Mindy Kaling loves rom-coms so much that she made her own. Only this one is different, and when it leaves television (well, Hulu) after six seasons, it’ll leave a gaping hole in its place.
Following its fifth season finale last week, The Mindy Project announced that the next season would be its last. For a show that began as an homage to some of star and creator Kaling’s favorite movies, it has bent the rules of the genre, delving into social issues in a way others of its kind have long shied away from.
This first and perhaps most obvious thing that sets the show apart is that it stars a woman of color. Rom-coms, whether on the big screen or television, much, much more often than not cast white stars — the Meg Ryans, Tom Hankses and Zooey Deschanels of the entertainment world.
The show isn’t always used as a platform to comment on racial or gender issues, but when it is, the episodes are astute without being aggressive and thoughtful while still finding ways to make light of the situation. An episode this season explored how Mindy’s life might be different if she were a white man; it turns out, she discovers, having a successful career and dating life is much easier for those guys.
The Mindy Project has, since its conception, been a nod to Kaling’s favorite romantic comedies. She tweeted in 2016 a list of some of her favorites, which included the likes of You’ve Got Mail, The Princess Bride and Bridget Jones’ Diary. It’s no wonder, then, why the season two finale concluded with Mindy and office grump-turned-love interest Danny (Chris Messina) meeting at the top of the Empire State Building a la Sleepless in Seattle.
But around season four — after a baby and a proposal — that storybook romance got rocky, and not in the way that it does in a rom-com right before the sweeping grand gesture and declaration of love. Instead, Mindy and Danny called it quits. Like, for good.
Had The Mindy Project instead been a movie, it would have ended with Mindy and Danny falling in love, probably on the Empire State Building, on New Year’s Eve or at the airport. If the writers really wanted to make a statement, maybe it instead would have ended when the couple decided to break up for good, as a kind of tragic spin on a romantic comedy, but a romantic comedy nonetheless. No feature-length rom-com would have done what the show ended up doing: not just showing what happens after happily ever after, but what happens after happily ever after turns out to be neither happy nor forever.
Season five surrounded a newly single hopeless romantic’s attempt to pick up the pieces of a relationship that could have — and would have, in most other shows or films — been a done deal. How do you move on from a messy relationship when there’s a kid involved? When do you start dating again? When you do date, do you even want to get married this time around?
With an end now in sight, the way Kaling and her team choose to play out the rest of Mindy’s life on screen will say a lot, whether she finally gets to ride off into the sunset with good-guy nurse Ben (Bryan Greenberg) or calls it quits with yet another potential Prince Charming.
With its witty writing, fun concept and that lady you might recognize from The Office, The Mindy Project had many of us at “hello” — season one, if you will. But it’s what the show has done to upend its own genre, what might have happened to the characters in our favorite rom-coms after the credits rolled, that has kept us coming back for more.
