photo: fox
Pilot
Original Air Date: Sep 20, 2011
Rachel M – Senior Staff Writer
rachelm@thetwocentscorp.com
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen the sunny face of Zooey Deschanel everywhere the past month or so. Zooey is adorable and talented (I love her band She & Him) and I’m a fan of her work.
This part seems, based on the previews, like it was written for her, which is awesome. At the end of the day though, I have a hard time getting on board with sitcoms, so will New Girl be everything that’s been promised?
Find out after the jump!
Okay, so here’s the premise: Jess (Zooey Deschanel) caught her boyfriend in flagrante with another woman when she came home wearing only a bow to surprise him with sexy times. Whoops. She is interviewing with three dudes to live in their apartment with them. Now, first off, this apartment is ridiculous (as in huge). Second of all, these guys are amazing. I’m a big fan of Max Greenfield (as Schmidt) from his “Veronica Mars” days. Damon Wayans Jr (who will be leaving shortly to fulfill his gig on Happy Endings) and Jake Johnson are also good. I might be a smidge biased when I say that I think Schmidt’s character is one of the most fleshed out and non-one-dimensional, but it may be too early to tell.
Anyway, after Jess spends an eternity watching “Dirty Dancing” to soothe her broken heart, Schmidt convinces her she needs a rebound guy to get back on track. They trek to the bar where Jess is…socially awkward. Blah blah blah…she snags a date, gets stood up, and the guys come to save the day. Sorry, there’s not a ton of plot here to recap. So let’s move on to review!
I think the critics and a LOT of viewers will like this show. And I like it too, but I’m already worried about the complete one-sidedness of Jess (and maybe of Zooey Deschanel?). Her character blurs the line between endearing and annoying, so while she’s clearly supposed to land on the side of endearing, something about it worries me. Stereotypes abound in this episode, and I can’t say I was surprised about anything that happened, it was really predictable. Maybe that’s because practically the whole episode was shown in “sneak peeks.” I think the show will do well at first, but I’m not convinced it’ll have longevity if they don’t start treating the viewers to something more…original.
So am I crazy? Did you fall in love with Jess? What am I missing about this show? Share your TwoCents here!
TheTwoCents 
love this show.
jess, i think, will hopefully prove to me endearing. you can’t really judge from the Pilot because, like you said, practically the entire episode was shown through sneak peeks.
do you know who will replace coach once he leaves? i think he works so well with the ensemble, that there’s a danger whoever replaces him will mess up the vibe.
the douchebag jar rules.
I do know that they are replacing the character with someone new and they’ve written a story line for it. But I don’t know the details.
New guy plays a roommate that’s been gone. His name is Winston I believe.
“Nick and Schmidt convince Jess to get her stuff out of her ex-boyfriend Spencer’s apartment; Jess meets new roommate Winston, who has returned from playing basketball in Latvia. Winston tries to get his old room back from Schmidt.”
GREAT POINT: “Her character blurs the line between endearing and annoying”
I really liked this show. Most of the pilot was given away in the promos, but I still laughed. It will be interesting to see who they get to replace Coach since the four of them seem to already have a chemistry. Hopefully they don’t mess it up! Also, I really like to douchebag jar. Thinking of putting one in my house for when my husband’s friends stop by!
Agreed! The douchebag jar is brilliant!
I couldn’t stand the show until the guys saved Jess with their horrible attempt at singing Dirty Dancing. 1) It shows they REALLY care about her and 2) they were actually paying attention to the movie! It was that scene that caused me to hit “record series.” I am excited to see the guys grow maybe more than Jess.
I love Nick and it’s obvious they’re trying to set the two up to pair off but will have a Rachel/Ross back and forth. I do agree Jess blurs the line and often crossed well over into annoying.
And I LOVE Daman Wayans Jr. and he meshes well with the guys. Not sure what the new guy will be like but I’ll deal with it since it means we get more Happy Endings!!
I actually thought the Dirty Dancing moment was a little soon–I mean, hadn’t they just met each other? I think I’ll keep watching, though. Sitcom pilots are usually just bad for reasons no one can control. If this one sticks it’ll probably look and feel a lot different than it does now.
Max was also from Ugly Betty & was pretty funny. I missed the pilot but plan to watch next te.