Mindy’s Christmas Parties
Why television holiday episodes are so special
The holidays are especially good for television series: There’s a way in which the televised occasion of Christmas offers up an opportunity for drama and character development to even the goofiest situation comedies. The mythos of Christmas—our deeply seeded belief that something good WILL happen on this night, somehow, some way, and we will all be the better for it- is just as strong in tv land as anywhere and it makes all kinds of opportunities for the showrunners and stars.
There are a lot of great episodes to choose from: The “Merry Christmas, Johnny Rose” episode on Schitt’s Creek is a huge turning point for the show as one by one Moira, David, and Alexis have to move past their selfish instincts to do something good for Johnny. The “Laxmas” episode of New Girl gives all of the residents of the loft an opportunity to realize how important they are to each other as they navigate successively more comedic levels of airport hassle.
My all-time favorite Christmas-themed tv episodes, though are the first two Christmases on the Mindy Project. There are four in all and taken as a group, they represent all of the things that are great about this series: the subplots are spun up out of the sit/com and rom/com hall of fame and given the glitter treatment, the jokes never stop landing, the nerds and underdogs are somehow always winning, and the love stories are all part romance and part heartbreak—which makes them relatable to all of us normies.
The first two Mindy Project Christmases are the most fun, though. They are the ones when everyone is still falling in love and nothing has gone wrong yet, and that’s what rewatching holiday episodes of your favorite shows is about, right? Getting that warm, fuzzy holiday vision.
Season 1, Episode 9 is called “Josh and Mindy's Christmas Party” and I hope it is taught in screenwriting school as the perfect holiday episode. It makes use of a lot of the best holiday tropes including:
The office party is off-site, which means characters are interacting in coat rooms and bedrooms and closets, which means happy accidents all throughout the episode
Party clothes, which means we get to see what the characters’ idea of a holiday outfit is
Holiday decorations that will of course fall over, catch fire or shatter spectacularly (Gingerbread houses, Christmas trees and lights, trays of glassware, etc.)
Party games, which lets you find out which character has a secret talent at Karaoke or charades or apprehending burglars, etc.
Mistletoe, obviously.
The best part of this episode is how Mindy and Danny both get comeuppances that throw them together as friends for the first time. Mindy has organized the whole party around the fact that she has a hot boyfriend, only to find out, in the middle of the party, that he is two-timing her. Danny is first too cool even to go and then when he does decide to go he brings an ostentatious gingerbread house that, of course, is destined for catastrophe. The scene where Danny tries and fails to prevent Mindy from confronting the other woman and where he comforts her are the first times we’ve seen them have empathy and connect--and we all know what that means for them down the road. 😉 The scene in which everyone goes back into their surgical team mode to clean up the mess and fix the gingerbread is a perfectly choreographed tribute to an incredibly talented group of comedic actors.
The ”Christmas Party Sex Trap” is the second Christmas episode in the series and the writers must have dared themselves to take everything up a level. This time, we have had all of the usual holiday tropes plus a few more:
The holiday party that you throw for a hundred people just so the one person you like will show up
The party where you plan to show up as a sexy Santa, but are upstaged by a model
The party where guests are trying and failing to be gluten or alcohol-free.
This is the episode where Mindy’s character wears the infamous “wine bra” as a means of getting around the alcohol ban and the episode where there are not one, but two renditions of “Santa Baby”—one by Mindy and one by Maria Menounos in a guest role as herself, which gives Brandon, played by Mark Duplass the chance to break up with her because “as a feminist” he’s offended by the song
Mindy’s multi-point plan for catching the eye of Cliff, the lawyer who works upstairs, does, actually, work out for her, but no one in the television world cared, because this is the episode in which Danny Castellano gives Mindy a dance to Aaliyah’s “Try Again,” as his Secret Santa present. Mindy Project fans knew that Dan Messina could dance—that reveal happened early, but this scene is the one that broke the internet.
It’s the total chaos that I love—the way the holiday atmosphere gives permission for all kinds of shenanigans. Everything goes wrong because of it, but everyone still gets to wear their party clothes and have a lot of fun against a backdrop of twinkling lights and good-smelling pine trees, and frosted gingerbread. What matters in these episodes is the camaraderie of friends and the fact that even if someone accidentally drops a glass of red wine on their boss’s white pantsuit before tipping over the Christmas tree or lighting a curtain on fire, they might still end up getting kissed under the mistletoe by the handsome stranger. That’s my kind of holiday magic.
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