In its first episode back from the midseason break, New Girl delivered in a flash-back heavy
episode which hit a perfect balance of laughs and sweetness. The premise is a
simple one that almost every person deals with at some point in their life, at
least several times: what do I want to be?
The specific dilemma put forth in front of Jess is to either
remain a teacher, her dream job, for a vastly underfunded school, or to take a
job at the Children’s Museum which would not only pay more but bring less
stress to her life. Luckily for Jess Day, and us, she has several people in her
life willing to chime in with their own suggestions and give her some insight
into when they dealt with a similar scenario.
With a mere nineteen minutes before her friend calls to ask
for a decision, Winston is first to explain the decision making process, or
what turns out to be a lack-there-of in his case. After being gifted a
basketball from birth, Winston’s whole life was centered on developing his
basketball career. Clearly this was never the right path for him as he is the
ninth man off the bench for the eighth best team in Latvia before getting
traded to the outdoor, inclined league. This definitely gives us some insight
as to why Winston is crazy person since he’s never actually made a real
decision of his own.
Schmidt takes a stab at some advice next, and we find out
his rise to douchiness started when he was a simple volunteer candy striper.
The story is very Barney Stinson-esque since he sees a successful guy in a suit
get the girl, thrusting him into the cutthroat world of marketing. His first
stop is to the Christmas tree farm (cue ‘Gangsta Paradise’) where he meets his
mentor Old Man McQue. McQue, unfortunately wasn’t in Schmidt’s life for long: “in
the words of the late, great Sir Billy Joel: only the good die young.” But
before he goes he does impart the wisdom of that “the reward is in the destination,
not in the journey.” So Schmidt’s advice to Jess is to follow the money.
Coach is able to chime in with a quick tip of his own, to
follow your passion. We find out how he first got his nickname of “Coach” and
that his real name is Ernie.
The Nick story was a little more personal and did a great
job of building the Nick/Jess relationship. Nick reveals how much he disliked
law school until he found a great place to study, the very bar they find him
tending today. Eventually he shows Jess that he actually ended passing the bar
but he could tell that he would enjoy his life a lot more if he followed his
true calling. On top of that, Cece recaps to Jess to Jess the first time they
met and how Jess was able to “teach” her how to read even without her glasses.
It was a great showcase for the girls who haven’t had much screen time together
this season and it’s enough of persuasion to push Jess into making the decision
to remain a teacher.
Not only a great premiere but also sets up some storied for
the rest of the season. This gives Cece an opportunity to interact with Nick
which has really yet to happen, assuming she ends up sticking around as a fellow
bartender. Also, Winston decides to quit his job and to finally start making
some decisions of his own, maybe we‘ll start getting some real Winston
plotlines for once.
Other moments of note:
- Brian Posehn guest staring as the science teacher who has to share his classroom with Jess was hilarious. I could listen to awkwardly list anything, especially all the different types of people who are “anti-future”.
- “Sick people wanted me, dying people wanted to be me.” – Schmidt describing his time as a Candy Striper.
- “We had an ethnic, gay bully.” – Jess
- “We’re not the only ones looking for him. So is the FBI.” – Schmidt reading the information of Jess’ first student.
- “Lady she’s still got one minute!” – Coach accidentally yelling at a butt-dial from Jess’ Mom. Probably my favorite Coach line so far.
- “I call it tea water.” – Nick on his concoction of putting a tea bag in water.
No comments:
Post a Comment