New Girl, the Fox comedy starring Zooey Deschanel was really hyped up this TV season. Considering I got into absolutely no new comedies last year, I was looking forward to adding a good one to my TV watch list this year. Sadly it was not to be.
The show's premise is that Jess (Deschanel) breaks up with her cheating boyfriend, has to move out of their apartment, and moves in with 3 guys she found on Craigslist. She is supposedly a nerdy, socially inept girl, who spends the first episode wailing about her shattered love life on the couch and generally annoying the guys with her awkwardness. However, she is eventually deemed to be "adorkable" (Fox's words to describe this character, not mine) and as of last night's episode 3, is worming her way into the hearts of these men.
On the other hand, New Girl attempts to foist this character of socially awkward, unable to find love loser on a person who looks like Zooey Deschanel. This is frankly unbelievable. The few lines where Jess references something nerdy are fun and if the show made her into the kind of nerd you see in something like The Big Bang Theory I could get on board. But those lines are just throwaways to convince the audience that this girl needs help and needs to learn more about looking hot instead of indulging in weird hobbies and randomly breaking into song. No one is embracing the nerdiness, they are just using it to bring out one tired joke after another.
In last night's episode, Jess is supposed to serve as a date to a wedding, and she suggests wearing a frumpy yellow dress. The guys are appalled by her fashion sense and 2 minutes later she comes back out of her closet outfitted in a short purple dress and heels, looking like a million bucks, or as one of the guys so eloquently puts it, "Who let the dirty slut out of the slut house?" (sigh). How are we supposed to reconcile this girl, who in the pilot considered wearing overalls to a date, with the girl who can look smoking hot if necessary? The character keeps vacillating between hotness and nerdiness and the supposedly "adorkable" lovability that this is supposed to represent just rings false.
Deschanel typifies the Manic Pixie Dream Girl of film, and while that actually works for me in the movies, it does not work in a sitcom setting. I want real characters, I want flaws that seem genuine, I want people who care for each other in a way that makes sense and for characters to evolve over a season, not just go back and forth continually within 22 minutes. Ultimately, New Girl is not another leap forward in comedy. It's a throwback to the disposable sitcoms of last year and I for one will no longer be watching.
The show's premise is that Jess (Deschanel) breaks up with her cheating boyfriend, has to move out of their apartment, and moves in with 3 guys she found on Craigslist. She is supposedly a nerdy, socially inept girl, who spends the first episode wailing about her shattered love life on the couch and generally annoying the guys with her awkwardness. However, she is eventually deemed to be "adorkable" (Fox's words to describe this character, not mine) and as of last night's episode 3, is worming her way into the hearts of these men.
NPR's Linda Holmes who writes the Monkey See pop culture blog has written fervently about all the reasons she does not like this show. However, I think the observation that ultimately resonated with me was something she tweeted a few weeks ago:
"Today's NEW GIRL theory is that Zooey Deschanel is basically Fran Drescher. Either that is your thing or it is not, and you already know."Now I am no fan of Fran Drescher's voice and rather loud personality. Yet I can happily watch re-runs of The Nanny for hours on end on Nick @ Nite. This led me to wonder what it was about The Nanny that failed to annoy me, when Zooey's performance on New Girl just rubs me the wrong way - especially considering that I never found Zooey Deschanel annoying and genuinely enjoyed her performances in things like (500) Days of Summer, Elf, and Our Idiot Brother. I think the reason The Nanny doesn't bother me is because it is mercilessly mocking the genuine article. Fran Drescher really does have that voice, and no matter how much she amped it up for the show, all of the jokes and asides about her voice are based on the fact that she really does sound that awful. However, she was also fit and fond of tight dresses and the show never tried to imply that her voice was any kind of impediment to her love life. It was just a character trait to be mocked by others while Fran pretended to be oblivious.
On the other hand, New Girl attempts to foist this character of socially awkward, unable to find love loser on a person who looks like Zooey Deschanel. This is frankly unbelievable. The few lines where Jess references something nerdy are fun and if the show made her into the kind of nerd you see in something like The Big Bang Theory I could get on board. But those lines are just throwaways to convince the audience that this girl needs help and needs to learn more about looking hot instead of indulging in weird hobbies and randomly breaking into song. No one is embracing the nerdiness, they are just using it to bring out one tired joke after another.
In last night's episode, Jess is supposed to serve as a date to a wedding, and she suggests wearing a frumpy yellow dress. The guys are appalled by her fashion sense and 2 minutes later she comes back out of her closet outfitted in a short purple dress and heels, looking like a million bucks, or as one of the guys so eloquently puts it, "Who let the dirty slut out of the slut house?" (sigh). How are we supposed to reconcile this girl, who in the pilot considered wearing overalls to a date, with the girl who can look smoking hot if necessary? The character keeps vacillating between hotness and nerdiness and the supposedly "adorkable" lovability that this is supposed to represent just rings false.
Deschanel typifies the Manic Pixie Dream Girl of film, and while that actually works for me in the movies, it does not work in a sitcom setting. I want real characters, I want flaws that seem genuine, I want people who care for each other in a way that makes sense and for characters to evolve over a season, not just go back and forth continually within 22 minutes. Ultimately, New Girl is not another leap forward in comedy. It's a throwback to the disposable sitcoms of last year and I for one will no longer be watching.
agreed. can't stand the chick. she was only good in elf b/c she wasn't wearing her typical, look at me, i'm so indie girl outfits.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, so harsh! I'm not necessarily anti-Zooey, I'm just anti characters like this on TV. We need more Leslie Knope and less New Girl.
ReplyDelete