Tuesday, April 9, 2013

What I’m Watching: New Girl


New Girl: Season 2, Episode 21 “First Date” (B+)

After a disappointing serious installment last week, I love that this episode got us back to what’s funniest and most charming about Nick and Jess’ nervous romance. After their wonderfully awkward encounter in which Nick chose to keep his hands on Jess, he went to that fateful bench where he gives himself advice, and what a brilliant bad idea going on a date was. It was great to see him dressed up in a suit and to attempt to calm himself down by not objecting to that militant police officer’s constant jaywalking tickets. I can’t decide whether their first date, their second date, or their friend hangout at the bar was more fun, and it was a delight to see them flip-flop back and forth. Russell’s appearance was opportune because it brought them together in anger towards him for his offhand remark, and I think what was written on those pieces of papers is ultimately irrelevant. That final scene was terrific, and I hope that we haven’t seen the last of the unresolved feelings between these two. Schmidt and Winston’s wild adventures were most amusing because of Winston’s continued exaggerations of their plans, and bringing a homeless man into their bathroom so that he could stage a date interruption was a decidedly awful decision. Seeing the two of them bond as friends without Nick as a buffer made for a pretty cool secondary plot, and it’s especially refreshing to see Winston put to good use, not simply as a convenient fourth character.

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