New Girl - "Cabin" - Review

Much like Zooey Deschanel, Olivia Munn is a polarizing figure that people seem to be split on. Both Deschanel and Munn have built up a fan base by establishing a particular persona of themselves (happy-go-lucky free spirit in the case of Deschanel, and hot nerd in the case of Munn). I’ve personally never had a problem with either of them. I’ve liked Munn for the most part since her days on the cult series Attack of the Show, where she put herself out there enough to win me over. They’re both actresses who have the problem of having to be utilized in really specific ways in order to bring out the best of their talents. And I think that’s often the problem with New Girl, it doesn’t lack talent; it often just doesn’t recognize what’s best in utilizing its talent.

This was really apparent in the first half of the first season which was really grating. It could be seen in how pointless it felt bringing in Justin Long and Lizzy Caplan as guest stars (as welcome as they might have been). They series has gotten MUCH better going into their second season and part of the pleasure in watching the series has been to watch it evolve from a series that wasn’t very good at all to one of the best ensemble pieces on tv. But sometimes it still feels as if the writers don’t trust their cast, and have to come up with weirdly contrived reasons to establish comical situations (the young people of “Neighbors” who are so cartoonish and unrealistic that it turned me off, or the bathtub Winston and Jess bought crashing through the roof to ruin all of Schmidt’s suits in “Bathtub”). Which is my biggest problem with the episode; it doesn’t feature a lot of the main cast just riffing off one another (which is often what the show does best). Instead, it takes a weird amount of times and unnecessary turns to get to the plot points it wants to arrive at. The episode obviously wants to create examinations of the Nick-Angie and Jess-Sam relationships, but it feels totally un-organic and forced.

Nick and Jess (and particularly Nick) currently have relationships that are not the most stable things. Nick may be into his adventurous stripper girlfriend Angie (which feels like a really weird name for a stripper – am I the only one who thinks this?) but he’s failing to be honest with her. Jess is also failing to be honest with Sam. She invites Nick to come with her and Sam on a romantic getaway to a cabin in the woods because she doesn’t want to be with Sam by herself (then she’d be forced to be open and honest with him – and that scares her). 

Nick agrees to go only after Jess notes that it’ll be free (“Ok, we’re 100% in!” he yells the moment he learns). Once there, Angie finds some guns and some absinthe in a hall closet, which sets up the rest the episode’s story. Angie and Nick start shooting at beer bottles, and Sam decides that it look way more interesting than “Sexy Boggle”. Jess enthusiastically says she wants to give it a try, but clearly has no idea what she’s doing (She keeps swinging the gun back towards Nick and Sam who duck down scared for their lives). Jess ends up shooting the power box, and they spend the rest of the day without power. Now was it really necessary to have Jess shooting a gun, and blowing out a powerbox just to establish the next plot point of the four of them drinking heavily? There was probably some way less weird and convoluted way to achieve it.

But whatever: ABSINTHE! Jess ends up drinking too much and Nick goes to keep an eye on her while she’s puking upstairs. This leaves Angie and Sam alone; Nick and Jess return to find Angie trying to hook up with Sam, which upsets both of them. Nick keeps saying it’s cool because he and Angie are in an open-relationship. But when he ends up drinking a bunch more absinthe, it leads to him admitting his feelings for Angie. Angie is scared of this and leaves before Nick wakes up the next morning. While Sam and Jess are closer than ever (“I was tripping pretty hard on absinthe and I said no to a stripper rubbing my leg,” Sam tells Jess). 

In the episode’s other story (and it’s much funnier, but shorter, one), after seeing Winston talk to other black people, Schmidt feels as if the housemates are not letting Winston be “his blackest self”. Schmidt triesto get them to do some "black" things (i.e. he asks him if he wants soul food). Winston catches on and lets the situation escalate to the point where he’s suggesting they buy crack. Schmidt eagerly goes along with it, while Winston starts freaking out. And when a man comes over, presumably to sell drugs they ask him to get in the back seat of the car. All three start freaking out; the man because he thought they needed to get directions and now thinks he’s being robbed, and Schmidt and Winston because they think they’re getting robbed by a drug dealer (They all yell fearful for their lives in what is the episode’s funniest scene). They end up laughing about it because seriously, how absolutely crazy was that whole idea? But Max Greenfield and Lamorne Morris totally sell it. Greenfield’s total, shameless enthusiasm for every racist thing he’s convinced Winston must be into turns into the highlight of the episode. Schmidt sells this as not something about race but about a friend he thinks may be unhappy (which is the only reason the show gets away with how stereotypically racist minded Schmidt is. Also because the series rarely makes a big deal out of Winston being black in the first place) . But Winston lets him know that he wouldn’t be in an apartment with three white people unless he wanted to be (“Being black means whatever I want it to be. There are so many things I find annoying about you that I haven’t even gotten to race yet”). 

Sometimes we’re not being honest with our relationships, and that can lead to problems. Angie and Nick can’t really be a good couple because they didn't work through their obvious feelings for one another. Jess needs to be more confident about herself in order to be more open with Sam. Now other times, that isn’t necessary; Winston was being honest about his feelings towards his roommates, but Schmidt recognized that if Winston weren’t that it would be a problem for their relationship. Schmidt’s pursuit of Winston’s real feelings is ultimately about him attempting to make sure what happened between Angie and Nick doesn’t happen to Winston and his housemates. 

Stray Observations:

-“You were so light and chill. You were Pixar Winston”

-Schmidt goes to Nick and Cece about his concerns about Winston: “White Nick and Brown Cece are we allowing Winston to be his blackest self?”

-“I had to stop and buy this bitchass a helmut cuz he was being such a bitchass”

-Angie on the guns: “Where were these when we were having sex?” Also: “It’s not as fun without someone firing back”

-Jess is initially hesitant about drinking: “Absinthe has killed so many of our famous painters”

-“I could ask anyone of these street youths” – It’s how Greenfield says youths that makes it so damn funny.

-Drunk Nick was great: Him trying to eat an olive but failing was a great sight gag. To Sam: “If you were a hat, you’d be a top hat”.

-“You’re being really cool about the Jamiroquai tattoo on my butt”

-“I don’t have money but I can repay you in Nick Bucks – which includes payment in smiles and things from my wardrobe”
-There is still some well-done, very funny and emotional stuff in this episode. I'm just not a big fan of how it gets there. 

Grade: B-