New Girl "Pilot" Review (series premiere)

Photo Credit: FOX

New Girl seems poised to be a harmless, enjoyable and pleasant half-hour of comedy during the fall. Zooey Deschanel's charm, quirks, and adorability anchor this comedy about an off-beat girl who moves into an apartment with three men following a bad break-up with her boyfriend. I previewed the show a month ago during my two week fall TV preview. Without screeners or any sort of media access, I make grand assumptions about a series based on a 2-4 minute trailer. In the case of New Girl, my opinion about the show hasn't changed despite the difference between 2 minutes and 24 minutes of footage.

Zooey Deschanel's Jess is an every-woman. She's innocent, sweet, and agreeable. Jess likes to sing and dance. She's not self-conscious or obsessed with finding a man. She's just a person who wants to feel wanted and loved. Of course, the break-up left her feeling insecure. In the teaser, Jess addresses the camera with a comparison between her life and those scenes in horror movies when girls, in their underwear, seek out the horror awaiting them from behind a door or a closet. Jess is neurotic, a sort-of 21st century female version of Woody Allen because she talks and talks without realizing how bizarre she sounds.

Jess finds new roommates because her previous roommates, and friends, work as models. The circumstances surrounding the break-up left her with a complex about her appearance. The wall-flower, who once sang "What if God was One of Us" at a party, decided to act out of her comfort zone because she wanted to surprise her boyfriend. Through a conversation with her model best friend, we learn about her boyfriend's fantasy to help a good-hearted stripper get through college (the bit about the college comes from Jess' need to portray a three-dimensional character, which tells the audience everything they need to know about Jess). Unfortunately, when she drops the coat to reveal her naked body, the boyfriend stares wide-eyed and frightened because he's with another woman in their bedroom. Jess stands naked, vulnerable, and wounded by his betrayal.

On one level, the pilot's about Jess learning to trust men again. She didn't seek out male roommates but she found them anyway. Her roommates are exactly what she needs, though--honest, loyal and caring. However, their archetypes rather than developed characters in the pilot. Schmidt's the d-bag; Nick's the sentimental romantic; Winston's a personal trainer without any idea how to motivate women while training with them. Immediately, the dynamic between the guys and Jess is give-and-take. Schmidt helps Jess learn how to communicate with men, and act around them. The other two give her shoulders to lean on when she's sad. The first act's full of scenes in which the men stare at her like an extra-terrestrial because she mopes and watches Dirty Dancing all day. Before long, they have a brotherly love for her. Jess, along with Nick and Winston, help rein in Schmidt's behavior. She assists Nick through a particularly hard stretch in his life, and she educates Winston on how to motivate women without yelling at them.

The dynamic between the actors is great, Zooey plays off her castmates well. The trio of guys have great reactions to her various displays of odd behavior, especially when she sings, and  when she weeps during certain scenes in Dirty Dancing. I hope the series keeps the romance out of the apartment, meaning that the inevitable relationship between Jess and Schmidt's a bad idea. I'm more interested in watching platonic male-female roommate relationships than I am watching the other kind that can only become generic and uninspired in the long run because there are too few avenues to travel in that situation.

Overall, New Girl seems like a solid way to spend a half-hour each week. The laughs aren't plentiful but it's a pleasant and enjoyable show. Zooey Deschanel really is irresistibly adorable. The show premieres tonight at 9:00PM FOX.