Thursday, May 24, 2018

What I’m Watching: New Girl (Series Finale)


New Girl: Season 7, Episodes 7 and 8 “The Curse of the Pirate Bride” and “Engram Pattersky”

Here we are, finally at the end. After eight relatively disappointing episodes, I don’t feel any more satisfied than at the end of season six last April, and that strong episode would probably have served as a far more fitting finale than this one. The characters on this show have always been infantile, and therefore imagining what they would be like as married people and parents probably would have been more effective instead of having it translate to actual plot. Nick waited long enough to pull off the perfect proposal, which of course didn’t go as planned, and naturally the wedding had its hitches, not the least of which was Jess falling and needing to wear an eye patch and Aly predictably going into labor as they were about to begin the nuptials. Russell trying to get Jess to run away with him was random, and didn’t serve much of a purpose other than to show how bad all these men were at fighting. The strangely absent Coach, who I can’t imagine would have missed this wedding, probably would have fared better. Episode eight was an unnecessary reminder of how obsessive Jess can be in a bizarrely specific way, and showing Cece and Winston crying about their dance parties and Schmidt and Nick remembering foot cream gifts felt peculiar at best. Winston pulling off his greatest prank by evicting them was equally odd, but at least it’s in keeping with his character, and allowed us to see a brief montage of a handful of characters who don’t really represent this show’s best recurring guests. Looking back through my reviews of all 146 episodes, this show has been through a lot and hasn’t been great in a while. I won’t miss this show, but I do want to go back and watch some of the episodes I rated as the best to remind myself how much I once liked it.

Series finale: C+
Series grade: B-
Season MVP: Nasim Pedrad as Aly
Season grade: C+
Series MVP: Jake Johnson as Nick
Best Season: Season 2
Best Episodes: “Quick Hardening Caulk” and “Cooler

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