S1E3: Oh, New Girl, how you continue to grow on us like an adorable little fungus forest of mushrooms and other oddities. I almost don’t want to like Zooey Deschanel’s Jess. She so obnoxiously cute. Every time I giggle at her overly goofy behavior I want to cringe, but I can’t. Add to that the fact that I’m really starting to like her roommates – even Winston – and you’ve got yourself a series.
“Your head is shaped like a yam.” –Jess
“Yeah, I know. I can’t wear soft hats.” –Nick
It’s that odd sense of humor, that is most often expected but every once in while throws a yam-flavored curveball that makes this show work; soft hats off to you, Liz Meriweather. It comes out throughout this episode, wherein Jess I enlisted to pose as Nick’s fake girlfriend at a wedding where his ex-girlfriend will be present. Of course, they spend the entire first half of the episode trying to convince Jess to be anyone but herself – and it works for a while. She sloths all over Nick, making Caroline jealous with zingers like “I hardly sleep. So much doing it.”
The problem is that she seems to make Caroline just a little too jealous – and the other guys see the pattern starting to repeat itself. Nick gets sucked into Caroline’s flirtations, is left dangling and spends the next month crying in his bathrobe. While Jess thinks it’s good they’re talking, the guys know better and ask her to intervene – she fails and simultaneously manages to accidentally insert herself in the bride and groom’s entrance to the reception (which we saw coming but laughed at anyway).
She eventually manages to find Nick and do her fake-girlfriend duty by accusing him of cheating on her loudly and cartoonishly. It’s just then that Caroline admits she has a boyfriend and that she came solo to spare Nick’s feelings. Cue insta-wasted Nick holing up in the photo booth (but not before terrorizing wedding guests).
“Oh, Schmidt. One day you’re going to kill the nicest girl.” –Jess
Schmidt is on his usual prowl for attractive ladies to bed when he sees Brooke at the wedding – she’s been a longtime fixture on his kill list, which apparently has something to do with sex despite the name. Besides the fact that she doesn’t seem to take notice of him, he’s also facing Gretchen, his masculine yet skilled usual wedding hookup. He wants to graduate from the aggressive woman who puts him in earrings before sleeping with him – this part of the episode was just a bit too weird for me – and move on to the tall, modelesque sophisticated girl of his dreams.
To do this, he lies through his teeth, including accidentally saying “me too” to Brooke’s assertion that she’s six month sober. Nice going, Schmidt. But he doesn’t give up. He continues to pursue Brooke, eventually using Jess’ colorful antics and saying she was part of his “former” drunken life, embellishing and making Jess sound like a maniac. When Brooke runs into her the bathroom, where she’s cutting her spanx off with a butter knife, Brooke thinks she’s threatening her and flees in tears.
This is the final straw for Schmidt, who goes off on Jess and chastises her for being “weird.” Duh, Schmidt, that’s part of her charm. She storms off, and Winston of all people is the one who reigns her back in, saying the guys care about her deep down. Maybe after humiliating himself with the dance contest with the child usher-alternate, he’s been humbled.
“I love you, photo booth.” –Nick
Immediately after Winston convince her they other two care, Schmidt drags her to the photo booth to get drunk Nick out of it. And here’s where the romantic undertones begin. She plays along with his little charade and then tells him that Caroline shouldn’t have flirted with him if she has a boyfriend and that it’s not fair for her to string him along – he’s got to cut the chord. And he does it. Then he jumps up and asks Jess to dance when he starts her version of the chicken dance in slow motion to “Groovy Kind of Love.” It’s too damn adorable.
This show really can’t help but make you grin like a little kid. It’s just so damn cute. Add to that this week’s gems like “Mime-chael Jackson” and Jess’ obnoxious, clingy girlfriend routine followed by her hill-billy teeth routine, and it’s no wonder we can’t help but cheer for New Girl.
