My Faithful Readers, brace yourselves. I’m about to let you in on a dirty, dark secret that you may not have known.
Sometimes, I am—*wait for it*—wrong about things.
I know, right?!
I could hardly believe it myself, but trust me, it’s true. It’s damn true.
I am, on occasion, wrong. Today, we’re going to look back on one of those times.
Two months ago, I gave a—ahem—less-than-glowing review of Zooey Deschanel’s new sitcom New Girl.
At the time, it was fully deserved. The pilot was awful and left me wondering how the show ever made it on the air in the first place.
Luckily, Zooey and the rest of the cast and crew have done their damnedest to prove my review was too shortsighted.
The show has gotten better. In fact, it’s gotten much better.
It’s not “must-see” TV. It’s not “reschedule your evening” TV. No, it’s not great TV, by any means, but it is drastically more watchable and enjoyable than I’d originally envisioned.
The episodes tend to be a lot of hit or miss, but they seem to be hitting far more than they’re missing.
The biggest issue is that the writers want to keep pushing Zooey’s “adorkable” character down our throats and they’ve turned her into more of a caricature than a real, watchable person. Until they get her more grounded in realism, I’m going to have a hard time thinking this show is going to last.
It goes from being good and funny one minute to being unbearable the next and sadly it’s often because Zooey is simply playing up a fictionalized, audience-projection version of herself rather than creating a real character.
It makes for a very alienating lead and that tends to cancel out the otherwise solid performances from the rest of the supporting cast.
I think the show has some legs and could still be a legitimately good, long-running show, but it’s going to take some tweaking of everyone’s favorite manic, pixie-dream girl to make it happen.
Anybody else have any views on the show? Do you think it’s gotten better? Worse? Do you agree with me about Zooey’s character? Disagree? Etc.
Hit it up in the comments…
Blank Stares and Blank Pages 
I enjoy the show, but I have to agree with you on some points. They keep pushing Zooey’s character as a geeky dork when she’s… well… PRETTY.
It’s not really believable that none of the characters find her attractive (like they do her model friend.)
To me, that’s the most unbelievable aspect.
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By: MegansBeadedDesigns on November 30, 2011
at 6:41 pm
That’s a really good point. They seem to have largely glossed over the fact that Zooey is a smokin’ hottie.
I find her drastically more attractive than the “model”…so that’s yet another aspect of her “adorkable” character that requires some serious tweaking.
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By: Jeremiah Graves on November 30, 2011
at 6:56 pm
I think this show is cute, but it might just be because I love Zooey Deschanel!
@megansbeadeddesigns: They are trying to make one of the characters seem to have a crush on her, so I bet that will go somewhere because she really is pretty :]
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By: briannasw on November 30, 2011
at 6:53 pm
It definitely has its moments and I’m a lot more sold on it than I was originally, but I want to see some legit changes to “Jess” before I buy into the show as a potential long-term success. She’s too one-dimensional right now because she’s playing up the person everyone wants to think Zooey is in real life.
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By: Jeremiah Graves on November 30, 2011
at 6:57 pm
I have to agree. While I think the show has much improved, I wouldn’t change my schedule to watch it. The only thing that is keeping it as a watched show is the supporting shows of Glee, and Raising Hope. I think the show could be a winner, but the comedy seems forced.
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By: the elusive craigers on November 30, 2011
at 8:59 pm
I think the guys are all pretty good characters, they could use a little more depth, but they give a great crew for Zooey to play off of…they just aren’t giving her enough substance and that’s driving me crazy. The show does have a great time slot right now and that should give it some extra life to try and mix things up a bit…if the writers are willing to try and let the show grow a little.
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By: Jeremiah Graves on November 30, 2011
at 9:46 pm
Yeah, they kinda push her character down the viewer’s throat until she becomes annoying rather than endearing. I already know she’s endearing; they don’t need to point it out to me over and over again (thereby rendering her annoying).
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By: Grace on December 2, 2011
at 12:37 pm
well put, mlacky…
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By: Jeremiah Graves on December 2, 2011
at 1:26 pm
[…] I’ve gone back and forth regarding her show, but overall it has grown on […]
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By: Happy Birthday, Zooey Deschanel! « Blank Stares and Blank Pages on January 17, 2012
at 6:29 pm
[…] As you may recall, I wasn’t exactly a huge fan of New Girl when it first debuted, but in time the show runners made some tweaks and turned it into one of my favorites shows on television. […]
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By: Best. Episode. Ever. | Blank Stares and Blank Pages on May 15, 2013
at 10:00 pm