New Season, New Girl

New Girl S1 E1: Pilot

First off, I have to really thank Fox for making the pilot of New Girl available On Demand and online before its premiere. (In case you missed it, Fox made New Girl available on iTunes and some cable on demand programs more than a week before its official premiere date, which is Tuesday 9/20) I don’t know how successful of a marketing campaign this will be, but I certainly appreciated it. After the ridonkulously kick-ass hour and a half of television otherwise known as the Sons of Anarchy season four premiere, waiting an entire week for any other new shows to come back seems like torture.

So…thanks, Fox! Having New Girl available early has helped tide me over until the heavier premiere weeks, and also slightly slowed my assault on Netflix’s Instant Watch. Best of all, it was a considerably enjoyable diversion. I’ve always liked Zooey Deschanel and she comes across her most endearing as Jess, the freshly dumped nerd-girl who decides to cohabitate with a bunch of dudes. Although there are definitely traits in Jess that are recognizable from other Zooey Deschanel characters, I think what I found most refreshing about this one is the lack of nerd-worship given to her on screen. (Think 500 Days of Summer or Gigantic with Paul Dano.) Those of us watching at home can clearly see she’s adorable and gorgeous if a little (ok a lot) oblivious, but New Girl doesn’t shy away from making a funny and flawed character in Jess.

My favorite example of this is when new roommate/bro Schmidt (Max Greenfield) decides to cheer up the sobbing Jess by offering to help her find a rebound guy. “I’ll be, like, your guy” he tells her.

“Like Gandalf from middle earth?” she sniffles.

“ …alright let’s take the Lord of the Rings references, let’s put them in a deep dark cave where no one’s going to find them ever.”

“Except Smeagol” she replies, SO earnest and yet just a little smug. She’s not going to let go of her nerd references, man hunting or no!

Of the roommates, Nick (Jake M. Johnson) is my favorite so far. He, like Jess, is fairly recently dumped and lets it get the best of him, even hiding in his hoodie when the guys push him too hard by zipping it up and pulling the hood all the way down to his chin.

Winston, a.k.a. Coach, was recast after the pilot, so I’ve only seen Damon Wayans Jr. play him for the one episode he’s in.

Schmidt has had some good moments, but I can’t help but think that Dave Franco, younger brother of James Franco, should have been cast in that part. He was just so perfectly toolish as Cole Aaronson in the final season of Scrubs (and one of the only good things about that season, I should add).

Actually, now that I think about it every character but Jess could easily have been cast from new players in the last few seasons of Scrubs…

Dave Franco instead of Max Greenfield as Schmidt.

Michael Mosley for Jake M. Johnson as Nick. (I actually do really like Johnson, but I’m doing a thing here!)

Lee Thompson Young can be the new Winston, because what’s the problem with recasting again, especially since we could all use some famous Jett Jackson in our lives?

And… Eliza Coupe as Jess’s model friend Cece because so far Hannah Simone is sort of yawn, and Eliza is much too funny for Happy Endings.

Overall, I'd give New Girl a B+ this is a solid show with a lot of potential, and I look forward to watching the characters grow and develop.

A Vow to Joss Whedon

I finally just finished the second and final season of “Dollhouse,” and now I’m feeling some major guilt. I’ve always been a little slow on the uptake when it comes to Joss Whedon (who, in case you didn’t know, is the creator of “Dollhouse”). The only show of his I’ve ever watched in real time was “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and even then it was only the first few seasons because my mom switched our service from cable to satellite and we lost the WB.

But in the last few years between Hulu, Netflix and assorted sketchy asian sites, I’ve been able to watch all of “Buffy,” “Angel,” “Firefly,” “Serenity,” and “Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog”, all of which are Joss Whedon joints. And he won me over; you can consider me a Whedonite because that man is a genius. The things that come out of his head are crazy detailed, imaginative, tragic and hilarious. And yet, until recently I had abstained from watching “Dollhouse,” mostly because Eliza Dushku kind of bugs me.

I think it’s the whole wounded bitch role she tends to get cast into—think Faith from “Buffy.” It’s a difficult part to pull off, and most of the time it just makes me cringe. You can’t act completely psychotic and then refer back to one traumatic event and expect to make a likeable or even well-rounded character, and when I think of Eliza Dushku, that is all I think of. Incidentally, this is also the reason I can’t handle Michelle Rodriguez: that bitch is allllllllways scowling.

After moving to Palm Springs in April for my first post-college job, I spent—who am I kidding? spend a lot of time alone (my nearest friends live in San Diego), bored (retirement community—yawn), and trying not to move too much (100+ degrees every day for months). This led—who am I kidding? leads me to invest days on end in various series on Netflix. Eventually I gave in and decided to give “Dollhouse” a try…and I loved it, Goddammit, I loved it. I even found Eliza Dushku likeable, because even at her baddassiest and bitchiest, she always went back to neutral. (I’ll explain that in a brief summary of the show a little later, but you should definitely check it out.)

The thing that kills me is that I knew I liked Joss Whedon while “Dollhouse” was on the air, and now it’s canceled. I should have trusted in Whedon’s insight and creativity enough to give “Dollhouse” a try, even if it did star Eliza Dushku.

So, here is my vow to Joss Whedon: Next time, I’ll trust you. Promise. Next show, or web short, or movie, or whatever that you come out with, I will at least try it out. Even if that scowling bitch Michelle Rodriguez is in it. Next time, your show will have one more in its audience, and hopefully next time it won’t end up canceled like “Dollhouse” or “Firefly.”