The Mindy Project is a fun workplace comedy that aired for three seasons on FOX before moving to Hulu for three additional seasons. I had watched the show religiously before it got moved behind the streaming service paywall, so I was thrilled when Mill Creek announced this Blu-ray release—I would finally get to see those final three seasons, and in their full HD glory.

Dr. Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling) is an OB/GYN/partner at Shulman Women’s Health Associates in Manhattan. All her life Mindy has been obsessed with romantic comedies, and so she is constantly looking for her own meet-cute and happily-ever-after. As the series opens, Mindy has a friends-with-benefits type relationship with the handsome, English Dr. Jeremy Reed (Ed Weeks), but she wants to end this in favor of finding a true romantic relationship. Mindy is constantly getting into verbal sparring matches with co-worker Dr. Danny Castellano (Chris Messina), who is a bit cocky and full of himself. He’s been divorced, and so is a bit snarky when it comes to talking about romance. He doesn’t really get Mindy’s obsession with it, often finding her a bit annoying—though there is this opposites-attract kind of tension between the two of them. Also in the office is wide-eyed, new-to-the-city receptionist Betsy Putch (Zoe Jarman), and friendly, but slightly dim and odd nurse Morgan Tookers (Ike Barinholtz)—an ex-con who still lives with his grandmother. Morgan was hired to replace ornery and incompetent nurse Beverly (Beth Grant)—who later returns to the office as a secretary.

Throughout the series we see Mindy and her coworkers looking for love in all the wrong places, and the ups and downs of their various relationships. There is this underlying will-they-or-won’t-they between Mindy and Danny and they both have various failed hook-up and short-lived relationships over the first few seasons. However, once the show does finally explore the sparks between the two, things doesn’t quite go as planned. Mindy has this way of sabotaging her relationships, even when things are going well. So even when she and Danny do manage to get together, the timing ends up not being quite right. There is also quite a bit of staff turnaround at Shulman & Associates. Former frat guy Dr. Peter Prentice (Adam Pally) joins the practice in the second season along with sassy nurse Tamra Webb (Xosha Roquemore). Later seasons also see the addition of odd southerner Dr. Jody Kimball-Kinney (Garret Dillahunt) and his sister/nurse Colette (Fortune Feimster), and the slightly-evil Dr. Anna (Rebecca Rittenhouse).

The series has so many amazing, fun and recognizable recurring and guest stars throughout its run, including Ed Helms, Bill Hader, Tim Daly, Cristin Milioti, Eliza Coupe, Jay R. Ferguson, Randall Park, Josh Peck, Joanna Garcia Swisher, Ellie Kemper, Kevin Smith, Julia Stiles, Allison Williams, B.J. Novak, Julie Bowen, Ana Ortiz, Alan Dale, Jenna Elfman, Anna Gunn, Allison Tolman, Lee Pace, Vanessa L. Williams, Stephen Colbert, Laverne Cox, Shonda Rhimes, Ne-Yo, Yassir Lester, and more.

A general rundown of the seasons (some spoilers):

• Season 1 (2012-13):
  The first season features several recurring characters, including Mindy’s best friend Gwendolyn Grandy (Anna Camp), party girl receptionist Shauna Dicanio (Amanda Setton), male midwives Brendan (Mark Duplass) and Duncan Deslaurier (Jay Duplass) who own a rival practice upstairs from Shulman & Associates, Mindy’s younger brother/aspiring rapper Rishi Lahiri (Utkarsh Ambudkar), office intern Parker (Mort Burke), and practice owner Marc Shulman (Stephen Tobolowsky)—who retires after just a few episodes, but shows back up in a later season. We also see a couple longer relationships for Mindy, including sports lawyer Josh Daniels (Tommy Dewey), and Christian minister Casey Peerson (Anders Holm).
• Season 2 (2013-14):
  The second season opens with Mindy returning from Haiti to discover that Dr. Paul Leotard (James Franco) has taken over her office. Dr. Peter Prentice and nurse Tamra Webb join the practice as main characters, while this is the final season for receptionist Betsy. This season we meet also Danny’s ex-wife Christina (Chloë Sevigny), and Mindy starts up relationships with Arts and Culture writer Jason (Ben Feldman), lawyer Cliff Gilbert (Glenn Howerton), skateboarder Graham (Timothy Olyphant), and even Danny.
• Season 3 (2014-15):
  In the third season, Mindy and Danny explore their new relationship, but things get complicated when Danny’s mother Annette Castellano (Rhea Perlman) and her best friend Dot (Jenny O’Hara) show up. A feud forms between Peter and Jeremy as they fight over Dr. Lauren (Tracey Wigfield). Morgan graduates from his nurse practitioner’s program, and his Cousin Lou (Rob McElhenney) stops by. Mindy makes a bad first impression with Dr. Jean Fishman (Niecy Nash), the new head of obstetrics at the hospital, and gets a new intern, T.J. Gigak (Andrew Bachelor). Mindy also starts a fertility clinic, and discovers some big news about her own condition. Meanwhile, Dr. Adrian Bergdahl (Dan Bakkedahl) temporarily joins the practice after one of the other doctors leaves.
• Season 4 (2015-16):
  As Mindy goes on maternity leave to be a stay-at-home mom, Dr. Jody Kimball-Kinney and his sister/nurse Colette join the practice. Danny is missing for much of the season, going away for a while when his father in California has a heart attack, but once he returns, his relationship with Mindy is strained, and they eventually both find themselves facing the dating world once again. But before this, we get a flash back episode to how Mindy and Danny first met. Meanwhile, Peter Prentice finds himself back in NYC reconcilng things with Jeremy, and making a few guest appearances. Plus, Danny opens his own practice.
• Season 5 (2016-17):
  Jody continues to try to win over Mindy with a grand gesture, but she may still have feelings for Danny. However, she soon falls for a handsome new pediatric nurse named Ben (Bryan Greenberg) who starts a nurses’ strike that affects the practice. Also, Colette get a new girlfriend named Karen (Tipper Newton). Jeremy has a health scare, and as a result the practice hires young, slightly-evil new doctor Anna, who quickly becomes Mindy’s nemesis. The season includes some guest appearances by Danny Castellano and Peter Prentice, and there’s a fun Groundhog Day like episode, “Hot Mess Time Machine”.
• Season 6 (2017):
  The final season sees the return of Brendan Deslaurier, and the introduction of sassy hospital nurse Chris (Chris Schleicher). Many of the main characters make some big life-changing decisions, and the series closes with a satisfying rom-com style ending.

I really enjoyed revisiting/catching up on this series. The episodes move at a rapid pace, with fun, clever writing and lots of laughs. I had forgotten just how much I used to enjoy this series when it aired on FOX! Early on the series seems to focus more on the rom-com aspects with Mindy narrating her thoughts and life, but this mechanism tapers off a lot over the course of the series. There is so much physical and situational humor in this series and the hilarious cast always delivers. The series does a nice job of reinventing itself from season to season, bringing in new characters as others exit, and keeping things fresh. The new characters quickly become an integral part of the show, and you forget how much you miss the old ones as they exit (until they pop back up in guest appearances). Each season ends in some sort of cliffhanger, making you excited to see where the show goes next. And the series finale provides satisfying closure to the show.

I didn’t notice any huge difference in quality between the FOX and Hulu seasons, except that the episodes in the Hulu seasons tend to run a little longer since they didn’t have a network airtime restriction, adding in an extra 1-9 minutes of material. The first four seasons had previously been released on DVD, but Mill Creek’s complete series releases are the first time the final two seasons have received a physical release, or that any of the seasons have received an HD media release. Mill Creek’s Blu-ray looks excellent, with a clean, detailed picture and bright, beautiful colors. The audio track mainly uses the center channel to provide clear dialogue. This isn’t really an effects-heavy show, so I didn’t really notice extensive use of the surround channels, except when there was some sort of musical score involved.

The six seasons are spread across 10 Blu-ray discs, with 2 discs for each of the first 4 seasons, and 1 disc for each of the final 2 seasons. The discs are housed on trays in a thick 10-disc Blu-ray keepcase, which is placed inside an outer cardboard slipcover. The discs include over 70 minutes of deleted scenes and about 27 minutes of gag reels, all of which were ported from the previous DVD releases. It doesn’t appear that any previously-existing bonus material has been dropped, or that any new exclusive bonus material has been created for this release.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (42:10:02)

• All 117 episodes of the series:
  • Season 1 (2012-13, 24 eps, FOX) (8:39:05):
    Disc 1: “Pilot”, “Hiring and Firing”, “In the Club”, “Halloween”, “Danny Castellano Is My Gynecologist”, “Thanksgiving”, “Teen Patient”, “Two to One”, “Josh and Mindy’s Christmas Party”, “Mindy’s Brother”, “Bunk Bed” , “Hooking Up Is Hard”
    Disc 2: “Harry & Sally”, “Harry & Mindy”, “Mindy’s Minute”, “The One That Got Away”, “Mindy’s Birthday”, “Danny’s Friend”, “My Cool Christian Boyfriend”, “Pretty Man”, “Santa Fe”, “Triathlon”, “Frat Party”, “Take Me with You”
  • Season 2 (2013-14, 22 eps, FOX) (7:57:59):
    Disc 3: “All My Problems Solved Forever…”, “The Other Dr. L”, “Music Festival”, “Magic Morgan”, “Wiener Night”, “Bro Club for Dudes”, “Sk8er Man”, “You’ve Got Sext”, “Mindy Lahiri Is a Racist”, “Wedding Crushers”, “Christmas Party Sex Trap”
    Disc 4: “Danny Castellano Is My Personal Trainer”, “L.A.”, “The Desert”, “French Me, You Idiot”, “Indian BBW”, “Be Cool”, “Girl Crush”, “Think Like a Peter”, “An Officer and a Gynecologist”, “Girl Next Door”, “Danny and Mindy”
  • Season 3 (2014-15, 21 eps, FOX) (7:35:36):
    Disc 5: “We’re a Couple Now, Haters!”, “Annette Castellano Is My Nemesis”, “Crimes & Misdemeanors & Ex-BFs”, “I Slipped”, “The Devil Wears Lands’ End”, “Caramel Princess Time”, “We Need to Talk About Annette”, “Diary of a Mad Indian Woman”, “How to Lose a Mom in Ten Days”, “What About Peter?”, “Christmas”
    Disc 6: “Stanford”, “San Francisco Bae”, “No More Mr. Noishe Guy”, “Dinner at the Castellanos”, “Lahiri Family Values”, “Danny Castellano Is My Nutritionist”, “Fertility Bites”, “Confessions of a Catho-holic”, “What to Expect When You’re Expanding”, “Best Man”
  • Season 4 (2015-16, 26 eps, Hulu) (8:56:20):
    Disc 7: “While I Was Sleeping”, “C Is for Coward”, “Leo Castellano Is My Son”, “The Bitch Is Back”, “Stay at Home MILF”, “Road Trip”, “Mindy and Nanny”, “Later, Baby”, “Jody Kimball-Kinney Is My Husband”, “The Departed”, “The Lahiris and the Castellanos”, “The Parent Trap”, “When Mindy Met Danny”
    Disc 8: “Will They or Won’t They”, “So You Think You Can Finance”, “Mindy Lahiri is DTF”, “2 Fast 2 Serious”, “Bernardo & Anita”, “Baby Got Backslide”, “The Greatest Date in the World”, “Under the Texan Sun”, “Princeton Charming”, “There’s No Crying in Softball”, “My Kid Stays in the Picture”, “Freedom Tower Women’s Health”, “Homewrecker”
  • Season 5 (2016-17, 14 eps, Hulu) (5:01:51):
    Disc 9: “Decision 2016”, “Nurses’ Strike”, “Margaret Thatcher”, “Mindy Lahiri Is a Misogynist”, “Leland Breakfast Is the Miracle Worker”, “Concord”, “Revenge of the Nurse”, “Hot Mess Time Machine”, “Bat Mitzvah”, “Take My Ex-Wife, Please”, “Dibs”, “Mindy Lahiri Is a White Man”, “Mindy’s Best Friend”, “A Decent Proposal”
  • Season 6 (2017, 10 eps, Hulu) (3:59:11):
    Disc 10: “Is That All There Is?”, “A Romantical Decouplement”, “May Divorce Be With You”, “Leo’s Girlfriend”, “Jeremy & Anna’s Meryl Streep Costume Party”, “The Midwife’s Tale”, “Girl Gone Wild”, “Doctors Without Boundaries”, “Danny in Real Life”, “It Had to Be You”
• 1080p/ Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:
Unfortunately the discs offer no Play All option when it comes to the deleted scenes—you need to select each episode’s deleted scenes separately.

• Season 1:
  • Deleted Scenes (15:26)
    Deleted scenes for 9 episodes. The scenes for each episode play back-to-back, and are located on the discs with their respective episodes.
    • Hiring and Firing (3:29)
    • Halloween (3:21)
    • Danny Castellano Is My Gynecologist (:47)
    • Josh and Mindy’s Christmas Party (:48)
    • Bunk Bed (2:25)
    • Hooking Up Is Hard (:43)
    • Harry & Sally (1:22)
    • Danny’s Friend (1:53)
    • Frat Party (:38)
• Season 2:
  • Deleted Scenes (41:27)
    Deleted scenes for almost every episode. The scenes for each episode play back-to-back, and are located on the discs with their respective episodes.
    • All My Problems Solved Forever… (1:22)
    • The Other Dr. L (4:15)
    • Music Festival (:56)
    • Magic Morgan (2:07)
    • Wiener Night (1:37)
    • Bro Club for Dudes (4:31)
    • Sk8er Man (1:19)
    • You’ve Got Sext (1:40)
    • Mindy Lahiri Is a Racist (1:01)
    • Wedding Crushers (1:15)
    • Christmas Party Sex Trap (1:16)
    • Danny Castellano Is My Personal Trainer (1:37)
    • L.A. (3:57)
    • The Desert (2:12)
    • French Me, You Idiot (1:53)
    • Indian BBW (1:43)
    • Girl Crush (2:04)
    • Think Like a Peter (1:10)
    • An Officer and a Gynecologist (2:51)
    • Girl Next Door (:29)
    • Danny and Mindy (2:12)
  • Gag Reel (12:00)
    In this hilarious gag reel, the cast flub lines, constantly make each other laugh, and struggle to get through takes.
• Season 4:
  • Deleted Scenes (13:28)
    Deleted scenes for 10 episodes. The scenes for each episode play back-to-back, and are located on the discs with their respective episodes.
    • Leo Castellano Is My Son (2:23)
    • The Departed (:38)
    • The Lahiris and the Castellanos (1:12)
    • When Mindy Met Danny (:33)
    • Will They or Won’t They (2:05)
    • 2 Fast 2 Serious (1:51)
    • Bernardo & Anita (1:38)
    • Baby Got Backslide (1:33)
    • There’s No Crying in Softball (:33)
    • My Kid Stays in the Picture (1:02)
  • Gag Reel (14:46)
    In this hilarious gag reel, the cast constantly make each other laugh and struggle to get through takes.

Final Thoughts:

The Mindy Project is a hilarious show that still holds up incredibly well, and easily lends itself to repeat viewings. It stars an incredibly talented comedic cast, and features some amazing guest stars over the course of the six season. Mill Creek’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, includes over 1.5 hours of bonus material, and is priced very nicely. This release comes highly recommended for any fan of the series, or anyone looking for a fun new comedy to check out.