Before the latest episode of The Mindy Project entitled, “Danny Castellano is my Personal Trainer,” premiered, Mindy Kaling sent out a Facebook post saying the episode would be filled with people sans clothes and also feature the appearance of an owl. Let’s just say this: Ms. Kaling certainly is not a liar and the episode did not disappoint.
When we last left Mindy (Kaling), she had just kissed Cliff (Glenn Howerton) after the Christmas party. The two are still together and experiencing a lot of “firsts” as a new couple. They experienced the first night staying over, the first time you look in the other person’s medicine cabinet, the first fight, and the first make up session. Not surprisingly, this all occurred in the same night. This is also the day that Cliff insists he wants to experience another “first” with Mindy: Going away for the weekend.
Mindy is overjoyed with the idea of going away with her new beau. That is until he talks about skiing and then spending the evenings in the hot tub. When she arrives to the office she alerts her co-workers that she will be need to shed some weight. Unfortunately, Betsy (Zoe Jarmon) has just made an entire coffeecake for Mindy. Morgan (Ike Barinholz) agrees to be her trainer. Anyone who is a fan of The Mindy Project should know this is going to be a bad idea, but Mindy goes along with it.
During the first work out session, Mindy does two minutes worth of push-ups before getting tired. Morgan tries to encourage her and then Mindy reminds him that he didn’t include the time it took for her to pick a workout outfit. Morgan agrees and then says the hour work out session is over. Mindy wants him to push her harder, so Morgan begins yelling at her while she does sit ups. He eventually spits on her and he is quickly fired.
Mindy then turns to Danny (Chris Messina) to help her out. He takes her to his gym and tries to get her to do a push-up. Instead, she keeps trying to change the subject to something else in order to not have to do it. Danny finally figures out the only way to get through to Mindy is to discuss celebrities. He inserts Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Fassbender into bogus near death scenarios and says the only way they can be saved is if Mindy does push-ups, which she actually does! Unfortunately for Anne Hathaway, Mindy was unable to lift weights to save her and Anne died. Mindy killed America’s Sweetheart!
Usually when a sitcom takes places at a gym, there is a crazy funny scenario that takes place in the locker room. This episode followed that theme perfectly. After her hardcore workout, Mindy goes to the sauna to relax. She removes her towel only to find Danny sitting there. He informs her that the sauna is co-ed. Personally, I have never been to a gym with a co-ed sauna, but this seems to be a trend on comedies to garner naked laughs. Danny hands Mindy his towel, which in turn makes him the naked. To make matters worse, Mindy’s hair gets stuck on his watch. Once she breaks free Mindy runs away, slips, and falls on her back. Danny rushes to her aid and ends up standing overtop of Mindy giving her a view that makes her give out a blood curdling scream. The whole scenario was hilarious.
Now that Danny has seen Mindy in the buff, he volunteers some pointers that she could work on to improve her figure. She quickly turns him down and instead points out his flaws. Though she does admit he has a nice body, Mindy claims that Danny has horrible looking toes. Mindy then rushes to her office (as fast as she can in a walking cast), strips off her clothes, and looks at her body in a mirror. The owl that had entered the office earlier in the episode appears and startles Mindy. She screams and Danny enters her office and sees her naked once again. This is when Danny admits the only thing Mindy needs to do is not suck in her stomach because it makes her look constipated. Mindy is touched by the nice comment and the episode concludes, but not before Danny makes a comment about her female grooming habits.
The other storyline focused on Peter (Adam Pally) taking over managerial duties for Jeremy (Ed Weeks) at the office while he is out “sick”. Since this part of the show was not very funny, I won’t make any further mention of it. Remember there is only three weeks left until The Mindy Project takes a hiatus until April, so bask in the laughs while you can.
[Photo via Jordin Althaus/FOX]
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