BEWARE: There are a few spoilers for “The Mindy Project.”

Modern romance is dead. Okay, okay, hear me out – modern romance is slightly dead. Particularly for women and men of color - the romance never even began.

You often watch TV shows and the romance being depicted is the white-white love trope. It is rare when you see a black-white, black-black, Mexican-Mexican, Indian-Indian, etc., love trope.

Interracial coupling is barely making a comeback to television. With the recent depictions of relationship diversity on-screen with “Insecure,” “Master of None,” “The Mindy Project,” “How To Get Away With Murder,” and “Orange Is the New Black” we see a whole new light.

A different version of the romance trope that we would not usually see. A trope that pertains to 50% of the viewers probably tuning in and watching that said show.

“The Mindy Project"

That brings me to “The Mindy Project,” a show featuring the enchanting Mindy Kaling (who produces and writes for the show as well, it is her show after all). Similar to “Master of None,” this is a show with an Indian-Female protagonist. “Master of None” has the always funny, Aziz as the main protagonist of the show.

Both are of Indian decent; however, this is about “The Mindy Project,” a show well before Aziz’s “Master of None” was produced. Beginning in 2012 and running as a Hulu Original show with its previous fourth and fifth seasons - it has five seasons under its belt.

What Is the Show About?

“The Mindy Project” follows Mindy Lahiri, who is a successful and skilled doctor by day; but, by night, she is trying to adapt to the dating world. Not only the dating world but trying to be less of a mess, in general.

Mindy often stumbles over her own two feet, and fails at anything related to long lasting relationships; however, now and then she picks herself back up and goes to the drawing board. While she may often stumble, she never falls.

Mindy wants to aspire to be less…crazy, and more of a well-rounded and punctual being. It never quite happens that way, but she aspires to be it, and that is what matters. It keeps her going, and it keeps her being positive after each relationship ends in a unforsaken way.

Going Against All the Tropes

Like aforementioned she is an Indian-Female protagonist, that is important in many ways that I will talk about. However, she is also not the “skinny, white girl” trope either.

She has meat on her bones, which is often stated throughout the show. What I love about the character Mindy Lahiri is that she is often confident about the extra meat on her bones.

“I am not overweight. I fluctuate between curvy and chubby.”

A Little Interracial Lovin'

Now, back to the Indian-Female protagonist; what is important about her culture is it shows interracial coupling for one. This is not a show about an Indian protagonist dating Indian males. She is often seen dating white men.

While the show is proving to be positive in the light of her dating another culture, they are often only white males. You rarely see her dating outside of that; alas, that is still considered an interracial relationship, and it is still important to be shown and noted.

Nonetheless, Morgan (Ike Barinholtz) does have an interracial relationship in the show with another nurse named, Tamra Webb (Xosha Roquemore, pictured above).

Ike's character who is white does date a black female. That, in itself, is something riveting to see in an already POC-driven show. While Mindy might prefer white males, there is some showing interracial across other characters. Ike writes and produces the show as well, along with Mindy.

What About Culture?

Another important note about this show is that it does not center around her culture. It proves that her culture has just as many dating problems as any other culture when you are dating outside of your own.

Even more so, while her culture is a part of the show, it is not the central being of it. It shows sweet and tender moments of her culture with her family or siblings, but it is never what Mindy intends the show to be about entirely.

I do love the subtle moments where they do show her culture and heritage because since we do not see them often, it is blissful to see.

Being a female protagonist made this show more heartfelt. Female driven romance television shows have been around since the dawn of time (“What I Like About You”). Nonetheless, they were not often POC female driven romance television shows. That is different about “The Mindy Show.”

A Far from Perfect Life

As mentioned before, Mindy does not have a perfect life. She may have the perfect job, and the perfect friends, but her life outside of that is far from perfect. When it comes to dating, she often is depicted as the “crazy girlfriend.”

This trope has been used and still is used on female protagonists in any setting (film and television both). However, she is far from the “crazy girlfriend” trope, she often just wants to be with someone she sees a future with. At her age (depicted in the show), who wouldn’t want that from a dating experience? She is realistic if anything.

Single and Ready to Mingle

The idea of her wanting to settle down and be with someone is romantic. While she gets there with her best friend, Danny, it does not last relatively long.

They have a child together, but, again, she is back single and back in the dating scene; however, this time as a single parent. This puts an entirely new spin on the show since the adoption to Hulu Originals began.

She is now a single parent, and the dating scene will be immensely different. Indian, check, female, check, single parent? Awesome. This shows a different side of the modern romance trope we mentioned in the beginning. Before it was a story about modern romance, and how to adapt to that; but, now? It is about a single parent trying to date as a POC.

Why Should I Care?

Being a POC, it is hard to find shows that accurately depict non-white relationships. We have a lot more now than we ever had before. If I were writing this in 2000, I could name maybe one.

Now we have enough to count on one hand and maybe even the other. These shows are gems to be sought out, and they make 50% of the viewers feel less alienated when it comes to modern television.

It is not about forcing a character to have an interracial relationship and then not giving the significant other a voice. That often happens in the non-fronted POC shows. That is what these television shows like “The Mindy Project,” “Master of None,” and “Insecure” do for POC.

They show the real side of dating as a person of a different culture and then some even focus on stepping outside of that culture? Which in itself is not easy and these shows demonstrate that.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait…

The show is comical above all else as well. It does great things for POC, but it also provides us with some laughs here and there. Some cringe-worthy awkward moments about dating that we, as POC and females can all understand.

In many ways, Mindy is a lot like the awkward woman who tries to date. We all can understand that trope to some extent.

As I continue to binge “The Mindy Project,” this month; I suggest you do too. You will not regret it; the final season airs: September 2017 – be ready.

It is available on Hulu for all your binge-watching needs before the final season airs.