by Tara Abell | Sep 17, 2014 8:45 AM EDT
Thank you, Mindy Kaling, for the gift that is Danny Castellano. In an age where every New Yorker on TV is a hot-dog-eating cartoon — plastic housewives, greased-up sleazeballs, gum-snapping Mafia girlfriends — The Mindy Project’s Danny feels like a real person. A fast-talking, smooth-dancing, undershirt-wearing mama’s boy from Staten Island, he also happens to be played by Long Island’s own Chris Messina, who rocks perfect outer-borough pronunciation. This is rare. As Vulture’s resident Staten Island native (FYI, Port Dogkill is not a real place), I have taken it upon myself to applaud the Mindy writers for creating such an accurate portrayal of someone born and bred outside of Manhattan.
Chris Messina as Danny Castellano on ‘The Mindy Project Animated GIF Reprinted from Vulture.com
“Ma? Ma? Ma!”
Danny has a very close relationship with his family. He practically raised his little brother (“Look at him, he’s got the Castellano curse! He’s got a perfect face.”), and every time he mentions his mother, you can just hear the admiration. He swats her away from attending an art exhibit of his nude photographs (“Yeah, I know you’ve seen it, but I was a baby. It’s changed.”), and when told by a rabbi that he must make his mother very proud, he smiles and says, “Who knows how to please that woman?” Been there, bro.” And I just know that Rhea Perlman will be perfect as Danny’s mom with her Brooklyn accent and fierce side-eye. Let’s hope she has a collection of terrycloth tracksuits from New York & Company and charges everything on her Macy’s credit card.
“I’m so Catholic, I don’t even trust this new pope.”
If you’re from New York, there’s a good chance you believe in something. Strongly. If you grew up here, chances are you had been to a christening or a bat mitzvah by the time were 14. On Mindy, Danny’s level of Catholicism is somehow made to be one of his most endearing qualities: He goes to church every Sunday, has very strong feelings about the new pope (“Why’s that guy so chill?), and has his local priest over for dinner five times a week (“max”). Plus, isn’t it nice to see a Catholic TV character that isn’t a handsy priest, a cruel nun, or a sexually frustrated housewife? Amen.