Thoughts on Season 1 of "New Girl"

Something interesting happened over the course of New Girl’s first season. It got kinda good.

That’s not to say it’s great. However, for a series that I and many others had largely written off early in its run, New Girl has made major advances throughout the course of its first season. The first couple of episodes are largely pretty bad. The characters were neither likable nor interesting (the loss of Daman Wayans Jr. after the pilots only dug the series a bigger hole to get out of) and the series was formless and directionless. 

The show’s initial flirtation with the idea of the series as a vehicle for star Zoe Deschanel fizzled out and transformed into something much more interesting. The series probably could have survived with this early mission statement in mind, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as formidable or entertaining as it has become. Sure, there’s still much that needs to retooled in order for the series to rise a tier in quality, but New Girl has become a show that’s worth stopping in on for 30 minutes. 

Max Greenfield’s great work as Schmidt and the writers’ ability to nail that character have led to Schmidt being a break out character who is tremendously funny and adorably nerdy. Sad sack grouch Nick as portrayed by Jake Johnson could be a little too self-loathing for his own good, but when allowed to do gleeful improvisational work or play off the other actors he proved himself capable. Lamorne Morris has continually been rather good as Winston, but he’s been poorly utilized by the writers and lacked storylines. His late additional entry to replace Wayans in part led to the series to suffer in trying to discover its voice.

When the series stopped emphasizing the childlike whimsy of Jess and focused on the strengths of its ensemble, including Hannah Simone (CeCe and Schmidt’s growing relationship has been a season highlight and the two have great chemistry), the series became a much funnier show that proved it was worth recognizing. It became a show about 30somethings confronting their own inadequacies, coping with growing up and accepting responsibility, and creating an ad hoc family. 

There are arguably better series on tv, even better, funnier comedies (though I'd argue that with enough effort in its 2nd season, it could definitely reach that point). But New Girl is a case study of how first seasons are often evolutionary periods in the histories of many, many shows, and particularly comedies.