Friday, May 11, 2012

"See Ya" next fall New Girl!

The season finale of FOX's New Girl, entitled "See Ya," finds Nick (Jake M. Johnson) moving out of the apartment and in with rekindled love Caroline (Mary Elizabeth Ellis). But Nick gets cold feet, and drives himself, all of his stuff, Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) out into the desert, where he tosses his keys into the wilderness. Jess (Zooey Deschanel), with Cece (Hannah Simone) in tow, comes to their rescue, but she pretends to toss her own keys when Nick seems set on returning to Caroline. Thus, the five friends are forced to spend the night in the wilderness.

Or are they? The entire time the gang moans about dying out in the desert, there is a busy highway clearly within sight in the distance. It would be a trek to reach it, but they could do so, and surely someone would stop and rescue them! This may be nit picky, but seeing civilization so close by kind of takes the drama out of the whole stranded concept.

That aside, "See Ya" is a wonderful episode. Being stuck in the desert is New Girl's clever bend on the old elevator episode trope or "box" episode, where the major characters are stuck together until they work something out. In this case, Jess must understand that she's being selfish by trying to keep Nick from leaving, and Nick needs to see that moving in with Caroline is a bad choice, even if she seems to have changed somewhat. After all, Caroline has broken Nick's heart multiple times.

Nick and Jess will be a couple at some point. It's inevitable, watching the two of them together. They have crazy chemistry, and are very much alike. The fact that neither of their characters has realized this yet is fine. Unlike other series, which stretch such pairings out just for the sake of building tension, New Girl doesn't seem to be fighting itself to keep them apart. Neither Nick nor Jess are in a place to accept their feelings for each other, or make a go of a healthy relationship. Thus, their slow journey towards one another feels natural, rather than forced. This may not always be the case, but it is throughout the first season.

"See Ya" also sees Schmidt and Cece struggle. Schmidt's jealousy when actually witnessing what Cece does is a natural reaction, if overblown a bit, as his character often is. However, their break up need not be permanent. Cece has good reason to be upset at Schmidt. But, on the other hand, she also knows what she has gotten herself into, and likes Schmidt in spite of himself. Schmidt is a good man at heart, who requires a lot of patience from any girl that is going to be with him. Cece is the girl who has that patience, and can look past the douchey exterior.

Hopefully, New Girl won't go the typical sitcom route and make Schmidt and Cece be on again-off again forever. They are mature and ready for this. A proposal should come no later than the season two finale, with a wedding by season three. It might be a bit boring to remove two major characters from play in terms of romantic entanglements, but this has got to happen for these two people. They are too perfect for each other!

"See Ya" also finds time to be pretty darn funny. From Jess making roadrunner noises at a coyote, a gag spoiled in incessant commercials, to the much-too-old new roommate (Reno 911!'s Thomas Lennon), who is soon evicted to the living room, the humorous notes are still hit, despite the personal drama. This is why New Girl soars when other sitcoms flop. And would it be too much to ask for Lennon's character to return again next year, possibly on a recurring basis, or at least as a squatter that they must get rid of in the season premiere?

New Girl will return to FOX next fall.

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