https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uwanee-lS4

The saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but what about when your network cancels your show and you move to Hulu? Was “The Mindy Project” “broke”? Should they have fixed it?

When we left “The Mindy Project” last year, Mindy was pregnant with Danny’s baby, and Danny never wanted to get married again. However, his love and commitment to Mindy—and the need to prove those feelings—led Danny halfway around the world to her parents’ front door in India.

The season four premiere of “The Mindy Project” picks up right from the final moments of that finale, with Danny knocking on the Lahiris’ door. He gives an impassioned speech to the Indian man who opens the door about how he loves Mindy and their child but how he was hurt by his father and therefore doesn’t believe in marriage. Of course, that man is the non-English speaking servant and when the real Mr. Lahiri comes to the door, Danny’s confidence is shaken, and he introduces himself as only Mindy’s co-worker. Classic. The next 26 minutes chronicle Danny’s struggle to reveal his true identity as Mindy’s baby’s daddy, which includes a visit from Morgan Tookers (the Lahiris’ favorite) and the guise of finding a man for Mindy’s arranged marriage.

While Danny is in India trying to find courage and commitment, Mindy is back in New York, finding out what her life would have been like without Danny. In a classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment, Mindy “wakes up” to find she is married to Matt, an award-winning “Real Housewives” executive producer (played perfectly by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), instead of in a relationship with Danny. In fact, Danny hates her and is dating Freida Pinto. As Mindy discovers that this “perfect” relationship is actually far from it and comes to terms with the fact that Danny’s love and commitment is greater than any marriage proposal, Danny realizes the exact opposite: Marriage is the end goal.

Alas, here lies my biggest complaint with this new season of “The Mindy Project:” the marriage plot. Mindy Kaling discusses her love of the marriage plot and the relationship between “Pride and Prejudice” and “The Mindy Project” in her newest book, “Why Not Me.” Before reading that essay in her book and watching this season premiere, there was still some part of me that hoped Mindy and Danny would never get married. It’s 2015, I told myself—they’re already pregnant before they are engaged. We’re breaking all the rules! Down with the stereotypes! Down with the patriarchy!

But this is a show about romantic comedies full of romantic comedy tropes celebrating romantic comedies. From the opening voice-overs to Danny as a Mr. Darcy, “The Mindy Project” celebrates the structure; It doesn’t satirize or subvert it. Of course there will be an engagement and a marriage. Why break from that now?

In almost every interview with Mindy Kaling discussing the move to Hulu from Fox she told us the show was not going to change too much. Of course, Hulu allowed for an episode that clocks in at 27 minutes and 23 seconds instead of the usual 21-minute show on Fox. The additional time allowed for more jokes, more character development of the Lahiris and more screen time for Joseph Gordon Levitt, all of which increased my overall enjoyment of the show. But did it make it better? I don’t think so.

The question now becomes: Did it need to be better? While “The Mindy Project” was not a critics’ darling on Fox, it has an adoring fan base that was devastated for a week when they thought it was gone from their screens forever. We’ve followed Mindy’s dating trials and tribulations, joined in on an impossible number of meet cutes and watched Mr. Darcy/Danny and Mindy argue, fall in love and make out on a plane; not necessarily in that order. The romantic comedy structure that has been established in the first three seasons therefore requires that there be an engagement.

Danny can come around to the idea of marriage right when Mindy decides otherwise because we all know there will eventually still be an engagement and a marriage. There are no more surprises and the story, therefore, has begun to write itself. The move to Hulu could have reinvigorated the show—and maybe even the genre—but it has become just another victim of the marriage plot.