'The Mindy Project' Will End After Season 6

Just a day after the thrilling Season 5 finale aired, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that The Mindy Project will end after season 6. And though this is sure to be sad news for fans of the show, it also feels like an appropriate time for the show to end as far as I'm concerned.

It's a sentiment shared by Mindy Kaling herself, who provided a positive statement regarding the end of The Mindy Project:

I mean this half-jokingly, but at a certain point it was like, I think she’s dated every man in Manhattan. Sex and the City lasted for, what, six seasons with 10 episodes each? I don’t know that there’s been a show about a woman trying to find love in New York City that has lasted quite this long ... We started this series when she was single, and now she’s married and has a kid and she has a stepdaughter, and it kind of just felt like [a few] more episodes was all we needed to wind this down.

It's worth remembering that The Mindy Project was due to be cancelled after Season 3 back when it aired on Fox, but was thankfully picked up by Hulu, who have continued to screen it ever since. And thank goodness that they did, because, within that time, lead character Mindy Lahiri has enjoyed the sorts of ups and downs and comedy moments that it would have been a shame to deny fans from seeing. But everything has an expiry date, and, for The Mindy Project, this feels like the best one.

For five wonderful feelgood seasons, we've watched as Mindy has struggled to find love in the sprawling dating metropolis of New York City. We've seen her proclivity for attracting a variety of delightful oddballs and weirdos, while also owning her idiosyncratic set of personal oddities and flaws. And, in what was probably the most satisfying romantic plot line for fans, we also saw Mindy and Danny finally getting together, after years of friendship and sexual tension — only for them to break apart again.

So, when the Season 5 finale showed Mindy impulsively marrying Ben along with a closing shot that appeared to show the character expressing a silent regret over her actions, it felt like a pivotal moment. It didn't just signal a major change for the character and for the show, but also of a sort of clarity for both of them, too. While there's the prospect that Mindy may settle down with Ben, and be happy about it, there's also the potential for this event to inspire the character to reflect on her life and what she really wants from it. By all accounts, it seems as though marrying Ben may have been a mistake — and if that's the case, then it's sure to inspire some major progression for Mindy.

Either way, Mindy's new marriage already presents an ending of sorts to the overall story of The Mindy Project as we know it. Either Mindy's love life will come to the comfortable halt of a content marriage, or it will go in the complete other direction, with the character acknowledging that she keeps repeating mistakes and needs to make changes. And I think I speak for all fans when I say that I'm ready to see Mindy find total, romantic happiness and settle down in the show. As a strong, accomplished, professional woman, she's an inspiring character to watch. And though her romantic failings have often been the source of much (highly relatable) comedy throughout every episode, it's starting to feel frustrating to see such a successful and powerful woman still struggling with the same issues after all this time.

Which is why it feels right to say goodbye to The Mindy Project after just one more season's worth of episodes. Because, surely, we're all ready at this point to see Mindy achieve some true, stable romantic bliss, with a character who adores and values all the same things about her that we do as fans. But when that moment happens, the romantic intrigue that has functioned as a sort of narrative engine for the show will be all out of juice.

Though I'd happily just watch a show in which Mindy Lahiri basically acts like an absolute boss without any of her high-energy pursuits of love, that show wouldn't be The Mindy Project.