New Girl

About the series

Contains story spoilers.

New Girl begins with Jess Day's life abruptly losing its familiar shape: after a breakup with Spencer, she looks for a place to live and moves into a Los Angeles loft with Nick Miller, Schmidt and Coach. They have their own habits and histories, but no shared manual for living with her. In “Kryptonite,” the next episode, Jess breaks the television and has to retrieve belongings Spencer kept after their breakup. Nick urges her to stop treating the errand as a reason to keep accommodating her ex, and the roommates back her when she returns, gets her things and tells Spencer off.

The early reshuffling is part of that same adjustment. Coach leaves the apartment, and Winston Bishop, Nick's childhood friend and former roommate, takes his place in the loft. “Kryptonite” turns a broken television and a stalled breakup into the group's first shared test: Nick's advice matters, but Jess still has to go back herself, and the others offer backup rather than a solution on her behalf. At the same time, Schmidt claims the larger bedroom and Winston gets the smaller one, a mundane negotiation that sketches the comic, territorial side of their friendship. Their home works because the characters keep colliding over space, pride and care.

“Cece Crashes” makes Jess's long friendship with Cecilia Parekh part of the loft's everyday mix. After Cece ends a brief relationship with a European DJ who has taken over her apartment, Jess brings her home, worrying about the men and then discovering that the more personal complication is Nick. Cece reads his attention to Jess as romantic interest, including how he turns toward her; Jess panics at the possibility and tries to keep Cece from asking him directly. Nick searches for Jess when she bolts, giving Cece more reason to suspect there is something between them. Meanwhile, Schmidt tries to impress Cece through a string of awkward maneuvers and winds up on the roof, where he is frightened by a cat. When he asks to share his bed simply because he is tired and sunburned, Cece stays and falls asleep holding his hand. The episode sets up parallel, uneven attractions without pretending the characters have already sorted them out.

The loft's first Thanksgiving is a chain reaction caused by Jess's desire to make a good impression on Paul Genzlinger, the music teacher she likes. She invites him before she has a workable meal plan, and Schmidt takes charge of cooking with a concern for cleanliness that irritates Cece. The attempt to prepare a turkey includes putting it in the dryer. Paul resembles Jess enough for Nick to comment on their similarities, while Paul wonders whether there is something between Nick and Jess. The gathering becomes much worse when a dead neighbour is discovered. That shock does not end Paul's interest: he returns with turkey sandwiches for the group and his violin. Nick eventually saves him a place in the Black Friday queue. Jess's disastrous invitation has introduced somebody who wants to spend more time with her, even after seeing the household at its most chaotic.

In “The Story of the 50,” Schmidt's birthday party draws on an old insecurity rather than a simple wish to celebrate. A college humiliation involving Benjamin and Schmidt's weight still shapes how he expects other people to see him, while Jess tries to organize a party that will make his twenty-ninth birthday feel special. Jess raids the school contraband drawer for weed and is caught by the principal, who wants an invitation. Another mistake brings a male stripper to the party, so Jess has him sing ballads instead. Nick, meanwhile, keeps his relationship with Julie out of view until she sees him drunk and performing the same careless, boisterous version of himself he uses with the guys. When Benjamin hits on Jess, Schmidt defends her; Julie then knocks Benjamin out. Schmidt tries to kiss Jess and pays into the loft's douchebag jar. The episode ties his need for approval to a specific party disaster, while making the roommates' private romantic choices visible to one another.

“Wedding” gives Nick another reason to avoid saying plainly what he wants. Worried that he will run into his former girlfriend Caroline at a wedding, he asks Jess to pose as his date. When Caroline flirts with him, Jess steps into the pretend-girlfriend role; in the process she discovers that Caroline has a boyfriend and came alone. The information does not make Nick's nerves disappear: he drinks too much and hides in a photo booth. Schmidt's attempt to pursue Brooke creates a separate embarrassment for Jess, and Winston is the one who comforts her afterward. The episode uses the wedding's public rituals to put the roommates into roles they have chosen for each other, then lets those roles become uncomfortable. Nick can recruit Jess as cover, but he cannot control how the encounter feels, and the others remain close enough to see the gap between the act and his reaction.

“Naked” turns the group's casual bluntness into a problem with a real social consequence. Nick is preparing for a date with Amanda when comments from Jess and Schmidt deepen his self-consciousness about his body. Jess then walks in as he dances naked, laughs at him and makes it harder for him to recover his confidence before the date. Her own embarrassment becomes the counterpoint: she struggles to say “penis,” tries to get past that inhibition and decides to undress herself. When Nick brings Amanda back to the loft, he finds Jess exposed. Their immediate awkwardness gives way to reconciliation, and Jess finally says the word she had been avoiding. Away from the loft, Winston goes for an office interview but recognizes that he misses playing professional basketball. These linked plots keep the series' scale intimate: discomfort affects a date, a friendship or a possible next step, then has to be handled in front of the people sharing the apartment.