Insofar as it can be said that New Girl has an overarching plot, it would probably have to be this: three friends thrust by circumstance into the thrall of a chaotic stranger and the way in which she forces them all to grow up. Thus, an episode like this is something of a sacrifice to the plot gods, leaving out some of the zinging fun of other episodes in order to progress us to a point of evolution during the later half of the season. That said, this half-hour still had a lot to like, and so let us begin.
There are certain markers of adulthood of which we are in complete control. For instance, graduating from college, getting your first "real job," getting married, buying a house. These are milestones we are totally in control of and by which we can chart our growth and maturation. Other aspects of growing into adulthood are less under our control, like starting a family. New Girl is a show that is consistently obsessed with following its cast as they struggle to either achieve or put off the milestones of adulthood that they can control. However, in this episode, we see the reins wrested from the hands of our characters, leading to all manner of crisis and madness.
Last week I mused that Treme had far too many plot points too far from any kind of resolution for them to be wrapped up in this single episode. I worried that this episode would skip out on any kind of closure and instead just deliver another stellar episode that advances a plot that never could have delivered any conceivable conclusion. We are following lives, after all. What is the conclusion of a life? It's the main problem with following a loving a show as all-encompassing as Treme, but also one of it's chief pleasures. Luckily, this season finale does provide us with some very real forms of resolution, if not complete closure, while also energizing us for the final season of the show, which will be coming next year.
Holidays always give shows an opportunity to gather around big guest stars to act as family for the regular cast. Thus, it was a surprise last year when we got a Thanksgiving episode of New Girl completely lacking in any familial drama (though it did introduce Justin Long in a recurring role as Jess's boyfriend). The show makes up for it this year with three guest stars of varying levels of fame, and also manages to spin a yarn that serves as further exculpatory evidence for Zooey Deschanel's Jess. Yes, she's a bit of a weirdo and a stereotype, but look at her parents, and the sources of solace she searched for in the wake of their deteriorating marriage.
We are one episode away from the end of this season of Treme, and while some story lines find themselves snapping, their tension released in one way or another, certain other lines have only wound more tightly, waiting for the final turn to come in next week's episode. We have spent a long time coming here and endured alongside these characters through their fair share of triumphs and tribulations, and seeing the direction some of them are on course to travel is heartbreaking.
Physical comedy is divided by a fine line between being truly funny and just being dumb. Certain comedians, like Chevy Chase or Dick van Dyke, could tell the difference, and execute pratfalls or other moments of physical humor with class, telling us something about their character as they fell. The challenge of tonight’s episode of New Girl was to create a series of situation that relied on physical payoffs and build ups while still keeping the reins on those character-centered moments.
Life doesn't move at the same pace for any one person anymore than the facts of the world align to create the same impression of what is important, what has happened, or what is coming. One of the things that Treme does better than most television shows is recognize this fact, never making the mistake of bringing everyone to a similar point of conclusion at the same time, and never creating a single, uniform villain for the show to rail against. This week we saw three objectives come to fruition, two adventures just begin, and two agencies of possible malice cast as unlikely heroes. This is complexity and veracity, folks. This is the Treme.
Carnival time in New Orleans has a popular conception of being a week or so of hard partying, letting your troubles go, and generally excusing yourself from average social norms, walking the line between sin and vice. On this episode of Treme, however, Carnival time turns into a kind of crucible, applying heat and pressure to situations that have been building over whole seasons in order to bring us to a brand new turning point. At the same time, it sets up a number of plot lines that will no doubt carry us toward the season finale and beyond.
Halloween offers us a chance to put on a costume that can make us more like what we may want to be. We can let out our “sexy” side, we can appeal to our own inner clown, or we can bolster our self-image of power. Thus, tackling the stripping away of surface artifice and the way we interact with the realities of the people around us is an interesting tact for New Girl to take. It’s more subversive than you would expect, especially in an episode as loaded with comedy as this one.
Prologue: It's a weird kind of poetic irony that my review for this week's episode of Treme was postponed because of a hurricane. Even though we on the East Coast had all manner of warning coming at us, somehow I knew it could never be as bad as Katrina was for the Gulf, and this colored my eyes action. Still, the few vague inconveniences that we have suffered here in Washington, DC have opened my eyes to the true effort that goes into preparing for, enduring, and recovering from a storm, even if it isn't as bad as Katrina. Sure, I filled my car with gas, stocked up on food, and watched the Weather Channel with religious fervency beforehand and have had to deal with blackouts, downed trees and minor flooding afterward. But in the context of the damage we've seen on Treme this is all just a drop in the bucket.
