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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
An elf mage contemplates on connection and regret as she watches her human friends grow old and pass away.
Mindy Lahari is a good person. In her heart she knows this.
So what if she doesn’t always do particularly good things or say particularly nice words or think particularly decent thoughts? So what if she sometimes is completely inconsiderate or drinks way too much or gets, every now and then, arrested? That doesn’t diminish the inherent ball of goodness that she is. Really.
And while she might not have been good today, she will be good tomorrow, she swears. Or, perhaps, the day after.
Such is the setup of The Mindy Project, the one-time Fox comedy that has now moved to a new high-rise apartment on Hulu. The project, it would seem, is Mindy herself—embarking on a listless, bunny-hop progression of self-improvement that emphasizes self and sort of loses the improvement part along the way.
Mindy is played by The Office alum Mindy Kaling. She’s a thirtysomething OB/GYN who was raised, essentially, by romantic comedies. She believes true love has to be the product of quirky meetings and heartfelt speeches and, if possible, a swelling musical score. Her dreams came true, after a fashion, thanks to her one-time frienemy-turned-fiancé Danny Castellano. But Danny’s a pragmatic sort of dude, and Mindy believes she’s the star of her very own romcom, imbued with a cosmic get-out-of-jail-free card for her bad behavior. So their happily ever after hasn’t always been quite so.
The Mindy Project is gleefully self-aware. And in a twisted sort of way, it’s a show Plugged In “gets.” Now, follow me for a minute here: Mindy is no role model, but the writers don’t intend her to be. She is instead a reflection of our media-soaked, self-obsessed times. She’s been told all her life that she’s a great person (no matter what she does), and she believes it. She’s convinced that the template for lifelong love can be found in the movies. She believes the world owes her something, and woe to the world should it fail to pony up.
When Mindy’s at her best—her real best—it’s when she turns her attention away from herself and, just for a moment, considers the well-being of someone else. Someone like Danny. And because she’s focusing on Danny more and more as the series goes on, it seems as though Mindy is growing into a progressively better person.
‘Course, she’s also already pregnant with Danny’s child. So The Mindy Project blends the wonder of impending motherhood with jokes about being knocked up. Or worse. And there have indeed been worse things that’ve shown up on this show.
When you center a series on someone who does bad, inadvisable things, and it will naturally show her doing bad, inadvisable things. Mindy drinks. Mindy sleeps around. Mindy swears. Mindy treats people horribly. And all of Mindy’s supporting cast? Well, they’re doing much of the same.
And for that, Plugged In isn’t quite as quick to throw down a get-out-of-jail-free card as Mindy is.
When viewers last saw Danny and Mindy, the couple was arguing over marriage. Danny, whose father ran out on him and whose first wife cheated on him, is phobic about it. “Marriage means nothing,” he said. Which prompted Mindy to retort, “It means something to me!” So as this new season opens, Danny runs to India to tell Mindy’s parents that he loves their daughter but won’t marry her, while Mindy has a vivid dream that she’s married to someone else.
Mindy’s father, not knowing that Danny’s the father of his soon-to-be grandchild, rails against the guy who got his daughter pregnant. Still, seeing glimpses of Mindy’s parents’ lifelong relationship, Danny admits, “If I grew up seeing a marriage like this one, maybe I wouldn’t have [issues with the institution].” He later officially proposes.
As for Mindy’s dream, she finds herself hitched to a producer for the Real Housewives‘ series of shows, and while it seems perfect at first, she discovers that they’re in an “open” relationship. That, of course, prompts multiple references to affairs, oral sex and threesomes. And Mindy calls one of her apparent lovers a “pedo.” We learn that Mindy and her dream husband had sex in an airplane bathroom when they first met, and that she’s starting a business selling “slutty girdles for the sexually active obese.” Mindy wears a dress that reveals a great deal of cleavage.
Oh, and she’s hit by a bus before she wakes up.
There’s discussion about breasts, pornographic movies, condoms and Mindy’s previous trial for public urination. A joking reference is made about Catholic communion. Wine is consumed. Characters say “a–,” “h—” and “b–ch.” God’s name is abused close to 20 times, once with “d–n.”
“Hiring and Firing”
Mindy’s in charge of hiring a new nurse after the practice’s old one started misplacing blood samples and (it’s implied) smoking marijuana in the break room. But when doctor partner Danny inserts himself into the decision-making process, the whole thing turns into a cat-vs.-dog fight as they each veto the other’s picks.
We see the old nurse putting on deodorant under her blouse and asking to be zipped up. She punches Mindy in the nose, breaking it and making it bleed. (Blood is all over Mindy’s face during the next scene.)
We hear talk about “doing it” and various sexual positions. Jokes are traded about domestic abuse, alcoholism, terrorists, serial killers, rapists and harems. An overweight woman is said to look like she belongs on the Soviet weightlifting team. Foul language includes one use each of “b‑‑ch,” “h‑‑‑,” “a‑‑” and “douche bag.”
“Pilot”
After drinking “four vodka sodas,” Mindy makes a scene at a wedding, describing an embarrassing after-sex conversation she had with the groom. She then storms off (carrying a glass of wine and snagging a bottle of champagne), eventually crashing her bicycle into a household pool. She’s arrested and wonders whether the police should be taking care of “murderers and rapists” instead.
Mindy has an on-again-off-again sexual relationship with a fellow doctor, and we see the two of them begin to strip off their clothes. We also see her change panties. (The camera focuses on her ankles.) She talks about what she would like a date’s penis to look like.
Mindy encourages a patient to lie about her insurance. Then she suggests that her assistants try to solicit more white, insurance-wielding clients. She jokes about how prayer doesn’t work. There’s talk about getting drugs. An f-word is bleeped. And we hear “h‑‑‑” three times, “d‑‑n” and “p‑‑‑ed” once each. God’s name is misused a half-dozen times.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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