A lot of sitcoms these days involve characters struggling against economic or romantic or psychological limitations, but no comedy goes straight for the heart of melancholy quite like “New Girl,†which returned for its second season on Fox with two episodes Tuesday night. Focusing on a group of roommates caught halfway between Judd Apatow-style immaturity and full-fledged adulthood, it's an ode to vulnerability and confusion, a celebration of inappropriate choices and the fine art of tiptoeing around your friends' feelings.
It began last year, with much fanfare, as a vehicle for the klutzy charm of Zooey Deschanel, but as the first season progressed the focus of the show's fans and writers shifted to th e supporting character Schmidt (Max Greenfield), the loudest and showiest of the show's wounded-bird characters. That trend continued in Tuesday's season premiere, “Re-Launchâ€: the plot twist was Ms. Deschanel's Jess being fired from her teaching job, but the dominant story line was Schmidt's celebration of the removal of his “penis cast,†which he'd apparently been wearing since a bout of enthusiastic sex near the end of Season 1.
The balance “New Girl†strives for isn't easy to pull off, and “Re-Launch†was a middling effort. The Jess story line was familiar: after being laid off, she insisted on working as a “shot girl†at Schmidt's party and once again failed in the cutest, most wistful way possible, like Lucille Ball on Zoloft. Parker Posey livened things up with a guest spot as an aging cocktail waitress with a Ph.D. Mr. Greenfield got the funniest unprintable lines, while Hannah Simone didn't get much more than a walk-on as Cece, the girlfri end Schmidt dumped in a fit of lunatic insecurity in last season's finale.
(It says something about the dynamic of the show that the gorgeous, level-headed model Cece, the closest thing “New Girl†has to an adult character, fell for the cartoonishly needy and narcissistic Schmidt in the first place. Fans loved it, but there was something a little creepy about the combination of gooey romanticism and hot-for-teacher wish fulfillment.)
As usual the best moments were between Ms. Deschanel and Jake Johnson as her crush, Nick, the whiny bartender who gets away with monstrous behavior toward women because he's such a nice guy. Having insulted Jess by implying that she wasn't attractive enough to be a shot girl, he reassured her: “You're the nurse I want to wake up to after I have my stomach pumped. It's a different kind of hot. Still hot.â€
Those two ended the episode in a typically rueful conversation about Jess's future, which Nick summed up by saying, m ore or less: “Life stinks, and then it gets better, and then it stinks again. And then it just - stinks.†It captured the point of view that both fuels, and threatens, the show's unusual comic vibe.
What did you think of the “New Girl†season premiere? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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