New Girl 5x21/22 'Wedding Eve/Landing Gear': True Love Waits... for us to get our shit toget

New Girl 5x21/22 concludes a stellar season focused on finding love in the mess of relationships with a long overdue wedding.

Reviewed while listening to the wonderful Susanne Sundfør teaming with Kleerup, and NOT listening to Radiohead's new album. Though this review's titular song can be found here. (Here's another one of Susanne Sundfør).

Weddings are precarious meccas of visceral emotion. They can be absolutely rapturous (they better be for the Bride and Groom), they can be highly contentious for some. Or they can even steer from hopeful straight into despondent. It’s impossible to avoid considering the monumental significance of weddings. It’s a stepping stone into the full immersion of adult life, as two people celebrate sharing not just their lives, but their burdens, their faults. They are by default events of hope, as you see the fulfillment of a deep love between two people. But it can also be a grim remainder for those who have yet to find such love and security, for those who seek it but lack it, at least. How it must feel for someone to witness this during periods of uncertainty, fear that your own burdens, your own life, have yet to be chosen to be shared. Plus, given the logistical nature of weddings, they (often) require stability in the lives of the couple. If you yourself don’t have that, if you don't have your finances in order and your pragmatic stable job set and your weird quirks set in line, do you feel left behind? Lost?

Or does any of that even matter? It is a very worn cliché that all the financial security and adult maturity and stuff most people claim to require in their relationships is ultimately superfluous against the beacon of true love, and reality is of course much more complicated than ‘all you need is love.’ But ‘Wedding Eve’ and ‘Landing Gear’ dramatize this to beautiful and hilarious effect. Schmidt’s presence at his own vineyard wedding is much less a token of his love for Cece than him missing said vineyard wedding because he tried to fly out to Portland to convince Cece’s mother to come. Cece doesn’t need him at the vineyard, and the logistics crumble compared to the spontaneous. It makes no practical sense for Reagan, whose career constantly puts her on the move, to seek out a relationship with Nick. But she’s crazy about him, so crazy that she jumps on a plane just to ask him out. Coach did the same, moving out to New York in a moment’s notice for love. Remember when Aly said she would never date her partner, or even have a close friendship with one, because it would get messy and wasn't practical? That same Aly just went through the ‘I love you’ ritual all sitcom relationships must traverse. The chemistry of Lamore Morris and Nasim Pedrad makes this potentially stale moment really sincere, and entirely full of hope for a character whose sole love in life for too long was Ferguson the Cat (who apparently has no problem just hangin’ on top of the elevator). In truth, Morris’ Winston has been the consistent standout star of Season 5. He culminates the season's main theme of shuffling through the mess of life searching for the things that bind us. He’s been so bent on not only finding true love for himself, but making sure everyone else finds their source of happiness. Because his love is that of the most devoted friend (unless you hate bird shirts). It’s given his character a solid arc and a voice of reason in times when everyone else is sorta just running around playing True American. He, more than anyone, has earned his ‘I love you’ moment. And it’s nice for the show to fully acknowledge what he wants for a change.

Because whatever pressures the real world puts on us to ignore health of the soul for the ‘tangible’ things in life, it’s good to have such a reminder in New Girl. That is partially the purpose of sitcoms built on strong relationships in the first place (think Friends), but in the present uncertainty all around the world, we seem to truly need constant reminders of such purpose. Season Five’s final two episodes are nothing short of deeply heartwarming and somberly hilarious (which sounds wrong, but is so right). Because it doubles down on the message of saying fuck you to life’s ‘tangibles’ and to simply embrace the feeling of love. If Schmidt had truly lost his job a few episodes back, Cece still would’ve married him. Schmidt himself is all about the finer points of ‘classy’ business life and ‘Japanese honor,’ whatever that means. Yet here he is, thinking only of how to make Cece, the bartending part-time model who’s brilliant but unsure of her path, happy. Stability or no stability, love is there, and should be sought above all else. Corny message, but resonant when explored on such a competently written show.

And this is the core of Jess’ struggles. As she explains to Reagan, she does have her life planned out. She works meticulously in every single aspect of life, ever friendships and romances, to maintain order. She does what the 21st century society tells us we all must do: plan it out, act on critical thinking and forego food for the soul unless you have the luxury and money to enjoy them. Jess loved Nick, but he didn't have his life together. Sam did, so she chose him. Sam, unlike Nick, had a bank account. Sam, unlike Nick, had a high-paying job that does good. Sam, unlike Nick, is sure of himself and shows it in his tall, built stature. What Sam isn’t, unlike Nick, is meant for Jess. No, he’s meant for his best friend, Diane, (with whom he had more chemistry in a few short scenes than he’s had with Jess for… however long they’ve been together). So he breaks up with Jess, even though their relationship was steady. Because love, at the end, pulled him away onto a less known path. But he’s sure: wherever the path takes him, he’ll be with Diane, and that’s all that matters.

With Reagan realizing she should just say to hell with all the weird shit Nick does and the fact that he has no idea what he’s doing 80% of the time, that leaves Jess with no one at her side. For now. Sam knows, like everyone basically, that Jess and Nick will never truly be happy until they’re together, or rather until they realize none of the other stuff matters. They broke up in the first place because they only thing they had in common was their love for each other. Their mistake, as sitcoms will tell you always, is thinking that isn’t enough. Maybe in today’s real world, for most people, that’s true, if only because we allow and accept it to be true. But the real world is sterile and bleak and dangerously close to having a racist rotten pumpkin for president of the U.S. We shouldn’t listen to the real world. We should listen to Winston Bishop’s corny songs of professed love for Aly. It takes Cece’s wedding for Jess to fully comprehend the concept of just going for love. And by then it’s too late, because Reagan learned it first. From Jess. ‘None of that matters,’ she tells Reagan regarding the fine print of Nick’s unkempt life. He’s incredible. And until Nick realizes that he is worthy of Jess’ love, that he was not just a detour in her life, that he is actually an amazing person… until he catches up, he’ll be searching. He has Reagan now, but we know that won’t last.

Eventually, as we know, love will win out. I’m constantly impressed with how well New Girl dilutes seeming clichés and simple messages into plots that are extremely funny and very heartfelt. What matters is not that Jess and Nick will be together. We knew that. What matters is the journey of getting there. Letting all the show’s characters develop on their own and find their own natural path towards each other makes for far greater payoff, and more emotional investment, when the shipping gets what it wants. Schmidt and Cece are the culmination of this. They each had to iron out themselves and realize how much they loved each other. And now, finally, the douchebag jar can be crushed. ‘Wedding Eve’ and ‘Landing Gear’ are two episodes that accentuate the show’s brilliance in exploring relationships and the undying bonds between these goofy characters. They solidify in the wedding vows what everyone in the loft is trying to learn and embrace. All they need is love. That’s a cliché that really never gets old.

Grade: A

When I got sidetracked

-Best Game of True American EVER!!! ‘Lesbian road trip. Bye FDR!’ ‘FDR!! DRINK DRINK DRINK!!’ ‘Hilary headband hot potato!’ ‘CONGRESS HAS HER HEALTHCARE BILL!!’

-True American is also probably Elizabeth Meriwether’s subtle, largely incoherent political statement.

-The brilliant musing of writer Nick Miller: ‘There are only seven types of stories: Man vs man, man vs dog, dog vs zombie, James Bond, stories of Kings and Lords. Women after fifty finding themselves after divorce, annndd car commercials.’

-‘Rick Santorum said it best when-.’ …Maybe… maybe it’s good that Schmidt lost his original vows.

-‘I can’t put it into words.‘ ‘Try. There are a lot of words out there. Just pick some of them.’ This is gonna be my response for the rest of my life whenever someone says this to me.

-Did anyone else get a Jim/Pam at Phyllis’ wedding vibe from The Office when Jess was watching Nick and Reagan dance?

-That's it for this season of New Girl. Next season, maybe there'll be more to join me for the ride. But it's fun regardless.

#TV #review #NewGirl