Know Your Show: New Girl #AtoZChallenge

This post is part of my #A2ZChallenge for April 2016 where my theme is TV Sitcoms.

For the letter N, I choose New Girl.

Premise:

A modern take on love, friendship and relationships, this offbeat comedy revolves around a naive young school teacher and the three men she shares an apartment with.

Why you will love it:

1) Creator Elizabeth Meriwether was also the mind behind the surprise 2011 hit movie No Strings Attached. What should have been a regular mindless sex comedy instead turned into an adorable love story with many cute moments that made you go Wow. With New Girl, she once more belies/subverts expectations.

2) A show that surprises by not just sticking to the comedy genre but also often showing a big heart. Many episodes have an almost Scrubs like quality, building up fires and then dousing it while driving home a subtle message.

3) The idea of adding a new character into a set scenario and allowing mayhem to ensue is tried and tested. And yet New Girl found a way to be inventive about it by subverting the expected scenes. 

4) Their views and their solutions to problems are flawed but their heart is always in the right place. These are genuinely nice and realistic people trying to make it in life while still retaining their inner goodness.

5) Characters seemed like stereotypes and yet over 5 seasons, I've realized that they are anything but that.- 

- Jess is sweet, innocent, adorable and incredibly clumsy. While initially the show highlighted her quirky nature, they quickly attained the right balance between being nutty and being a genuinely kind empathic person.

- Nick is the guy who avoids any form of responsibility. Using a psuedo-rage to ironically avoid confrontation often, he is actually one of the most genuine people around.

- Schmidt is a character I don't recall ever seeing in Tv sitcoms - the pseudo-douchebag. A good guy at heart who deliberately pretends to be a stuck-up know-it-all, because an entire childhood of body shaming has convinced him that being superior is the key to success.

-Winston started off as the random black guy but has now emerged as the eccentric do-gooder, trying to win in love and a career in law, often with a layer of pseudo-bravado.

- Cece as Jess's childhood friend is a beautiful part-time Indian model and a wonderful foil to the group's madness, exasperated by them and still loving them to bits.

6) Acting is top notch. You cannot really imagine anyone but Zooey Deschanel playing the role of this airy, sweet but often scarily silly girl. Nick's pseudo brashness and hilariously deliberate loud rants are a perfect balance to this while Max Greenfield as Schmidt is outstanding in this role of a guy who tries to maintain high standards even as his inner child yearns to break free.

With Taylor Swift, one of the guest stars.

7) From the title onwards, everything seemed to point towards this show revolving around the lead female character. But the show has always won points by not sticking to the basic stereotype at every level. There is no supporting cast here and all 5 hold their own.

8) The chemistry between these 5 is amazing. The actors frequently ad-lib their lines as they rant in their own unique ways. As the producers have confirmed, at least 20% of the show ends up being dialogues by the actors going off script and retained by the editors because the actors did it better than the script. 

9) Good story telling. The usual cliches - falling in love with the roommate, difference in personalities clashing - are dealt with in a refreshing way while still keeping you smiling by their individual antics. 

10) My personal opinion: This is not a show that will win you over in a single episode. But over time, you will find yourself looking forward to meeting these 5 characters and catching up on what new shehanigans they have been up to. I know I always do.  

If aliens were to judge us based solely upon this show:

They would believe that we are weird but good creatures. If only...

Trivia:

• The title song "Hey Girl" is sung by the lead actress, Zooey Deschanel herself.
• In case you did not catch it, Zooey's elder sister is a pretty famous TV actress too. Emily Deschanel plays the lead actress on the show Bones.

To see all the shows  I have talked about till date, please CLICK HERE.