Can't Brendon Be Done?

The Mindy Project, S01E12

Mindy decided to take Jeremy's advice and tried having casual sex instead of dating.  She chose Brendon since she was attracted to him, but didn't respect him.  Danny had a first date with the girl with the eye patch, but her wild ideas for the night scared him off to fake a work emergency before the date started.

 There were so many things wrong about Mindy trying to hook up with Brendon.  I mean, this was an idea essentially from Jeremy, who might be the king of casual sex, but not the best general idea guy around.  What works for him definitely isn't for Mindy.  She's too much of a romantic for that to be her cup of tea.  I might have changed my mind if she hadn't picked Brendon of all people.  Ugh.  He's not super good-looking in my opinion, and his personality is so irritating.  There's something so cocky and controlling about him that rubs me the wrong way. I wanted Mindy to have any excuse in the world to not go to his house.

It was just painful to watch Mindy's failed hookup the whole time.  I can't think of one part that was the most embarrassing to see--they were all equally terrible.  However, I did think it was sort of funny in an unlucky way when Mindy got caught in Brendon's automated shower.  She was screaming and trying to break free, while he was just strumming on his guitar without a care in the world.  I felt bad for her, but I also thought her flailing around in the water and glass walls was priceless.  I actually wish she had berated Brendon for her own mistake later, but she just played it cool.  I feel like she had suffered enough at that point and should have gone home way before Morgan and Duncan crashed the "party."  For me, Brendon is so not worth the trouble of all that.

I still wasn't feeling Brendon when he was able to get Morgan's asthma under control by relaxing him.  It was actually one of the first times I felt like what he does is a little like magic as the doctors have been calling it out of spite.  I think I just wasn't impressed by his moves because he kept making Mindy feel like an idiot and unneeded when he was doing his thing.  Yes, she was making the situation worse, but she was sort of his date that night--he didn't have to be a jerk to her.  Like that was one of my main problems--I didn't feel chemistry between them.

Finally, when Mindy threw in the towel to that horrible night of non-sex, I thought she had banned Brendon from her list of possible booty-calls.  Nope, she was still on board with the idea when Brendon declared they would hook up eventually.  What?  No!  Man, just write that up as a failure and never look back.  If only they didn't work in the same building.  I know I'm not going to love the episode where Brendon makes good on that promise.  At least, as of right now.  I'd almost rather her get drunk and sleep with Josh again.

Jillian turned out to a better match for Danny than I thought, mainly because she both exposes Danny's age in comical way and possibly makes him a little cooler.  I was excited to hear Jillian's plan for them that night and was looking forward to Danny wriggling around while he tried to hide his discomfort and lack of hipness.  Instead, Danny turned tail and ran away.  Disappointing, but not really shocking, I guess.  I'm sure that Danny would much rather take the coward's way out than look like a fool in front of a girl he liked.  He also had Mindy to think about because she was all up in Jillian's business.  He wouldn't be able to save face if he had to hide the fact that their date was a disaster.  Although, since Mindy's fling with Brendon was train wreck, she couldn't really rub it in his face.  At any rate, Jillian doesn't look like she's giving up on Danny yet.  I just wonder how old she is now that we know that Danny is 38.  He's a lot older than I thought, and yet his actions make him seem a lot older than he claimed.

I could have liked this episode more if I didn't have to see so much Brendon.  Can't say that I'm a fan of him yet.  I feel like his character is useful because he makes a good antagonist, but as a love interest for Mindy, I still think she could do better.   Maybe he'll show a side of him that really shows me there's more chemistry to them than I've seen, but I'm not counting on it.  Right now the sight of them together makes my stomach churn a little.  Danny and Jillian, on the other hand, seem pretty cute together.  It'll be interesting to see if she can get Danny to cut loose a little.  It's pretty clear that he could stand to loosen his collar once in a while.

The FOX New Girl Is No "New Girl"

The Mindy Project, S01E01

We were introduced to Mindy last Tuesday night, who is a doctor trying get her romantic life together.  Although she had what seemed like a fateful encounter with another doctor, she was soon ruining his engagement party with another woman and getting herself arrested.  Although she tried to recover and start dating again, Mindy inevitably went back to her bad ways of the convenient hook-up with an attractive co-worker.

I can't say that I fell in love with this show, but I feel like it has potential.  First of all, I feel like most women can relate to her trying to further her career while failing at love at the same time.  It's not anything that hasn't been done before, but I think I'm more interested because Mindy seems to have a lot more flaws than the average person.  Her main flaw is that she tends to talk a lot more than she should.  I also like that she's not super tiny like a lot of the actresses are nowadays.  I mean, I want to see someone curvy and doesn't look like the wind is going to blow them away!  Plus, despite that she's a mess, she's got an attitude and doesn't roll over when someone tries to get her down (like when she liked her sparkly dress, but she did ultimately change it).  I feel like Mindy could win me over if she's put through enough entertaining situations.  So far, she hadn't done anything too remarkable just yet.

I think my favorite thing, besides her really awkward date with a guy before she ran out on him, was when she was being questioned by the officer after being arrested.  Mindy felt that her arrest was a waste of time:

[Mindy] I’m sorry, disorderly conduct?  Aren’t there rapists and murderers out there?
[Officer] When you are disorderly, you are a rapist of peace and quiet.

Besides that, I don't think that I thought it was funny--or at least New Girl funny--but it wasn't all together boring.  I'd like to see what kind of trouble Mindy might get into next week.  I think the pieces are all there, but there just has to be something to keep me invested in the overall concept of the show.  Hopefully this week I can see something like that.

Everyone Seems To Be Getting Dumber

New Girl, S01E18

Jess' romance with Russel continues with a bang!  Just kidding. It starts off with a hearty pat on the back, which leads Jess to wonder what Russel's attraction was to her in the first place.  Cece and Schmidt struggle for dominance in their relationship, but ultimately have to decide to become public about their relationship.  Winston finds out that a little space from Shelby is more than he can bear.  And the best story of all (please know that I am joking), Nick fawns over his old law school buddy who is the "smartest guy he knows." I was underwhelmed by each of these stories.

I just have to say right away that Cece and Schmidt need to finally come out the closet (or the trunk) about their relationship.  If it wasn't for border control or customs or whatever finding the two naked in back of Schmidt's car, I'm pretty sure Cece would continue to fight tooth and nail to hide her "shame."  I'm over them sneaking around since it's pretty clear that Cece can't stay away from Schmidt, so there's no point to keep everyone in the dark.  I think that Winston's response to finding out their secret was funny, though.  His eyes in the rear-view mirror were like he was going to run them off the road.  He looked crazy.  But I guess the idea of someone as hot as Cece addicted to someone as disgusting as Schmidt, is a good sign that the world has turned upside.

Speaking of Winston being crazy--he actually told Shelby that he thought some space would be good for them?  He has to be out of his mind!  They had like a one-night stand, I believe, and he randomly called her again after the longest time and got lucky that she thought he was worth the time for a real relationship.  Winston should be on his knees every day thanking the powers above that a decent girl (and damn cute) would want him.  Glad he came to his senses, and Shelby missed him as much as he missed her.  That moron is so lucky.  I wanted to slap his peanut head.

So perhaps Jess wasn't dumber than usual in this episode, but her relationship with Russel sure seemed to have lost steam since the last time.  We all knew she would have those awkward conversations (talking about guys having to "dig for her gold" was one of her gems last night), but I didn't think that their date would end up being so boring.  It wasn't just the pat on her back after it ended--it was just that we only got to listen to Jess babble on about increasingly more inappropriate things and almost nothing on his end.  Sure, Russel is handsome for a man of his age, but he can't win me over as a good match for Jess on his looks alone.

Later, after Jess took Cece's advice to ask Russel out for a change of pace, the same thing happened again.  Jess steered the conversation toward things that suggested he was much older than her before he had to run out of their date because of an emergency phone call (it turned out to be about his daughter).  Again, he didn't say much at all, and it looks like a non-date.  After that, I was pretty over him dating Jess.  Regardless that at the little college mixer that was going on in their apartment Russel arrived to tell her that he was indeed just nervous and off his game, I didn't care about them together anymore.  I felt nothing when they had their first kiss (except that Dirk was freaky and creepy with his hand on her thigh).

While I viewed the Jess and Russel coupling as exciting as dry toast, I watched Nick sink even lower into "Moron Town," by showing us that "the smartest guy he knows" is a jackass named Dirk.  Dirk was beyond obnoxious and had the intelligence of mashed peas, but somehow Nick kept praising him at every turn.  Really, Nick?  This is your idea of a genius??  What were the other students like that he went to law school with?  I'm starting to doubt that his school was a real school at all, if someone like Dirk was around.  Nick was man-crushing on Dirk a little too hard, I thought.  Especially when he demonstrated to Winston what happens when you ask a girl for space, and Nick nearly had his head on Dirk's shoulder.  I couldn't help but giggle at that, despite Nick was hanging on Dirk's every stupid word.

So Nick was making out with college girls who thought he was cool because he could mix a drink, and Jess was dating a guy with so little swagger he was putting me to sleep.  What?  Why can't we just have Nick and Jess together instead!  I don't want to see either on the dating paths they are going down at the moment.  Stop the madness and start steering these two together!

On another note, I did laugh when Nick had to puke in Russel's car and he was hugging Russel.  Before leading Nick to the grass where he could expel the "poison" he told him gently:

OK, we can hug some more later.

Loved that.  I bet Nick, drunk or sober, would have gladly hugged him some more later.  Nick gets pretty insane when he's drunk, but it's hilarious.  You gotta love him shouting out for everyone when the car was right behind him.  His drunk behind even called Dirk to ask where they were.  Nick, you are so sad, but definitely my favorite character on the show.

Next time better signal the end to Cece and Schmidt fooling around behind everyone's backs (hope Winston doesn't keep quiet about it), and Russel better lay on the romance thick quick, or I'm going to get pissed.  I want Jess and Nick together so bad; if Jess (or Nick) isn't dating someone of equal or better character, I'm not having it.