New Girl Review: “Sister” (Season 3, Episode 16)

You’ll remember on the last page how I mentioned that the Schmidt plot somehow wasn’t the emotional center of the episode. Well, given that it’s called “Sister,” unless the Hebrew teacher was actually Schmidt’s sister (unlikely), it’s actually the Jess story. We’ve never heard from Abbie Day before, but when Jess has to pick her up from prison after being arrested in a hotel room in San Diego, she makes quite an impact.

Linda Cardellini was great throughout as what was effectively the anti-Jess, being both a colossal fuck-up and somehow condescending towards Jess’ comparatively together life. Nick misconstrues Jess not wanting him to meet Abbie as her feeling embarrassed of him, which isn’t true, but does make for a pretty nice moment at the end when she’s comforting him, and he meets her anyway. It turns out that she’s not so bad really (of course) and that she’s going to be hanging round for a little while, “six months absolute tops.” I guess they’re waiting to see how her character goes over.

I like episodes involving Jess’ family because it really grounds the character. It’s easy to see her as a one-dimensional cipher or a pretty avatar, not really a person under the bangs and eyelashes, but the scenes when she’s alone with her sister are so spot on and well-observed that one of the writing staff must be in a comparable situation. Little details like their mom’s denim backpack, and the photo of her at her graduation from sign language college; that’s stuff you can’t make up, unless you’re a genius. It wasn’t funny, but when dialogue and performances are that good, it doesn’t need to be laugh-a-minute. That’s what Schmidt’s for. That’s why he’s answering his phone during Jon Lovitz’s punchlines.

To be honest, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from “Prince” (so to speak) and I approached this episode, like last week’s, with caution. After the one-two punch of quality that these last two episodes have been, I feel reasonably confident that the show hasn’t jumped the shark; in fact, it would seem to have plenty more tricks up its sleeve. I suppose one bad episode is worth it for the sheer signal boost that post-Superbowl slot would have provided. I’d be amazed if audience figures weren’t sky-high right now. New Girl, I forgive you.

Random Robservations

• Jon Lovitz, you crack me up – “Answering the phone during a punchline? I hate your generation.”
• For what it’s worth, I think Winston and Bertie are made for each other, and I think their story is possibly more beautiful than even Nick and Jess’.
• Cece and Coach are too hot even for each other apparently. Like trying to force the same polarity of two separate magnets together – they’re equal, but they repel each other.
• Winston gets a lot of mileage out of his pronunciation of “tang.”
• Schmidt’s “What is that, some common barber’s comb?” slayed me. Just slayed me.

See you next week!