Cult hit Fox TV show NEW GIRL used to be a blast. It’s first season especially. Wild carefree random unexpected quirkiness with that who cares attitude that only Generation Y can provide. Zoe was cute in a sort of dorky kindergarten teacher sort of way. And her three man crew made great sidemen each offering their own special bran of funny. Especially whacky Schmidt. You looked forward to it all week. You even watched the reruns when a new one wasn’t playing for some reason. You missed it over the summer.
Them came season 2. Not as funny. But still funny. Good to see the old gang back together for sure. And fun to virtually play along with their crazy antics as they tried almost nill to get their lives straightened out. More than anything though we began to care. The shows creators had accomplished the undeniably difficult holy grail of TV — they developed characters over a relatively short period of time that we could not only laugh at but relate to and care about. Were Jess and nick really going to eventually hook up? Was Schmidt really going to be dumped permanently by Cece for that nice bumbling indian fellow without a name? Would Winston ever get a life or at least get laid again?
Season 2’s cliffhanger finale was just okay. Some ball had been dropped a few weeks or months prior. Except for a badger scene that stole an episode for a few minutes it just started to lose its engage appeal.
But still… We’d surely tune in to see if they could bring back the magic for season 3. Well one thin they did bring back was Coach, a character played by Damon Wayans who was fresh off the foolishly just cancelled because it was one of the funniest shows on TV show HAPPY ENDINGS. Unfortunately not only doesn’t Coach add anything to this cast he also takes away even more time from the rest of the cast that the audience has already a vested interest in. Besides that nothing much else came in the delivery of season 3. More hapless accidents and slapstick, more freshmanic humor only the cast and crew could like and more trying to capitalize on the Jess is really cool because we’re deliberately trying to make her clumsy and freakishly naive and nerdy.
Unfortunately none of it’s working. Half way into the season and even the most ardent fans (moi por example) have yet to remember even one memorable scene let alone a whole show worth bothering to ruminate on or watch again. No laugh out louds. And no caring what happens. Sure it’s great to see the old gang together. But more than anything the feeling at this point is more about watching the clock to see how much longer we must endure this contrived inanity before THE MINDY PROJECT comes on.
That’s surely not what NEW GIRL staff and crew want as their epitaph on their headstone, “Moderately amusing show at times that aired before Mindy Project”. But it looks like that’s precisely what’s in store for the show because 1, the best thing that could happen to it (if it doesn’t replace it’s writing staff ASAP) is it dies i.e. gets cancelled after this season in order to preserve at least a little bit of its once in spades “cherish quality” and street credibility, and 2 it’s looking more and more like an easily replaceable bookend for The Mindy Project and not much more than that.
New blood in the writers room THATS what NEW GIRL needs. Before she starts looking like an old lady way before her prime.
– Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on a custom iPhone8S
