‘The Mindy Project’ Review: “Stay At Home MILF”

Rachel Smith 16’/ Emertainment Monthly TV and Movie Staff Writer
Copy Edited By: Lindsey Buttel ‘18
The Mindy Project has been focusing on Mindy Lahiri’s (Mindy Kaling) transition into motherhood and this week was a real spotlight on that. Last episode she decided to try being a stay-at-home mom, so the episode starts with her having the time of her life. The apartment is covered in junk food while Mindy is lounging pant-less with baby, Leo. This is very on-the-nose of what the audience expects from the new mom, but Danny Castellano (Chris Messina) quickly put things into perspective. She has to find a routine and basically revert to a fifties housewife. Feminists, hold your horses, for Mindy will try and fail to reach the stereotypical pedestal.

This is why fans fell in love with this show. Mindy proves that the expectations of what a woman should be are just ridiculous. She tries to follow an awful, but hilarious mommy blog to become the perfect stay-at-home mom. On the first day she is dressed well, makes a homemade meal, and keeps the house tidy but, she soon discovers that that grows old. Many modern women can relate to this idea of how they’re supposed to be but not having the time or the patience to do so. Mindy is outrageous, but the situation she’s put in is translatable to any woman. This episode did a lot of reaching out to different types of women, especially to the lesbian audience.
Collette Kimball-Kinney (Fortune Feimster) deals with coming out to her brother, Jody Kimball-Kinney (Garret Dillahunt). Last week it was made apparent that they’re from the conservative south, so Collette would rather live the rest of her life as a lie than come out to her brother. In true The Mindy Project fashion they made this serious subject hilarious by having Collette hire Morgan Tookers (Ike Barinholtz) to be her fake boyfriend. He, of course, takes it too seriously and has to be reminded that Collette is in fact a lesbian. Their attempts to trick Jody are physically very funny.

The season has largely been about Mindy’s growth, and though she and Danny childishly entered into a competition about whose the better stay at home parent, it showed that Mindy is not only good at her MILF lifestyle but is a brilliant doctor, something the show has been ignoring for far too long. It was good to see Mindy interacting at work again, especially contrasted to Danny struggling so thoroughly in his efforts to be a house husband. There were quick but impactful moments of humor for both Danny and Mindy trying to live the stay-at-home parent life.
The end of the episode has Mindy on top. She had a successful day at work, she convinced Collette to be honest with herself, and she gets to gloat about the fact Danny had a tough go of it at home. Each episode has ended with a pseudo cliffhanger, which is something it lacked before moving to Hulu. The end of the episode loses all of its humor but in a good way. Mindy and Danny are faced with another obstacle that, once again, many people are going to be able to relate to. It was another really funny episode that was full of life and substance. It’ll be interesting to see where they go with the storyline they’ve set up for next week!
The Mindy Project air on Tuesdays on Hulu.
Episode Grade: A-