What would Dr Lahiri do? Lie down in a dark room with a stack of 1980s romcoms and a giant bowl of popcorn? The disappointing news that The Mindy Project has not been renewed by Fox beyond its third season has been tempered by reports in Variety and elsewhere that US online service Hulu is in talks to pick it up for another two.
Creator, showrunner and star Mindy Kaling responded to Fox’s decision with a typically understated message on Twitter and Instagram …
Hey guys, I'm in Montana, is anything happening in LA? #themindyproject https://t.co/hClsfHFXxW
— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) May 7, 2015
If Hulu does pick it up, The Mindy Project will be the latest network sitcom to find a new lease of life in the world of online TV. It would be following in the path of Arrested Development (dropped by Fox in 2006, revived by Netflix in 2013); Community (after a protracted cancelled and renewed saga on NBC, now brought to you by Yahoo) and Tina Fey’s The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (a series that NBC passed on before it was even aired, and then launched on Netflix all-you-can-eat style this year).
If we’ve really seen the last of Mindy (Lahiri, not Kaling – it’s impossible to believe she won’t find another outlet for her talent), it would be a real loss – apart from the obvious impact of seeing an “American-Indian female comedian” starring in a mainstream sitcom (as she described herself in a Guardian interview), Dr Mindy Lahiri has been a brilliant character. As a gynaecologist who’s obsessed with a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks version of romance, Mindy is as capable of being as selfish as Curb’s Larry David, as goofy as Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes or as ready with an off-hand one-liner as 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon. Pass the popcorn, dig out the boxset and petition Hulu, we can’t lose her!
