New Girl - Season 5 Premiere - Review: "Big Mama P"
"You stupid bastard, of course I'll be your best man!" Hi everyone, and welcome back to New Girl. After skipping the regular season premiere time slot in September to allocate for Zooey Deschanel's pregnancy, New Girl is finally back to kick off the wedding preparations in season 5. The thing with these first few episodes is that they were filmed immediately following the Season 4 conclusion to provide Zooey Deschanel more time before her pregnancy became noticeable. Following her pregnancy announcement, the writers designed a plot line to focus on Jess for the first few episodes of season 5 before she is summoned to serve on a sequestered jury leaving the roommates to find a temporary replacement roommate in the form of Megan Fox. For now, let's dive into the episode that finds Jess flying in Cece's mom for the engagement party and Schmidt trying to gain Big Mama P's blessing before the wedding.
Big Mama P is not easy to please so Jess tries to put together a bollywood production to win over Cece's mom while Nick is in charge of picking up Big Mama P. With Jess incapacitated after falling down the stairs of the venue, the gang was responsible for filling her maid of honor duties. The problem lies with Cece not having told her mom that she was engaged and Nick picks up the wrong woman from the airport. Meanwhile, Winston is trying to live up to his new found fame as the carport hero, after lifting up a car after a kid was trapped underneath it. In classic New Girl fashion, the gang runs into their normal hi-jinx from a lack of communication, but honestly, it's just fun to have the gang back together. I loved the groomsmen sequence involving Rob Riggle, Cece's former lover Robbie, and a soft way to work Coach in with a letter. His presence was definitely missed with some of the debacles the group got into. It would have been great to see a Let's Be Cops moment between Coach and Nick if he had been there to go pick up fake Big Mama P at the airport.
"The Year of US!" Luckily, Jess arrives in fashion (on a scooter she borrowed from their neighbor who loves the "Carport Hero") to kick start Schmidt's confidence. Jess introduces Mahat Moves Ghandi with Schmidt in the lead to win of Cece's mom. I thought the dance number was both sincere and funny involving Nick and Winston, also, that choreography was pretty awesome. I can imagine the cast had a blast with the scene. The episode concluded with Cece's mom, Mrs. Parikh, not sounding off and giving Cece and Schmidt her blessing, obviously setting up the immediate conflict for their story arc during this first set of episodes, but it was great to see the gang stand up for Cece and Schmidt. Maybe Mrs. Parikh has her reasons for not wanting Schmidt to marry her daughter, but it came off quite cold of her as a mother. The final shot of Schmidt's holy trinity for the wedding really hit home that the most important people in your life are really all you need. The gang has each other's back no matter how bizarre the scenarios they get into seem to be. Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comment section below and welcome back to New Girl!
