New Girl – The landlord gets down, gets funky

Wow. Just … wow.

I’m a little bit disturbed by what I saw last night on New Girl. While what went down on the show was indeed pretty funny stuff, the situations made for some rather uneasy television viewing.

And that’s the thing that gets me: There was nothing overly lewd or crude, but the fact there was so much … what? …  “suggestion” … in the threesome-that-didn’t-happen left me with my jaw wide.

First off, you needed to suspend disbelief completely when Remy the landlord came out of the restroom in nothing but his boxers. Why? Because the result of his having done so didn’t make sense. The reactions of Jess and Nick were not normal. Dude comes over for a dinner invitation and ends up standing in the middle of the room in his underwear would elicit a completely different response from anyone reading this than the one Jess and Nick offered. Regardless of the mixed signals being received by Remy, Nick should have been on his feet screaming at his landlord to get the hell out of the apartment, not further dialog with him leading to “that bedroom moment” shortly thereafter. That underwear scene was the one that wasn’t even funny, the one where I had to suspend disbelief.

Now, once the threesome got started, the comedy kicked back in. Remy’s fondling of Nick was rather comical … disturbingly so. Not too hard to imagine that. Or anything that came thereafter right up until Winston’s arrival on the scene.

The sideline story — Schmidt’s difficulty in reading his boss’s advances — was nothing more than Schmidt being Schmidt. The bottom line there was he had to have suffered the consequences. What other logical course could result? He’s got to be fired from his job … right … ???

Zany comedy I understand. But some of what took place wasn’t that zany. There’s usually been a real-life tale being told on New Girl resulting in a lesson or somesuch that makes sense in a weird sort of way. This time around, it just didn‘t make sense.

Notes:

• I had to have missed it: Why, exactly, was Winston relegated to cleaning up the closet … painting over the images inside it?
• Usually I really enjoy Nick. This time he seemed too, too frantic. Did you get that impression?
• Loved the frenetic dialogue when the gang was vacating the bed and more to make it appear only three tenants were occupying the apartment.

Quotes:

“Hi, guys! I’ve got a fun exercise: I’d like everybody to take a moment and think back to a time when they did something stupid, how they were treated and how they wish they were treated.” — Jess”
“What did you do Jess?” — Nick
“Open up!” — Landlord knocking loudly at the front door
“Did you talk to the landlord?” — Nick
“A little bit” — Jess

“Cece: Can I talk to you … as a … as a woman?” — Schmidt
“All right, Schmidt.” — Cece
“Okay … my boss and I … we’re running a pre-sex marathon right now and I fell like we’re stuck in Mile 25. I’m crampin’ Cece. My toenails are falling off, I’m peeing down my leg. It’s like I can see the finish line, but I just can’t get there.” — Schmidt
“I need to put one of these on right now …” — Cece, putting a seasickness bracelet on one wrist
“The problem is we don’t talk. I don’t know what she’s thinking. Should I make a move or not?” — Schmidt
“Stop asking permission and go get it. That’s what I would want. There is nothing less sexy than a dude asking if he can kiss you.” — Cece
“Nothing? I mean … what if I ate my own hair and pooped out a wig? What if I called my mom after sex to describe it to her? What if I had a croissant blog?” — Schmidt
“Two of these now.” — Cece dons seasickness bracelet on her other wrist

Clacked by Michael Noble
on Feb 08, 2012 @ 11:52 EST5EDT