New Girl - 1x05 - Cece Crashes

So, while I still have all the reservations I mentioned about this show in the last post, this episode (and the one after) really went a long way towards allaying my fears. Whether that's soon enough to overcome the Zooey Deschanel backlash we won't know for awhile, but if they can keep on the path they've started to chart this episode, I can see this becoming a pretty great show.

Violently crazy and unable to hold her liquor. Just like mom.

Plotus Summarius: Cece is apparently not quite the put together voice of reason she's portrayed herself as the last few eps. Turns out she likes to party (in the hardiest manner), get sloppy drunk, and date really douchey asshole guys. So when Jess brings her home in such a state, it really looks like Schmidt's dreams have come true. He even manages an interim victory by literally "sheepdogging" her into passing out on his bed. I gotta admit, the visual of him literally running circles around her to lead her to his room was fucking genius. Fortunately for Cece, Schmidt isn't predator and sleeps on the couch. Unfortunately for Schmidt he also isn't a "closer" (according to Winston, anyway), and so by the time she sobers up the next morning, she's not even contemplating having any part of those waxed pecs. It probably doesn't help Schmidt's case that he's apparently the evil mirror universe Jess: sleazy, prone to disrobing, and completely and utterly unable to adopt proper social behaviors when around other people. Dude's walking around in nothing but a kimono and jumping off walls. Normally I'd find it annoying, but I actually really appreciated the fact that Jess is, in fact, not the only mother fucking insane person in that apartment, and by extention, this universe. His buffoonery really acted as kind of a lightning rod of facepalmnitude, drawing it all away from Jess' ridiculous brand of Crazy, and letting us not hate her as the worst thing about the show. So...yay?

"That's right, yay!"

Anyway, Schmidt is also not helped by Winston, who's decided he's going play this whole Hot Cece thing Jim style. And by that I don't mean he's going to be affably charming and approachable. No he's going to subtly push Schmidt into looking stupider and stupider as if he were Dwight. Like Winston says, he doesn't have be smooth, he just has to be "smoother than this guy". Not a bad plan. In the end, Cece sees though both of them, but after thoroughly humiliating Schmidt in a crispy chicken kind of way, she takes pity on him, and they share a sweet moment, falling asleep holding hands.

"I wonder if she'll care if I fart..."

Not one to be outshone in the Crazy Ass department, Jess is freaking the fuck out because Cece pointed out that Nick is totally crushing on her. You know, I figured that from the first episode, and I hope I'm not the only one who saw that, but I really have to give this show credit for like, the first and only, truly subtle depiction of this kind of thing in sitcom history. I don't remember the last time romantic interest was depicted in a network sitcom without thirty-second lingering shots coupled with soft music and the occasional long awkward pause every other episode. The signs were there, but they were subtle. Sure Nick was the one that had heart to hearts with her every episode, but he's also the only normal one there, so he kind of had to be. He did have the occasional longing look, but they'd only last for a second or two, could plausibly pass for general shock, and the camera never lingered. This just...this feels pretty accurate and real, and honestly, the show deserves a pass just for this. We see a lot of regurgiated crap on television, and even if this show's not perfect, it really deserves credit for managing to remix such a tired sitcom cliche into something geniunely artful and realistic.

Oh yeah, after CeCe tells her, Jess starts completely overthinking everything Nick says and does, down to the position of his feet, and gets so freaked out, she runs out of the car in the middle of traffic, never to be seen again, and the show ends up being about CeCe and the boys. No? Oh well.

"Don't worry about the security deposit! We'll take care of it!"