Mindy Kaling named her new show Not Suitable for Work and then made it extremely suitable for work. Very tame. Very safe. We have questions.
The show dropped on Hulu on June 2 with three episodes dropping at once and immediately had the internet in its feelings. Here is everything you need to know.
What Is “Not Suitable for Work” On Hulu Actually About?
Despite the name raising eyebrows and, honestly, hopes, this show is nothing scandalous. It follows five ambitious 20-somethings split between two apartments across the hall from each other in Murray Hill, Manhattan, juggling demanding careers and messier love lives.
Think Friends meets New Girl but dressed in 2026 clothes (if Friends were set in 2026 and everyone had a LinkedIn)
The cast includes Ella Hunt, Avantika, Will Angus, Jack Martin, Nicholas Duvernay, and Jay Ellis, and the vibe the show is going for is reliably funny, lightly sweet, and generally chill.
How Mindy Kaling’s Real Life Inspired the Show
Here is where it gets genuinely interesting. After graduating from Dartmouth in 2001 with a degree in playwriting, Kaling moved to New York City at 21. It would be another five years before she landed her life-changing gig as a writer and then star on The Office. Five years. That gap is basically the whole show.
She describes remembering “the feeling of having so much to say and having so much to offer, or thinking I did, and having no access.” In her own words: “When your ambition does not meet your access, to me, it was really theatrical, and fun, and also a painful time in my life.”
Mindy Kaling considers Not Suitable for Work the final chapter in a trilogy of shows loosely based on her own life. Never Have I Ever covered her high school years. The Sex Lives of College Girls covered Dartmouth. This one closes it out.
Not Suitable for Work Rotten Tomatoes Score and Reviews
Here is where it gets interesting. The show currently sits at a 56% Rotten Tomatoes score, which is not exactly a standing ovation. Reviews have been rough.
Time described it as “an older person’s idea of a show about young adults,” noting that despite internet slang peppered into the scripts, the characters bear so little resemblance to actual Gen Z that they might as well be sitting at Central Perk in 1994.
Variety called it a “bland Friends copycat” and noted that its vision of love and career feels rooted somewhere in the 1990s or early 2000s rather than 2026.
The A.V. Club put it squarely in between Kaling’s best and worst work, calling it “fun but half-baked” and noting that the title raises expectations for something risque that the show simply never delivers.
More generous outlets like The Hollywood Reporter called it “a nice hang” with an ensemble that is broadly appealing and fresh faces that have genuine chemistry. So it is not unwatchable. It is just very, very safe.
Is Not Suitable for Work Worth Watching on Hulu?
Look, if you are the kind of person who rewatches New Girl when life gets stressful, this is your show. It is warm, easy, and comfort-TV to its core. But if you were hoping Mindy Kaling finally delivers something that feels alive and culturally sharp, this is not it.
She is still essentially writing the same show she has been writing for over a decade, and the audience is split right down the middle on whether that feels cozy or just kind of tired.
The title promises chaos. The show delivers a warm hug. Not bad, but not the tea we were hoping for either.
