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| Schmidt acting as a human dental dam. |
For an episode that leans much more towards sweet than it
does hilarity, ‘The Captain’ accomplished a lot in terms of leveling things
back out after a roller coaster first three episodes. This won’t go down as one
of the funniest episodes of New Girl
(although there were plenty of funny one-liners as usual), but there was a lot
of great character work here that will shape the rest of the season to come.
For one, Nick Miller has feelings ladies and gentlemen, lots
of feelings. Fantastic job here by Jake Johnson as we watched our lovable curmudgeon
fight through countless years-worth of hate of and bitterness that have piled
upon his life; emerging as a new man who loves where he finds himself and won’t
let even the most diabolical of plans ruin this for him. Everything about the
Jess/Nick relationship worked here and when you see such great onscreen
chemistry between actors it’s a joy to watch. Nick is still going to be weird and
disgruntled but maybe now he’ll start taking a more proactive approach to his
life as we saw with him here standing up to Schmidt.
As for Schmidt, I’m really glad the show isn’t taking an
easy route here and sweeping what he did under the rug. Sure it made for a
funny plot watching him try to break-up Nick and Jess for revenge, but
thankfully Jess calls him out for it at the end when he’s sitting there in his
estrogen-induced stupor and wisely tells him that he has to deal with the fact
that what he did was wrong. This could actually turn into a really compelling
arc as we watch Schmidt try to recover from a personal low point. It’s tough to
make a sitcom character do something morally reprehensible because a comedy
functions on the audience rooting for and laughing along with a character which
is tough to do when you hate them for their previous actions. But since they’re
making us aware that Schmidt knows he was wrong and that the other characters
are in no way condoning him I think New
Girl can pull this off.
And this week in "What crazy thing is Winston up to?", we see
him try to find a lover for his cat which apparently is here to stay as a fifth
roommate in the loft. At least we did get a guest appearance from the very
talented Riki Lindhome(*) but that wasn’t enough to save it. Ugh, they could
have at least made Winston realize that the girl was into him and then he could
have messed up the date in some other manor but nope, he’s just a lunatic with
a cat now that has no feel for society. I’d say the writing staff is doing a disservice
to this character but honestly I don’t have a suggestion for what they could do
better here, he’s so far removed from every main storyline the show has ever
done that you can’t even locate the rope to pull him back him.
(*) Who would have
been a great add to the ensemble for 4 or 5 episodes as Winston’s new
girlfriend but alas. If you’ve never listened to some her two woman band
Garfunkel and Oates you’re missing out. Here’s their Youtube channel should it
strike your fancy: http://www.youtube.com/user/rikilind?feature=watch
Other moments of note:
- Jake Johnsons’ deliver of “eat a banana” had me laughing for longer than I’m willing to admit.
- “I have to go move my car!” – Nick’s quick escape phrase.
- “How comfortable are you with racial slurs?” – Schmidt describing “the captain” to Jess.
- “That’s degrading to not only women but for all of mankind.” – Jess after performing “the captain.”
- “If we had to talk about feelings, they would be called talkings.” – Nick with a very fine point.
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