Illness, And Richie, Bring Out All Of Danny Castellano's Young Old Man Tendencies

In the season and a half that we've been enjoying him on The Mindy Project, Danny Castellano has proved that age is just a state of mind, and that though he may be in his thirties chronologically, he's actually an old, old man. He loves Bruce Springsteen. He's suspicious of female airline pilots. He doesn't understand technology. The idea of hosting a social event in his home fills him with anxiety. He loves Deadliest Catch, and his "cheaters" are bright red and hang around his neck when they're not snapped together at the bridge of his nose. Danny may not have any children, but he's one of TV's dad-est characters of all time.

And, in fairness, Danny comes by his dadness honestly: he had dadness thrust upon him. When their actual father left the family, Danny became the de facto male parent for Richie, his much-younger brother. And as his de facto son, Richie knows better than anyone what Danny's buttons are and how best to push them, as I was delighted to see in this week's episode.

Now that Mindy and Danny have ironed out that whole thing where she was kind of dating another dude at the time that she first made out with Danny, Danny's view is that there's no reason they shouldn't be sleeping together. When she notes that she doesn't usually sleep with a guy until they've gone out five times or he's spent $2000 on her, Danny counters that they've already been on lots of dates -- to medical conferences and out to dinner and blah blah blah. But when he ends up in the hospital with meningitis and she rushes to his side, Danny downgrades his sexual requirements.

After she's left (on a secret mission to erase all evidence of her amateur pornography career), Danny tries to get some advice from Richie about why Mindy doesn't seem to want to sleep with him. Richie suggests that maybe Mindy's hesitant about going too fast with Danny because she knows Danny can be judgmental -- a charge Danny angrily denies. Richie has to prove his point -- and here, Richie might be trying to be legitimately helpful, but he might also be bored in Danny's hospital room and trying to make his own fun.

Forget TV: I think Danny is more dadly than my actual dad. We won't know for sure until we find out how Danny punishes Mindy for failing to make her bed before she leaves for school in the morning.