While many of my
favorite TV shows have suffered from the dreaded sophomore slump or are simply
in a creative slump this year for shows that have been on the air longer than
two years, I feel like New Girl has been lucky enough to avoid a true sophomore
slump. In terms of what shows I feel are in a bit of a creative slump this
season, some of those shows would be Revenge, Modern Family, and Gossip Girl,
which recently ended its’ run, but I digress. Sure, there have been a few
lackluster episodes this season, but for the most part I feel like season two
of New Girl has been better than season one so far. That being said, I thought that
this was a great episode, but it definitely played out very differently from
the way I was expecting it to, especially when it comes to the
Jess/Sam/Nick/Angie storyline.
The thing that
surprised me the most about the Jess/Sam/Nick/Angie storyline is that Sam
didn’t seem upset at all about Jess inviting Nick and Angie to come with them
for the weekend at Sam’s boss’ cabin, even after he found out that Jess was afraid
to spend time alone with him. I was also expecting the writers to use this
storyline as an opportunity for there to be some awkward moments between Jess
and Nick given the will they or won’t they get together element of their
relationship, but there weren’t really any moments like that between them in
this episode. There was however an awkward moment between Sam and Angie while
they were drunk all on absinthe where Angie was sitting in Sam’s lap and was
being kind of flirtatious with him and tried to kiss him. Luckily, Sam didn’t
do anything to reciprocate Angie’s behavior, but Jess still ended up getting
mad at Angie for flirting with Sam. Nick acted like he didn’t really mind Angie
being flirtatious with Sam at first since he was repeatedly saying throughout
the episode that he and Angie had an open relationship, but later on in the
episode he admitted to Angie while he was still drunk that he didn’t like that
she had tried to kiss Sam.
One of my
favorite Nick moments in this episode would definitely be his little rant about
some of the weird things that he’s believes in, such as the existence of UFOs
when he was tripping on absinthe. This was also when Nick told Angie that he
didn’t like that she had tried to kiss Sam. Nick’s rant cracked me up, and I personally
think that Jake Johnson is an extremely underrated actor. While I loved watching
the way Nick acted when he was tripping on absinthe, I also thought that Jess
and Sam were also pretty funny when they were acting very lethargic after
getting drunk on absinthe too though.
Another one of
my favorite scenes from the episode is the scene where Angie was showing Jess
how to shoot a can with a rifle and Sam and Nick were both watching them. I
couldn’t help but chuckle when Nick told Sam that the scenario was his fantasy
and his nightmare colliding with each other. The fact that Jess told Angie that
she needed to have a backstory behind why she was mad at the can and wanted to
shoot it felt very reminiscent of the pilot when Jess told Cece that she had
created a backstory behind her stripper persona when was she was going to hers
and her ex-boyfriend’s apartment to play out her ex-boyfriend’s fantasy about
her being a stripper. As soon as Jess said that she wanted to take a turn at
shooting cans with the rifle, I knew that something bad would happen and sure
enough, I was right. Jess ended up accidentally shooting the cabin’s electricity generator,
causing them to lose power in the cabin.
As soon as I
found out the premise of this episode, I figured that something would happen
between Jess and Nick that would freak Sam out, causing him to break up with
Jess. In the end that wasn’t the case, and instead Jess and Sam actually grew a
little closer by the end of the episode after they talked about how Jess had
invited Nick and Angie to come to the cabin with them because she was worried
about wanting the weekend to go well. I have to say that while I really want
Jess and Nick to get together, I’m really enjoying the relationship between
Jess and Sam at the moment, so I’m glad that I was wrong when I assumed that
the episode would end with them breaking up.
While this
episode didn’t end with Jess and Sam breaking up, it did end with Angie
breaking up with Nick, which brings me to the biggest problem that I have with
this episode. If you ask me, the whole thing with Angie dumping Nick was
handled just as poorly, if not more poorly by the writers than how Sam came
back in the previous episode and told Jess that he wanted them to get back
together. The reason I think the whole thing with Angie dumping Nick was
handled so poorly is because I feel like they had a really nice moment between
them towards the end of the episode and they seemed to be growing closer as the
result of their conversation, only to have Nick wake up the next morning and
find a Dear, John letter from Angie. That just seemed so abrupt and out of the
blue, and I have no idea what the writers were thinking when they wrote that
part of the episode.
At least with
Jess and Sam there were four episodes between when Jess and Sam broke up in
episode 2x06 “Halloween” and episode 2x11 “Santa” when Sam came back and told
Jess that he wanted to get back together with her, which gave the show enough
time to make it somewhat believable that Sam had realized that he had made a
mistake when he told Jess he didn’t want to have a committed relationship with
her. With the whole Nick and Angie breakup, they had a nice moment between them
before they went to bed that left me thinking that they were growing closer
only to have Nick wake up the next morning and discover that Angie had left
during the night and had written him a Dear, John letter, breaking up with him,
which was just really confusing to me as a viewer. Although, if I’m being
honest, I’m not going to miss Angie, because I didn’t really like the character
all that much to begin with, and I didn’t really like how Olivia Munn played
the part either. While I do think the relationship between Nick and Angie
created some funny moments for Nick as a character and also gave Jake Johnson
some great material to work with, I did think it was rather uncomfortable, at
least for me, to watch Nick with Angie most of the time, and not in a good way.
They just seemed blatantly incompatible with each other to me.
I know that a
lot of critics have considered Max Greenfield to be the breakout star of the
show and Schmidt the breakout character on the show, but I have to disagree
with that assessment. While I do like the character Schmidt, I personally think
that Jake Johnson is the true breakout star of the show. He frequently steals
almost every scene he’s in. To me, a true breakout star of a TV show should be
able to maintain their popularity on a long-term basis, and if I’m being honest
I liked Schmidt the most at the beginning of the series, but by the end of the
first season, the novelty of the character had already worn off for the most
part, and Nick had emerged as my second favorite character on the show behind
Jess by that point.
I don’t think
it’s necessary for an actor who’s declared the breakout star of a TV show at
the beginning of the series to maintain the same level of popularity that they
had at the beginning of the series for the duration of the entire series, but I
do think they need to remain very popular with the majority of the show’s
viewers and critics for at least two to three seasons, if not more, in order
for them to be considered a true breakout star of a TV show, and Max Greenfield
doesn’t meet those criteria for me personally.
Schmidt isn’t
the only breakout character on a TV show to lose their novelty with me as a
viewer over time. Another example of a breakout character on a TV show that I
started out liking, only to become increasingly annoyed by over time would be
Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. When I first started watching The Big
Bang Theory, Jim Parsons and the way he played the character Sheldon was one of
the things that made me fall in love with the show in the first place, and now
Sheldon is my least favorite thing about the show due to the way they’ve been
writing the character for about the last two seasons of the show. Don’t get me
wrong, I don’t hate Schmidt to the same extent that Sheldon annoys me now, I
simply don’t think he’s as funny as I used to think he was.
Sometimes I feel
like Schmidt can come across as being very needy and self-centered to the point
where it’s not funny, it’s just annoying for the most part. I would say that
Schmidt comes across as being especially needy when it comes to his feelings
for Cece and his friendships with Jess, Nick and Winston, which I feel was the
case in this episode. Although, in Schmidt’s defense I do think that his heart
is usually in the right place when he tries to make people happy, but I still
think he can be very annoying sometimes.
At the beginning
of the episode, Schmidt saw Winston hanging out and having fun with several
African American men, which led Schmidt to believe that Winston must feel
stifled and unable to set “Black Winston” free due to the fact that he lives
with three white people. Schmidt set out to make Winston feel free to express
his African American identity, and he started by going to Cece and Nick for
advice. I have to say that I loved that Cece’s reaction to Schmidt asking her
and Nick for advice about Winston was to instantly tell him to not do whatever
he was thinking of doing. That definitely made me chuckle.
Of course
Schmidt didn’t listen to Cece, and he continued to try and make Winston feel
free to express his African American heritage. One thing I’ve noticed about
Schmidt and his tendency to be needy at times is that his need for approval
causes him to be easily manipulated and very gullible at times. For example, in
the season one episode “Cece Crashes” Cece told Schmidt to go wait for her to
join him on the roof of his apartment building despite the fact that there was
an angry cat up on the roof, which he instantly did, not realizing that Cece
had no intention of joining him on the roof.
Schmidt’s
tendency to be very gullible at times came into play in this episode when he was
talking to Winston and was saying that they could do whatever he wanted to do
that night. Winston started telling him a story about how his family had a
longstanding tradition of doing crack cocaine when he was younger and that he
would really like to do some crack cocaine with him. Schmidt was so desperate
to make Winston happy, that he just went along with what Winston told him and
they set out to go get some crack cocaine despite Winston repeatedly telling
Schmidt that he would rather just go get some frozen yogurt. I loved the scene
where Schmidt and Winston were sitting in Schmidt’s car and Schmidt asked a
random guy where they could get some crack cocaine. After talking to the guy
they asked about getting some crack cocaine, Winston finally admitted to
Schmidt that he had been messing with him the entire time. It was extremely
obvious to me from the very beginning that Winston was messing with Schmidt
when he said that he’d really like to do crack cocaine, so I can’t believe how
blind Schmidt’s obsessive need to try and make Winston happy made him to the
fact that Winston was tricking him the entire time.
They had a talk
towards the end of the episode and Winston assured Schmidt that he didn’t have
to worry about him feeling uncomfortable about the fact that he lives with
three white people. It cracked me up when Winston told him that there were a
lot of other things that he found annoying about him that he’d never mentioned
before. Once again Schmidt said something rather stupid when Winston asked him
if he’d like him to get him any frozen yogurt, and he replied by saying he’d
like some vanilla-chocolate swirl frozen yogurt. If you ask me, Schmidt never
seems to be able to end a heartfelt conversation without saying something
stupid that offends someone, which I have to admit I’ve always loved about him.
One thing that I
feel I should mention is that I’ve always thought of Winston as being the
blandest and sometimes most boring character on the show. I don’t dislike him,
but sometimes he feels out of place compared to all of the other characters,
considering their quirky and sometimes over the top whacky behavior. Cece also
seems rather subdued like Winston is, but even she is able to make me laugh a
fair amount and has a more clear-cut personality than Winston does. I don’t
know if having Winston and a lot of ways Cece be rather mellow is intentional
on the writers’ part and if it’s their way of balancing out Jess, Nick and
Schmidt’s behavior on the show, or if it stems from having to develop the
character Winston in what I assume was a rather short amount of time after
Damon Wayans, Jr. was forced to leave the cast of New Girl due to the fact that
Happy Endings ended up getting renewed for a second season.
While Winston
has never really stood out to me very much in the past, Winston really stood
out to me in this episode, especially when he was telling Schmidt the story
about his family’s longstanding tradition of doing crack cocaine. It really was
immediately obvious to me as a viewer that he was totally messing with Schmidt,
which made the fact that Schmidt instantly believed what Winston was saying to
him so funny to me. As far the material that’s been written for the character
Winston at this point in the series, this is definitely my favorite episode for
him. It’s also definitely my favorite episode of New Girl in terms of Lamorne
Morris’ acting on the show as well.
As much as I
loved this episode, I definitely feel like there were several missed
opportunities when it comes to the writing for this episode. For starters, I
definitely thought the writers could have had some great moments between Jess
and Nick in terms of hinting at the idea of them eventually having a romantic
relationship. Perhaps they could have written an awkward moment or two between
Nick and Sam regarding the relationship between Jess and Nick, especially after
Sam found out that Jess had invited Nick and Angie to come to the cabin with
them because she was afraid to be alone with him for the whole weekend and
wanted things to be perfect for them. Instead, the writers chose to have an
awkward moment between Sam and Angie when Jess saw Angie sitting in Sam’s lap
and she tried to kiss him while they were both drunk. Also, I thought it was
kind of weird that Sam didn’t seem to mind that Jess had invited Nick and Angie
to join them at the cabin for the weekend without telling him about her doing
that until after they had all arrived at the cabin. I know the writers are
limited to pretty much only twenty-two minutes of screen time for each episode,
so there’s only so much that they can do in that amount of time, but I still
think the writers missed several opportunities for some potentially great
material in this episode.
All in all, this
was a really great episode despite the writers not taking full advantage of
what to me was the perfect premise for some potentially great moments regarding
the dynamic between Jess and Nick. I’m willing to be forgiving of the writers
not going certain places that they could have gone with the Jess, Sam, Nick and
Angie storyline in this episode since that whole storyline was still extremely
funny. While I did find Schmidt’s desperate need to try and make Winston happy
a bit annoying, I still loved that storyline because it was great to see
Winston mess with Schmidt, and it was also great to see Lamorne Morris get a
chance to a really shine in this episode. In a TV season where so many shows
are suffering from a creative slump, it’s great to see New Girl avoid following
that trend.
That being said,
I give this episode a rating of an A.
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