What I’m Watching: New Girl

New Girl: Season 5, Episode 11 “The Apartment” (B-)

It’s a strange thing to focus on the departure from a place that we’ve barely seen and that even our characters, aside from Jess, haven’t spent much time in. Thinking back, Schmidt used to visit Cece there and meet her roommates, but that’s about all I can remember. What this episode did was help to reestablish Jess as a major character, at one point the lead, of this show. The plotline involving Elizabeth Berkley’s completely incompetent principal who just forces Jess to do all of her work was annoying, and Cece picking up the phone to tell her that Jess quit was entertaining but hardly believable given the many things that Jess does on a whim that seem impulsive and extra eccentric. Jess realized some important things about herself as she locked Cece out of her apartment to pack everything, and having Cece around as a full-time resident of the loft should make things entertaining and a bit easier. I was excited to see Sam Richardson as a guest star on this show given how funny he was as a new addition on “Veep.” While he did a pretty solid job, his character was pretty broadly drawn, totally blind to what’s around him and to the way things work. Going right back to Aly didn’t take long, and the bigger issue is that Winston’s problem with her – that she keeps talking about her boyfriend and how much she likes him – hasn’t been rectified in any sense and will only continue to come up on a very regular basis.

What I’m Watching: Californication

Californication: Season 3, Episode 8 “The Apartment” (B+)

How could these three women in Hank’s life have been brought together in any better fashion? The three arrivals are each fantastic in their own way, and the episode just keeps getting increasingly good. Part of what’s so great is that these women have been so singularly focused on Hank and blissfully unaware of the presence of each other in his life. Hank’s apartment has never felt so big, and the fact that it could hide the three ladies, a couple of strippers, Charlie, and even Rick Springfield is pretty hilarious. Eva Amurri, Diane Farr, and Embeth Davidtz are all wonderful in their respective performances as Jackie, Jill, and Felicia, and seeing and hearing their reactions to Hank’s other affairs was simply incredible. The best was probably Jackie’s disgust at Jill’s age. And then of course there’s the terrific Peter Gallagher, whose Dean Koons finally gets the chance to really speak his mind and try to chew Hank out while admitting his own faults, unknowingly in front of his wife, no less. The introduction of the two overly mature young daughters, Chelsea and Becca, made for an even funnier follow-up, and the best part of it was the rapport between Chelsea and her father. Seeing Becca stick up for Hank (“Hey, that’s my father!”) was a touching moment, and it’s refreshing that they’re bonding again, in their own extremely messed-up way. I hope that this show picks up a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Ensemble in December, because this cast really deserves it.