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Grading the Season Finales 2014: The Mindy Project

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danny and mindy

Title Danny and Mindy (2.22)

Written By Mindy Kaling

What Happens? When Mindy believes she’s having an email romance straight out of You’ve Got Mail with the cute stranger she saw on the subway, she breaks things off with Charlie to pursue “Andy,” who is actually Danny, desperately trying to be the kind of romantic man he thinks Mindy wants in an attempt to win her back. On her way to meet “Andy” at the top of the Empire State Building, Mindy makes a stop at Danny’s apartment (to get gum out of her hair). While Danny frantically tries to keep her from seeing him dressed up to meet her, Mindy reveals that she’s happy the two of them decided to call off their relationship because she remembered Danny saying that guys don’t break up with girls they really want to be with.

Thinking Mindy has no interest in him anymore, Danny doesn’t show up at the Empire State Building, so Mindy waits hours there for “Andy,” catching a cold. Danny brings her soup to help her recover, and the two of them begin spending more time together, seeing New York through each other’s eyes. However, a chance encounter with the guy Mindy thought was “Andy” forces Danny to confess that he lied to her and ultimately stood her up. When Mindy asks why he pretended to be someone else, he tells her it’s because he loves her. Mindy says doesn’t believe him because he was so quick to run away the last time they tried a relationship. When Danny begs her to meet him that night at the top of the Empire State Building, Mindy replies that accepting his offer would make her “the stupidest person alive.”

Later that night, the entire Shulman and Associates crew finds Mindy still working instead of meeting with Danny. They all try various ways to convince her that Danny really does love her. But the only one to get through to her is Peter, who shows her a memory box Danny keeps in his desk, which now holds a pair of her earrings. Mindy then goes to the Empire State Building but finds out she’ll have to walk up the stairs the whole way thanks to a broken elevator.

Mindy’s late arrival and slow ascent had Danny convinced she wasn’t coming, so his coworkers find him eating pizza instead of waiting for her. They tell him that Mindy really is on her way, so he begins a mad dash through the New York City streets to reach her (including getting hit by a car). Once at the top of the building, Danny finds Mindy sprawled out on the ground, exhausted from her trek up the stairs. He tells her he loves her and is “all in” in terms of their relationship. They decide to go on their first real date, end up arguing about the number and names of their future children, and seal the moment with a kiss.

Game-Changing Moment The Mindy Project started as a show about a woman obsessed with romantic comedies whose own love life was the antithesis of a Meg Ryan movie—aka a disaster. For two seasons, we watched Mindy Lahiri cycle through an endless parade of attractive hookups, boyfriends, and fiancés. Even her first attempt at a relationship with Danny was short-lived. But “Danny and Mindy” fundamentally shifted the show’s direction with three little words, “I’m all in.” Danny knows what those words really mean, and he knows what a huge step this is for him to say those words (and Mindy knows it, too). This is a character who—even in marriage—had trouble investing all of himself in a relationship. But Mindy wants something real, and she deserves nothing less. So with three words, Mindy’s string of short-term relationships might finally be over, ushering in a new era for the show—an era of telling the story of what happens after the characters in a romantic comedy get together with a kiss at the top of the Empire State Building. Mindy and Danny were already talking about kids by the end of this scene, so we know these aren’t just empty words. There’s a chance that The Mindy Project could be finally ready to go all in on telling not just a “will they/won’t they” story but a “they did, now what?” story. I am eager to see what comes next and hopeful that it will be handled with care, which is exactly what a good game-changing moment is supposed to make a viewer feel.

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TV Time: Castle 6.22

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PENNY JOHNSON JERALD, STANA KATIC, NATHAN FILLION, TAMALA JONES

Title Veritas

Two-Sentence Summary When Beckett is framed for the murder of Vulcan Simmons, she knows the final showdown with Senator Bracken is looming. With her career and her life on the line, she finds assistance in her quest to finally bring Bracken to justice from two unlikely sources: her mother and Captain Montgomery.

Favorite Line “It’s over.” (Beckett)

My Thoughts It’s over. With two simple words, the world of Castle changed forever. For months now, I’ve been writing about how I wanted to see the end of the Bracken storyline and the culmination of the Johanna Beckett arc this season. It felt like it was time; it would give Beckett closure before marrying Castle; and the combination of that arc ending and the wedding would lead the show into a new era. I wanted it, but I don’t think I even knew how much I wanted it until I watched it happen last night. And the crazy thing is, as I watched Beckett put the man who murdered her mother in handcuffs, I wasn’t thinking about how good this was for the plot or for the show in general. I was thinking of how good this was for Kate Beckett. I wanted this moment for her. And what a moment it was.

I often write about how much I like emotional moments and character development that feel earned. It certainly doesn’t get more earned than this moment. For over six seasons, we watched Kate Beckett continue to come to terms with her mother’s murder. We saw what that murder did to her; we saw the damage firsthand. We were shown rather than just told about how it affected her to such a degree that it consumed her. We went down the rabbit hole with her every time she battled the pain of first not knowing who the killer was and then knowing but not being able to bring him to justice. We saw the scars her mother’s death left behind, and then we saw the new scars that formed as Beckett herself almost died because of that same man. We saw her battle PTSD because of this; we saw her work every day to overcome the demons brought on by both her mother’s death and her shooting. For six years, we were in the emotional trenches right alongside this character, so when the moment finally came for her to arrest the man who caused her so much pain, we completely understood how much this meant to this character.

I’m sure “Veritas” was an episode that could be enjoyed by casual Castle fans, but, really, this was an episode for the diehards. This was for those of us who first fell in love with Kate Beckett when she told Castle why she wore her mother’s ring and her father’s watch. This was for those of us who cried with her when she had to shoot Dick Coonan and lose another lead in her mom’s case. This was for those of us who sat with open mouths and broken hearts after she was shot. And this was for those of us who cried again when she finally decided that her own life and her own happiness was worth more than vengeance.

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 3.20

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JOSH DALLAS, GINNIFER GOODWIN

Title Kansas

Two-Sentence Summary Through flashbacks to Zelena’s life in Oz, we see her initially embrace a new family with a group of sister witches, but her envy takes over once again after Dorothy’s arrival causes her to believe she has no choice but to be evil. The choice between good and evil comes into play in the present as Regina chooses to believe she can be good again, which allows her to wield light magic and defeat Zelena (because Emma lost her magic saving Hook’s life), but Regina’s decision to spare Zelena’s life falls on deaf ears for Rumplestiltskin, who kills her with his dagger.

Favorite Lines
Regina: Heroes don’t kill.
Zelena: So now you’re a hero?
Regina: Today I am.

My Thoughts Once Upon a Time is a show about choices in a world—the world of fairytales—that so often seems to be about fate and destiny. You have to choose to love someone (and they have to choose to love you too) for true love’s kiss to work. Dark magic comes from a series of dark choices, and light magic comes from choosing to use magic for good and selfless reasons. Evil is not born; it’s made. And now we know that the same can be said for goodness, for heroism. The reason Zelena never felt like a sympathetic character to me was because she chose time and again to give in to her envy instead of choosing to move on. And the reason Regina’s arc this season has been such a joy to watch is because it was about a woman choosing to be better than who she was, choosing to believe in the goodness Snow White has always seen in her, and choosing to accept that she can both love and be loved—and draw powerful magic from that love. Choosing to be your best self isn’t the stuff traditional fairytales spend a lot of time discussing, but it’s the kind of human drama that makes Once Upon a Time so compelling.

Zelena’s flashbacks didn’t do much to make her a more interesting character, but at this point I’m not sure anything would. She was basically a glorified plot device to bring about character development for many of the show’s main characters and to jumpstart the adventure of the season finale, so she never had the depth I wanted her to have. However, I appreciated the comparison between Zelena believing she had to be evil and Regina choosing to believe she could be good. Both Regina and Zelena were faced with another woman whose presence as a “savior” and champion of goodness presented them with a choice: Accept that there must always be one good person and one evil person, or decide to change that story and fight alongside the one you’re supposed to fight against. Zelena believed she had no choice but to be evil, but Regina knew better. There’s always a choice, and she chose to change her path, as we saw her sister continue down her road to darkness.

I appreciated the little twist on the most unbelievable part Oz mythology: the melting of the Wicked Witch. Both Wicked and Once Upon a Time turned the melting into a way to show just how clever the Wicked Witch is, and that made me happy to see. And I loved watching Zelena in all her campy, evil glory after Glinda thought she was talking to the Wizard. I may not have cared about Zelena’s backstory beyond its parallels with Regina (and Emma’s in terms of the “abandoned little girl deals with being abandoned” angle), but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy watching Rebecca Mader have so much obvious fun with the role.

Ultimately, what seemed to be an episode about Regina and Zelena was actually an episode that focused on the parallel arcs of Emma and Regina. Once Upon a Time has always had fun playing with the idea of these two women as two sides of the same coin, and it was more apparent than ever in “Kansas.” Their character arcs in this half of Season Three have been building to almost the same point: the realization that they don’t have to be defined by their past; they can choose to stop running from happiness and embrace the best versions of themselves, including the idea that people beyond just their son can love them. It was fascinating to watch Regina’s arc reach such a triumphant high point in an episode where Emma’s arc hit what may be an all-time low. We saw Regina at her most self-aware in an episode that saw Emma at her most delusional. We saw Regina at her most accepting of herself and others in an episode that saw Emma at her most dismissive. And we saw Regina at her strongest in terms of harnessing the power of love in an episode where we saw Emma at her weakest—both in terms of her magical powers and her belief in love.

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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (4/27 – 5/4)

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This week began the final push towards many popular shows’ season finales. On Once Upon a Time, many major plot threads came to a head in Sunday’s episode—including who cast and who would break the latest curse, what would happen when Hook’s curse was revealed, and how would Henry regain his memories. Sunday night’s stellar TV lineup continued with another strong episode of The Good Wife (featuring Laura Benanti!) and some beautiful scenes between some of my favorite characters on Game of Thrones. Monday brought us Latin night on Dancing with the Stars and a Castle episode that featured wedding party plans, Scrabble upsets, and strip poker. Tuesday’s episode of New Girl brought Jess and Cece’s friendship to the forefront and The Mindy Project showed Mindy and Danny facing their complicated relationship. Wednesday’s Nashville took Juliette’s character a big step in the wrong direction; Thursday saw Burke’s return to the world of Grey’s Anatomy; and Saturday featured an episode of Orphan Black that introduced us to Kira’s father and an episode of Saturday Night Live that proved just how funny Andrew Garfield can be.

All in all, it was a thoroughly entertaining week in television. But the moment that has stayed with me the most was the beautiful final scene between Jaime and Brienne on Sunday’s Game of Thrones. I’ve already written extensively about how thrilled I was with the show’s take on the “Oathkeeper” moment, so I’ll will spare you all any redundant analysis. All I’ll add is that this scene only gets richer with repeated viewings. The nuances Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gwendoline Christie brought to this scene—and this relationship as a whole—elevated it to a new level of warmth, intimacy, and love. On a show that doesn’t have a lot of healthy relationships between men and women, this moment was a beacon of genuine light.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

TV Time: New Girl 3.22

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new girl dance

Title Dance

Two-Sentence Summary Jess channels all of her frustrations about her breakup with Nick into making the dance at the school where she teaches the best it can be, which naturally means it turns into a complete disaster. Not helping matters is the fact that Schmidt, Nick, and Winston turn out to be the three worst chaperones ever.

Favorite Line “Nobody’s getting pregnant tonight! That’s the same thing I say on my dates.” (Winston)

My Thoughts This was actually the most fun I’ve had watching New Girl since the episodes prior to Nick and Jess breaking up. I laughed a lot, I loved the way the whole ensemble was in the same place, and I enjoyed seeing the characters in a different setting than usual. “Dance” may not have done a lot to further any of the season’s overall arcs, but I still enjoyed it—despite still having some reservations with certain aspects of the show.

Since I’m in a bit of a time crunch today, I’m going to break my thoughts on this episode into a little list of Five Things I Took Away from “Dance.”

1.) This was Cece’s best episode. I crave Jess and Cece scenes like I crave good chocolate. I know New Girl is primarily about the relationships between Jess and the men she lives with, but her friendship with Cece has always been something that humanizes and grounds Jess as a character more than any other relationship on the show, even the one she shared with Nick. Zooey Deschanel and Hannah Simone have such a genuine, warm chemistry, and I always feel like there’s a deep sense of shared history between them that drives all of their interactions. It was so nice to see Cece at her warmest and most supportive in this episode because Jess needed her more than ever. Simone played Cece’s gentle but constant support perfectly because it felt real. And Jess and Cece’s botched “good cop/bad cop” moment was one of my favorite parts of the episode.

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Game of Thrones Moment of the Week: “Oathkeeper”

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I sincerely apologize to any of you who were looking for my post about last week’s episode. I found some of the elements of that episode (and the way they were explained by the director) too difficult for me to write about, especially because I interpreted Jaime and Cersei’s interactions in that episode in a way that was different from how the director seemed for it to be intended (as I think many did). I have decided to pretend that the moment existed as it did in the book (since that seems to be the intention of those involved). If you’re still looking for an excellent analysis of last week’s episode, I can direct you to frequent NGN contributor Heather’s take on it.

The Moment: Jaime sends Brienne on her quest

Setting the Scene: After Cersei tells Jaime she wants Sansa Stark dead, he tasks Brienne with keeping his oath to the late Catelyn Stark to find Sansa and keep her safe. To help Brienne on her journey, Jaime gives her a new suit of armor, a squire (Pod), and the Valyrian steel sword given to him by his father, which Brienne names Oathkeeper.

Why It’s Awesome: Last week’s controversial episode of Game of Thrones reminded us that there are very few healthy relationships between men and women in Westeros, and usually those relationships are based solely on power (hence the prevalence of rape on this show—including the horribly gratuitous scenes at Craster’s Keep in this episode). But “Oathkeeper” served as a moving reminder that there is at least one relationship between a man and a woman in this world that is based on true, mutual respect, and that’s the relationship between Jaime and Brienne.

The scene where Jaime gives Brienne Oathkeeper has been one of my favorite scenes in the entire A Song of Ice and Fire book series since the moment I read it last year. I didn’t think it was possible that Game of Thrones could actually make me love it more. But I guess I underestimated the power of very pointed and specific changes made to enhance the emotional impact of the scene, as well as the performances of Gwendoline Christie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

The whole tone of the scene was much warmer than it was in the books, and it was infused with a very real sense of equality between them. That changed the tone of the scene somewhat from the hesitancy in the book, but I think that actually served the show well. The depth of emotion between these two characters has always felt even more intense on the show than in the books, and I think that comes from how good Coster-Waldau and Christie are at conveying a host of emotions simply through their eyes.

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TV Time: Castle 6.21

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STANA KATIC, NATHAN FILLION, YANI GELLMAN

Title Law and Boarder

Two-Sentence Summary The murder of an extreme sports athlete leads Castle and Beckett to a cold case and a cover-up concerning the death of a young boy. As the investigation goes on, Ryan and Esposito fight over who should be Castle’s best man, and Castle and Beckett squabble over her beating him in Scrabble.

Favorite Lines
Beckett: I think catching killers is pretty extreme. And then there’s marrying you.
Castle: Ah yes, I admit I am extreme—extremely handsome.
Beckett: With a high degree of difficulty.

My Thoughts This was another fun, relatively light episode of Castle, following a pattern this show seems to have of calms before the storm that occurs around each season’s finale. While this episode’s case wasn’t terribly interesting, it continued some important thematic trends leading to what looks like another showdown with Bracken next week. And for the first time in a while, I found myself thoroughly entertained by this episode’s wedding subplot, mainly because it incorporated more characters than just Castle and Beckett.

Let’s start with this episode’s case to get the most boring part out of the way. Sometimes Castle hits unique cases like this one out of the park, but this one fell flat for me. Maybe it’s because I don’t care about extreme sports, or maybe it’s because I called who the killer would be the first time we saw him. (He just seemed too smug, and the killer is usually introduced early on—but never as the first suspect.) There seemed to be too many twists for me to wrap my head around: jealous competitors, the Albanian mob, and the brutal death of a child. Part of me is relieved that the end of the season is upon us because that means the cases will actually carry meaning again. This case seemed like one that’s reached for when you’re running out of ideas, but maybe I’m just not that into skateboards and motocross.

The good thing about the case, however, was the way it built on the parallels that have been accumulating this season and even further back about Beckett and Bracken. This was another case that ultimately ended up being about an old murder and a desire for justice. I still feel like this showdown between Beckett and Bracken will be their last (No spoilers in the comments if you know any other details, please!), and the way this murder was ultimately unraveled did nothing to deter me from that line of thinking.

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 3.19

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ouat 319

Title A Curious Thing

Two-Sentence Summary Henry’s storybook proves to be the key to getting his memories back, just in time for Zelena to threaten his life because of Hook’s choice not to kiss Emma, but Emma’s light magic proves to be stronger than Zelena’s once again, as does Regina’s love for her son, which breaks the curse placed on the memories of Storybrooke’s residents. With their memories returned, Snow and Charming remember that Snow cast the curse in order to return to Emma by sacrificing Charming’s heart, but Snow’s faith in their love proved strong enough to enable them to share a heart and bring her husband back to life.

Favorite Lines
Charming: Why do women keep their shoeboxes?
Snow: Because after true love, there is no more powerful magic than footwear. It has to be protected.

My Thoughts I love Once Upon a Time. It can be ridiculous, illogical, and a bit too plot-driven at times (all of which can be criticisms of “A Curious Thing”). But its heart—pun totally intended—is always in the right place. This is a show that is first and foremost about love. In an increasingly cynical world, I’m so happy to be a fan of a show that isn’t afraid to say that love has a power unlike any other force imaginable. That’s what “A Curious Thing” was all about—love’s ability to make the impossible possible. From Snow and Charming to Regina and Henry, this episode was a reiteration of the show’s foundational principle: Love is strength.

Just like last week’s character development and subtle dark humor were a dead giveaway that “Bleeding Through” was at least partly a Jane Espenson-written episode, “A Curious Thing” had Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz’s trademarks all over it. It made sense that the show’s creators would take the helm in an episode that harkened back so strongly to the first season of the show. And it made sense that they would write an episode that was so firmly devoted to the show’s central themes of love, belief, and family—and the collision of fairytales and harsh reality in the character of Emma Swan.

The episode began with an excellent—and, let’s be honest, hot—way to ease into the intense thematic developments to come. After seeing the way Regina and Robin’s relationship played out before the curse was cast, I was a little disappointed that they ended up not being drawn together because of a romance between them in the lost year. It seemed the attraction was definitely there, but I actually think Regina having her heart was a huge hindrance to that relationship developing. Regina’s heart has known so much loss, pain, and darkness. Removing it has allowed her to move on from the pain she has carried in her heart since Daniel died. It allowed her to feel with her soul instead, and we know from Tinker Bell’s words that Robin is Regina’s soul mate. Not having her heart seemed to help Regina’s soul find its mate without the fear she still held in her heart about finding a second chance at happiness.

Because that’s what Regina and Robin are to one another—a second chance to love, a second chance to be happy. And Regina was so wonderfully happy in this first scene. Lana Parrilla has a thousand-watt smile, and I loved seeing it used without restraint at multiple times in this episode. Regina held on to bitterness, grief, and hatred for so long that it gives me endless joy to see her truly taking this chance to be happy. Watching Regina kiss Robin with a beautiful smile on her face reminded me that Once Upon a Time is so good at showing this basic truth: Love should bring out the best in a person.

Regina and Robin’s relationship development was very closely related to what Regina witnessed between Snow and Charming in the flashback portions of this episode. And I don’t just mean the obvious foreshadowing in Robin’s line about Regina using his heart to feel. I think witnessing true love at its most true had a profound impact on Regina. With or without her memories, it was clear that this was no longer something she sneered at, but something she actually believed in.

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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (4/20 – 4/27)

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This week in television featured the return of some beloved shows and the finales of others. Sunday night began with an episode of Once Upon a Time that might have featured the most character development on the show to date. The night continued with another strong episode of The Good Wife and one of the most controversial episodes of Game of Thrones in the show’s history. Monday brought a lot of fun to our living rooms with “party anthem” night on Dancing with the Stars and a new Castle episode that took the characters back to the 1970s to solve a cold case. Tuesday’s episode of The Mindy Project served as a potent reminder of just how wonderful Mindy and Danny could be together, and Wednesday’s Nashville concert special featured the show’s best songs performed by its talented cast. On Thursday, the sixth season of Parks and Recreation ended with huge leaps forward for all of its characters, and Saturday’s episode of Orphan Black was yet another thrill-a-minute way to spend an hour.

From every scene with Regina on Once Upon a Time to Alison drinking with Felix on Orphan Black, there were a plethora of great moments to choose from this week. But the best of the best came to us courtesy of Parks and Rec‘s season finale. The conclusion of the Unity Concert, with all of the episode’s guest stars joining a reunited Mouse Rat and Duke Silver onstage, was a huge dose of the kind of positive energy that only this show can provide. The joy on each character’s face was a perfect representation of this show’s ability to spread happiness, and I’ve been singing “5,000 Candles in the Wind” with a smile ever since Thursday night.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

Grading the Season Finales 2014: Parks and Recreation

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This is the first of my regular shows that I review to have its finale this year, so I just want to say thanks to all of you who’ve read and commented on my Parks and Rec posts this season. It’s been a pleasure spending the season in Pawnee with all of you! 

Source: nbc.com

Source: nbc.com

Title Moving Up (6.21/6.22)

Written By Aisha Muharrar & Alan Yang

What Happens? Leslie attends a National Parks conference in San Francisco, where some advice from Michelle Obama and Ben help her see that she needs to accept the job she was offered with the National Parks Department to head up their branch in Chicago. While in California, Ben discovers that his board game, The Cones of Dunshire, has taken off in popularity, and he’s later given the copyright to the game as a gift from the Pawnee accounting firm he keeps having to turn down.

Leslie’s decision to take the National Parks job is complicated by the experience of others in similar positions to hers in terms of the Pawnee-Eagleton merger, people who tell her it could take a decade of close involvement with both towns to make the merger work. In addition, her team at the Parks Department has her love for Pawnee commemorated on a statue.

Leslie must put aside her difficult decision to help finalize the Unity Concert, which Andy leads surprisingly without difficulty. The same can’t be said for the soft opening of Tom’s Bistro, which is disastrous, but April, Ron, Donna, and Craig inspire Tom to give it another try with an after party following the Unity Concert. The concert itself not only features performances from major musical acts (including Donna’s cousin Ginuwine), it reunites Mouse Rat and introduces all of Pawnee to Ron’s saxophone-playing alter ego, Duke Silver. That success is followed by another—Tom’s after party is a huge hit with national and Pawnee celebrities alike.

Feeling more torn than ever after such a successful event in the town she loves, Leslie seeks out Ron’s advice and finds him on the third floor of City Hall, which he completely restored over the course of the year. He tells Leslie that her ambition deserves more than what Pawnee can give her, and she can’t have everything she wants. However, Leslie is inspired to find a way to do exactly that. She convinces the National Parks Service to open their Midwest branch in Pawnee instead of Chicago.

The final moments of the finale flash forward three years into the future, where Leslie is running the National Parks Department branch in Pawnee, heading to an event for Ben (that requires him to wear a tuxedo), and leaving her young triplets with Auntie April and Uncle Andy for the evening.

Game-Changing Moment For six seasons, Leslie Knope has worked as an employee of the Parks Department of Pawnee, Indiana. Even when she was a city councilwoman, she never stopped being connected to that Parks Department. Heck, it’s the title of the show! Therefore, if Leslie leaving that Parks Department to take a job for the National Parks Service doesn’t qualify as a game-changing moment, then I’m not sure what does. Yes, she still lives and works in Pawnee. Yes, she still seems to be close to her friends. But the fundamental makeup of the show—a workplace comedy about local government—has been dramatically altered thanks to the events of “Moving Up.” And after a season that had many—myself included—feeling restless about the direction of the series, this game-changing moment was a breath of fresh air, a necessary step in the real story this show is trying to tell. Because at its heart, Parks and Recreation isn’t a story about local government; it’s a story about Leslie Knope, and Leslie’s story needed this change.

That could have been enough to change the foundation of Parks and Rec, but the show went one step further with the final-minute time jump. Taking these characters three years into the future opened up new avenues of storytelling that would have taken too long to develop any other way. It shook up the sense of stasis that existed for most of this season in a major way, and it created a sense of eager anticipation for next season.

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