TV Review - The Mindy Project: Season 2

I thought the pilot episode of Season 1 of The Mindy Project was nothing short of fantastic. It was funny and charming and warm and just so well done. Season 1 definitely had a curve that arced downward. Every episode that followed was a decline from there. I quickly lost interest, and, sadly, it seems that this second season is shaping to be the same thing. The first episode of Season 2 is pretty strong, but then the subsequent episodes feel like they fell off a cliff.

Mindy Lahiri, played by Mindy Kaling, gets engaged while in Haiti to Casey, played by Anders Holm (Workaholics). Getting engaged in a tree was a crazy yet funny idea. Casey gets Mindy's movie obsession, specifically her rom-com obsession, which is a great nod to the show's Bible and goes to the core of the Mindy character. The introduction of Paul Leotard, played by Oscar-nominee James Franco, was a stroke of genius and presented what was possibly a better foil for Mindy than Danny Castellano, played by Chris Messina, whose character now is really, really less than what he was at the very beginning.

The show continues the momentum established in the Season 2 premiere, but then the show quickly goes wonky. What we get is Adam Pally from Happy Endings basically doing his same shtick from that show, which sadly doesn't work in this one and isn't funny.

Two Stars out of Five.
Rated TV-14-DLS.
Running Time: 30 mins.