Meanwhile, Schmidt is feeling lonely – he’s only across the hall from the guys and at least his loft is decorated now, but he’s suffering from the living-alone blues. His few attempts at picking up women in the bar catch Cece’s attention, and when she points at that as they’re talking, he decides to take matters into his own hands (so to speak). He invites Coach and Winnie around to check out his freshly swinging pad – with the promise of vouchers for free subs – and gives them both keys to use as they wish. The moment Schmidt hands over those two keys, we’re heading straight to classic farce territory. Of course, all three of them will each end up with a woman in the apartment at the same time, and of course they’ll have to somehow keep the women from seeing each other in case they think they’ve wandered into some weird group sex set-up.
It was great to see Bertie again, as I think she and Winston work really well together. They have a nice, weird chemistry going on. Something is slightly odd there but in a way that isn’t creepy at all, they’re just free with each other, which is nice. Winston probably summed it up perfectly when he said they were playing “bad cop, bad cop,”
I’m surprised it’s taken this long for the show to finally realize that two apartments means bigger scale for adventures and more story possibilities, and it’s nice for Schmidt to finally have some semblance of his mojo back. It’s building every episode, no doubt just in time for an emotional reunion with Cece towards the back end of this season.
Overall, this was a really nicely balanced episode this week. Absolutely no mention of Prince, which was great, and a nice return to the simple comedy that the show has gotten so adept at. It’s also nice to see a bit of good old fashioned farce now and again, with half-dressed people slipping and sliding out of rooms, trying to hide from each other. It may be a sitcom cliche, but they’re cliches for a reason – they’re tried and tested. Of course, my love of this episode might be influenced by the dead-in-the-water turd that was last week’s episode, and that any episode would seem like a classic after that. It’s a possibility, but I think it’s unlikely – this is a season highlight, definitely. If it can still pull out an absolute cracker like this one, then maybe New Girl hasn’t jumped the shark after all.
Random Robservations
- Never the biggest fan of Adam Brody but he was brilliant here as Berkley. Just the right mix of desperation and charm.
- All of Schmidt’s sex position euphemisms were great. All of them.
- “I’m about to get some squish” should be the word everybody uses for sex.
- Schmidt’s back!
See you next week for more New Girl!
