New Girl - Review - "Par 5"
Last night's episode of New Girl was co-written by none other than Winston Bishop himself, Lamorne Morris. "Par 5" finds Jess tagging along with Fawn Moscato at a networking event. Jess tries to impress a powerful figure named "Youtz" so she'll increase the schools budget/computer supply. Schmidt tries to appease Fawn's demands and ends up looking like a Ken doll. Meanwhile, Coach and Nick help Winston with his lady problems due to his inability to talk like a normal human being around women that he finds attractive. The only problem with Casey, the girl Winston talks to, is that she is attending a protest against the LAPD.
"Every time Fawn looks at me she sees Fiefel Mousekawitz." I wanted more from this scene, specifically from Cece to admit that she despises Fawn and hates seeing Schmidt bend to her will. It's a shame that what could have been a tender moment for them was broken up by the fact that Schmidt bought the bronzer with glitter in it, making him a sparkly mess right before he had to meet Fawn at the golf outing. At the golfing event, Fawn tried to give Jess some pointers in how to network. I actually lost it during the whole "that's not the only thing that emanates" when Fawn declared that going commando gives her an edge. Given the right environment and right level of comedy, Zooey Deschanel comes across as a lovable fool or quite frankly, adorkable, and I enjoyed the varying levels of comedy throughout the episode.
"You lost your ability to talk race with me during the OJ trial. Why don't they just call it a Bronco?" The long set-up for Winston came when he blubbered out that he was a stripper, not a cop, to try and keep the attention of Casey. Nick tries to help Winston, but he admits that the best course of action is to just tell Casey the truth. Meanwhile, Cece and Schmidt run into a few problems with covering up the glitter with white make-up effectively turning Schmidt into a pale "dead body that the police pull from a lake." I was happy to see the Cece finally tell Schmidt how she felt. The first scene with them felt like it might not address the issue until next week's episode, but I was happy to see a character make a decision that we as the audience have been wanting for a few weeks now. Cece didn't come right out and say she wanted Schmidt, but it was a step in the right direction with her opinion on Fawn and how Schmidt must confront her about her treatment of the relationship.
However, the problem with that build-up lies in the ending. Jess was promised the computer by 2018 and Cece may have had the strongest arc, but Schmidt flaked on his decision to tell Fawn how he really felt after she happened to flash the entire golfing event (due to her commando edge). It would have been the perfect time, but they bailed to set it up for the final run of the season. The final scene with Winston and Casey really did put a smile on my face. It was one of those too good to be true television moments where ironic romance is blossoming like in a late 90's romantic comedy. Casey accepted Winston for lying, but asked him to strip off the police uniform in front of her colleagues as payback. Overall, a solid episode and one of the better episodes that kept me happy throughout. New Girl is always at it's best when it plays between the line of comedy and romantic drama. Last night's episode was a perfect example of that, in addition to some solid writing and jokes from the show's own Lamorne Morris. Tune in next week to an all-new New Girl.
