The New Girl actually isn’t all that bad. Starring Zooey Deschanel (which puts both Deschanel sisters on the same network #nepotism) and airing on Fox after Glee and beforeRaising Hope, The New Girl is the biggest new, and most advertised, sitcom for the Fox network this fall season. It’s time slot alone, sandwiched between two successful comedies, makes it likely to succeed and be picked up for a second season.
This review could be influenced negatively by one thing in particular, so discount accordingly, but I expected this show to not be good. Not The Playboy Club bad per se, but not good. The cast didn’t look all that special to me, and I generally have a negative opinion of Zooey Deschanel because she seems hipster, and flaky, and that annoys me. Maybe I’m wrong though, maybe those roles she played in 500 Days of Summer and Yes Man were just that, roles.
The show opens with Zooey (I forget her characters name) explaining that her boyfriend cheated on her, a fact she discovers while being super awkward. We, the audience, than find out that her story has no relevance to what was being asked of her by her three, male prospective roommates. The roommates seem amusing, if not clichéd into typical roles of douchebag, overly masculine, and slightly effeminate, but all by episodes end have a soft spot for their new female roommate. Most of the jokes in this pilot episode were quick, and intelligent enough, which is good, because most sitcom pilots aren’t always that funny, requiring sometime to find their groove of comedy.
This doesn’t mean I’m not worried about where the show might be headed. The male characters are fairly shallow to begin with, but this could end up being a bigger problem in that they’ve had to recast one of the male roles already. God I hope they don’t just try to pretend the new black guy is the same character as the old black guy, it would be lazy and probably slightly offensive on multiple levels. Also, Zooey Deschanel is a hipster as well as a singer, and it looks like her character has many of the same qualities, most prominent her propensity to see awkward theme songs about herself at random times in the show. This could get annoying quickly, so I’m hoping they don’t come back to it often.
The show is definitely worth a first and second look, and has potential to be another ensemble comedy, though more at the critical and commercial success level of Happy Endings than Modern Family or Community
Matt Brickell is a contributing writer and having trouble uploading blog posts today.
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