What’s Worth Watching: The Mindy Project

The Mindy Project, “Dinner at the Castellanos,” Tuesday, Feb. 10, 9:30/8:30c, Fox

Mindy (Mindy Kaling) getting pregnant on The Mindy Project isn’t shocking. The series is always adding and subtracting characters. (For a medical sitcom, its doctors office has an extraordinarily realistic turnover rate and appropriately-sized support staff.) This new addition just happens to be gestating—and, as evidence by tonight’s episode, it’s working for the show. That’s the surprise. Selfish, superficial, slightly crazy Mindy is the TV equivalent of that friend you’re dead positive should never, ever have a child. So watching her navigate her new reality and consider how it will impact boyfriend Danny (Chris Messina) brings The Mindy Project back to its original (and worthwhile) premise: Mindy trying to be a better person. That this all happens against the backdrop of Danny’s divorced parents Annette and Alan (Rhea Perlman and Dan Hedaya) facing each other again for the first time in 30 years over a family meal of pasta and freshly killed (by Mindy in the bathtub) eel makes it funny. And here’s a little trivia: There’s a reason Perlman and Hedaya are so good at tearing each other down. They played estranged marrieds before on Cheers.