With Zooey Deschanel in the title role, I expect “New Girl” (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays starting Sept. 20 on Fox, but the first episode is already on Hulu) to be a notch above a standard sitcom. Her presence puts the stamp of passion-project quality on an endeavor, as seen in “Almost Famous,” “(500) Days of Summer” and “Our Idiot Brother.”
“New Girl” should not just be a passably good sitcom, it should reinvent sitcoms, it should let Zooey be her lovable indie self. That’s why the pilot episode is so disappointing: It’s competent, all the characters are well-drawn and likable, and Zooey’s charm can’t be denied. But … it’s not transcendent. After one episode, “New Girl” a solid sitcom with a particularly lovable actress in the title role, but there’s no from-the-heart depth to it. It’s calculatedly cute.
The least believable part of the episode, for better or worse, comes right at the beginning when Jess, while attempting to seduce her boyfriend by coming home in a trench coat and little else, finds him with another woman. I understand that this is a TV show, and I don’t mean to be the guy who spouts the cliché of “C’mon, no guy would dump Zooey Deschanel! She’s adorable!” That having been said … C’mon, no guy would dump Zooey Deschanel! She’s adorable!
After the intro gets the narrative off on the wrong foot, we meet Jess’ prospective roommates (who soon agree to indeed let her move in with them): The aptly named Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.) has the tough-love advice to get Jess back in the dating game (but enough with him; he’ll be replaced by another character next week due to Wayans’ prior acting commitment); Schmidt (the Matthew Broderickesque Max Greenfeild) is kind of a womanizer, but his roomies make him put money in a Douchebag Jar (think Swear Jar) as he tries to reform; and Nick (Jake M. Johnson) is the nice guy who’s struggling with the end of a relationship himself.
These guys are sitcommy but tolerable, and Nick is the one with the most potential to seem like a real person, which is why I’m already a Nick-Jess ‘shipper. Nick was dumped by his girlfriend six months ago (as with Jess’ beau, we see in shorthand that he could do better anyway), and he drunk-dials her with the same compulsiveness as Jess watching “Dirty Dancing” and crying on the couch.
I do like the gender-role-reversal of having Jess troll for guys in the bar; she’s terrible at it in sitcom logic (Schmidt teaches her the proper way to smile), but good at it in real-world logic, in that — sorry to sound repetitive — Deschanel is just a naturally appealing gal. Unlike the start of the episode, common sense prevails here and Jess quickly lands a date. Really, she probably didn’t need the guys’ help in that arena.
But, as the episode concludes, she does need their friendship, and thus we have a TV series.
And it doesn’t get much more by-the-book competent than this. I like everyone, I like the comfy hangout bar, and I like the fact that there’s no laugh track and not too many punchlines (An exception: Nick interrupts Jess’ singing with: “Hold on a second, did you just sing your own theme song?” — the only thing missing is the record-scratch sound effect before he butts in).
But “New Girl” isn’t fresh, organic or original. It’s not what Deschanel or her fans deserve. I didn’t laugh once, even though I was engaged with the material. And so I conclude with one more paradox: This half-hour went by awfully fast; I still want to know more about Jess and her three roommates (and hopefully the writers will also give some depth to Jess’ best friend, model Cece, played by Hannah Simone). For example, Jess says she’s a teacher; I’d love to see her doing her thing in the classroom — how do kids react to her quirkiness?
Reservations duly noted but high hopes not entirely dashed, I’ll be back for episode two.