New Girl: Pilot

Do you like Zooey Deschanel? Do you like quirkiness? Do you like Zooey Deschanel's brand of quirkiness? If the answer to any of these questions is no, you probably won't like New Girl. You can give it a try, but the whole pilot is pretty much Zooey Deschanel acts quirky. This show is bound to be polarizing, but plenty of people are bound to like it. Plenty of people including me!

The premise of the show is simple. Jess (Zooey Deschanel) is an adorkable (Yeah, I'm using the word Fox has used to death in the advertising) 20-something teacher who decides to surprise her boyfriend by showing up in the middle of the day naked pretending to be a stripper (her first name idea is Rebecca Johnson) only to discover he's cheating on her. Heart-broken, she answers an ad on Craigslist and moves in with three guys: bartender with a broken heart of his own Nick, womanizing douchebag (There's even a jar he has to put money in everytime he acts douchey) Schmidt and personal trainer Coach (who is getting replaced in the second episode because Damon Wayons Jr.'s show Happy Endings got surprisingly picked up for a second season, making him unable to continue as Coach. The new black roommate is named Winston.). After quickly tiring of Jess' post-break-up state (which involves watching Dirty Dancing several times a day and crying a lot), the boys decide to help her get back on the dating scene by getting a quick rebound. Things seem to be going well, but when the rebound changes his mind without telling Jess, the roommates come to the rescue and they all watch Dirty Dancing together.

So that's the pilot. It's not perfect, but it's got a lot of promise, and a lot of Zooey Deschanel. One thing that surprised me is that the roommates didn't just let Jess steal the show, nor were they just one-dimensional characters (The only one who could use more fleshing out right-off-the-bat is Jess' tough, smart, model friend.Cece.). They were pretty well established and already showed off some hidden depths. So as long as these characters continue to get depth and storylines outside of reacting to whatever crazy hijinks Jess is up to next, this show should be fine. Another thing I liked about the pilot is Jess, who's not quite as ridiculous as the promos would have you believe (though still pretty out there). Even though the role apparently wasn't written with Zooey Deschanel in mind, she totally owns this character and delivers an enjoyable performance.

As I said above, this show is not for everybody. There are going to be lots of people who won't see the appeal of this show. So I'm not going to try and change anyone's minds if they don't like it. All I suggest is that you try the show out at least once. You may be surprised


Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Memorable Moments

-Jess' stripper routine at the beginning is quite funny, as she sings what she's doing. Even when she's apologizing for knocking over the plant.
-I'm a bit sad we won't see more of Coach as I enjoyed his character. Especially the cutaway of us finding out he's not that good at talking to women and his efforts to get Jess to stop crying (He points at her and shouts "Stop!" like she's a dog.
-Another great cutaway: Teenage Jess playing guitar and singing "One of Us" at a party of people who want her to stop.
-Jess' idea of a date outfit involves overalls. "I was going for a sexy farmer's daughter type thing".
-After watching this episode the first time, "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" was in my head for a day.
-I'm going to keep talking about this show for now, by the by.