It's been three months since The Mindy Project's midseason finale, which ended with Mindy Lahiri taking down the "For Sale" sign in her apartment and contemplating life as a single mother without Danny. For fans, it was a harsh wake-up call that this isn't your typical rom com (not that we ever doubted that) that moves past traditional weekly obstacles and into more serious, dramatic territory. Danny's disappointing actions weren't something that could be solved in a 22-minute episode or even in a "To Be Continued..." shocker. This is real life, and real life means more valleys and hills than sitcoms seldom explore.

But The Mindy Project is no typical sitcom, and Mindy Kaling (thank goodness) has never been one to play it safe. She appreciates the best romantic comedies like the rest of us, but she also understands that it's the ones that strike a chord that leave a lasting impact.

Now that Hulu has announced April 12 as The Mindy Project's return date, we caught up with Kaling herself to talk about the future of Mindy and Danny and what the change in seasons means for the show.

Fox

Glamour: The direction that you decided to take Mindy and Danny in the mid-season finale—and even the episodes leading up to it—was very brave. People are so invested in this relationship, so was there an inner struggle for you about where to take the story?

Mindy Kaling: Well, I think that we've been given this gift with Hulu where we don't have restrictions when it comes to content. I've said this so much, but I love movies, and I said, "Let's make this very real." Chris [Messina] came from drama and knows how to do that. I'm eager for that challenge, and I felt like, let's push the envelope a little bit here. When you're on episode 67, 70, 75, what is the strife between two people who in many, many ways, do not belong together? What is it like when they have a kid? All my friends who are married and have kids, every single one of them—and this is not selling them out—have shown so many cracks in their relationships when that happens. That even happens to couples who are suited to each other. So what happens when a couple isn't suited for each other? A lot of people who watch the show for wish-fulfillment reasons were not happy with the way that Danny behaved, but that is how that guy would behave. Or at least I think. He's very romantic when he was courting her, and she was also trying to be like a homemaker, and then it blew up. This [upcoming] bunch of episodes is the fallout aftermath of that and how they deal with it.