Since 2005, actress Mindy Kaling has been as consistent a TV regular as Big Bird and Larry King, having jumped from The Office to The Mindy Project, which just aired its Season 5 finale last night. It looks like Kaling's extended run could be coming to an end soon, though, as Hulu has decided to end The Mindy Project. Thankfully, there's a silver lining here in the form of an accompanying renewal for Season 6, set to air later this year, so we aren't fully saying goodbye to Dr. Lahiri and her colleagues just yet.
While most TV networks make decisions about their shows futures at some point before finales air, Hulu doesn't fall into such patterns, and fans have been actively worried that The Mindy Project was indeed done for after last night. But it's clear that talks have been happening behind the scenes to figure out the best way for the romance-driven comedy to come to a satisfactory ending that fans can actually plan for, rather than speculating about. No episode count was announced by Hulu, and it's extremely hard to predict, considering the streaming service ordered a high-end 26 episodes for Season 4 and 16 for Season 5, though the latter was later reduced to 14.
Debuting in 2012, in the same primetime season that The Office ended on, The Mindy Project lasted three years on its original network Fox before getting cancelled over low ratings. Hulu, less interested in the advertising demographics that guide network TV, recognized that while Mindy Project's viewership wasn't massive, it was definitely loyal and vocal enough to earn another season; or another three seasons, as it were. It's unclear how well the show has done in its second home, considering streaming services aren't welcoming with their raw viewing data, but getting three seasons must mean something positive.
We might as well talk about what might happen in Season 6 now, so here's a *spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet watched the Season 5 finale of _The Mindy Project_. *
Last night's episode was one that doubled down, no, tripled down on the romantic storylines. Jeremy and Anna might have something going, as she appears to be beyond Tim. Colleen and Kim get engaged, though things get temporarily problematic when Morgan is made to vacate the apartment. The biggest of the stories, though, obviously involves Mindy and Ben. The latter intended to propose early on, but Mindy's ambivalent comments on marriage caused him to second-guess things. Thankfully, his daughter Lindsay revealed to Mindy his plans, and it all came down to an extremely cute moment when Mindy takes Lindsay and her brother Leo to Ben and then proposes to him. She still doesn't look completely convinced that this is the right decision, but at least she has another season to work through that choice.
With The Mindy Project now on a between-seasons hiatus, rather than a fate-unknown summer, we can start counting the days until we get to see Mindy, Ben, Morgan and the rest when the show returns to Hulu for one more year, with Season 6 set to kick off in September. While waiting, head to our midseason premiere schedule and our summer TV guide to see what else is hitting your TVs in the near future.
