Wednesday, February 8, 2012

AMERICAN SCHOOLS CALLED YOU STARLIGHT IN FOURTEEN-POINT TYPE: There is a bloody battle being waged (puppies-vs.-babies-style) in the comments over at What's Alan Watching about last night's episode of New Girl, and whether it was great or terrible. Me, I mostly thought it was the kind of clunker that an otherwise pretty good show throws off now and then. The situations were too broad, forced, and sit-commy, and the attempts at transgressive humor didn't really land. It happens.

It is a good time to give the show its mid-term report card, though, and I'm going with a solid B. A show about a girl who's just about too cute for words could be insufferable, but that's not what New Girl has turned out to be. Instead, it's mostly a show about how a couple of real guys and a cartoon douchebag react to having an alien pixie fairy dropped into their ramshackle bachelor loft. By giving Nick (the writers' room's surrogate, if not the audience's) license to ask Jess, "how do you survive?" and then shove her in the right direction, the show usually can clap a stopper over any risk of excessive Jessness fouling the brew (a la Dharma & Greg or Phoebe from Friends). I'm not wild about episodes (like last night's) that suggest that Jess's intrusive pep is effective, but as long as the show acknowledges as often as not that Jess's childishness is an impairment, there's plenty of room in that structure for good comedy.

12 comments:

  1. HIJACK:

    Would it be useful to do a mid-season report card on frosh series in general? I would just like a place to talk about how well "Revenge" has replaced "The OC" (2003-2007) and "Gossip Girl" (2007-2011) as the "Rich people being shitty to each other in non-magical ways" part of my TV rotation.

    I would also settle for a place to talk about "Justified," which is so f*cking good.

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  2. I agree--it's a solid B, and it's helped by the fact that while Zooey is the lead, not every plot revolves around her (though last night's Schmidt plot was, admittedly, a clunker).  Montages of things Schmidt has done that have required him to put money in the douchebag jar may be added to the "never not funny" list. 

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  3. Paul Tabachneck4:25 PM

    I'll say at this point that having a fairly familial relationship with Rusted Root (I'm originally from Pittsburgh, and it's a small scene, such that three formers and one current member have been on my albums, and I've been on two of theirs) means that every time that song shows up somewhere I recognize the punchline, but then cannot concentrate on the show anymore because I'm listening to Rusted Root and flashing back to high school.

    Anyhow, I love New Girl, possibly most because they remembered to bring back the douche jar.  

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  4. I did not watch last night but on the whole I am not a fan.  I watched 3 or 4 episodes before I gave up.  I find Jess creepy and embarassing and not even remotely like any human I ever met.  I just don't get it. 

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  5. isaac_spaceman5:49 PM

    Cosign on montages, but maybe I'm just a montage fan.  See, e.g., P&R.

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  6. J. Bowman6:28 PM

    Has anyone seen my good peacoat?

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  7. J. Bowman6:31 PM

    "New Girl" was on our wedding playlist.
    I was as disappointed that it was not used as this show's credits as I was that the DJ basically ignored our playlist and played the goddamned Electric Slide.

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  8. isaac_spaceman7:55 PM

    It's a great song and it shares a title with the show, but they really don't match.  I don't see Jess as the kind of girl that fits the line "twice you burned your life's work -- once to start a new life and once just to start a fire." 

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  9. girard318:37 PM

    I like the show. It's a half hour sit-com, so I expect some cartoony characters and can deal with plots that get more than a little unreal.

    I thought last night's episode was very funny. I didn't analyze why, nor will I. Sometimes you come home from work after a shitty day and a show just works. I don't think there's science at play.

    And after reading the thread at Alan's site, I would be asking for lots of people who weighed in on that discussion to throw some cash into the douchebag jar.

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  10. Joseph Finn9:52 PM

    Last night's episode was a bit of a clunker, but I was rather appreciating seeing good'ol Jeff Kober, usually sucking people's blood or otherwise killing them horribly, taking a comic turn.

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  11. Nigel from Cameroon12:05 PM

    Do ya'll think there's any sexiness to Zooey? Or does her adorableness/cuteness think overwhelm any sex factor?

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  12. Heather k9:04 PM

    I couldn't stop giggling during the three-some part.  I don't know why, just watching them just stubborn each other out as it got weirder and weirder was HILARIOUS to me.  Although maybe it is because I have been known to approach that kind of stubbornness in my own life.  Not the the threesome with the super extreme but similarly stupidly and I can laugh at myself.

    I don't mind the cartoony-ness because usually other bits are cartoony too, and the whole show just feels like my life a few years ago when I was single in my twenties.  I knew those people, I did those things.  I like it.

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