The Unrealistic NYC Apartments Of 'The Mindy Project'

As we learned early on, The Mindy Project has created a very unrealistic New York City. The subway alone! And that's fine, it's a fictional 30-minute sitcom filmed in LA... but it's fun to see how the fictional half lives, and last night Mindy went apartment hunting. Turns out her massive mansion in Manhattan is a rental, and she wants to own. First, a look at Mindy's current apartment:

A spiral staircase! And is that a foyer between the living room and bedroom?:

That's fine, because on the show Mindy is a doctor, and we hear doctors can afford to live with dignity in NYC. But in last night's episode she looks at two other apartments for her potential new home, and they bring us from one end of the real estate spectrum to the other. One is that overplayed Hollywood parody of a NYC apartment—you know the one: yellowing walls, dirty windows, no kitchen (the realtor asks: "who needs kitchen, you can't do take out? You poor?"). The sidekick cries: "How can this cost this much?!" That apartment is in a 9-floor walk-up in an up-and-coming neighborhood called "Little Chernobyl," and is somehow out of her price range. Still, it's not that bad! And there's totally enough room to add in a kitchen.

Then, for half the price of that place is this other apartment, magically available and fully furnished in Tribeca. A great deal, and the guy she's in love with just happens to own it—it's right next to the other apartment he owns (she asks, "Did you buy them for like $1000 bucks when Lindsay was mayor?"). One day, as this fantasy version of New York life pushes into the future, they'll knock down the walls and live in a labyrinth of Design Within Reach.

At least Mindy Kaling seems aware that the NYC on her show is unreal—last night she called it "The NYC of The Mindy Project" on Twitter.

Visit more on-screen bizarro NYCs right here.