New Girl – “Menus”

Season Three, Episode Eight

Grade: B

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So I guess Coach is here to stay? They didn’t really cover that last week when Coach returned, but it’s shown here that he’s possibly the new roommate at the loft. And what’s his first mission to take on? To force Nick to workout and eventually make him like it. Yeah, we all knew this was doomed from the start, but Coach’s enthusiasm actually ignited Nick to put down the dumplings and start exercising.

Speaking about those dumplings, Hop Foo plays a central role in the episode. It receives the wrath of Jess after she’s been rejected by her principal that she can’t take her kids on a trip to the beach. She criticizes the amount of paper menus they leave throughout the city and demands they stop for the sake of the environment. While I didn’t particularly like Jess’ half of the episode, you could say it was triumphant to see her struggle with something outside of her power and succeed with getting the kids to the beach.

While New Girl is essentially a show about Jess, the guys owned this episode from start to finish. When the comedy doesn’t come from Jess being weird and quirky, the guys pick up the slack and they have such a variety to make almost any moment hilarious. They had the phyiscal comedy of Winston falling on the floor because of his injured leg and Nick attempting to jump rope and doing sit-ups. And of course it wouldn’t be a New Girl episode without some good ol’ Schmidt quotes, “What the hell are Nixon jeans?!”

The jokes just kept rolling during “Menus” to the point where it started feeling like a Happy Endings episodes (and no, not just because Damon Wayans Jr. was in it). And this is a good thing because sometimes New Girl tries to be too cute and cuddley for its own good. The show is still trying to pinpoint its identity, but it’s probably best to accept it as a shmorgishborg of all sitcoms. It contains the quirkiness of The Big Bang Theory, the heart of How I Met Your Mother, the quotes of Happy Endings, and the dynamic of Friends. And while lacking a clear identity makes it less of a show than the ones listed above, it’s still pretty darn good.

Last but not least:

• Good to see Cece’s new girl in the show, as Nick’s delivery-person. At least she got a $4 tip.
• Coach slapping away Nick’s dumplings was hilarious, though it was shown before that Nick doesn’t have very good chopstick skills.
• Zooey Deschanel has perfected the awkward reactions to when she’s complimented.