It’s been a year of change for Mindy: she’s a new mom; has a new practice and a new business partner in Jody and even a new network. Unfortunately she also has a new fiance, in old boyfriend Danny.

Yes, Mindy and Danny are now engaged after three and a half years of dancing around each other. In that time Mindy has become a better version of the goofy, materialistic yet brilliant doctor we fell in love with originally. She’s more focused on her work, more aware of how her actions affect others and the genuine kindness that’s always been the base of her personality has only blossomed since having the utterly adorable Leo with Danny.

The problem is Mindy’s changed but Danny hasn’t. He’s still the same self-involved, self-righteous, judgemental jerk he was when the show started. The slight softening of his character that we saw in previous seasons with the introduction of his brother Richie, single working mother Annette, deadbeat dad Alan and little sister Danni has pretty much gone out the window. As we saw in the mid-season finale episode Danny is still fundamentally who he was when Mindy met him on her first day of work and his underlying nastiness and insecurity has not been resolved in the ensuing years. To put it bluntly Danny’s an excellent doctor but he’s a garbage person and he’s toxic for Mindy.

Something that various characters have tried to point out to her over the course of the season. Morgan, who at this point is actively trolling everyone with his too dumb to live persona, has been the most consistent in voicing his concerns over Danny’s constant need to push Mindy into a box that he’s comfortable with. While Jeremy has been oblivious due to his utterly insane relationship with stockbroker Whitney, newcomer Jody, Jeremy’s old schoolmate, immediately sees all the flaws in their relationship. The same can be said for the much missed Peter who drops in throughout the season and who is, beneath his frat boy exterior, genuinely disturbed at the damage being done to his best friend Mindy’s psyche.

This season we’ve watched something I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen done so realistically, subtly or hell at all on a sitcom before: beneath the always hilarious one liners, the office craziness and the constantly changing relationship dynamics has been the slow unraveling of an IT couple. It’s been touched on before on shows like Friends and Cheers but never quite this brutally, this honestly or organically. It’s a credit to writers Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, Matt Warburton, Charlie Grandy and Tracey Wigfield that even in the midst of laughing your ass off at Peter and Mindy infiltrating a grief support group to get someone to listen to them; Jeremy writing a song for lunatic Whitney apologizing for his laugh or Jody being so old school southern that he’s unable to even have a meeting without scotch being involved, your heart is being broken watching two new parents slowly fall apart as one grows and the other remains stagnant.

It’s been a fascinating, funny and smart ride and I can’t wait to see more.

I give this season 4 Baby Leo Smiles out of 5