Oh, Mindy Kaling, you are wonderful. You make me feel better about myself and my darling little quirks and idiosyncrasies that I’m not meant to have because I read somewhere that they are "bad for feminism".
Your book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, is the book that I’d write given a lucrative publishing deal and the opportunity to hang out with Zooey Deschanel.
You speak the truth, have good hair and make people laugh without being snarky or mean. Can we be best friends and go shopping together and eat cupcakes and look at cute little dogs together whilst having hilarious conversations peppered with dazzling witticisms?
I’ve already accepted that this is unlikely to ever happen, but Mindy’s place is forever reserved at my Ultimate Fantasy Feminist Dinner Party – along with Nora Ephron, Carrie Brownstein, Tina Fey and Lindy West. It will be awesome.
Whilst Mindy and I shall never be BFFs, there is always the arrival of The Mindy Project to look forward to. Kaling’s new comedy show premieres on 25 September in the States on Fox. Whether it makes it to UK screens is uncertain. But hey, we got New Girl and that wasn’t even that funny! Readers in the US can watch the pilot episode on Hulu now.
The premise for the show is fairly straightforward: Mindy plays a single obstetrician and gynaecologist. She’s looking for love and holding down a high-flying career. Don’t roll your eyes just yet; the show’s script is pretty much a love letter to Nora Ephron, with abundant wise cracks and plenty of smart talking.
The trailer shows Mindy getting raging drunk at an ex-boyfriend’s wedding before riding a bike into a swimming pool and getting arrested for public intoxication. Her character is by no-means a cookie-cutter singleton sad-sack, she holds her own and knows how to put people in their place.
On a personal note, I admire how The Mindy Project puts a female character out there who wears her flaws on her sleeve. It bugs me how female characters with the aforementioned quirks and idiosyncrasies get ripped to shreds by some feminist commentators. A note to those critics: we can’t all be Tank Girl and we don’t all want to be.
The show is bound to have some crumby moments and duff lines – this is mainstream US network television after all! Let's not forget that Mindy Kaling has done something spectacular: she has made a mainstream TV show that appears to be funny, feminist and accessible. Thanks for that Mindy! We are totally having burgers and fries at my Ultimate Fantasy Feminist Dinner Party.
Image via Fox Broadcasting Company