Thursday, June 20, 2013

Book 10: "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?"

If there's one book from The Summer of Reid reading list that you decide to read, make it Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). Once you read the book, you'll never look at these pictures the same way again. Hint: the dress she's wearing in the first picture has a backstory.

How I Discovered Mindy Kaling:
I've always loved the American version of The Office. The Office introduced Steve Carell, as well as Ed Helms, BJ Novak, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Rashida Jones, Ellie Kemper, and more(!) to mass audiences and, arguably, launched their careers, The show also served as the American inspiration for other hits, such as Modern Family, Parks and Recreations, which make use of the single-camera, mockumentary style of filming. Entire volumes could be dedicated to the ways in which The Office changed pop culture and the boosted the careers of its actors.

After the initial novelty of the show ran its course, casual viewers seemed to abandon the show. Although the show peaked in the ratings and viewership around its 3rd season, and Carell departed during the 6th season, the show continued for 2 more years and just wrapped up it's 9th and final season this past May. I stuck with The Office all the way through to the end, and tearfully wept as the documentary crews turned off their cameras for good. You could just tell, as the cast lounged around their workspace in the final moments of the show, that the actors knew how important the show was not only to TV, but to their lives, and it felt like the most genuine moment I've witnessed on a show. 

Before she was a beloved novelist, Mindy Kaling was a writer-actor for The Office, which premiered midseason with only 6 episodes that ran in the spring of 2005. Her supporting role as Kelly Kapoor, the vapid, shallow customer service representative was never really a main player in the show. Most times she had less than 3 lines per episode, but they were always memorable. She picked up additional duties as a producer and director of the show in latter seasons, before eventually leaving the show after season 8 to pursue her own project, a television show called The Mindy Project

If you don't watch The Mindy Project on Fox, I suggest you start. The first episode was offered for free on iTunes last summer, so I decided to check it out. It was WELL worth the $0 I paid for it, and it effectively got my hopes up for the fall season. The opening scene of the pilot was gloriously executed, and her confrontation with a Barbie doll at the bottom of a pool is one of the funniest moments I have ever witnessed on network television. As soon as the credits rolled, I hurriedly texted all my friends, telling them to watch Mindy Kaling's new show. 

Barbie lectures Mindy in the premiere of The Mindy Project. One of my good friends gave me the book and I inserted this Post-It on the inside cover. 

I wasn't thrilled with the second or third episodes of the show. Under pressure from my mother, I decided to stop watching. (One thing I should say is that I am an consumer viewer of TV. I started the 2012-2013 with 30 shows on my Hulu favorites list. It's a wonder that I ever get anything done.) Even though I had stopped watching the show, I continued to track its ratings (which at one point indicated that the show would be canceled) and read related news (drama: firing of cast members, hiring of new cast members, downgrading of series regulars!). Long after the show had been picked up for 2 additional episodes (24 in total), and then eventually renewed for the 2013-2014 season, I decided to have a Mindy marathon. My co-worker, Sabrina, is in love with Mindy and the show, so she encouraged me to give it another chance. Since the spring finales had aired and there wasn't an interesting show in sight, I queued the show and sat down to watch. The show improved markedly after the second and third episodes, and it began to establish it's strengths and weaknesses. Mindy came to identify itself as an ensemble comedy, rather than one that focused solely on Mindy, adding variation and flexibility to the plot in the process. Although the ratings and viewership for the show were never fantastic, I think the show matured and showed a positive learning curve by its finale. 

The Book: 
Meanwhile, throughout the whole ordeal, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? sat on my bookshelf. One of my friends had given it to me after her trip to NYC, but I was doubtful that the book was a must-read. After all, how could someone who is neither a big star, nor old or deceased, have anything to contribute to my impression of the world? Also, I had just finished reading Tina Fey's book, Bossypants, and I didn't think anyone could dethrone her as the queen of funny autobiographies. Two days ago, I pulled the book off the shelf and decided that if I didn't "just do it" now, I wouldn't ever get around to it. 

As soon as I started reading it, I fell in love with Mindy Kaling. She's the Tina Fey of my generation, but with more pop culture and fashion awareness and less mom-ness. Where Tina deadpans like no other, and humbly incorporates self-deprecation into her comedy, Mindy is refreshingly self-conscious and realistic, yet she is still able to maintain the identity and personality of Gen Y. She is unapologetic about who she is, and she speaks frankly on a variety of topics, including growing up with two brothers, dating, struggling after college and the stereotypes she faces as a plump Indian in Hollywood. Every chapter is comedy gold, and there wasn't a single letdown beginning to end. 

I think it's much easier to write sad stories than it is to write funny ones, so I can only admire Mindy more for her efforts here. She taught me that everyone's life can be funny and interesting if depicted in the right way. For Mindy, the "right way" is her normal voice. The way she wrote the book is the way she delivered lines on The Office and more or less the character she plays on her show. What she writes and who she is on TV also happens to be who she is in real life, and I think that kind of genuine honesty is what makes comedians most successful. (Compared to actors such as, say, Will Ferrell, whose characters are so outlandishly contrived that they're only funny because they're so un-real.)

What Tina and Mindy have in common is their adherence to reality. Neither women try to sugarcoat real life, or fabricate sappy endings for the sake of escapism. I can see how that might be a formula for success among certain audiences, but it's also a relegation to niche viewing/reading. Just as 30 Rock was never a mainstream hit, perhaps The Mindy Project will never garner the attention it deserves, yet for those viewers who "get" Tina or Mindy, it's an invaluable display of what it means to grow into one's own. 

I highly recommend this book. While you're reading it, you'll realize that Mindy is a lot like us, and in the ways that she isn't, she's inevitably going to remind you of someone who is.

Rating: A+

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