New Girl 5x4 'No Girl': Who's Jess?

New Girl 5x4 flows effortlessly into the sans-Jess era by playing everyone else's strengths they thoroughly developed.

Reviewed in a world where Federer gets trounced but Murray's still good. While listening to Drömnu... Again.

Ask yourself: if one morning you woke up and went to the bathroom, only to find Fred Armisen there in his Portlandia glasses, which are his real glasses, by the way... how would you react? Would you be surprised? Or could his off-kilter charm sweep you up and make you go with the flow? You might even laugh.

It's a testament to the magnetism of Armisen's general presence that the question can even be considered. He's never imposing or frightening, or even necessarily creepy. He's just a bit... off. A tad strange. Besides, even if you are like Schmidt and you did freak out at randomly find him in your apartment, he's always comfortable, and he'll always try to help you feel the same. It's why Armisen can fit so seemlessly into the Jess-like role of the New Girl ecosystem. He's almost like a more eccentric male Jess. A little weirder, but not too weird to be off-putting or contrived on the show. Of course, there's no replacement for Jess, and Armisen can only be used in spades and probably not for longer than one episode. It's like Will Ferrell succeeding Steve Carrell on The Office. You can only sustain that presence for so long in the immediate shadow of a Michael Scott or Jessica Day, a character who is still the foundation of the show in question. But what New Girl has done which The Office just never quite could is make the whole cast so strong around that foundation that Jess' absence is not quite so jarring as it would be on most shows. The Office had an undoubtedly outstanding ensemble cast, but everything after Carell's departure never seemed to be able to fill in that void. Maybe that's down to the writers, or maybe it's just down to the format of the show. Maybe New Girl can power through this non-Zooey Deschanel period because the surrounding cast is not only strong and well-developed, but also smaller and more manageable. Whatever it is, it actually took me two-thirds into 'No Girl' to fully acknowledge Jess' absence, and that is a true triumph of the entire show, writing and acting and everything in between.

To start, 'No Girl' plays to the show's strengths that have never involved Jess, the best of which is the Nick/Schmidt bromance. Best friends know the things about each other that everyone else seems to miss, putting together subtle clues to understand their tastes. Maybe some viewers weren't as surprised as I was when Nick revealed Schmidt's ideal bachelor party being in Tokyo, but either way it makes perfect sense. Nick picks up on all those hints that the show has laid across its run (remember when Shcmidt wore a kimono robe?), he knows what Schmidt will say when he imagines his perfect bachelor party 'Sushi, Sake... Honor.' And, naturally, Nick doesn't have the money to cover the trip to Tokyo, but he buys the tickets anyway. 'How does anybody pay for anything?' So why not make the money by opening a B&B? Just like Aremisen's done in, like, a third of Portlandia's episodes? The beat is a bit redundant to have Nick and Schmidt struggling to work together on a business again. It was explored two episodes prior, and once before with 'Swuit.' But the humor remains solid because the writers have thoroughly established these people both with and without Jess. This apartment crew is the last you would want running a B&B. If anything, Jess would actually be decent at running a B&B and her presence would've actually reduced the comedic potential.

The Winston and CeCe plot is not quite as strong as Nick/Schmidt, though honestly that'd be hard to top. It actually was still pretty fun, it just had a few contrived moments where the writers tried too hard to make Hannah Simone embody Deschanel's mannerisms. But all that is overshadowed by the natural chemistry that has always come as a minor surprise between Simone and Lamorne Morris, and that of their characters. CeCe is an emphatically confident person, whereas Winston is always the outsider, always unsure, always trying too hard. The overlap between those two comes with both capable of being entirely goofy. Only they could pull off those absurd selfies to make Winston's girlfriend jealous. It's also refreshing whenever the show decides to challenge CeCe's brimming confidence, which certainly happens as she tries to fill Jess' shoes in comforting a fragile Winston. I mean, she doesn't even know tea is made. 'Water and LEAVES!' And there's deeper meaning to their plot as well. Winston is anxious because his girlfriend, KC, took a photo with a random hot guy. Normally this is run-of-the-mill paranoia, but the show competently gives context in reminding us of what happened with his last girlfriend, Daisy, who did cheat on him. It's not simply paranoia, it's a recurring theme. So when it turns out KC was actually cheating as well, CeCe's indignant anger is grounded in her own well-documented experiences. These are small, but important facets of their character development, and it's done so well, and so seemlessly, because the writers know exactly the kind of people they've created. They didn't just prioritize Jess. They made sure everyone on the show could be the star, pick up the slack.

If 'No Girl' was a test to see what would happen without Deschanel's brand of quirky humor, then we're off to an amazing start, and her absence may just be the jolt the show needed. It wasn't so much going stale before as much as we the audience were getting too comfortable with the set-up, which is the most common plague for comedies (See: Modern Family). The season premiere had that inauspicious feel, but the ship's been righted. Not having Jess around gives space for the other characters we've come to love flex their muscles, and remind us that they are each independently, and together, a solid core group. Some can come and go, like Coach, whose reappearance in season 3 and 4 was brilliantly handled. If New Girl is sans Jess, there's plenty of humor to fall back on. Nick and Schmidt working together, Winston and CeCe's compatible goofiness. And Schmidt expressions. Hilarious, priceless Schmidt expressions, the top ones being when Nick tells him about Tokyo, and when he's forced to hear Armisen read a terrible love scene to him from his novel. And the guest appearances certainly help. Armisen is a great addition, and the show handled the awkwardness of having Stephen Rannazzisi surprisingly well. Basically, he played an asshole, which is how people see him in real life now, allowing the show to adjust to the real world discomfort with him. Add to that some perfect Pacino impressions from a pre-teen in one of Schmidt's blazers, ('She's got a GREAT ASS!'), and 'No Girl' isn't lacking in much. Certainly not humor. And maybe not even the show's titular star.

Grade: A

When I got sidetracked

-Man, there sooo many great references in this eipsode. And the Japanese tenant singing Frasier was only second-best behind 'GREAT ASS!'

-Best Nick quote: 'I honestly don't know how long [the pretzel] was in my underpants and that was disturbing to me.'

-Also Nick's a prostitue. Who saw that coming?!... Wait, actually, the last Asian girlfirend he had, Kai, gave him money for sex, too, technically... Huh. A trend?

#TV #review #NewGirl