New Girl - Control

Leeard said that someone else should review this show this week, because Leeard is too biased in its favor. I’m not sure I’m any better though. I rolled my eyes at Jess’s “adorkability” in the first couple of episodes and chafed at her stupidity. However, the show has since become a good ensemble comedy, the second Julia episode vindicated Jess, Jess has been acting smarter, things got real last week with Nick, and New Girl has gotten even funnier. The show is less about how cute Jess is (even though she is still cute) and more about five friends, and all five of the characters are funny. Call us both fans, at this point. This episode continued to develop the non-Jess characters, but we were disappointed in it, because a Schmidt episode should have been a lot funnier.

Schmidt would have OCD. We like this development, because it shows why the other two guys keep him around despite occasional douchiness. He keeps the place clean and takes care of the gang. He's the mother! But why would any guy ban high-waisted shorts on Jess? Those are retro and too cute for the girls who can pull them off. Her big hipster glasses need to go though. Instead of helping Schmidt go to therapy, the more traditional method of helping someone relax, Jess forced him to endure a day on the uncontrollable, totally fun-looking boardwalk and beach. Schmidt should never dance again, even with accepting hippies. Also, we know hippies, and they are not that good looking. Schmidt lucked out there.

Schmidt laid back is not nearly as funny as regular Schmidt, which was a shame. That would have made the episode even better if both iterations of Schmidt were amusing. Also, it was unrealistic how quickly Schmidt changed and then changed back again. He'd better watch out for cult leaders if he's that pliable. We weren’t laughing at Winston and Nick’s money war, for the most part. Mainly because it rang really true and realistic with us. The writing on Nick’s belly was funny though. The episode ended with family-like sweetness and Schmidt’s unbelievably nerdy sex talk, so we were pretty satisfied with it. New Girl wasn’t as good as the last two weeks, and that’s not even because this is Ern (Leeard wholly agrees). Those two episodes were just better, partly because of all the singing. 

Episode grade: B