A quick review of last night's “New Girl” coming up just as soon as I shoot candy into a baby..
Last week's episode and “Micro” have me wondering if the “New Girl” writers room is having a contest to see who can take the most tired and hacky sitcom plots and find a way to fit it into this show's weird sensibility. And weirdly, it's working. Schmidt and Coach being pranked into becoming male models is perhaps the dumbest story the show has ever told – and also violates the notion that all of Winston's pranks(*) become needlessly violent in a hurry – while the only vaguely new element of the title story was the show's ability to be blunt about Matt's micro-penis (there have been many variations of the larger dilemma, like Liz Lemon trying to dump Wayne Brady because he was boring, not because he was black). Yet before both stories ran out of steam in the final third, this was a really funny installment of “New Girl,” packed with the sorts of jokes I wouldn't expect to hear on any other show.
(*) And, yes, I am aware that this was not technically a prank, but A Classic Cece and Winston Mess-Around.
This was another really strong episode for Zooey Deschanel, in which a Jess dating plot didn't revolve around her sexual naivete (though that can often be funny), but around Jess's disgust with her roommates, and then with Matt being awful for reasons having nothing to do with his little baby anteater. And the post-breakup dynamic between Nick and Jess is really working so far this season.
Episode could've used a stronger close, but I laughed enough in the earlier parts that it worked as a whole.
What did everybody else think?