Episode 1262: Basically, I've Done A Complete 180 Where New Girl Is Concerned

New Girl was one of those shows that I used to slag off without ever having watched an episode of it. Then I caved and hated myself for doing so. As the season's gone on though, the writers have clearly wised up and realised that the pilot's premise was hardly going to sustain the whole season, and they've toned down Zooey Deschanel's character's quirkiness. The show's also evolved into more of an ensemble comedy, and I think this week's episode really brought that out. Although the characters largely are still being defined by their individual character quirks, which works better for some of them than others, I think that's permissible for a freshman comedy series. On the other hand, see the mid-season finale of Jane By Design for a masterclass in how not to do character development. I know the show probably got its eight-episode back order too late for that to factor into the writing of the most recent episodes, but still, there were way too many twists, telegraphed and otherwise, for one episode. Oh well, at least I got my answer about how the show plans to handle its excessive and slightly creepy (because one of the characters is a grown man hitting on a high school girl) love square.