New Girl – “The Crawl”

Season Four, Episode Fifteen

Grade: B-

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It’s Valentine’s Day for New Girl and everyone is happy, except for poor Nick Miller who has been recently dumped. Naturally, he’s not taking it well at all and hides his feelings by engaging in a bar crawl that will form an image of a smily face on a map. You don’t have to twist my arm for a plot that involves a bar crawl! Like the friends that they are, everyone decides to either postpone or cancel their Valentine’s plans to go on Nick’s bar crawl is attendance is mandatory.

It’s no surprise that New Girl is best when all of its characters are together, but here they run into an obstacle that even though they’re all in the same place, they all have different plots going on at the same time. In retrospect, Nick’s story-line is just the background to the more important things happening. Starting with Jess and Ryan, initially their plan is to pretend to drink during the crawl until they can leave and make their dinner reservation. During a conversation at the first bar Ryan asks Jess to move in with her, which caused her to freak out. At this point, we can just always assume Jess is going to freak out when things get into the “serious” stage of a relationship (almost as bad as Coach). She still gets away with it because she does it in such a cute way, but as a 30-something Vice Principal, when is she going to be a grown up?

The whole ebb and flow results in Ryan receiving an unbelievable job offer at his Alma mater back in England. This all just seems to move way too quickly, like the writers were tired of this healthy relationship and rather deal with break-ups and heartache. Jess and Ryan decide they’re going to try their part at the long-distance relationship thing, but we all know that’s not going to last. This is kind of a shame because what the show had between Jess and Ryan was the show’s only legitimate relationship. I saw this as growth for the characters and for the show to stray from its cartoon-ish portrayal of friendship and relationships, but it doesn’t seem like the writers want to go anywhere near something real. Too bad.

Meanwhile, we get more of the roller-coaster ride that is Schmidt and Cece. Schmidt finally gets Fawn to publicly declare her relationship with him, which happens right after Winston realizes Cece still has feelings for Schmidt. The timing just isn’t there for those two, but you have to assume that Fawn and Schmidt aren’t going to last very long. Also, Coach keeps running into an attractive girl who he feels is “relationship material” instead of the hook-up material he was looking for on Valentine’s Day. Winston was just putting out fires all over this episode with that gigantic book-bag as he slaps some sense into Coach.

In the end, Nick confronts his empty feeling without Kai, but with the help from his friends he’s able to pick up the pieces of his heart and move forward. So the show’s pointing to another round of Schmidt-Cece and even Jess-Nick. Are we prepared to go through that again? I’m not sure if I am, but I don’t think I have a choice. If there’s one thing I took from this episode, it’s that the crawl is for all! This show always makes me so thirsty for a beer.

Cheers – Season Two (1983)

Original Run: September 29, 1983 – May 10, 1984
Starring: Ted Danson, Shelly Long, Nicholas Colasanto, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger, George Wendt

Grade: B+

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Something that I completely marveled at about the first season of Cheers is how the entire season took place in one setting: the bar. The flow of the show felt so natural and is resembled watching a theater play, making it a lot more impressive than other comedies. In the center are Sam and Diane, two individuals that couldn’t be any more different but somehow find the other so attractive they begin to date. And I was intrigued how the first episode of the second season took us away from the bar and into Diane’s apartment. The back-and-forth hostility and miscommunication between the two will become a staple to how the entire second season plays out.

This season is more of the same from the first: Carla still despises Diane, Norm is still miserable and lonely, Cliff still spits out nonsense, and Coach is still clueless yet adorable. But each and every one of these characters have important character development, making them that more relatable. Throughout the season, Norm is coping with depression from his wife leaving him and losing his job. In “No Help Wanted (S02E14)” Diane puts Sam in a bind by suggesting he hire Norm as his accountant. Sam never wants to mix business with friends, though it’s funny how he’s dating one of his waitresses, and doesn’t fully trust Norm as an accountant especially when he claims he should receive a $15,000 tax refund. It’s a great episode that pumps life into Norm as something other than the depressed drunk at the end of the bar.

In “Cliff’s Rocky Moment (S02E16)” he gets a taste of his own medicine when a customer at Cheers becomes fed up with Cliff’s ramblings. Victor challenges Cliff to a fight outside the bar, but Cliff runs away to avoid the confrontation. The next day, Cliff brings a muscular co-worker to defend him, but even he sides with Victor that Cliff talks too much. When it comes down to Cliff deciding if he’s going to fight Victor, he chooses not to after explaining to the bar that he’s a black belt in karate. Though his pride took a hit when he cannot admit to victor that he always tells the truth, what really hurt Cliff was how his friends didn’t believe him when he said he knew karate. Another fine piece of writing and acting in this episode, showing how trust and friendship go hand-in-hand.

Even Coach gets a heavy episode in “Coach Buries a Grudge (S02E19)” when one of his best friends pass away, only to finally discover that he made a pass at Coach’s wife. Outraged and torn apart, Coach swallows his anger and gives a touching speech for his friend at the memorial. With all these great episodes displaying the human nature of the characters at Cheers, the heart is still between Sam and Diane, who hate each other as much as they love each other. It’s not an ideal relationship, but they’re always drawn to one another. Everyone has had that person in their life that they simply couldn’t be without, but more than occasionally would they drive each other insane.

But from the start, we just know and can clearly see that Diane and Sam are not right for each other. Sam still enjoys the occasional one-night stand and can’t help himself when beautiful girls are around. He means well but doesn’t understand how to remain committed in a serious relationship. Meanwhile, Diane simply doesn’t trust Sam and constantly tries to change him into what she believes is a better person. She wants him to be well-read and to engage in the fine arts of life, but that’s just not what Sam Malone is about. Both of them are to fault for their tumultuous relationship, and the season ends on a very serious note questioning the future for Sam and Diane.

Overall, season two is some great sitcom television, ranging from the absolute hilarious to the troubling and serious. The usual light-hearted tone of the show will always keep a smile on your face, mostly from Coach’s misunderstandings and Sam and Diane’s bickering. But Cheers is able to strip aside the humor and stare down some serious issues, such as the season finale when Sam and Diane actually slap each other a few times (though it does result in a Three Stooges-type of nose pulling). The fact that they can so easily get underneath each others’ skin is never a positive aspect of a relationship. Whether they’re trying to make each other jealous, or flat out trying to piss each other off. I don’t know if they can ever make it work, but when you’re involved it’s a lot more difficult to see.

Parks and Recreation – “William Henry Harrison” / “Leslie and Ron”

Season Seven, Episode Three & Four

Grade: A

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We all knew that Leslie and Ron would settle their differences, because this is Parks and Recreation and the show is significantly better when they’re working on the same side. It has always been a great odd couple of sorts with Leslie pushing all the time to build up Pawnee with Ron frowning alongside her at the thriving government. But there were holes that we just couldn’t understand because of the three-year time gap. Why were Leslie and Ron so mad at each other? And what the hell is this Morningstar project they keep referring to?

I don’t know if these two episodes were specifically paired up, but it certainly seems like it because it was set up and executed perfectly. The first half hour of “William Henry Harrison” increased the tension between Ron and Leslie. While Leslie desperately searched for any historical significance to build a national park, Ron and his team searched for the face of their campaign, which went to the ridiculous Annabel Porter. I thoroughly enjoyed the beef milk that sells for $60 a gallon, mainly because of Ron’s reaction.

I also loved how Ben and Terry were bouncing back and forth between Ron and Leslie, trying to sort out the paperwork needed. But all of this was leading up to the point when everyone who used to work for Ron and Leslie realized they needed to have them figure out and settle their differences. So they locked them inside of the old offices and told them they would return at 8 a.m., which was 12 hours later. At first, Leslie and Ron were furious, but slowly they started to reason with one another.

That wasn’t accomplished without some hilarious moments. As Ron swore to never talk to Leslie, she bombarded with him ways of annoying him until he agreed to talk. This included my favorite scene of Leslie singing “We Didn’t Start the Fire” with terrible, incorrect lyrics. Finally, Ron cracked down and we got our first reveal of what Morningstar was. But more importantly, Ron and Leslie were able to get to the bottom of why they were enemies.

The reason why Ron left the department was because he decided to ask Leslie for a job with the federal government, but was stood up when she had to fly out to Washington D.C. last minute. He then joined the company that was responsible for building the Morningstar apartments right over where Ann Perkins’ house was. Seeing Poehler and Offerman almost entirely alone during the second episode was a thing of beauty. They made us laugh and they made us cry when they finally forgave each other and became friends again. What a fantastic episode this was.

Moving forward, I’m glad that Ron and Leslie settled their differences because maybe now they can jump on the same side and try to get this national park built. They have quite an uphill battle to fight, but if they have the whole crew, then it’ll be a great way to end the show.

Parks and Recreation – “2017” / “Ron and Jammy”

Season Seven, Episodes One/Two

Grade: B+

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The premiere to the final season of Parks and Recreation aired last night and even though it continued with its three year jump, everyone is practically the same (or at least trying to go back to being the same). So what kind of mission is Leslie going to have her eye on for the final season? The land that Newport owns is being sold and she desperately wants to turn that into a national park. Sounds good right? The problem that stands in her way is Ron Swanson.

Ron, along with Tom and Donna, have sided with Gryzzl’s bid to build a new campus on Newport’s land and they’re willing to pay $90 million for it. But also in the running is Leslie, who successfully explained how building the Newport National Park will make the name live on for generations to come. It’s a great conflict between money and legend, but I have to say that unless Leslie gets her old team back on her side, then she doesn’t stand a chance. That being said, is there really a doubt in your mind that Leslie won’t eventually get her team back? And is there a doubt that she’ll get that national park built? That takes away from a lot of the plot, but hey this is Parks and Recreation and no matter how predictable it can be, it’s still highly entertaining because no one’s watching it for the drama.

Meanwhile during “Ron and Jammy” we find out that Jam and Tammy are hooking up, and naturally Tammy’s turning Jam into a version of Ron by dressing him up, grooming him a mustache, and force feeding him steak and whiskey. Why should we be interested in Jam? Because he’s the deciding vote on what the council will decide to do with Newport’s land. But to be fair, it was fun watching Jam suffer under the talons of Tammy for most of the episode. Leslie is too kind because I would’ve let him suffer longer, but her kindness did start because she wanted his vote.

As the episode went on, Ron and Leslie teamed up to rid Tammy of Jam’s life, not because they wanted his vote but because it was the right thing to do. It was great seeing Ron and Leslie on the same side, but they resumed their feud once Jam returned to his old self again. Meanwhile, Tom’s an arrogant mogul who is craving a companion and Andy and April are concerned that they’ve discarded their nonchalant, care-free ways and are now a lame married couple who plans their weeks.

What these first two episodes did well was establish where the characters are now and what they want to change about them. It gives us these short story-arcs while Leslie and Ron duke it out some more before they eventually side together and take down the Newport project and build the national park! And then they all live happily ever after! Okay I’m getting ahead of myself.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine – “Beach House”

Season Two, Episode Twelve

Grade: B+

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After the break, we don’t get any new crimes that need to be solved. Instead, we get the whole gang vacationing at a beach house as a part of their time to blow off steam and relax from the day-by-day stress of keeping the streets of Brooklyn safe. Good thing for us, these guys are hilarious.

I’m wondering if the episode would’ve actually been funnier if Captain Holt didn’t crash the party, but then that would’ve robbed us of some of the funniest scenes of the episode. Anyway, everyone’s looking forward to this getaway when Peralta softens up when Holt tells him how he was always left out of these sort of gatherings and was jealous of the comraderie shared at these events. Once again, we see the sensitive side of the usually goofy, childish Peralta. In addition to inviting Captain Hold, Peralta wants to make sure he has a good time. In fact, everyone walks on egg shells around him because he is the boss.

The side-story that I truly enjoyed was seeing Santiago getting drunk, drink by drink being pressured by Gina because she wants to know what six-drink Santiago is like. Melissa Fumero usually has to play the by-the-books, good character unlike the other silly characters on the show, so it was nice to see her let loose and have fun during “Beach House.” Plus, her dance moves are just hilarious. I’d love to see her in any situation where she can show off those dance moves.

Eventually, everyone turns on Peralta for inviting Captain Holt, but he proposes an idea that they could have two parties at the same time. One fun party in the basement and one not-so-fun party with Captain Holt. The idea works out for a little while, but eventually falls apart when Holt realizes what’s being done. This reminded me of the Friends episode when they throw two separate parties for Rachel because she doesn’t want her divorced parents to be in the same room.

We do get a lot of interesting interactions throughout the episode. The Gina/Amy story-line is fun, not only because we get to see Amy get drunk and act a fool, but because we get to see the sensitive side of Gina as well as she takes care of Amy when she drinks too much. Then there’s the Boyle/Rosa story-line that once was a weird romantic plot, but now it’s Boyle helping Rosa text Marcus Holt without scaring him off. The two share a good chemistry with each other in the odd-couple, reversed role sense. Joe Lo Truglio is always capable of stealing the scenes he’s in and he does just that in this episode.

While this wasn’t a typical episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I completely invite the situation-comedy of “Beach House.” It’s good to take a break from all of the workplace comedy the show provides week-after-week. Sure, it might’ve served a better purpose to not have shown this episode right after a break, but nonetheless it’s a breath of fresh air for an already great comedy. Oh and last but not least, the cold opening with Peralta accusing Captain Holt of sitting in his office with no pants on was hilarious.

New Girl – “Shark”

Season Four, Episode Twelve

Grade: B-

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So Winston finally became a police officer. Finally! This does open a bunch of possibilities for future New Girl episodes, but first comes first, everyone has to try on his uniform and pretend to be a cop. Pretty funny, but the B-story does involve Coach and Nick’s concern because Winston is such a softie. And it doesn’t help when they find out that his partner is a petite woman.

The A-story revolves around Jess and Schmidt who try to engage with Councilwoman Fawn Moscato (Zoe Lister Jones) to get the construction by their building to be done during the day. But the two go about things differently. While Jess feels it’s best to be like a dolphin and reason with the Councilwoman, Schmidt feels it’s best to be like a shark and attack the issue head on in a ruthless fashion. But both of their worlds get flipped upside down when she, in fact, becomes the shark in the situation.

While Moscato has Jess filling out a ridiculously long survey to post her complaint, Schmidt becomes wrapped around her finger at dinner. He finds her incredibly attractive that she’s completely using him, something that his boss does from time to time. Schmidt has always been an interesting character. He seems to have been following the path of a Barney in How I Met Your Mother, ridiculous at times with opinions and morals that are outside the box, but he never became the womanizer that Barney was. I guess that’s why Coach was brought into the mix because before him, none of the characters really used women like Barney did, or even like Joey did in Friends. With Schmidt there was always that in-between feeling. He’s sexually aggressive, but doesn’t sleep around as often as his character might suggest.

Meanwhile, Nick and Coach approach Winston’s partner, insulting her until she physically drags them to a support group where family members of cops can cope with their issues. It’s kind of funny, but this B-story never really felt like anything. More importantly though, Winston got a good amount of screen-time this episode!

In the end, Jess and some other oppose the council meeting and while Schmidt tries to defend the Councilwoman, he completely makes a fool of himself. But this allows the Councilwoman to swoop in and make everyone happy by moving the construction to the day. So what did we learn? Jess trumps with her persistent complaining, Schmidt is a terrible friend because he was willing to stand against Jess just to have a chance with Moscato, and that Winston actually has a pretty darn good police partner. Oh, and Schmidt needs to find a new tailor or else he won’t be able to get anything done.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine – Season One

Grade: B+

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The new workplace comedy on Fox is from creators Michael Shur (Parks and Recreation) and Daniel J. Goor (The Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien), and the two have created something so insane and whacky that I cannot believe that it works. But it does work very well. Leading the 99th precinct in Brooklyn is the new Captain Holt (Andre Braugher), a gay African American whom the rest of the crew can’t ever decipher if he’s in a good or bad mood.

The eccentric group of detectives is lead by Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), who is a great detective but frustrates Captain Holt with his immaturity. Playing his love interest is Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), a stickler for the rules and a teacher’s pet to Captain Holt. The two occasionally get along but usually engage in constant teasing and bad-mouthing. Sergeant Terry (Terry Crews) leads the detectives unconventionally with his newly-discovered soft side due to the birth of his baby girls. Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) is Jake’s best friend who loves anything feminine, while Rose Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) is as tough as they come. Rounding out the precinct are Detective Hitchcock and Detective Scully, the dumb and dumber combo of the crew, and Gina Linetti, the wildly bizarre assistant to Captain Holt.

Like every comedy, it takes a little while for Brooklyn Nine-Nine to start rolling, but once you familiarize yourself with the characters, every episode is better than the last. Some highlights of the first season includes:
– Jake’s bets with Captain Holt (stealing his Medal of Valor) and Santiago (who makes the most arrests).
– The detectives and their mutual hate towards the Vulture.
– Charles taking two bullets in the butt.
– The detectives attending Captain Holt’s birthday party.

Like all good comedies, the cast of characters have a great chemistry with one another towards the middle of the first season. Also, the romantic interest between Peralta and Santiago is an intriguing one, but certainly one that’s fun to follow and root for. Another thing that impressed me with the first season was the depth of the characters. No one is one-dimensional, even though they all have consistency in their motives. Terry can be the Ebony Falcon when he focuses, Peralta can be mature, Rosa can be apologetic, Gina can be ethical, Boyle can be masculine and Holt can be hilarious. That’s just how the show is able to keep you on your toes every episode.

Overall, this is a stand-out new comedy that everyone can enjoy, especially for the college and young adult demographic. It’s on the same line with The Office and Parks and Recreation, without the interviews. If you don’t mind Andy Samberg too much, then you’ll enjoy Brooklyn Nine-Nine. As for the future of the show, it’ll be interesting to see if they give us a season-long case that the crew tries to solve on top of the small cases they solve every episode. That and I can’t wait to see how the writers explore the Peralta/Santiago love interest. They’re the least likely couple to work out, but in this show anything is possible.

New Girl – “Thanksgiving IV”

Season Four, Episode Nine

Grade: A

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I think it’s safe to say that this fourth season of New Girl has been a great improvement from last season. Everyone is at its comedic best when they’re single and together. Sure, realistically it doesn’t seem likely that two exes could keep on being roommates, but Nick and Jess are making it work even though Jess is trying really hard to date and Nick is just messing around.

Another thing that New Girl has done better this season is giving its supporting characters more material. Jess and Nick are great, but the rest of the cast are more than capable of delivering hilarious quotes and situations. So in “Thanksgiving IV” we get a premise straight out of Barney Stinson’s book, Bangsgiving. They pick each others’ names out of a hat (Secret Santa style) and must present a date for them to sleep with on Thanksgiving. Good enough for me. By the way, I loved Nick’s reaction after they picked their names as he desperately wanted to reveal who he picked, because he picked himself.

As expected, there is something wrong with everyone’s date that their friends picked out. First and foremost, since Nick picked his own name, he didn’t bother asking someone out on a date and just brought Tran to Thanksgiving (which is never a bad thing). Cece and Schmidt picked each other and she suspects that he’s not going to set her up with anyone so they can rekindle their past, but he insists that he set her up with a guy named Geoff, who is late because of a loose peacock on the freeway. Cece picks Lucy for Schmidt, who hit it off but Nick isn’t okay with it since he dated Lucy a few years ago.

The main story revolves around Coach picking Jess’s date, who ends up being the British teacher that they work with, Ryan. She’s conflicted because as vice principal, she cannot have a relationship with any staff member, but they’re totally into one another. What’s a dork like Jess to do?! Her friends tell her that to get her mind off of him she should “bang one out” with him. Yeah, like that makes any sense to the most emotional character on the show. When she tries to seduce Ryan, he maintains his perfect track record and rejects her “bang one out” idea because he has genuine feelings for her.

My favorite pairing of the episode was Coach and Pepper, a member of the police force that Winston chose for Coach. She’s very attractive aside from one issue, she’s ripped! Her muscles bulge out of her arms and it makes Coach very uncomfortable. If that wasn’t funny enough, she flips him to the ground when he touches her in her blind spot. I admit, Coach has had a great past two episodes for New Girl. Meanwhile, Winston gets set up by Jess with the lunch lady.

This was a very good episode, including the highlight of Nick trying to make Schmidt jealous by flirting with Cece and pretending they’re having sex as he looks for her money in his room. At the end, everyone looks like they got what they wanted. Jess and Ryan, Winston and the lunch lady, Coach and Pepper. In addition, Nick snags Tran’s granddaughter’s number and Cece turns down Geoff (who ends up being real) just to hang out with Schmidt. New Girl is at its best when it can start out wild and crazy, and can tie up the half hour with some touching moments. This is one of the better episodes this season.

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New Girl Character Rankings:

Jess (A): Who doesn’t like seeing Zooey Deschanel wearing only an apron? Even better, she sides with principal in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off! She has her standards and she wants to stick to the rules even if they’re dumb rules (like Coach puts it). Jess was a winner this episode.

Coach (A-): His scenes with Pepper were hilarious. Coach has always come across as the macho man of the group, and it was great to see him cower whenever Pepper was around. Plus, the scene where he gets flipped was some fine physical comedy.

Nick (A-): First, bringing Tran to Thanksgiving was brilliant. Then he has some leftover feelings where he doesn’t want Schmidt sleeping with one of his exes. Nick is a human after all! And to get back at him, Nick childishly flirts with Cece to make Schmidt jealous. An all-around classic Nick episode.

Schmidt (B): It was his idea to have Bangsgiving, which got the ball rolling, but for most of the episode he was just getting along with Lucy (until he finds out she’s an anti-Semite). Still, it was nice seeing him and Cece get close once again.

Cece (B): Playing the only normal one of the group can be tiring, but she does it well again. Her expression when Nick was looking for her money in his room was spot on. To top it off, she helps Nick understand why he feels so terrible all the time hooking up with meaningless girls. The moral here is that if you sleep with terrible women, you’re going to feel terrible. But hey, at least Nick can do his own laundry.

Winston (D): Sorry, but he just didn’t have anything to do with the episode. But still, I loved the chess line when he said it’s time for this bishop to take the queen.

The Mindy Project – “The Devil Wears Lands’ End”

Season Three, Episode Five

Grade: A-

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While no one believes that The Mindy Project is a great show, the fact that the show itself understands that is why it has survived thus far. Working through its many flaws, once in a while the show can capitalize on some solid, stand-alone episodes such as this one. Sure, the Mindy-Danny relationship is a rocky roller coaster that I cannot believe is still working (but it is because this is a sitcom), but they’re good together for the show. The Jeremy-Peter rivalry has been an ongoing plot for a handful of episodes and this time around we see them team up together. This is as good as The Mindy Project gets.

So there’s a new hospital administrator (Niecy Nash) and the gang are off to a terrible start when they arrive at her meeting late, plus it didn’t help that Mindy’s cell phone (Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”) goes off, interrupting everything. The result, their practice is scheduled to work the graveyard shift and everyone is blaming Mindy. Naturally, Mindy feels like she can save the day by taking Jean out on the town. While they do have a great time together, Jean leans in and kisses Mindy on the lips, something unexpected but also something Mindy doesn’t reject. Now Mindy’s in a whole new conflict: they were taken off the graveyard shift but now Jean is making moves on Mindy. What’s a girl to do?!

Then there’s the B-story, which being a beer pong enthusiast myself, enjoyed probably a bit too much. What really works in the B-story is that something emotionally real actually happens. Peter and Jeremy have been feuding the past few weeks, but this was their first opportunity to team up. And team up they did at the Dartmouth beer pong tournament! Note: The scene where Morgan is trying out to be Peter’s partner is hilarious as he can’t even throw a ping pong ball into a bucket.

We get the frat house vibe at the beer pong tournament, a vibe we’ve become accustomed to with Peter’s character. But Jeremy soon realizes that Peter is bothered by the group calling him by his nickname “Lefty.” Why “Lefty”? Because throughout college his girlfriends have always left him for other friends. Oof, that hurts especially because Jeremy is right there next to him, but Barf makes it his goal to have Peter win the beer pong championship, which he does! So Peter gets to pick his own nickname, “Diarrhea.” Okay, it’s not the best name to pop into Peter’s head, but you actually feel like something important was accomplished in this story-line.

Now back to Mindy’s girl problems, we learn that Jean has a wife who are on the verge of breaking up because of Mindy’s kiss. I guess that somewhat makes sense, even though it’s a bit weird that Jean came onto Mindy in the first place. The only way to fix this problem is for Danny to pretend he’s going to commit suicide because of this (not so) huge problem! Yes, you can always depend on Mindy to be dramatic and to over-react to every situation she’s in. But just like the beginning where Mindy cries herself out of a speeding ticket, Danny does his best impersonation of Mindy and lies his way out of their predicament. Mindy couldn’t be any prouder.

While a lot of this episode was silly, it was enjoyable and funny throughout, which is more than I can say about last night’s New Girl episode. I wonder how many whacky situations the writers have up their sleeves when it comes to Mindy and Danny’s relationship. And though Morgan was terribly missed for most of the episode (his Iggy Azalea ring-tone joke was great), it was important for Peter and Jeremy to be back on the same page. Will Jean be a reoccurring character? Probably not, but The Mindy Project certainly doesn’t have a shortage of cameos.

New Girl – “Micro”

Season Four, Episode Four

Grade: C+

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I just wish that there would be an episode of New Girl where the gang just hangs out at the loft and talks about nothing the entire time. I don’t know about you, but I thoroughly enjoy the first five or so minutes every week before the story-line is established. The cast has such great chemistry together that their conversations feel so natural and they understand their characters so well that everything just passes by like a warm summer breeze. It’s easy, natural, and on top of it all it’s really funny.

In “Micro” the gang is hanging out at the bar and judging women as they pass by from the size of their breasts. Jess is offended by the guys’ comments and try to take a stand that she’s not as shallow as they are and wouldn’t reject a guy just because of their looks. Soon after, she’s talking with an incredibly handsome man and plans to go out on a date with him. But there’s one problem, he has a micropenis, which is a real medical condition (was there anyone who didn’t do what Schmidt, Nick, and Coach did?). While I love the set-up to this episode’s plot, it all falls apart.

Jess wants to prove to the guys so badly that she’s not shallow like them, that she actually makes a bet with Nick that she would date Matt for at least a month. This predictably backfires when it’s not his micropenis that’s a problem, it’s his personality. I enjoyed this story-line but the character of Matt just didn’t cut it for me. Was he a douche? Sure, I guess… but just a few episodes ago Jess was hanging onto dates with far worse guys than Matt, so where’s the consistency?

In the B-story, Schmidt and Coach compliment themselves and each other about being so good looking, so Winston and Cece decide to mess with them, pinning them against each other for the one open modeling spot from Cece’s agent (oh yeah, that’s right. Remember when Cece was a model in the show?). The result is some hilarious physical comedy from Max Greenfield and Damon Wayans Jr., but I’m not entirely satisfied about the way things end (with a purchased billboard of Schmidt in Koreatown.

The moral of the episode is that everyone has their own micropenis that you shouldn’t judge, though on top of their micropenis they could just turn out being a terrible person. I like that we keep exploring Jess’ adventure in being single, but how about the rest of the group? Nick needs more screen time, plain and simple. And I find it hard to believe that Jess and Nick shared so many awkward moments in the first season living together, and now all of a sudden they don’t. Yes, I understand they’re trying to steer away from that story-line, but that was the best story-line the show ever had.

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New Girl Character Rankings:

Jess (B-): I like how she had the guts to make a bet with Nick that she would date Matt for a month, but boy did that backfire at her! She still has her heart in the right place by believing people shouldn’t be shallow and to not judge someone just from their looks, but who doesn’t?

Schmidt (B+): After all that, he gets a billboard in Koreatown (plus $500). Not too shabby for once being a fat kid and for not actually landing a model gig.

Coach (B): The duo of Schmidt and Coach proved that they definitely work well together, and I never doubted it. While Greenfield delivers one-liners better, Wayans Jr. is the physical comedy champion.

Winston (B+): Winston absolutely OWNED the first few minutes of this episode. Nothing was better than his proud comment, “I just put $5 in the jukebox. We got a Paula Cole rock block coming our way.” Plus, I sure hope we get some more classic Winston and Cece mess-around in future episodes.

Cece (C): A “C” for Cece, because her only purpose this episode was taking the joke on Coach and Schmidt to the next level, making it somewhat authentic that one of them could actually land a modeling job.

Nick (D): I almost forgot Nick was even in this episode. A crime to the hilarious Jake Johnson.