New Girl Review: “Birthday” (Season 3, Episode 13)

We only find out Nick’s plan at the end of the episode, when it all comes together. Knowing that Jess always goes to the cinema by herself on her birthday, Nick organizes for the screening she’s in to show a special recorded message, created by Nick, and featuring a loving birthday message recorded by the gang and a few close friends and relatives. Schmidt’s job was to keep the video message safe on a flash drive. That was his whole job, and he did incredibly well. It’s a bit of a shame that he wasn’t given a little more responsibility – in charge of the cake, for instance – but that job went to Winston and Coach. To be precise, the job of organizing the cake went to Winston, but he got it completely wrong – picking up a cake in the shape of a gun inscribed with “See You In Hell, Boomer,” which would suggest that Boomer’s party received what was supposed to be Jess’ cake – so Coach, who was in charge of party decorations, gets involved and they decide to have a bake-off.

Now, as a British person, I love a good bake-off. One of the biggest TV shows in the United Kingdom is The Great British Bake-Off, which features round after round of cake-based gladiatoralism. Just the words “bake-off” is enough to send most British people’s hearts aflutter, so Winston and Coach’s cake competition really excited me, a lot. I loved it. I loved the set-up, and I loved the comfort with which they perform with each other. Damon Wayans Jr. and Lamorne Morris have great chemistry together, and their relationship is transcending traditional coach/player boundaries and becoming something more interesting. They’re becoming equals. The pay-off of the story dovetailed excellently into the episode finale, and worked perfectly.

Before we get to that, however, let’s rewind a little. My favourite scene this episode, besides the tear-jerker of an ending, was Jess’ return to the apartment after her disappointment in the park. Coach and Winston were in the middle of baking and, seeing Jess enter, attempted to both make her feel better and hide the evidence of their baking. I think it was the putting aside of their petty differences that made the scene so great, and that it provided a perfect leg-up for the ending was great, too.

Cece didn’t have much to do really this week. Her story, also involving Schmidt, was that she’s being bullied by a new, mean barman. Resentful that she swapped with Nick so that he could get Saturday off (to organise the party) and also at how terrible a bartender she still is, to say that they don’t get on is an understatement. I don’t know if it was a good or bad thing that I really hated that guy, but I just found him incredibly irritating. It might have been a great performance that made me feel so strongly about that, or great writing, but I really took against him. Maybe I’m becoming defensive of Cece, who seems to be going through an existential meltdown. She’s not happy at the bar, let’s put it that way.

“Birthday” was also one of those rare New Girl episodes that really relies on the performances of minor characters. I’m a big fan of Angela Kinsey’s work in anything – most famously as Angela in The Office – but she really brings a perky spikiness that I think the show sometimes lacks. Everyone is so nice most of the time, besides Schmidt’s douchiness, that the show needs someone who can be spiky. Angela Kinsey can really pull that off, and she’s great as Rose. Other worthwhile contributions included Dr Alan Foster (Boss/Doctor of Something), Outside Dave (Neighbourhood Colour), and Jess’s class (Weirdly OK With A Strange Man Filming Them). This was a sweet, simple episode that wasn’t afraid to be openly sentimental and wear its open heart on a knitted sleeve. I loved it, and it’s probably one of this season’s best so far.

Random Robservations:

• Rose had the best name subheading in Nick’s little film – (Colleague/Loose Cannon).
• What was Jeremy’s cocaine thing?
• Second place goes to Bearclaw – (Sent This To Me Unsolicited).
• Zooey Deschanel gives a very convincing performance when she cries. It’s a real skill she has.
• I miss Bearclaw.
• Wasn’t it great to see Jess’ parents, Bob and Joan? It’d be a real shame if we didn’t get a fat slice of Jamie Lee Curtis/Rob Reiner action this season, they’re great together.

See you next week for more New Girl!