BuzzFeed: "Why The Mindy Project Is No Longer A Work In Progress, But Perfection"

Mindy Kaling’s single-camera comedy is not only hitting all of its marks in its second season, it’s surpassing them… and leaving New Girl in its wake.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "Why The Mindy Project Is No Longer A Work In Progress, But Perfection," in which I write about why The Mindy Project is perfect (and what Fox's New Girl could learn from it these days).

The noticeable creative decline of Fox’s once-sterling comedy New Girl — which this season has offered some head-scratching plot developments (who exactly was calling for the full-time return of Coach?) and a dearth of actual comedy — has had a unintentional silver lining of sorts. It’s allowed the show’s winsome timeslot companion The Mindy Project — created by and starring Mindy Kaling — its own opportunity to shine.

And, let’s be honest: The Mindy Project is currently glowing with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. Season 2 of this sharp comedy has continued with the strengths of the back half of its freshman year, having jettisoned some of the show’s elements that weren’t working (such as Anna Camp’s best friend character and Amanda Sutton’s Shauna) and focusing on the quirky interplay between the staffers of a women’s health clinic in Manhattan.

The show hasn’t been afraid to make those changes either, restructuring the ensemble so that Beth Grant’s Beverly, Zoe Jarman’s Betsy, and Xosha Roquemore’s Tamra now pack as much comedic wallop as the core trio — Kaling’s Mindy Lahiri, Chris Messina’s Danny Castellano, and a presently paunchy Ed Weeks’ Jeremy Reed — and writer/actor Ike Barinholtz’s Morgan Tooks. I might have described the latter as a scene-stealer, but the truth of the matter is that each of these players can now walk off with a sequence tucked firmly under his or her arms. That’s a real feat for any comedy, particularly one that initially appeared as though it might not make it through its first season; but something truly alchemical happened along the way with The Mindy Project: It not only found its groove but pushed itself to become something truly great in the process.

Continue reading at BuzzFeed...

The Daily Beast: "Why Comedy Writers Love HBO's Game of Thrones"

Game of Thrones is beloved by viewers and critics alike. But the Emmy-nominated HBO fantasy drama is also a surprising favorite in the writers’ rooms of TV comedies around Hollywood. I talk to sitcom writers about why they’re obsessed with the sex-and-magic-laden drama, and how the show informs their own narratives.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Why Comedy Writers Love HBO's Game of Thrones," in which I talk to writers from Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, and Community about why they love HBO's Game of Thrones, nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Drama.

Fox’s upcoming sitcom The Mindy Project, created by and starring Mindy Kaling, deconstructs the romantic comedy fantasies of its lead character, an ob-gyn whose disappointment in the dating world stems from her obsessive viewing of Nora Ephron films.

At the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in July, Kaling was candid about the role that When Harry Met Sally and other rom-coms would play on the show, but also revealed the show might feature shoutouts to HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Drama.

“My writing staff, they are just obsessed with Game of Thrones,” Kaling said. “The show could just have Game of Thrones references: dragons, stealing eggs of dragon babies… You might see a lot—more than your average show—of Game of Thrones references.”

Yet the writers of The Mindy Project are not the only scribes who have fallen under the spell of the ferocious Game of Thrones, which depicts the struggle for control of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

“It’s a violent, strange show with lots of sex in it,” Kaling went on to say.

Writers’ rooms—where the plots of television shows are “broken,” in industry parlance—often revolve around discussions of other shows, particularly ones that have a significant hold on the cultural conversation, whether it be Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or Homeland.

“A comedy writers’ room is like a really great dinner party with the smartest and funniest people you’ve ever met,” Parks and Recreation co-executive producer Alexandra Rushfield wrote in an email. Their typical conversations? “The presidential campaign. Whatever articles or books people are reading. Taking wagers on crazy statistics, like how much all the casts in the world combined might weigh. General heckling of co-workers.”

And TV shows such as Game of Thrones that viewers can debate endlessly. Modern Family executive producer Danny Zuker likened Game of Thrones to Lost in terms of the volume of discussion and passionate debate that the show engenders. It’s certainly immersive: five massive novels, two seasons of television, maps, online forums, family trees. Game of Thrones is a show that provokes—or even forces—viewer evaluation, deconstruction, and discussion.

“Many writers that I know are into it,” said Zuker over lunch on the Fox lot. “The setting of the world probably appeals to that nerd that is in most writers… I never played Dungeons & Dragons, but I get why the most disaffected kids who are intelligent and creative did, because in that world you could be powerful…. I basically just described comedy writers.”

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "Fall TV 2012 Preview: 7 Shows to Watch, 7 Shows to Skip"

The fall television season is here! But which shows should you be watching and which should you skip? I'm glad you asked.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Fall TV 2012 Preview: 7 Shows to Watch, 7 Shows to Skip," in which I offer my take on the upcoming fall season, with seven shows you should be watching (from ABC's Nashville to PBS' Call the Midwife) and those you should be snubbing (Partners, The Neighbors).

The fall television season is once again upon us, and overall the results are pretty depressing: there’s a decided lack of originality to much of the broadcast networks’ new offerings, as if they were somehow injured by the lack of interest in last year’s riskier programs.

In fact, there is a whole lot of formulaic fare coming to your televisions, and a ton of new (mostly awful) comedies this year. But fret not: it’s not all doom and gloom, as there are at least a few promising new shows on the horizon, from the Connie Britton-led country music drama Nashville to the sweet charms of offbeat comedy Ben & Kate.

Once again, the broadcasters have opted to hold back many of the more interesting new shows until midseason, which means we’ll have to wait until January for the launch of Kevin Williamson’s serial killer thriller The Following against James Purefoy in a murderous game, and Bryan Fuller’s television adaptation of Hannibal, which finds a young FBI agent (Hugh Dancy) meeting the cannibalistic psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) for the first time. Which isn’t to say that midseason is entirely promising either: the winter will also find ABC offering us the truly terrible Dane Cook comedy (and I use that word loosely), Next Caller.

In the meantime, however, while we’re waiting for the rise of the serial killers on the broadcast nets, here’s a look at the best and worst of the new fall television season.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...