Mindy Kaling Falters With Not Suitable For Work Cast — Not Suitable For Work Cast
The not suitable for work cast is fronted by Mindy Kaling’s new sitcom, and the review is blunt: the show tries to be the new Friends and fails. The series centers on five friends in two Manhattan apartments across a hallway, but the setup does not earn the comparison.
Two Apartments, Five Friends
review opens with the line, “It takes a brave person to write about a gang of 20-somethings navigating life and love in neighbouring Manhattan apartments.” That is the frame Kaling is working inside: five central characters, two apartments, and a city comedy built to recall a familiar ensemble formula.
AJ is written as an ambitious first year analyst at a merchant bank, while Abby is the college pal she moves in with after her boyfriend moves out. Kel is a medical student who wants to be an actor, Davis is a people-pleaser and undying romantic, Josh is a super woke child of privilege who lands his dream job as an investigative TV journalist at his father’s firm, and Elena is the intern who misses out on that job.
Friends In The Hallway
The review makes the comparison explicit with “the Kauffman-Crane’s now infamously melanin-free approach to city life,” a line that places the show in direct conversation with Friends more than three decades after that series launched. This is not just nostalgia bait; it is a deliberate attempt to revive the apartment-sitcom machine with a newer cast and a more obviously diverse roster, including two people of colour among the five central characters.
The friction is in the writing, not the concept. The reviewer says, “Sadly this is not an instant classic – it’s a slice of schmaltzy pudding flopping on to a plate,” and adds, “The ear may have more trouble.” Those lines land against a 46-minute pilot, a 35-minute next episode, and later episodes that run a few minutes under 35 minutes, giving the series more room than a network sitcom but not enough style to hide the strain.
Kaling’s 46-Minute Pilot
The pilot’s longest stretch goes to setup, including Kel fainting in dissection class and quitting medical school, and AJ’s boss firing someone for being called “Erika.” That combination of workplace awkwardness and relationship churn is the show’s engine, but the review treats it as proof that the material is being asked to carry too much of the same hangout-comedy weight without the rhythm to match.
For viewers, the practical read is simple: this is a high-profile Kaling sitcom built around an apartment-neighbor structure, and the review says the execution lands well below the benchmark it is chasing. The cast is there, the city setting is there, and the five-character framework is there; the missing piece, according to the review, is the spark that would make the comparison to Friends work on its own terms.
