The Mindy Project brought us humor, heartache, and heartwarming moments. Our heroine, Mindy, isn't perfect, but she would be less popular if she were perfect. Mindy has grit; she goes for things that seem difficult to achieve, always willing to try. In addition, she owns up to her mistakes. Surrounded by a cast of amusing side characters, The Mindy Project proved interesting, insightful, and hilarious over its six seasons.
Still, there are things that didn't quite make sense in the show, such as the ten listed below.
Mindy Being Able To Afford Renting Her Nice Apartment
Mindy makes good money, so this wouldn't be the problem, but she is horrible at budgeting. In one episode, her budget problems catch up with her, and she has to convince Cliff to help her out as her lawyer. To do such, she first has to "break-up" with Danny and make Cliff believe that he has a chance with Mindy.
While this provides for a hilarious episode and Cliff does help her out, it still shows that Mindy is horrible with money. Just like how we were baffled as to how Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City was able to buy all those expensive shoes with her writer's salary and poor budget ability, we are baffled as to how Mindy kept such a nice apartment midst her budget issues.
Jeremy's Character Changes
Jeremy begins The Mindy Project as a lothario, slick and charming. He even is briefly presented as a romantic interest for Mindy. Then his personality shifts. He becomes an insecure man who is constantly one-upped by Peter when they both try for the same woman. Also he has strange hobbies that he gets made fun of from time to time. While he is technically the boss, his staff has little respect for him. This change was noticed by many, and other articles commented upon it. Apparently, this character was always meant to be a lovable dork; initially they were encouraged to have him be the typical lothario. Luckily, they were able to change this back to their original intention.
Mindy's Outside Friends Disappearing
Initially, Mindy has an outside-of-work life, and that includes her outside friends. Perhaps the most important of the friends is Gwen, her best friend. Mindy calls on Gwen when she needs to talk things out. In addition, she learns to accept that Gwen's life has changed. This means that sometimes Gwen can't hang out the way they used to do.
Due to Gwen being a mom, Mindy learns to include Gwen's daughter as well. Gwen was someone who gave Mindy perspective, someone who connected Mindy to her past. We were sad to see her and the other friends go and were given little reason in the plot as to why Mindy's friends would disappear completely from the narrative.
Mindy's Quick Engagement And Quicker Divorce
Mindy tries to get over Danny, and one of the ways that she is able to is by meeting Ben. Not only is Ben handsome, but he is a great nurse, a capable single dad, and an emotionally mature person. He also calls Mindy out on her bias about nurses. We would have liked to see their relationship develop more slowly because it seems that we were never really able to get to know Ben.
Presented as a supporting partner, someone who loved her for her and wouldn't try to sabotage any of her education and/or business ventures (something that Danny did do), he seemed just the type of person that Mindy needed. He came across as a healthier relationship. However, the engagement was quick, and their chemistry didn't get the chance to bloom. The divorce was even quicker. It seemed more of a relief for Mindy than a decision she had to ponder and agonize over.
How Little We See Of Mindy's Family
The moments we have with Mindy's family are precious, partly to see how Mindy interacts with her family and partly because we have so few moments with them. Unfortunately, the show often spends more time showing the family of Mindy's love interests. We see this most with Danny as we have entire episodes dedicated to his family drama. Since we see so little of Mindy's family, it suggests that she doesn't have a close relationship with them. We find out otherwise, so we wish that we could have had more moments with them.
Mindy Doesn't Continue Mentoring
Various times in the show, Mindy mentors young women, encouraging them to exercise their brains and see the options that they have as women. In Season 1 Episode 23, she takes down a stripper pole at a college frat party when the student she is mentoring downplays her intelligence and starts to dance on it. Mindy encourages her to use her brain instead.
When a detective's young daughter bemoans that she is worried that guys won't like her, Mindy counsels her. She tells her that guys will be interested, but that she doesn't need to rush it. After giving this bit of wisdom, the daughter (like so many young women Mindy mentors) disappears from the narrative, although Mindy does date the father for a short time. We would have liked to see Mindy having a longer friendship with at least one of the young girls that she mentored, rather than just an episode or two.
Members Of The Clinic Staff Disappearing Without A Trace
Two of the characters disappeared from the show, and we don't ever really find out the reasons why. Shauna, the beautiful and hip assistant, is in love with Danny, and she disappears fairly early in the show. Her disappearance is never really discussed. While Betsy, the office assistant, may have lasted longer, she also disappeared from the show. Likewise, we didn't receive much insight as to why her character left the office. Similar to Shauna, Betsy crushed on Danny. Perhaps, the plan was to get other potential hurdles out of the way for Mindy and Danny, although we have to say that we could never see Danny falling for either Betsy or Shauna. This proves that neither of them were ever really hurdles.
Morgan's Hoarding Of Dogs
While this one doesn't quite make sense, we actually love this peculiar character trait. We know that Morgan is caring and kind, but he takes it a little too far with the dogs. Also, it's unusual that he was allowed to hoard for so long, not getting found out. In addition, Tamra is allergic to dogs. This seemed a very random character trait for Morgan, one that we might not understand, but we do find endearing.
Others Underestimating And Not Valuing Mindy As An OB-GYN
Mindy may be a quirky person, have a crazy love life and an unhealthy obsession with celebrities, but she is an excellent OB-GYN. Early in the series, she proves her ability to Danny. Later, she proves herself to Danny's friend once she is at Stanford for the Fellowship. When another clinic is after Mindy, her partners don't initially believe her. Why Mindy has to prove herself time and time again becomes very frustrating.
When she starts business ventures, she is put down by others, especially Danny. Mindy is smart and determined. Although she may have her doubts at first, she will work through them to succeed. It's sad that the other characters consistently both underestimate and under value Mindy in each season.
Mindy Returning To Danny
Now, bear with us here, we know that Danny and Mindy were presented as relationship end goals. We loved the Harry Met Sally/Sleepless in Seattle vibe, and we loved them together. . .in the beginning. Danny put up with Mindy's antics. Mindy put up with Danny's grouchy behavior. They discovered new things about each other, and their chemistry was off the charts. Even separated and stuck in an elevator after a meeting at their son's school, their chemistry sparked and soared, leaving a video worthy of the porn hub where Mindy and her dentist ex-boyfriend's sex tape once went.
However, Danny constantly undermined and judged her. Her mother famously calls this out in Season 5, Episode 6, when Mindy is trying to decide if she should try to get Danny back, breaking up his wedding. She decides not to and returns to help her mom instead.
When she tells her mom that she has been hearing Danny's voice talking to her through a photo, her mom tells her that it sounds like her own voice. She says, "You've always been so driven and hard on yourself that somewhere along the line, you started to believe if someone wasn't hard on you, they didn't care about you. And eventually, you ended up with a man who did the criticizing for you. And now that Danny's gone, I'm worried that you're doing the criticizing for him." Such insightful words from her mom convince us that Danny may not be the right person for her, no matter how much he says that he has changed.