A quick review of tonight’s “New Girl” coming up just as soon as I do close-up magic…
Thanks to baseball interruptions and FOX’s desire to keep “X Factor” going (even though “New Girl” has arguably proven to be the bigger hit so far), It’s been nearly a month since the last new episode aired, and “Naked” unfortunately wasn’t the show putting its best foot forward after the mini-vacation.
As I’ve discussed in previous discussions of “New Girl,” there is a very delicate balance between Jess being an amusingly eccentric person and someone who is not believable as a human being and/or incredibly annoying. And a Jess who is so oblivious to things like knocking before entering a room, and who has a 10-year-old’s mix of discomfort and amusement with discussing all things sexual is the bad version of the character. (And that all that nonsense with her inability to say “penis” came after a teaser where she was super-annoying as the guys watched their movie didn’t help matters.)
The early episodes of a TV show involve figuring out what works and what doesn’t. “Wedding,” the last original episode to air, pretty much nailed how to make Jess quirky and yet likable and vaguely believable; “Naked” unfortunately showed what not to do. Given the ratings, this show is going to be around for quite a while, and hopefully they’ll get a firmer handle on Jess before long.
What did everybody else think?