Mindy struggles to be the perfect stay-at-home mom, and decides to give Danny a shot at the job. Meanwhile, Morgan gets an unlikely girlfriend.
The fourth season of The Mindy Project has been really strong so far. Probably the best stretch of episodes the show has ever produced. "Stay at Home MILF" is the first true misfire of the season. Its intentions are noble but the execution falters in a way that feels formulaic and dated. The episode largely focuses on Mindy and Danny realizing just how difficult it is to stay at home and raise a baby. It follows a predictable pattern that doesn't always highlight the best in the characters. It's a part of the show's ongoing dialogue about new parenthood for these characters. They are navigating how to handle this new family dynamic. They are learning how to communicate their feelings better. And yet, they are still keeping things from each other in order to create story for the show.Mindy does her best to commit to staying at home and doing everything that Danny thinks she needs to do. It's a job that she loves in the beginning but it soon becomes overwhelming as soon as Danny points out everything that is expected of her. It's good that Danny wants to have a parent involved in Leo's life throughout the day. And yet, he's thrusting a lot of that responsibility on Mindy without having a good understanding of what all of that entails. He does know and respect how much his mother worked during his childhood. But he's still asking a lot of Mindy when she doesn't even know if she can commit to this schedule.
Both Mindy and Danny have horrible days when they are at home taking care of Leo and cleaning the apartment. Mindy tries following a blog that tells her how to best serve her man and her baby. It's hilarious as it tells her all these things that sound ridiculous and she just can't keep up. She does her best in order to be there for Leo and Danny. But by the end of the week, everyone feels tired of the arrangement. It's largely because she made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner every single night for the week. That allowed Mindy and Danny to switch roles for a day. Mindy would go to work and take care of his patients while Danny would stay at home and do all of her duties. It's a familial structure in order to find conflict. And it's still very predictable. Danny realizes just how difficult it actually is to do all of the work and follow a schedule. So he has newfound respect for what Mindy has committed to doing for their family.
And yet, Mindy hasn't committed to staying at home and not going back to work. She returns after a week away and remembers just how much she loves this job. It's the thing she is best at in life. She's a great OB/GYN. She remembers that after one surgery with Jody. This is where she feels the most alive and comfortable. Now she just has to find a way to tell Danny that she wants to be at work more than she wants to be a stay-at-home mom. It's a hard decision that every new mother has to make. She loves Leo more than anything else in the world. But she's much better at being a doctor than she is a homemaker. The problem is that Danny is too. He can't even manage one day at home with Leo and doing the cooking and cleaning. He's a mess and needs his mother to come help. Trying to pass her work off as him succeeding at this job to Mindy is kind of a jerk move. She spots it right away but he still shouldn't have tried to fool her like that. It just didn't feel right. It didn't make that character feel appealing in the moment even though he was struggling with this new job.
Of course, Mindy isn't able to tell Danny how she really feels in the end because he gets a call from his half-sister that his father has had a heart attack. In that moment, that's all he cares about. He needs to get on a plane and make sure that that part of his family is okay. He worries about his new responsibilities with Mindy, Leo and work. She reassures him that everything is going to be fine. He needs to go be with his father right now. She and Leo will still be here for him when he gets back. In this life-and-death situation, all the other problems they have right now just fade away. It's still a conversation that these characters need to have. It's a little puzzling why they haven't had it yet though. Why is it being drawn out to this extent? Everyone else at work is largely aware of how Mindy feels about the issue. And yet, plot complications keep coming up at the end of each episode that delay the conversation until the next week. It's starting to get a little weird - even though it feels inevitable that both will return to work and just hire a nanny to watch Leo during the day.
Some more thoughts:
- "Stay at Home MILF" was written by Chris Schleicher and directed by Rachel Goldenberg.
- Jody and Collette continue to be fun additions this season. Jody and his old-school, Southern charms continue to be a great foil to Mindy - though their animosity isn't as severe as the previous episode. Meanwhile, Collette continues to be an exciting new friendship for Mindy to have this season.
- The similarities between Collette needing to come out as a lesbian and Mindy needing to come out as wanting to return to the work force were interesting though a little too pronounced.
- Jeremy is largely reduced to a running gag about the new intercom system. And yet, that joke was really well executed throughout the episode as it effected how various plots happened.
- Morgan's excitement about his new connection to Jody and Collette was humorous even though his over commitment to it was slightly weird in the end.
- It's disappointing that Danny's mother is mentioned but she doesn't appear. I miss Rhea Perlman.
- Mindy: "Danny I can't clean. I was born in this country and I'm too lazy."
- Morgan: "He brought me on his boat! No one has ever done that and brought me back!"
- Mindy: "I forgot how much I like slicing up women. Good thing I became a doctor."
