Why "New Girl" Remains So Enjoyable Even as Its Plot's Gone Wonky

 

Unlike those critics who felt New Girl declined a degree in quality between its second and third season, I never found the change in quality all that significant. To be sure, the back half of the second season was fantastic, charged as it was with Nick and Jess consummating their unspoken feelings. It’s unlikely the series will ever reclaim such a feeling of excitement. But then again, few shows ever can stake a claim to leaving you feel that buzzed throughout the entirety of their runs.

To be fair, New Girl’s third season had notable flaws. Its plotting was scattered. This was due to, among other reasons, Nick and Jess facing being a couple, Winston’s descent into craziness, and Coach’s re-arrival. But it remains difficult to write off New Girl, in part, because it has such a strong sense of who its characters are (besides Winston, which I’ve come to just accept). The writers have increasingly come to understand the strengths of all of their performers and they play to them incredibly well. 

This ensures that New Girl is one of television’s most reliably funny shows. New Girl sucks at plot -- not only because this is a lovable hang-out comedy but also because its comedy is more character driven than anything else. To some extent, tonight’s episode “Dice” is conceptually dumb. It uses a parody of Tinder as a central plot point. But what makes it work in spite of this sitcom huey is that the plot is focused on Jess and her very specific responses to this situation. The way Schmidt coaches her also creates very specific, very funny responses. On top of this, pairing these two characters together creates a distinctive comedic scenario from pairing these two characters with any other characters. 

Beyond its character specificity, New Girl continues to be successful thematically. At its core, this is still a show about growing up. It is about people who are old enough to be considered adults but still haven’t quite settled down and figured it all out. (Nick and Jess are the show’s center for a reason. Both are very child-like individuals). They keep striving for it though.

Take “Dice” as an example. Winston seeks to become a police officer. Schmidt admits he wants something more meaningful than hook ups. They’re slowly moving towards being full-on adults. Eventually that will mean not smoking pot or hooking up through a phone app. Not yet though. It’s going to be messy and it’s going to be fun. I think, anyway.