Tag Archives: The Mindy Project

What I’m watching: Playing catch-up

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The Man Under the Hood

It always feels like a new TV season when “Mad Men” starts up again on AMC. It’s not of course; we’re in the awkward part of the calendar when some shows have completed their seasons, others have a few episodes left and some – “Sleepy Hollow,” in particular – are long gone.

Here’s some thoughts on what I’m watching or watched until just recently.

“The Walking Dead.” This season, after staging a battle at the prison that saw Hershel and the Governor die, seemed to build to a climax in the middle of its year. The last half of the season was made up of really-pretty-good character pieces. The finale, with Rick and the gang playing into the hands of the Terminus cannibals, was shocking in that it was not bombastic. Curiously, it made me look forward to next October more than almost anything else.

“Agents of SHIELD.” This small-screen Marvel flagship series struggled early in the season. I wonder if the “slow build” story the showrunners are maintaining now is really the case – if so, they didn’t do it very effectively – or if, like many other series, it just took them a while to hit a stride. With recent episodes, including tie-ins to “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “SHIELD” is finally clicking. I hope it doesn’t falter again in the final episodes of the season.

“Dallas.” I miss J.R. I miss Larry Hagman. But the series is good, soapy fun.

“Arrow.” It’s possible I’m not enjoying any series on TV more than this take on the classic DC hero. The cast is really good, the stories are fun and the show is stuffed with comics characters. What’s not to like?

“Justified.” One of my favorite series, “Justified” had an uneven series at best. Lawman Raylan and outlaw Boyd and their supporting players were good, but the messy Crowe family story just didn’t do it for me. Next year is the final season and the last scene of this past season forecast the story: Raylan vs. Boyd. Can’t wait.

“The Mindy Project.” This Mindy Kaling comedy is funnier than I ever expected. I wish it would run for 10 years.

“Community” and “Parks and Recreation.” With only one episode left this season – and its future uncertain – “Community” has bounced back this year with the return of controversial creator Dan Harmon. It’s so odd and inside baseball that it’ll never grow in viewership. I just hope it hangs on. And “Park” has grown from a series full of oddballs to a series with characters I really care about.

I’ve probably forgotten something. With “Mad Men” back tonight and “Orphan Black” returning April 19, we’ve got more weeks of good viewing ahead.

sleepy hollow cast

But you know what? I think I miss “Sleepy Hollow” more than anything.

‘The Mindy Project’ comes back for second opinion

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mindy project season 2 premiere

“The Mindy Project,” created by and starring Mindy Kaling, was one of the most pleasant surprises of the last TV season.

Kaling, memorable from “The Office” and a brief role in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” stars in the Fox sitcom she created as a NYC doctor in a private practice populated with oddball types. Yes, we’ve seen the wacky lead surrounded by wacky supporting characters before. It’s a formula that proved tried and true as far back as Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart’s sitcoms.

But “The Mindy Project” makes it all seem fresh and funny.

The series returns on Sept. 17 but Fox has put the episode online and On Demand in advance. So we could check it out. And of course, we did.

If the second season premiere seems kind of … light and frothy … well, that’s okay. The first season tackled some real, uncomfortable problems that often boiled down to Kalin’s character, Mindy Lahiri, feeling more than a little insecure and out of step with the rest of the world. We were treated to her every dating disaster – is there a more awkward situation than being on a double date and seeing the man and woman who aren’t supposed to be matched up hit it off incredible well? – and office faux pas.

The new episode picks up with Mindy living in Haiti with Casey (Anders Holm), her missionary boyfriend. Before the teaser is over, however, she has a medical emergency and is back in NYC. After her recovery, she goes back to her office only to find she’s been replaced in her private practice by a doctor named Leotard who’s played by James Franco. (Is Franco in every movie and TV series right now? Is that some kind of contractual thing?)

Meanwhile, fellow doc Danny (Chris Messina, wry and evasive as always) is trying to settle into a new relationship with his ex-wife, played by Chloe Sevigny, which includes trying to improve their intimacy. And Mindy and Casey draw closer to their wedding.

Naturally, things go astray for both couples.

The show is so funny and fast, you almost have to rewind it as you’re watching to catch all the quickly thrown-out jokes.

There’s a lot to like about the characters, especially the screw-loose male nurse Morgan (Ike Barinholtz), who’s armed with the best non-sequiturs on TV.

And the repartee between Mindy and Danny is  especially smart and funny. The two would seem to be perfect together: Perfectly wry and thorny in their every encounter, I mean. Here’s a “will they or won’t they?” relationship that is as absurd and enjoyable as it is low-key.

 

My favorite TV shows of 2012

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sherlock and irene adler

Summing-up articles: It’s what writers do at the end of the year.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts on movies, TV and books in 2012, the first full year of this blog, and have enjoyed getting feedback from readers. The blog had almost 100,000 page views in 2012 so obviously a few people are checking it out.

I’m not going to rank my favorite TV shows – or the movies and books that will hopefully come in later blog entries – in order of preference. I’ll note, at times, those that I thought really stood out. But I didn’t see enough of any TV and movies and couldn’t come close to reading enough books to say conclusively these were the best of the best. They were just my favorites.

FYI you can probably find earlier reviews of most of these by clicking on the tags at the end.

Here are my favorite TV shows of the year:

“The Mindy Project” is maybe the biggest surprise (and one I haven’t written about yet). Mindy Kaling left “The Office” and struck out on her own with a smart and absurdly funny series that makes me think of “Community” in its mix of smart, funny and strange.

“Mad Men” struck some people as somehow deficient last season. I disagree. The tensions at home and in the office, the relationship between Don and Megan and the awful, horrible, sad end of Lane Pryce added up to a very good season.

Likewise, I’m sure some preferred the first or second season of “Justified” over the third, and I can’t totally disagree. But the third had so many wonderful moments and wild card characters like out-of-town drug dealer Quarles. And there’s no cooler lawman on TV than Tim Olyphant’s Raylan Givens.

“The Walking Dead” is only in the middle of its third season but has improved greatly over the second, farm-bound season. The prison, Woodbury, Michonne, the Governor and the return of Merle. How could you not like that?

“Parks and Recreation,” “Community” and “30 Rock” are my favorite comedies on TV right now. “Parks” is just so consistently funny and goofy, like the scene showing how people drink from the water fountains in Pawnee. “30 Rock” is about gone and “Community,” after losing its creator, could soon follow. But the bizarre “Liz Lemon as the Joker” episode of “30 Rock” and the meta chaos of “Community” will live on in my memory.

Last but definitely not least, we were treated to another three-episode season of “Sherlock” this year. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are close to becoming my favorite portrayers of Holmes and Watson. And Lara Pulver as Irene Adler? Wow.

On the TV: What I’m watching (and looking forward to)

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Thanks to a lot of work and only a little bit of time, I’m playing catch-up on fall TV shows.

There’s nothing at the moment that I’m looking forward to as much as Sunday’s return of “The Walking Dead.” Here’s hoping the third season of Rick, Daryl, Merle and the rest will be a great one.

Really, considering the machete hand that Merle is sporting, how can it be anything but cool?

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been watching.

“The Mindy Project” features Mindy Kaling, late of “The Office,” in a sitcom she created and writes. Kaling plays a very different character from Kelly on “The Office.” In this case, she’s a physician who (sitcom cliche alert) is more proficient at work than in her personal life.

Kaling has a likable presence and the supporting cast is quite good. And here’s a bonus: The second episode was better than the pilot.

“Alphas,” in its second season on SyFy, is one of the best shows I’m watching now. This series about a group of mutants who work for the government has a nice, X-Men-type mythology – good mutants versus “evil” ones – an intriguing bunch of characters and a good cast.

“Alphas” is also casting to appeal to geeks, with recent appearances by Summer Glau of “Firefly” and Sean Astin of “Lord of the Rings.”

“Last Resort” continues to be my favorite new fall show. I’ve written about its first two episodes and I’m looking forward to the third.

“Raising Hope” has been on for a few seasons now but I’m always pleasantly surprised by how fun it is. It’s a silly, non-sequitur-filled show about a goofy, white trash family. If you liked “Scrubs,” you’ll probably like it.