THE MINDY PROJECT Recap: Pilot

The Mindy Project starts with a montage of romantic comedies and Mindy as a child through college. Romantic comedies are her thing, she wants to live one and I can’t really blame her.

During rounds she sees a guy she wants to have a romantic comedy moment with, it’s Bill Hader. Their meet-cute moment is sharing an elevator that breaks down for 20 minutes. Those 20 minutes turned into sharing an apartment two months later.

This story is actually being told in voice over because it turns out Mindy is telling it to a cop while handcuffed. This story leads up to why she was arrested.
Apparently the night of her arrest Tom (Bill Hader) got married, to someone else. He met his “one” three months ago in a Serbian girl who sells bagels in the lobby of the hospital.
Mindy went to the wedding, even though she was sure she only invited out of politeness. They shouldn’t have been polite because four drinks later and Mindy gets up to the mic to give a little speech. Although it did start with a Downton Abbey reference it quickly became uncomfortable before she grabs a bottle of champagne and escapes on her bike. In her drunken stupor she rides her bike into a pool in someone’s back yard. This is what she gets arrested for.
She continues to tell the cop this isn’t who she is or who she is going to be. Her best friend Gwen bails her out before she can say anything else that the cop could care less about and heads back to work.

Mindy says she is going to do something different with her life, including maybe not sleeping with the hot British doctor anymore. He is hot, so I’m not sure if that is the most well thought out plan.
Still in her party dress she gets to the doctors office to find Danny, I figure he is the overachieving doctor, delivering her patient’s baby. They have some smart ass things to stay to each other.
The British doctor hits on Mindy but she turns him down. She is pretty proud of herself as am I because he is looking at her like he could eat her up.

The next day Mindy gets to work with a plan. She is going to change her life; maybe she will take the stairs instead of the elevator, although she will probably take the escalator today, baby steps.
In here office is a woman with no insurance who is nine months pregnant. She tells her she can’t help the woman. She has a change of heart and takes the lady on as a patient though. After chastising her receptionists for sending her these types of patients they want to know why she can’t just say no.
Mindy: I’m not good at saying no. I once left a flea market with a samurai sword.

She doesn’t dwell on that long though because she has a first date outfit to try on. Danny of course doesn’t like it. He says she looks like she should be dating Elton John, but Mindy likes it and she doesn’t care what he thinks. She makes a quip about his ex-wife and his comeback is about her weight; not at all childish of him. The hot British doctor says she looks great and not so subtly invites her to his office. She accepts but only for a moment before she comes back to her senses.
Sure enough though as she is leaving the office she has changed and looks more in line with what Danny thought would be a good first date look for her.

After a quick prayer in the cab Mindy shows up to her blind date, who is none other than Ed Helms. Despite her crazy commentary, the date seems to be going quite well.
Dinner however is interrupted by the son of the pregnant lady who didn’t have insurance. She tries to end the date with more awkward comments before running back to the office; literally running as she couldn’t catch a cab.
She gets back to the office to deliver the baby while Danny looks on in admiration even if he would never say so.

She is decompressing in the break room when Danny comes in to pick on Mindy a little more. It is apparent, to me at least, that he has a crush on Mindy he just doesn’t know how to deal with. Much like the boy in the school yard that picks on the girl he likes.
He starts questioning her about her date. Was he a man? You know, like glass breaks in the middle of the night…does he grab a bat and go find out what happened or hide under the covers?
Mindy doesn’t know, it was half of one first date.
He gives her a backhanded compliment about the delivery she just performed and even makes a joke she thinks is funny.

Later that night at home on the phone with her best friend Mindy hears her doorbell ring. It’s British doctor, so while she is telling her friend she is really getting it together she is watching British doctor get undressed in her bedroom.

What did you think of The Mindy Project?

The Mindy Project airs Tuesday 9:30/8:30c on Fox