thoughts on The Mindy Project Seasons One and Two

It's interesting how shows find their stride in the first couple of seasons.  Throughout the first two (and thus far only; the third season debuts on September 16) seasons, The Mindy Project is about a single gynecologist (Mindy Lahiri, played by Mindy Kaling) in her early thirties who, in a nutshell, has dating misadventures while interacting with a wacky bunch of coworkers and eventually realizing her feelings for fellow doctor Danny Castellano (Chris Messina).  But the supporting cast shifts around a bit as the seasons progress, and this really makes a huge difference.  In the first season, she has a married friend who lives in the suburbs (Gwen, played by Anna Camp); we don't see her in the second season, and we don't miss her.  Receptionist Shauna (Amanda Setton), an attractive Jersey girl with a crush on Dr. Castellano, is unceremoniously replaced by Beverly (Beth Grant), a sixty-something woman who is fired as a nurse in the first episode for doing things like taking blood samples home.  There are other cast changes, too, but probably the best is the addition of Peter Prentice (Adam Pally), a doctor who, during his interview at the practice, tells a story about having sex with a Christmas tree at an office holiday party.  More on him later.

So, I like the show a lot, for a number of reasons.  For one, the dialogue is hilarious.  I could give plenty of examples of humorous exchanges and one-liners (and have on my Facebook page), but I'm constantly cracking up from little things, like how Mindy is constantly saying "How dare you!" and addressing people as "sir" (as in, "Excuse me, sir, but how dare you!").  For me, also, a lot of the humor also comes from the fact that, as a single woman in my thirties, I can relate to a lot of the situations she gets herself into (sometimes to a painful degree)...yet she is nothing like me.  For one thing, she is way more outspoken than I am; sometimes I'm appalled by the things she says, while other times I wish I was better at speaking up for myself and less guarded with my emotions like she is.  It's like watching how a completely different person would handle aspects of my life, basically.

Then there is the supporting cast.  There is Danny, who grew up in Staten Island, was hurt badly by his divorce from Christina (Chloe Sevigny), is Catholic, practically raised his younger brother after their father left, and, though in his thirties, is kind of a grumpy old man ("Get this guy a sandwich, and I don't mean a WRAP.  I mean a REAL SANDWICH, with bread").  There is Jeremy (Ed Weeks), a handsome British doctor who Mindy occasionally hooks up with at the beginning of the first season.  There is Nurse Morgan Tookers (Ike Barinholtz), an ex-con who I have a hard time even beginning to describe, except to say that he is a ridiculous person, and hilarious (Danny, at one point, describes him as having a "charming Huckleberry Finn illiterate vibe," which is fairly accurate).  And there is the aforementioned Peter, who joins the cast in the second season and really adds something to it.  He and Mindy don't get along at first (she invites him to lunch to try to make friends, but takes him to, as Danny describes it, "that doll restaurant where you tell the story about your period").  He goes with Mindy to her ex's wedding, is the life of the party, and then winds up having sex with the bride.  He and Mindy become close when she has a falling-out with Danny, and he gives her completely different advice than Danny would ever give her, but it's kind of great.  There is also a nurse named Tamra (Xosha Roquemore) who is constantly complaining about her boyfriend Ray Ron (Josh Peck), and a pair of midwife brothers (Brendan and Duncan, played by Mark and Jay Duplass) who serve as sometime rivals for the doctors.  And don't even get me started on the guest stars.  James Franco! Bill Hader! B.J. Novak! Ed Helms! Max Greenfield! The list goes on and on!

Basically, the employees of Schulman and Associates make up a group of coworkers and unlikely friends that rings true for a group of mostly single, mostly thirty-something coworkers and friends.  Some of them wind up dating and/or sleeping with each other, or developing crushes on each other that nothing really comes of.  They get into arguments over issues both big and small.  They interfere too much in each other's lives.  They all have their quirks, and they're not people who probably would have hung out with each other had they met in high school or college, yet they're incredibly loyal to each other when it counts.  They're all pretty great, and pretty fun to spend a half hour with once a week (or, you know.  Hours spread out over a couple of weeks on Netflix).  I'd definitely recommend.