New Girls Turns 100!

     Thank the baby cheeses that Jess (Zooey Deschanel) is back to New Girl this week. It's been a long-suffering number of weeks while she was on maternity leave from the show. In the meantime, we were left with Megan Fox playing a new, moody, and temporary roommate Reagan staying in Jess's room. Not a moment too soon, Jess's jury duty has ended for this 100th episode. Jess was part of a sequestered jury. Jess's ex, Nick, likes Reagan and came close to making a real connection with her. I apologize if you like Meagan Fox, but I really have a low tolerance for her. She always looks distressed in some way. This character was only staying in the loft for a month. Nick now has to say goodbye to her and find his "Goosebumps Walkaway", a movie-ending scene stealing quote that is not "Bad Bye."

     Now that Jess is back (and good news, she found the defendant guilty on all four counts and made-up T-shirts proclaiming so), she wants to find a cute juror that she only knows by his jury number (Juror 237B). Reagan agrees to help him, and they begin an adventure that involved Winston pulling police records to learn his name is Gary. Nick is very uncomfortable and full of anxiety that his ex and his new crush  have a) lived in the same room and b) are becoming friendly. Reagan is very uncomfortable with Jess's "Jess-ness," but she admits to having feelings for Schmidt. With Jess's encouragement and valuable,e advice about Nick, Reagan finds her own way to tell Nick she will miss him, and they leave things unresolved by friendly. Jess finds Gary when they both get interviewed by the news about the case. Despite the dark lighting and voice alterations to protect the members of the jury, they share all their personal information to arrange a meetup. At the meeting, they find they have nothing in common, it was all the anticipation of the case.

     Meanwhile, Winston brings Cece and Schmidt to a "dance gathering", where they hope to practice their first dance moves for their wedding. Schmidt admits to being bullied into always learning a dance correctly from an embarrassing childhood talent show. The episode ends with the gang (Jess, Nick, Cece, Schmidt and Winston all purposely free-styling dance moves for "The Hustle." Ah, things finally seem right with the world again.

It's Jess Again!!!

I am so excited New Girl is back!

     I'm not sure what to make of season 5 so far. As we left off season 4, Jess's roommate Schmidt and her best friend CeCe proclaimed their love for each other (after dating multiple people and Schmidt rescuing CeCe from her arranged wedding in the season 2 finale). The first episode of season 4 was a great montage of the gang attending 10+ weddings and the season closed with Jess hanging a save the date for Cece and Schmidt on top of all of the other wedding invitations om the fridge. Suffering from a bit of my own wedding fridge fatigue, I loved the idea.

     We are now in CeCe and Schmidt's engagement and Jess, as maid of honor, unites the gang to throw an engagement party. she arranges for Cece's mom to fly in from India, not realizing that Big Mama P does not know that Cece has gotten engaged again, and to a white, Jewish Metro-sexual at that.  Jess's longtime ex and Best Man Nick, agrees to pick up Cece's mom and in typical new girl catastrophe, brings the wrong woman to the party. Jess, recovering from a broken leg and arm (perhaps a way to disguise her real-life post-pregnancy body?) tries to win over the crowd with Schmidt appearing with a Bollywood dance group, but Cece's mom does not give her blessing for the union.

     Determined to work with a small budget, we take a pause on the wedding planning to catch up on everyone else's lives. Nick and Schmidt now co-own the bar and Nick struggles to be taken seriously as a boss. Jess tries dating a boring guy because he has great parents, roping Winston into the scheme. By the end of the episode, Winston fakes a police stop to distract Jess's date while his parents Flip and Nancy try to convince Jess to marry their very boring son. Jess gets chosen for Jury duty just as she has the option to become acting Principal of her school. Cece and Nick try to work out their differences to make Schmidt happy, and Winston goes back to hanging out with his cat.

     I'm not sure if this season is a bit of a letdown with the departure of Coach, or if I'm just confused by all of the random stories and jumping around. With such a strong first episode, I was a little confused by the next episode, although I loved guest stars Henry Winkler and Julie Hagerty as boring Fred's (SNL's Taran Killam) parents. Maybe some plot lines on the show just getting a little too real? Only time will tell as we prepare for a nearly interrupted season!

Old Girl, New Girl

     I am at the height of summer TV desperation. As a rule, I normally don't watch repeats of shows during the summer. I stick to limited runs and summer-only shows, just to freshen my mind and leave more time for fun.


It's time for more New Girl. I  fully understand the writers and show creates do not want to write Zooey Deschanel's pregnancy into the show. But I am seriously missing Jess, Nick, Cece, Schmidt, Winston, and Coach, who will  not be back until Winter 2016. I think the hardest thing about the new season will be the departure of Coach, played by Damon Wayans, Jr. The weirdest thing it that he was in the first episode, and due to Happy Endings (another really quirky and fun show) getting renewed, he didn't come back until season 3. Although a lot of formative episodes were pre-coach, I can't imagine life without him now. He has grown for a totally emotional cripple to Jess's close friend and co-worker. While Jess bonds closely with Winston over important things (getting a bathtub, lying about Cece's feelings for Schmidt), she and coach have a delightful discourse where she keeps wearing away at his tough outer shell, much the same way she did with Nick. The difference between Coach and Nick is that Nick fell for Jess, and Coach just learned to appreciate life more.

     I have been going back and binging the last few episodes left on Hulu, and watching the first and second seasons on DVD again. My Tuesday nights will not be the same now that The Mindy Project is moving to Hulu.