The episode after a pilot, especially a good pilot, is always a hard one. Will you live up to the expectations the pilot set for the audience? The Mindy Project answers this with an episode that features insane nurses, a hatred of frozen yogurt and an ending that shows blood dripping down the face of the main character.
This episode tones down the romantic comedy angle the previous episode had, and instead focuses on Mindy’s work, which shows her to be competent and professional. As long as Danny’s not anywhere in the vicinity.
In comedies, characters seem to either be competent at their job, or really horrible, which leads to jokes about why they still have a job. But Mindy was competent, and Beverly, a nurse in her office, was horrible. Which led to the fact that somebody had to fire Beverly, and someone had to hire a new nurse. Mindy, wanting to take on more responsibility in her office, got the first task and Jeremy (unwillingly) got the second.
Source: Fox
The small snippets we got of Jeremy trying to fire Beverley were pretty good, although that was mostly Ed Weeks playing the straight man to the nurse. I know there’s only so many minutes in a show, but I wish we could see him used more. Luckily, we already got a little glimpse of his background, showing us some depth straight off. Even more luckily, it seems Mindy isn’t as infatuated with his character as she was in the pilot episode.
But if her relationship with Jeremy isn’t as strong, her relationship with Danny is growing. If by “relationship”, I mean “bickering like third graders”. Which, apparently, is what they descend to when they are in a room together. Although, in Mindy’s defense…Danny started it. Mindy, proud of getting more responsibility around the office, seems to be doing a good job of interviewing the applicants, until Danny scares their boss into thinking that she’ll hire a Mindy clone and gets to help with the hiring. It ends with a woman saying they have worse manners than child soldiers, and their only option is to hire a nurse named Ransom. She turns out to be a former carjacker that owns scrubs, and we later learn that her real name is Morgan Tookers.
Source: Fox
But what’s bad for the characters turns out to be good for the audience, as Ransom/Morgan, while odd, seems like a fun new character. Actually, he turns out to be good for the characters, mainly due to the fact that he’s the only one who can take charge when a stressful situation arises, such as Mindy getting her nose broken.
At the end of the day, Mindy is the only one professional enough to sit down and fire Beverley, who proceeds to break her nose. The show doesn’t hold back with the fake blood and Kaling gets in some great comedic moments as she tries to avoid a complete breakdown.
But don’t worry, all’s well ends well…with Mindy on the subway, getting her revenge on Danny by pretending that he was the one who broke her nose. And shouting it to the subway passengers. Love birds in the making, I tell you.
Little Things I Liked
- I completely emphasized with Mindy on the issue of frozen yogurt – it just plain tastes bad. It tries to fool you into thinking it’s ice cream.
- Mindy’s voiceover actually turning out to be her speaking out loud (to the cop in the pilot, to Danny in this ep.) is a nice touch.
- Danny plays the piano. I did not see that coming.
- I can’t help but believe that Beverly is Meredith Palmer’s even weirder cousin.
- Mindy and Danny’s conversations about hiring the wrong person somehow descending into an argument about hiring an Al Qaeda terrorist who will blow up the kitchen.
