New Girl Confronts The Realities Of Being Young, Broke, And Struggling To Gain A Toehold Into The Adult World

Deschanel was already a polarizing figure when New Girl launched last fall—your tolerance for both her and her character, Jess, likely hinges on how much you relate to the need to curl up in a ball and watchDirty Dancing on a loop post break-up. Or whether you are the kind of person who might own adult-sized footie pajamas. Early on in the season, Jess was a disappointingly one-note character, all cutesy eccentricity and little substance. In one episode she insisted on wearing fake hillbilly teeth to a wedding, and and in another she became so uncomfortable after accidentally seeing one of her three male roommates naked that she couldn't bring herself to say the word "penis." When she first moved in after discovering that her live-in boyfriend was having an affair, her roommates were understandably bewildered by this strange, doe-eyed creature who seemed capable of little more than weeping and bursting spontaneously into song.
　　
But as the season progressed, the writing became both warmer and sharper, focusing more on the talented ensemble cast and tempering Jess's excessive awkwardness with a much-needed dose of self-awareness. In one episode, she goes head-to-head with Julia, a tough-girl lawyer who dismissively refers to Jess's kittens-and-rainbows outlook as her "whole thing." In response, Jess proclaims: "I brake for birds. I rock a lot of polka dots. I have touched glitter in the last 24 hours...and that doesn't mean I'm not smart and tough and strong!" While this may not have won over all the skeptics, it was a smart choice to make Jess's foil a worthy opponent. Without dismissing the criticisms of both Deschanel and the character, it allowed Jess to show a tougher side to her personality and to make a case for her unique brand of femininity.
　　
New Girl isn't the only recession-era comedy to confront the realities of being young, broke, and struggling to gain a toehold into the adult world (2 Broke Girls and Lena Dunham's Girls both come to mind). But New Girl also stands slightly apart from its girl-titled peers in that its characters are all circling 30 (despite her ability to project childlike wonder through her giant anime eyes, Deschanel is in fact a fully grown woman), and the view is a little bit different four or five years into a quarter-life crisis.
　　
This in-betweener angst was crystallized in a recent storyline that centered around Jess dating a successful older man. Jess struggles to reconcile a functioning adult relationship with a guy her roommates refer to as "Fancy Man" and her world of party buses and co-ed bathrooms with faulty plumbing. On their first date, when the Fancy Man has to leave halfway through dinner to deal with an issue involving his daughter, he sends Jess off with money for a cab and an awkwardly paternal hug. She returns home to find Nick throwing a party with a group of college students. "Why is the cast of The Social Network in our apartment?" she asks. The answer: they are in awe of Nick's ability to make a Bay Breeze.
　　
"They don't know what Saved by the Bell is, and they've never felt pain," he cries plaintively.
　　
The roommates on New Girl aren't stumbling into adulthood so much as they're stuck on the threshold—clearly too old for the frat house but not yet financially or emotionally prepared to enter the world of fancy men (and women). As Jess declares in one of her less sunny moments: "30 sucks!"
　　
In this respect, New Girl is one of the more authentic portraits of young folks on television. The show's evolution from "adorkable" star vehicle to engaging ensemble comedy proves that, regardless of its characters credit scores, it's done a lot of growing up this season.
　　
A new comedy series from executive producer and writer Liz Meriwether ("No Strings Attached"), NEW GIRL features a young ensemble cast that takes a fresh look at modern relationships.
　　
After a bad break-up, JESS DAY (Zooey Deschanel) needs a new place to live. An online search leads her to a great loft...and three single guys she's never met before. But Jess moves in, and through her unique sense of self and the support of her new roommates, she learns to move on.
　　
Of her three new male roommates, NICK (Jake Johnson) is the most grounded...and also the most jaded. A law school dropout, he spends most of his time hiding under his hoodie and tending bar. SCHMIDT (Max Greenfield) is a hustling young professional who's pretty proud of his own abs. WINSTON (Lamorne Morris), is an intensely competitive former athlete who doesn't know what to do next-but whatever he does, he wants to win it.
　　
Rounding out the group is Jess' childhood best friend, CECE (Hannah Simone), a model with a killer deadpan. As their relationships progress, these five realize they need each other more than they thought they would and end up forming a charmingly dysfunctional - or strangely functional - family.
　　
NEW GIRL is produced by Chernin Entertainment in association with 20th Century Fox Television. The series is created and written by Liz Meriwether. Meriwether, Jake Kasdan ("Bad Teacher"), Peter Chernin (TERRA NOVA), Katherine Pope (TERRA NOVA), Dave Finkel ("United States of Tara," "30 Rock") and Brett Baer ("United States of Tara," "30 Rock") are executive producers. Kasdan directed the pilot and will continue to direct episodes of the series.

Jess is such a people person that she even tries to broker a dinnertime truce between Russell and his ex, Ouli. But the two of them seem to have a smoldering hate-on for each other. They fight through the whole meal, only pausing to gaze furiously into each other’s eyes. Jess tries to distract them by tap-dancing and singing Cheap Trick, which is how she handled her divorced parents growing up. Ultimately, though, she realizes that she’s jealous. She wants to feel that sort of passion for Russell.
　　
The problem is that there’s only one main New Girl character who really meshes powerfully with Russell, and that’s Nick, who opens the episode musing, “Jess, you’re dating a man I could see myself growing old with.” Jess tries to goad Russell into having some sort of high-drama sex showdown, but even when she throws coasters at him, he won’t take the bait. “Passion’s overrated,” he says. Uh-oh. Maybe that’s why Zooey Deschanel and Dermot Mulroney never seemed to have much chemistry in the show; their characters don’t either.
　　
Having failed at relationships, Nick is trying to cultivate tomatoes. He’s not a good gardener, but he’s great with the props, threatening the birds with a scarecrow and chasing Winston off the roof with a pitchfork. (Later, watching Nick try to stuff the scarecrow in the trash, Winston asks, “What is this, Martin Scorsese’s The Wizard of Oz?”)
　　
Winston is driving Nick crazy because he’s in the middle of a honeymoon period with the pleasantly bland Shelby. Eventually he’s able to convince Nick that he can’t just give up on women completely. Since Winston has found love with a girl he used to date, he talks Nick into calling his own ex, Caroline.
　　
Jess comes back from her date just as Caroline is leaving Nick’s bedroom without any pants on, which means it’s time for a completely deranged confrontation. Jess tells Nick he doesn’t have the courage to be alone, kicking off a yelling match and some serious sexual tension. I would definitely have bet money on them making out, and I would have lost that bet, because instead of giving us the obvious cathartic “Here’s the passion Jess was looking for” moment, the show chooses to get weird. Nick starts shaking his ass at Jess, Jess starts shaking her ass back, and then the two of them compete to see who can shake faster. Their fighting styles are so complementary that it feels like further evidence that they’re perfect for each other. Even if Jess does storm off in the end.