"Mindy Kaling Can Do Everything But 'The Thing"

Watching her film Late Night, Mindy Kaling brought to mind ballplayer Kirk Gibson.

A comparison you may have heard mentioned before.  Or perhaps not.

Kirk Gibson was a formidable outfielder, who, capping many noteworthy achievements, limped out of the clubhouse on knees believed to be too battered to play on, and cracked a startling playoff home run for the Dodgers, the team, inspired by that miracle, proceeding to World Series victory in 1981.

“What’s that got to do with Mindy Kaling?”

Be patient, and I’ll tell you. 

“Okay.  But we haven’t got all day.”

Understood.

“And it better be worth it.”

But “No pressure”, right?

Okay, here’s the connection.

During his career, Kirk Gibson was a baseball player who played baseball like he was a football player.

What does that mean?

It means he was ferocious in a game highlighting relaxed concentration, elegant gracefulness and finesse.  (At least compared to football.)  Kirk Gibson, built like a “granite-with-legs” linebacker, outmuscled the opposition, treating the “National Pastime” like “battlefield combat”, demonstrating, as in 1981, that he would also selflessly “play hurt.”  

So there you have it.  Kirk Gibson played baseball like he was football player.

Similarly –  argued in this venue –

Mindy Kaling “does” show biz like she’s a doctor.

It’s amazing.  I can hear everyone going,

“He’s right.”

For the baffled minority out there, wondering, “What the heck is he talking about?” –

Let me explain.

How does Mindy Kaling “do” show biz like she’s a doctor?

It’s is entirely the attitude.

An actor, denting our consciousness as a featured player on The Office, blossoms into writing, directing, producing and starring in TV series and major motion pictures.  That’s an unusual trajectory.  Ask (INSERT NAME OF FORMER “SUPPORTING ACTOR” IN A SITCOM WHO PROCEEDED TO RUN A CAR DEALERSHIP IN PACOIMA HERE.)

How does she accomplish this remarkable feat?

Like an M.D, never asking, “Can I do this?” or “Do I belong here?” Kaling builds her career with an innate confident certainty.  Her memoir – her second, at age 40 – is appropriately entitled, “Why Not Me?”  (Al Franken wrote a book with the same name, but that was facetious.)

There is only one problem, reflected conspicuously in Late Show.

The confident certainty is palpable.

Less so, the accompanying know-how.

Speaking from a professional – though admittedly subjective – perspective, Late Night’s conception and screenplay are not sufficiently thought through, a viable movie idea, faltering in the areas of logic and consistency. 

(Here is a talk-show host, insisting on Doris Kearns Goodwin as a guest, performing monologue jokes about dive-bombing owls.  Who is this person?)

When the requisite “infrastructure” is missing, there’s an inevitable flattening of the “funny.”   

An “I can do anything” spirit is admirable.  (I wish I had some.)  But it takes the entire “package” to ably pull of the job.

Kirk Gibson slammed a breathtaking home run in the bottom of the ninth.

Kaling’s Late Night, with the game on the line:

A weak dribbler, back to the pitcher.
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I am putting the flag in the front garden.  More in hope than in celebration.  Happy Fourth of July.  A better things in our national future.