plagued with a problem common to movie-goers. As Peter Parker searched Bing and Gwen Stacy rocked a seemingly endless supply of knee-high boots, a baby in the audience provided seemingly endless crying and cooing. There was a brief moment when the mother left the theater, and I thought that I could finally enjoy the rest of the movie in peace. When she returned five minutes later, however, it was clear that it was just a bathroom break.

Additionally, the power shut down about five minutes before the movie was over. So if the quality of those last few minutes affected the movie greatly, this review isn't going to reflect that.

It's kind of ironic, considering that I rank fairly high on the arachnophobia scale, but I really like Spider-man. There's something appealing about the fact that he's just a relatively normal, kind of dorky high school kid who stumbles into superpowers. I enjoyed Spider-man and Spider-man 2 a lot. I'm not much of a comic book reader, so they were really my first foray into the Spider-man world. When I heard that the series was being rebooted, I was skeptical, but after Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were cast, I knew I'd probably end up going to see it.

The comparisons between 2002's Spider-man and this year's The Amazing Spider-man are inevitable. They cover a lot of the same ground, and because the first Spider-man was generally well-received, a remake wasn't exactly necessary. That doesn't mean, however, that it was entirely unwarranted. It's been a while since I've actually seen Spider-man, so I'm not the best person to compare the two. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm going to refrain from making them. Some major differences between the two stand out such as a change in love interest, an alternative villain, and a much sassier Spider-man. These differences between the two movies in addition to my enjoyment of origin stories meant that I really didn't mind watching some of the elements repeated from the first Spider-man film.

Excellent casting is one of the biggest strengths of The Amazing Spider-man. Andrew Garfield made an wonderful Peter Parker. Admittedly, most of my Spider-man knowledge is derived from the first trilogy, and I don't really know how Peter is depicted in the comics. However, I really enjoyed Garfield's performance. I also found the writing of the character to be interesting; rather than depicting Peter as complete nerd as the 2002 version did, this movie portrayed him as a slightly awkward teen who only ran into trouble with the school bully when he tried to help out another student. I thought that characterization was a nicely realistic approach to the character.

Emma Stone was another wise casting choice. While some real-life couples seem to lack on-screen chemistry, she and Andrew Garfield worked well together. They didn't share a moment quite as iconic as the upside down kiss between Mary Jane and Spider-man, but they were a fun couple to watch. I also appreciated Gwen Stacy as a character. She wasn't the most developed character ever, but she was smart and could hold her own.

While there was a lot I liked about The Amazing Spider-man, it wasn't perfect. I liked the Andrew Garfield/Emma Stone combination better than the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst one, but I felt that the Aunt May and Uncle Ben of The Amazing Spider-man were quite a downgrade from the original characters. They weren't casted or written terribly in The Amazing Spider-man, but they were spot on and much more likable in Spider-man. While I suppose it was omitted to distance the two movies, I particularly disliked the absence of the "with great power comes great responsibility" line in The Amazing Spider-man

The movie's biggest weakness was probably its villain. Lizard wasn't a terrible villain, but he was somewhat lackluster. I even had to look up his name as I was writing this review because I'd just been calling him "lizard man." The villain portion of the movie felt a bit rushed, and Lizard seemed to mostly be there out of a necessity for the movie to have a villain.

While I had a few qualms with it, I really enjoyed The Amazing Spider-man. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the whole movie and was surprised to find out that it was over two hours long because it felt much shorter, even considering the few minutes I missed at the end.

4 Reasons Why Season Three of Veronica Mars is Better Than Its Reputation Suggests

Warning: There are spoilers in this post. If you've yet to see Veronica Mars's third season, I'd strongly recommend that you not read it. Seriously, just go watch Veronica Mars instead. It's really good.

Last Friday I posted a list of my reasons why the third season of Veronica Mars is my least favorite. Because I still also have a lot of love for the third season, it's only fair that I follow that up with a list defending it. Your mileage may vary on some of my reasons, but here are four reasons why season three of Veronica Mars is better than its reputation suggests.

1. New Characters

 

This will probably be the most controversial statement I make in this post: I'm a fan of Piz. It seems that a lot Veronica Mars fans think Piz is one of the worst parts of the worst season, but I consider him one of season three's highlights. I thought he was adorable, sweet, and endearingly awkward. Even though I don't agree with them, I can understand the viewers who simply found him annoying, but I don't understand those who disliked him simply because he wasn't Logan. As much as I liked Piz, he was a terrible match for Veronica. I feel like he was purposefully paired with Veronica to show that she needs a guy like Logan, not Duncan 2.0. Piz provided season three with both an enjoyable character and a nice foil to Logan.

In addition to Piz, a lot of other new characters worked really well in the season three. Near the beginning of the season, Parker seemed like she might be an annoying presence, but she turned out to be a likable, fun character (for the most part). Dean O'Dell was a nice replacement for Principle Clemmons. Even Professor Lasky Landry was an interesting addition to the character mix. It was fun to see Veronica win the respect of a qualified teacher in her field (even if he turned out to be a sleaze).

2. The Finale is Not That Bad

 

 

I'm always surprised when people complain about the series finale of Veronica Mars. It's not perfect, but it's a fantastic episode and even a pretty great finale. The pace of the episode is a little rushed, but really, this just ensures that episode is action-packed. The episode cleverly uses the Castle plot to bring back two of the major players from the earlier seasons, Jake Kane and Clarence Wiedman, in addition to referencing Lily and Duncan through the use of portraits.

I think I've said before that I appreciate series finales that convey a show's central theme. Veronica states her disillusion with Neptune several times throughout the series and given the show's noir-ish vibe, a downer ending just felt right.

I also appreciated how Veronica's life in the finale mirrored her life from the beginning of the series. By the pilot, Veronica and Duncan have broken up. While Piz (Duncan 2.0) and Veronica aren't broken up by the series end, the looks that Veronica, Logan, and Piz exchange in their final scene together make it clear that the relationship won't last much longer.

Additionally, the Veronica of season one had given up her popular crowd status to support her dad who had been ousted as sheriff. The Keith of season three gave up his reputation and likelihood at being elected sheriff to cover up Veronica's crime. In the pilot, Veronica's high school reputation had been ruined as a result of her being drugged at a party. In the finale, Veronica's college reputation had been ruined by a sex tape.

All of these similarities demonstrate that "the more things change, the more they stay the same" principle that Veronica expresses throughout the series. This quote from season two's "One Angry Veronica" springs to mind: "New Years Eve...Someone just needs to change the name to 'Same Old Years Eve.' Because that 'New', implying all that hope and promise, it's not fooling anyone."

Ideally, the finale might have been less open-ended. It might have been nice to see Logan and Veronica back together and to have had a few more episodes to deal with the Castle story, but I feel the series finale had a decent sense of closure and is far undeserving of the hate it gets.

3. Bigger Scope

 

 

One thing I really liked about season three is the sense it gives of Veronica becoming a big time detective. The move from high school to college really allowed the show to widen it's scope a bit. While plenty of the cases still revolved around students, the college setting felt a lot more like Veronica was in the real world than the high school bubble. It was satisfying to see Veronica enter the real world of the PI business and earn a license. While she solved some pretty serious cases in high school (as an obvious example, Lily's murder), it was enjoyable to watch the people around her start to take her more seriously as a detective in season three.

4. It Still Felt Like Veronica Mars 

 

 

Despite the changes, both good and bad, season three of Veronica Mars still felt very much like Veronica Mars to me. Even though it's my least favorite of the three seasons, it's still a good season of television. Kristen Bell was still excellent as Veronica. Most of the major players from the earlier seasons returned. There were still plenty of good mysteries. Most of all, I still enjoyed it. It's very much a part of the Veronica Mars story and well worth watching.


What are your thoughts on season three of Veronica Mars? Do you feel it's deserving of the criticism it receives? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

4 Reasons Why Season Three of Veronica Mars is My Least Favorite

Warning: There are spoilers in this post. If you've yet to see Veronica Mars's third season, I'd strongly recommend that you not read it. Seriously, just go watch Veronica Mars instead. It's really good.

SOAPnet's decision to air reruns of one of my favorite shows of all time, Veronica Mars, inspired me to do a rewatch of the show. I recently finished the much criticized season three, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on it.

A lot of people flat out hate season three of Veronica Mars. I've seen plenty of hate for it on the internet, and I've even seen people recommend that viewers stop watching after the second season. Season three is undeniably different from the first two seasons. The setting of the show changed from high school to college. The mystery arcs were handled differently. Even the opening credits were restylized and placed with a remixed theme song. Despite all of the changes, I still enjoy season three of Veronica Mars. I'd pretty confidently rank it as my least favorite of the seasons, but I think it tends to get a harsher reputation that it deserves.

I've come up with two lists about season three: one illustrating the bad aspects of the season and one illustrating the good ones. This post contains my criticism of the third season, but I'm going to try to post my defense of it in a couple of days.

1. Mini Mystery Format 

 

Seasons one and two of Veronica Mars contained a season-long mystery; in season one, the focus was on the mystery of Lily's murder, and season two centered around the mystery of the bus crash. Season three, on the other hand, had two mini mysteries and a handful of standalone episodes at the end. This new format was intended to make it easier for new viewers to jump into the show. The new format wasn't terrible, but it was a bad idea to mess with something that worked so well for the first two seasons.

Veronica Mars does stand alone episodes quite well, but the lack of a season long arc made season three feel a bit disjointed. The first two seasons were defined by their mysteries, and after a whole season of following one mystery, the big reveals in their finales had more weight to them (although I must admit that "Spit & Eggs" was a pretty great episode). I suspect that most people would define season three as "the college year" rather than "the season of the Hearst rapist" or "the season of the Dean's murder." Granted, the "college" label might stick even if the season had been defined by one mystery, but that mystery would still provide a secondary label that the season lacks.

2. Veronica and Logan Drama 

 

I'm as big a fan of Veronica and Logan as the next viewer, but their relationship in season three was much too dramatic for my liking. Their on-again, off-again relationship seemed to change status every other episode. Also, I don't know what was worse: the whipped Logan we saw when their relationship was "on-again" or the "off-again" Logan who did little more than sulk. I will admit that the relationship aspect of season three didn't seem quite as bad on my re-watch as it did initially, but it's the kind of thing I'd expect from The O.C. not Veronica Mars.

3. Meaner Veronica

 

 

From the beginning of the series, Veronica has always been snarky. She had good reason to be after the way she'd been treated, and it's part of what I love about the character. In season three, however, Veronica's snark occasionally veered into an overly acidic area. It's understandable that she would bring some of her bite to college. Even if she was no longer an outcast, the events of her high school years changed her, and it would have been weird if she went back to being pre-season one Veronica. Still, several moments in season three, such as Veronica cracking jokes about Chip being sexually assaulted with an Easter egg, felt a bit over the top, and the writing of Veronica just seemed to occasionally be a bit off.

4. Madison Sinclair (Among Other Storylines)

 

 

In addition to some of my bigger picture issues with the third season, some of the specific storylines in it bugged me. One of the storyline that bothered me most was the Madison one. Look, I know Veronica isn't a flawless character; it's one of the things that makes her such a great character. It's completely understandable that she would dislike Madison. However, Veronica's blaming Madison for her rape bothered me. Yes, Madison was a jerk and spit in her drink, but Dick was the one who put the GHB in that cup intending to drug Madison. It would have been one thing if Veronica had expressed hatred towards both of them, but the fact that she tolerated Dick while seething with hatred for Madison (declaring "If Dick starts dating her again, you're going to need to get a different roommate") felt extremely catty and strange for Veronica.

I also didn't care for Keith's affair. It wasn't enjoyable for me to watch, and like Veronica, I was disappointed in him. Dick's guilt storyline near the end of the season was perhaps an admirable effort to give the character depth, but it just seemed too little, too late for me and rang false. The Logan and Parker storyline wasn't completely terrible, but it wasn't great and led to the terrible moment of her blaming Veronica for their eventual breakup (a la Meg in season two). Additionally, the Fitzpatrick storyline felt unsatisfying and somewhat lacking in direction. The earlier seasons had some storylines that just didn't work well (the Duncan baby storyline, anyone?), but season three seemed to have quite a few of them.


What were your thoughts on season three? Do you agree with my points of criticism? What didn't (or did) you like about it? Let me know in the comments.

Burning Love: This is what a parody should be

If you've spent much time on the Internet today, there's a good chance you've heard of Burning Love. It's a web series parody of a show that's almost a parody of itself, The Bachelor. Burning Love features quite a few celebrities including Veronica Mars vets Ken Marino, Kristen Bell, Ryan Hansen, and Adam Scott. Often parodies have a tendency to go for over-the-top generic jokes, but it's clear that those behind Burning Love have watched a lot of The Bachelor.

I've posted the first episode here, but you can check episodes two and three on the Burning Love website (that's amazingly similar to the actual Bachelor site). The site reveals that new episodes of the series will be posted on Mondays and Thursdays.