Let’s get one thing straight, Mindy Kaling is an amazing, relatable goddess that I will never (for the foreseeable future) find fault with because she is the best and deserves to always succeed. Now that I’ve firmly declared my bias, let’s get to the review.

The good:

There is such potential to address some stereotypes. A gay, musical theater performing child. A washed up jock who failed out of a scholarship who feels trapped by family obligation. A single mom who “did the best she could”. An idiot comic relief. They set the stage for a show with flexibility and growth.

They also brought some of the greatest parts of The Mindy Show, Mindy’s chemistry with Anders Holm and the just delightful delivery that Fortune Feimster brings to her lines. I’m also really excited about Mouzam Makkar and Andy Favreau.

The bad:

There is such a cause for concern with some of the stereotypes. I really hope that this is a dynamic interpretation but the pilot did not sell me on that hope. Based on the fact that I said things like failed jock father and musical theater son you can probably extrapolate all the very tired jokes about not understanding each other.

And the child is probably my biggest struggle. I’m not sold he can deliver a complex portrayal of a real person rather than the cliché he showed us in episode 1. I’m also not sold that we’re going to get good enough dialogue written for him to not just be a boring plot device. With the very predictable, condescending, dramatic writing I’m concerned that this is the role the entire story seems to want to revolve around.

Verdict: The only reason I’m going to commit to continuing with this show is because of Mindy and co having earned my trust.

Score: 3/5 with the +1 I add to scores just for having Mindy