The seven-season series New Girl first aired on September 20, 2011, on The Fox channel and continued to take over the TV screen until its final episode in 2018. Starring Zooey Deschanel, the series focuses on a character named Jessica Day who finds herself moving in with three single guys in a California loft after she discovers her boyfriend of six years with another woman. The series was nominated for over twenty awards and yields a 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb.
I first discovered New Girl during my winter break in 2020. Since I had no assignments, club meetings, or anything else to do, why not start up a new series? Previous to watching it, many of my family members had compared me to the main character Jess for not only our similar looks–giant blue eyes, naturally dark hair, and small stature–but also our outgoing personalities. To this day, I have not decided if that is a compliment or not.
The series began in 2011, and subsequently, some of the humor is outdated, but even as a nineteen-year-old in 2021, I thoroughly enjoyed the series’ quick-witted jokes and was delighted when I found out that approximately 20% of the series’ writing was improv done by the cast members. The creator of the series, Elizabeth Meriweather, had a rule on the set that if the actors created a joke that could get her to laugh it got to stay in the final cut for the episode. Due to this, I think that as a sitcom, New Girl is more in touch with reality than other comedic shows. There is an honest attemptz at telling jokes the way they would be told in a real conversation.
Overall, I believe this show makes a great casual watch for anyone looking to laugh. Deschanel does a great way of bringing life to her character and has won three awards from her performance as Jessica Day. I do warn anyone interested that the show does feature mature humor, so I would not recommend watching with minors present. The entire series is available to watch on Netflix.
Feature Photo designed by Alexandra Huff