New Girl - "Bachelorette Party" - Review

If the Nick-Jess plots of recent episodes have been the highlight of the season, it came at a price. Every other potential storyline that could be done with the characters had to be put on hold in the name of Nick and Jess’ awkward dance towards coupling. In the process, Schmidt and Cece dealing with the fallout from their break up has been put on the sideline for what has arguably been far, far too long.

“Bachelorette Party” is a funny episode, but it’s an episode that focuses on Cece and, well, that’s a problem. Hannah Simone is good performer, but Cece has never been well handled for story time with our four apartment dwellers. There’s a logic to her talks with Jess about Jess’s relationship woes, but every other character doesn’t really have a reason to interact with her anymore because Schmidt is no longer dating her.

That means next to Winston, Cece is the least developed character on the show. That means that Simone has to carry the character largely by herself and the strength of her performance. The show has treated Cece only so far as she relates to Schmidt. She was vaguely made out to be this bossy type with hidden insecurity, but the series has not done the necessary groundwork with the character in the way it has with Schmidt, Nick, and Jess. 

Cece pretty much solely exists now to be won back over by Schmidt. That means that Cece essentially has no agency. And that’s a huge problem. 

Why exactly is Cece choosing to marry Shevrang? Yes, she doesn’t have much longer to have kids. But what beyond this do we know that makes her arranged marriage a sensible action on her part. Shevrang is a nice guy and he likes Cece, but Cece’s hesitancy about the whole ordeal hasn’t been played up as significantly as it likely should be.  

Winston, by the same token, is a character who the show doesn’t know what to do with. He’s whatever the writers need him to be. For instance, in this episode, Winston randomly taking things too far comes out of nowhere. Now Lamorne Morris is a very funny performer and so most of the times its forgivable because the writers have him doing things that are amusing and make me laugh. But the show needs to develop him more or else in time it will become distracting. 

The show needed to come back to Cece’s marriage in time for the finale, and it’s a good thing because it’s been overlooked for so long. But some of this episode’s impact is nullified due to how little time we’ve spent with Cece.