Tag Archives: the mindy project

The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (1/19 – 1/26)

Posted on by
2

This was a thoroughly entertaining week in the world of television. Sunday started the week off on the right foot with two great NFL playoff games. Monday’s Castle finally gave us the end of Alexis’s relationship with Pi as well as a very public engagement confirmation from the very private Beckett. Tuesday’s FOX comedies had an excellent week: Brooklyn Nine-Nine introduced us to the term “gymfiltration,” New Girl reminded us all why Nick Miller is the best boyfriend ever, and The Mindy Project‘s midseason finale was sealed with a kiss. Wednesday’s Nashville showcased the great chemistry between both Rayna and Deacon and Juliette and Avery. On Thursday, Parks and Recreation introduced us to Johnny Karate and introduced Ron to the iPod. And Saturday Night Live used Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio to reenact Titanic‘s most memorable scene.

When all is said and done, though, there’s only one moment this week that I’ve watched and re-watched an embarrassing number of times—only one moment that changed the entire direction of a show and had me screaming at my TV, “WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL APRIL AFTER THAT?!” And that was Danny and Mindy’s first kiss on The Mindy Project.

I’ve been hoping for Mindy and Danny to get together ever since he showed up to her Christmas party last season with a gingerbread house and helped her through her cheating boyfriend crisis. They have the kind of relationship all the best romantic comedies are made of: the bantering, the bickering, the challenging, and, ultimately, the influencing each other to be their best selves. As Danny told Mindy so beautifully, that’s how you know someone is right for you—they force you to be your best self. The beauty of Mindy and Danny’s relationship is that neither is actively trying to change the other, but they still push the other to be their best. Danny grounds Mindy, and Mindy brings life and passion into Danny’s world. Danny makes Mindy more of a realist, and Mindy makes Danny more of a romantic.

Mindy wants to live in a romantic comedy, and Danny gave her the ultimate romantic gesture when he found her in the back of the plane and kissed her like I’m sure many of us watching have always wanted to be kissed. There were so many things to love about that kiss: the way Danny’s thumbs grazed Mindy’s cheekbones when he pulled away, the way Mindy shyly nodded to give him permission before he kissed her again, Danny’s hands as the kiss went on (thank goodness for full-body shots!), and the fact that these two passionate people kissed each other for the first time with such surprising tenderness.

If you ever want to remember that Danny Castellano is hotter than we ever imagined he could be, watch this again and again.

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

 

The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (12/1 – 12/8)

Posted on by
6

This week in television began on Sunday with an episode of Once Upon a Time that answered some important questions (How did Regina come to adopt Henry?) and raised some even more important ones (What kind of havoc will Peter Pan wreak upon Storybrooke in Henry’s body?). That was followed by an episode of The Good Wife that featured one storytelling and emotional highpoint after another. Tuesday may have been without a new episode of New Girl, but a great new episode of The Mindy Project (with special appearances from wine bras, a gingerbread Monticello, and dancing Danny Castellano) more than made up for it. Wednesday’s Nashville featured a father/daughter duet that made me weepy, and Thursday’s Scandal had so many twists that I think my head is still spinning. Thursday also featured NBC’s live TV production of The Sound of Music, which I actually thoroughly enjoyed, for the record.

There were some amazing TV moments this week: Will preparing to question Alicia on The Good Wife, Maddie and Deacon singing together on Nashville, the last 10 minutes of Scandal…But nothing I saw on television this week—heck, maybe nothing I’ve seen on television this year—was better than Chris Messina showing off his dance skills on The Mindy Project. A lot of shows threw a lot of twists our way this week, but was any twist more entertaining than Danny’s Secret Santa gift to Mindy being a perfectly executed dance routine to Aaliyah’s “Try Again”?

It was such a great twist that I had to deviate from my regular posting schedule to talk about it with a fervor that scared even me. 

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

Danny Castellano Has All the Right Moves

Posted on by
10

On last night’s Christmas episode of The Mindy Project, Mindy threw a holiday party to attract the attention of Cliff, the cute lawyer from her office building, but a bunch of other stuff happened too. Jeremy ate Danny’s gingerbread replica of Monticello. Peter flirted with Maria Menounos. Wine bras were worn, “Santa Baby” was sung, and Christmas trees were carried on subways and thrown over balconies.

Oh yeah—and this happened.

That’s right, friends, Danny Castellano showed off a set of moves that would make the best boy band members jealous as he gave Mindy her Secret Santa gift: a choreographed routine to the song she played on a loop when Danny first met her, Aaliyah’s “Try Again.”

I don’t know what’s more perfect—the dance itself, Chris Messina in general, or the fact that Danny remembered Mindy’s affection for the song from so many years ago. What I do know is that the bar for gift-giving on television has now been raised, and I’m not sure anyone can ever reach this level of perfection again.

The details of Danny’s character get handed out to us like Christmas gifts with every new episode. He’s a little grumpy, but he has smile that can light up a room (I’m talking about the one he gives her after his little “brush the shoulders off” move). He’ll try to smack you if you talk smack about Derek Jeter. He bakes gingerbread houses (and apparently also gingerbread estates). He hates scary stories, he smokes when he’s stressed, and he doesn’t know what a browser history is.

Danny may appear gruff and jaded, but he has a soft spot for Mindy. He knows what her vending machine food preferences are. He’ll clean the schmutz off her glasses when they’re dirty. He holds her hand when their plane hits a patch of turbulence. He writes her letters when she’s lonely in Haiti. And he dances like he’s in a music video for her because she deserves a Secret Santa gift as crazy, thoughtful, weird, and wonderful as she is.

This wasn’t just a regular, run-of-the-mill TV scene. This wasn’t just a good TV scene. This was a moment. This was one of those “I’ve fallen in love with a fictional man and I don’t even regret it” moments. This was Jim saying he’d save the receptionist. This was Ben giving Leslie waffles and chicken soup to help cure her flu. This was Nick yelling “Not like this!” when Jess wanted him to kiss her and Castle bringing Beckett every kind of takeout food known to man. This was a moment that deserves to be talked about, to be watched 500 times in a row, and to be written/Tweeted about until everyone on the planet has seen it. It surprised me, and I love being pleasantly surprised by people—real or fictional.

No, Mindy and Danny didn’t kiss last night. But do we really need them to do that yet? I’m content with where they are right now, even if in the moment I was screaming at Danny to follow Mindy outside when she told him she was getting fresh air. I love their tension, their slow awakening to their own feelings, and, most importantly their friendship. I don’t need anything more right now.

Except more dance numbers, of course.

Grading the Season Finales 2013: The Mindy Project

Posted on by
6

Title Take Me With You (1.24)

Written By Mindy Kaling and Jeremy Bronson

What Happens? After Mindy decides to go to Haiti with Casey, she attempts to prove herself capable of surviving in that environment during a camping trip with Danny, Christina, and Morgan. However, she soon finds herself wanting to go back on her decision and stay in New York instead. Rather than let Casey down, she decides to scare him off during their going-away party by demanding they get engaged before taking the trip together. Her plan backfires, though, when Casey attempts to propose, and Mindy is forced to tell him the truth: She doesn’t want to go to Haiti with him.

Following the successful delivery of triplets, Mindy and Danny both make big decisions about their relationships. Mindy realizes that Casey is worth the year in Haiti, and she proves this with a late-night trip to his apartment building and a pixie cut. Meanwhile, Danny decides to take a step back and slow down his reunion with Christina. After telling this to Mindy, the two share a moment that blurs the line between friends and something more—before Mindy tells him that she got back together with Casey and is going to Haiti for the year.

Game-Changing Moment With just one look, the dynamics on this show were suddenly changed forever. Danny’s quiet intensity and surprising softness as he looked at Mindy after cleaning her glasses couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than an intimacy far beyond friendship. For this whole season, the audience has been able to see the potential between these two characters, but it appeared that the characters were either unaware of it or unwilling to acknowledge the obvious chemistry between them. After this moment, though, neither will be able to ignore it any longer. Danny made himself vulnerable with her in a way we’ve never seen from him before, and that’s going to fundamentally alter their relationship—even if they both try to pretend like the moment didn’t happen. For someone as obsessed with romance as Mindy Lahiri, it’s going to be hard for her to ignore the fact that her closest male friend put himself out there in a romantic way with her, and it’s going to be interesting to see how that moment is handled at the start of Season Two.

Continue reading →