TV Review: Fox's 'The Mindy Project'

Fox premieres its Mindy Kaling-led comedy The Mindy Project, on Sept. 25 at 9:30 p.m. The following are reviews from TV critics around the Web, compiled by B&C.

“After all those years on The Office, it’s understandable someone would want to give Mindy Kaling her own vehicle. She’s smart, funny, has that pip-squeaky voice made for sitcoms, and despite her bravado, comes across as awkward and vulnerable.”
– Brian Lowry, Variety

“The job of The Mindy Project was to make me root for the fictional Mindy Lahiri or merely want to spend more time in her presence. It didn’t get very far in either of those arenas, and I didn’t find it very funny either.”
– Maureen Ryan, The Huffington Post

“Kaling, who is not the usual size, shape or color for a television heroine - still! - is something else again. Her mere presence at the head of this show is a kind of small triumph, a bulletin from the future.”
– Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

“Characters who initially seem like cardboard foils for Mindy soon reveal themselves as people who are every bit as weird and interesting as her, and who might, in an alternative universe, have their own sitcoms, with Mindy as a supporting player.”
– Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture

“Mindy gets sufficiently quirky that no one will confuse her with previous thirtysomething sitcom women - like, say, Mary Tyler Moore.”
– David Hinckley, New York Daily News