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.
“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.