Mindy Kaling

[twodollars]

On a random note, ABC just released their schedule for fall and it is one of the most diverse in tv history apparently.

[Sunnyhorse]

Mindy Kaling is like nails on a chalkboard for me, but I respect her for getting and keeping this show on the air. As a white chick and someone who knows nothing about television production I'm not really comfortable telling her what the makeup of her writing staff and cast should be.

[chonies]

I don't know what most writing staffs look like, but stand up comedy is hugely male, and I have the idea that sitcom writing is for people who can write good jokes but don't do well on stage. I'm not thrilled about either of these facts, but if it's true for nearly all shows, I agree with Sunnyhorse and think it's probably a general fact that Kaling shouldn't be held much more accountable for.

[deeconsistent]

Chonies and Sunnyhorse,please read this piece by Beejoli Shah. It gives some insight into how television works and what it's like to be a minority writer.

[mementomori]

That Beejoli Shah piece was really fascinating, wow. I'm always of two minds about Mindy Kaling: 1. I'm happy her show exists to criticize. 2. She seems far more conservative than I ever expected. I get how the show sends up these rom-com cliches but she almost never subverts them. The finale suffered for embracing these cliches. Hell, we as viewers suffer for how heartily she embraces the sassy, black nurse stereotype because it's simply. not. funny. No, I don't think it's fair to project all of Hollywood's shortcomings on her teensy-little-show (teensy in the bigger picture that is) but it's frankly startling how retrograde a tone the show seems to have. You know what showrunner is more my wavelength? Elizabeth Meriwether. And I never thought I would write that sentence in 2011 when New Girl premiered. But the show has actually had interesting plots on how women relate to each other, male friendships, male-female friendships, interracial friendships, etc.

[deeconsistent]

Mementomori, I would give your post 1000 likes if I could. It covers all of the conflicting emotions I have about her and her show. I don't hate her at all, I am proud of the ground she's broken and back when I watched the show, I thought it was definitely one of the better, smarter shows on tv. There are just so many glaring red flags for me that it makes it hard for me to support her. I don't necessarily begrudge her any success, but I have this strange indifference towards her that should be occupied by mild fanaticism.

[Sunnyhorse]

Wow, that piece is seriously depressing.

[Ginger]

Mindy seems most comfortable around young, white, Jewish, hipster comedy writers who used to write for the Harvard Lampoon, so if that's who she feels most comfortable writing with, fine.

However, I tuned out of the show when it became mostly about obnoxious white guy characters being obnoxious. I felt like every episode was like sitting in Mindy's writer's room and it was not fun. Adam Pally being added to the cast as yet another immature white guy was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, and I actually looked at the TV one day when he was onscreen doing something idiotic and just turned it off.

[codert]

Adam Pally made me stop watching also! His character was too annoying for me to continue to watch.

[Deleted]

Adam Pally just might be my favorite on the show, besides Mindy, at this point. I absolutely love his character (and I'm hoping his new neurosurgeon GF will become a regular so that they do have another decent female character on the show). I think he's hilarious and gives some depth and heart to the typical douchey frat-boy character.