It’s a night of guest stars on “The Mindy Project” this week. Timothy Olyphant (“Justified”) plays a professional skateboarder, “Saturday Night Live’s” hysterical Vanessa Bayer is Danny’s uber-boring date, and Alan Dale (“Lost,” “Ugly Betty”) plays Jeremy’s father in a not terribly interesting storyline where Jeremy feels jealous and inferior because Peter bonds with his father.
I’m ready for them to take charge of Jeremy’s storyline and give him something better to do than make fat jokes.
On to Mindy. She opens the episode trying to practice self-restraint with a bear claw when Olyphant’s Graham Logan (“cool name, doesn’t matter”) crashes into her (and the bear claw mysteriously vanishes). He asks her out immediately, but she turns him down.
That evening, she and Danny go to a dinner party that is huge enough to have two long dining tables full of people, one for couples and one for singles. Mindy finds herself at the couples’ table because the hosts are through trying to set her up. Apparently, no one is good enough for Mindy because she’s too picky.
Mindy interrupts Danny’s hopelessly one-sided conversation with Vanessa Bayer’s Mary to inform him what their married friends said about her. When Danny confirms that Mindy is, in fact, too picky, she seeks out Graham as the perfect example to prove Danny wrong.
Their date goes as well as it might, given that he really isn’t right for her—and there’s nothing wrong with that. I had a little trouble with this episode because there’s nothing wrong with being picky or having standards, especially where dating is concerned. And as we’ve seen, Mindy is never at a loss for potential male companions.
Anyway, the date seems to be a small roller coaster, as Graham says or does something that’s relatively insightful, followed by something that “got dumb again.” But just when she’s about to follow her very wise instincts and leave, she ignores them and hooks up with him because he rescues her phone from the subway tracks. What he lacks in smarts he makes up for in brave, easy-going stupidity.
Of course, no episode of “The Mindy Project” is complete without a crazy outing, so Mindy, Graham, Danny, and Mary go on a double date. They decide to be impetuous by dining and dashing. I personally have never done that either, but nor have I ever had a real desire to. To each their own, I guess.
While escaping through the alley, Mindy gets caught in the wire fence and realizes that she and Graham are just not suited for each other. She breaks up with him mid-fence. Danny drops Mary off at home, and she breaks up with him after he falls asleep while they’re talking. Danny finds Mindy at the restaurant again, where they finish their meal as friends—fully intending to pay the bill. I love those moments where we see their friendship continue to fully develop, which will, of course, be that much sweeter when they finally hook up.
Here are some of my favorite lines tonight:
“Why are you all alone? Where’s your baby?”—Young Clementine, to a single Mindy at the couples’ table
“She’s like a white noise machine to me.”—Danny, about Mary
“I went to all the loseryist places I could find.”—Mindy, to Graham
“A crow’s feet, this one fang I have that I need to get shaved down … the worst.”—Mindy, when Graham asks what she sees when she looks in the mirror
“My body is very attracted to your body, but when you speak, my brain gets angry.”—Mindy, to Graham
“She collects cow stuff.”—Mary, on how interesting her mother is
“My name is Nurse Morgan, I’m here to name your babies. Grover, John, Grover.”—(an underutilized) Morgan
“They’re called soy beans, they’re from Iowa.”—Danny, about edamame
“I have huge cans, everybody knows that.”—Mindy
“Suck in your butt.”—Graham
“Yeah, my body can’t do that.”—Mindy, as she’s trying to squeeze through the fence
Your turn, Mindy fans. What were your favorite lines in this episode of “The Mindy Project”? Did you enjoy Timothy Olyphant and Vanessa Bayer’s performances? Do you also feel Jeremy is worthy of some better storylines? Chime in below.
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