Three in a row? My cautious optimism is becoming less cautious by the episode. While it’s still a touch too early to safely declare New Girl back, I think we can safely say that it’s in the realm of possibility. Let’s jump right in and talk about “Birthday.”
As the title suggests, this episode centered around Jess’s birthday. I have to admit, I was shocked that Nick realized he should make their first birthday as a couple special and went through all the hoops of planning her a surprise party. What doesn’t surprise me is that he didn’t think about the rest of the day leading up to the party. We can’t expect perfection from Nick, but he definitely gets an A for effort.
Alas, Nick really should have thought about it, because Jess is Jess after all and has high expectations for people under normal circumstances. Make it her birthday and her expectations go through the roof. So, in order to prevent her from disappointment, she has developed a pattern of spending the day alone at the movies. This year, however, she says she’s going to be a cool girlfriend that goes with the flow of whatever Nick did or didn’t plan.
But this is Jess we’re talking about. After Nick’s plans to prolong breakfast and some morning delight don’t work out like he hoped and a trip to the drugstore (for a free diabetes test), Jess is starting to feel the disappointment. That is until they happen to come across a party set up in the park and Jess thinks it’s for her. Nick doesn’t have time to tell her the truth before she’s diving into the cupcakes and the real party shows back up. An increasingly disappointed Jess runs off to be alone.
While Nick is busy distracting Jess, Winston, Coach, and Schmidt have their own assignments. Winston accidentally picked up the wrong cake (apparently we’ll all see Boomer in Hell), so Nick tasks Coach with helping to fix the situation. This led to what was probably my favorite part of the episode. The two decide to have a bake off to see who makes the better cake. Given the competitive nature of these two it’s no surprise that it immediately goes to Food Network competition extremes. Ultimately, their cakes merge in the oven, and the two actually end up bonding over said cake. I loved this part because we got crazy Winston antics, some more insight into Coach and Winston’s competitive past, and we have Coach fitting into the flow of the loft more with each episode.
Schmidt’s assignment (that he ended up giving himself – flash drives are pretty easy to keep track of) was to keep an eye on CeCe during her first Nick-less shift at the bar. She really is a HORRIBLE bartender, and their other coworker, Mike, was just waiting for her to screw up so he could get her fired. But Schmidt walked her through a couple drinks and tried to help her tap a keg, which was working until CeCe sprayed beer all over Mike. Schmidt talked her up and got her to have some faith in herself, and focus on all the things that she can do and can do well. I liked this storyline as well. We are really starting to see CeCe and Schmidt move into a realm where they’re friends, something that haven’t truly been up to this point. And we are again getting some more characterization for CeCe.
Side Notes:
--- "Behind!" Yup, definitely my favorite part of the episode.
--- I don't know how Coach and Winston pulled off distracting Jess enough to hide all those presents and decorations. AND they got her to buy that story about the bakery explosion. An upset Jess is a completely non-observant one.
--- Yeah, Nick managing to pull all that off isn't super high on the realistic scale (how did he even beat Jess there) but that was sickeningly sweet and men the world over hate Nick Miller now.
All in all, this was another strong offering. If New Girl can keep this up, I will definitely entrench myself firmly in the “It’s Back!” camp. We sure them further addressing the issues that plagued the first half of the season, and putting out episodes that highlight the entire ensemble. It’s a very huge step in the right direction and I sincerely hope they can keep this momentum going. Hit the comments and let me know what you thought of the episode and if you think that New Girl is headed in the right direction.
Just a reminder that we have a brand new episode Sunday after the Super Bowl (WITH PRINCE!!!!!!) and then ANOTHER new episode on Tuesday. I’m still not 100% sure if I’ll do two separate reviews this week or one large one so just keep your eyes peeled!
