This season of The Mindy Project seems to be focused on getting back to normal, and Mindy's latest love interest may be the most normal man she's ever dated. He doesn't have a quirky career and isn't defined by any cultural stereotypes. He even lives in the suburbs, the epitome of normal. Now that Mindy is dating Ben on The Mindy Project , she may finally come down to Earth.
In the episode, Mindy was courted by a stand-in for Benedict Cumberbatch named "Leland Breakfast," a fictional Marvel Cinematic Universe star who did a one man production of The Miracle Worker and knew Jeremy from university in Britain. That's the type of larger than life character that I would expect Mindy Lahiri to devote an episode's worth of dates to. Instead, she turned him down, because she was dating Ben, but then discovered later in the episode that Ben is still seeing other people. While that's a pretty classic conflict, and could have meant the end of Ben on any other show or with any other character, the two resolved it pretty easily and decided that they were officially a couple. Great! That was easy, and Leland Breakfast sang a song from Dreamgirls as a fun bonus.
While Ben isn't the most interesting character, this relationship seems overall good for the show. The staff at Shulman and Associates has never been closer. They even gathered around the piano at the end of the episode like a Christmas card. Maybe it took Mindy finding serious romance outside of the office for that to happen. With Danny gone and Jody over his crush, everything is running smoothly at the practice. She's dated tons of guys that she doesn't work with, but now all tension between Mindy and any of her corkers seems to have dissipated.
It may not last. I suspect that Jody might fall for Anna after she called him "normal" and kissed him to help him move on from Mindy. However, things are chill for now on The Mindy Project and I think Ben is a big part of that.
Images: Patrick Wymore/Universal Television
