“New Girl” (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays, Fox) opened its two-part second-season premiere in its same comfort zone as last season. It’s good but not great, fun but forgettable, likable but not quite lovable.
I like that Jess gets laid off in the first episode. Although the show could’ve done more funny stuff with her teaching job, it never did, so maybe the writers will get a creative spark from having her bounce among jobs in Season 2. First up: She’s a shot girl at the club where Nick bartends, but she of course dresses up like a turn-of-the-20th-century cocktail waitress while Parker Posey gets all the customers. The centerpiece of the first episode is Schmidt getting his penis cast removed, but the show doesn’t have as much fun with this gag as I hoped.
Episode two is better, if only because the premises are goofier: Jess stumbles into dating two guys at the same time, one a chunky weird guy who is not the guy she intended to give her number to, and another who thinks she’s a blind date named Katie. Both storylines put Zooey Deschanel into awkward situations where Jess spectacularly fails in her improvisations, and that’s “New Girl’s” wheelhouse.
Meanwhile, Schmidt tries to date a hot member of the Los Angeles Sparks; I’m not sure if this is a one-episode deal or if the writers are planning another “Schmidt is inexplicably successful with women who should ignore him” storyline. Nick thinking he’s talking to Future Nick is amusing for a while, although the revelation that it’s just a random crazy dude is kind of inevitable.
In both episodes, Winston doesn’t have much to do. Another potential issue with “New Girl” is that Jess and Nick continue to obviously be perfect for each other without either of them noticing; Nick gives the recently laid-off Jess a pep talk that I feel like I saw many times last season (although sometimes it’s Jess cheering up Nick). The dynamic is getting a bit predictable.
Regardless of what storylines the writers choose to pursue, “New Girl” also continues to work well thanks to it’s almost-improvisational little side comments and oddities. Hearing the news that Jess is laid off, Schmidt mutters “Obama!” Amid a discussion of Jess’s lack of gracefulness, we get a cutaway scene of her tripping while standing in place. “New Girl” seems like it must be the most fun show on TV to work on; it doesn’t all translate to the screen, but a fair amount does.
What are your thoughts on the first two episodes of Season 2? Share your comments below.