PilotWatch: NEW GIRL

FOX Tuesdays @ 9pm

(Premiering 9/20)

The pilot episode of FOX's new sitcom starring Zooey Deschanel is available for a free download on iTunes in anticipation of its actual television debut on Sept 20, so I'm getting this review out to you a little early! Lucky you.

What's it about?

Jess is an offbeat and adorable girl in her late 20s who, after a bad breakup, moves in with three single guys. Goofy, positive, vulnerable and honest to a fault, Jess has faith in people, even when she shouldn't. Although she's dorky and awkward, she's comfortable in her own skin. More prone to friendships with women, she's not used to hanging with the boys - especially at home.

So, how was it?

It's always hard to judge a whole show by its pilot, because in its first episode, the show is still finding its feet. It has to juggle many tasks: introduce characters, establish plot, and engage the audience. But NEW GIRL has a particularly hard job because by its second episode, it will already be a completely different show. One of the main cast members, Damon Wayans Jr had to pull out because of a previous commitment to ABC's HAPPY ENDINGS (he was cast in NEW GIRL before it was clear HAPPY ENDINGS was going to be renewed). So starting in episode two, his character Coach will be replaced by not only a different actor, but an entirely different character as well. It will be interesting to see what effect that change-up has on the cast dynamic.

But in the meantime, it's easy to say that the tagline on the poster does not lie: Zooey Deschanel is indeed "simply adorkable." She suffers the world's most awkward breakup, she watches Dirty Dancing ad nauseum, she showers in her swimsuit, and, most adorably, she makes up theme songs for herself. This is clearly the conceit that the show is staking its entire future on: that Zooey Deschanel will be so "adorkable" you will keep tuning in week after week just to watch her be herself.

Unfortunately, "cute" can only take a show so far, so hopefully the writers will start paying more attention to the rest of their characters. It's obviously pointless to speak to Coach since he will not be sticking around, but I found his character to be grating with his supposed "anger problems" (he's much better on HAPPY ENDINGS). Jake M. Johnson is okay as Nick, but his character was given little to do in the pilot other than identify with Jess over his own recent breakup and have sad puppy-dog eyes. More focus was put on Max Greenfield's Schmidt, a doughebag to out-douche all douchebags. In one of the pilot's more clever ideas, the roommates keep a "Douchebag Jar" that Schmidt has to put a dollar into every time he does something particularly facepalm-worthy. But pointing out that someone is a douchebag doesn't make them any less of a douchebag, and his antics became gradually less excusable throughout the half-hour.

This TV season is already chock-full of shows about men being dismayed at their "emasculation in the face of a world becoming increasingly woman-centric" (LAST MAN STANDING, MAN UP, WORK IT), so I was dismayed to see this pilot dip into a bit of that humor as well. After Schmidt makes the executive decision to accept Jess as a roommate because she has model friends, the three guys all despair at the fact that they will no longer be able to walk around the house naked and have to put up with icky girl stuff like feelings and crying and periods...but at least girls are good at folding things! Of course, by the end, they've all bonded with Jess and overcome their fear of Dirty Dancing in order to rouse her with a stirring a capella rendition of "The Time Of My Life." Hopefully the show will be done with that kind of humor and find something fresher and more honest to give us from here on out.

Rating:

** Okay. I may give it another episode or two to see if it gets good.

Mainly because of how dang adorkable Zooey Deschanel is, I will be tuning in to see where the show is going: if the humor gets more consistent, if the actors settle into their characters, and what kind of an effect Coach's replacement has. NEW GIRL has the potential to be really good: it was funny enough for a half-hour, but its struggle will be to keep being funny without becoming repetitive (or offensive to women).

(For a quick glance at the other pilots coming out and an explanation of my ratings, check out my Fall TV Preview.)

What did you think of NEW GIRL?