There is a fairly predictable pattern in the way fans respond to television shows - and, particularly, television comedies. In Season 1, the show gains a core fanbase as it develops a unique tone and an interesting world of characters. Then in the second season, the show firmly finds its groove, begins experimenting with its characters, and subsequently becomes The Hottest Thing On Television. It's the show that you can't avoid, the show that's all over your Twitter feed the morning after it airs, the show that becomes the show you have to be watching otherwise you're missing out on the FUTURE OF TELEVISION occurring right before your very eyes. But then after the honeymoon period of the first two years comes the third season. By this point, the show has found a formula that works for it. It has a solid fanbase that seems to be behind it no matter what it does. But it also has a bunch of people that feel strongly about it and feel strongly about what they know they want the show to be. It's around this time that TV shows begin to fall out of flavor with a lot of people, as the show that the show wants to be and the show that they want it to be often turn out to be two different things. Even the best and most acclaimed shows can't please everyone all of the time. So it's often around this point that there's a bit of a divide between the show and much of its fanbase. If the first two seasons are the honeymoon period of the relationship, than Season 3 is that time where reality sets in and you question what, exactly, is coming next.
So it's somewhat appropriate that many of the characters themselves were going through a period in their own lives that share many of these qualities. For all of its faults, New Girl Season 3 was a season that was interested in tearing apart these characters and analyzing if what they had was what they really wanted. This was most evident with Nick and Jess, who started the season deciding to throw it all away and get together on a whim and ended it as a couple that decided to end it all on a whim, realizing that maybe they weren't meant for each other after all. This was the strongest thread of the season, and although I felt their break-up was somewhat sudden, the show covered all stages of the relationship quite well. From the period where Nick and Jess had to learn to adjust to each other, to their own honeymoon period, to their falling out, Nick and Jess were continuously the best thing about New Girl this season.
Where the show stumbled was...everywhere else. After having a firm grasp on Schmidt in the first two seasons, New Girl sort of lost track of the character this year, attempting to send him on a redemption arc after simultaneously losing both CeCe and Elizabeth but sort of losing interest in it halfway through. Max Greenfield can still play the hell out of the character, but the show used to have a pretty deep understanding of him, and it feels like much of that has been lost. It's also something that hasn't quite been gained with the other loft members. While the addition of Coach has been a good decision in terms of comedy (Jess watching Coach watch Winston yawn is one of my all-time favorite gags the show has ever done), the show hasn't really bothered to figure out just exactly who Coach is yet, outside of "the athletic guy who talks loud and shares some qualities with Brad from Happy Endings). And of course, this also trickled down into Winston and CeCe. Winston turned into one of the shows' funniest comic weapons this year, but it was yet another year where the actual story of the character got sidetracked, as he wound up in a meandering storyline about joining the police academy. New Girl has one of the best comic ensembles on television, but it's a shame that it couldn't seem to get a dramatic handle on any of them this year other than its main couple.
So was New Girl Season 3 a case of third season backlash, or a genuine decline? I would probably say a little bit of both, although I maintain that New Girl is still one of TV's most enjoyable shows, even if it's not quite the event it was in its second season. The core of the show is still genuinely good, and I appreciate the way the show tries to dig further underneath the surface than most comedies of its type. But if the show wants to remain fresh in its fourth season (a challenge for any comedy series), it's going to need to do a great deal of fleshing out its ensemble, otherwise it's possible to see the show running out of gas. If it can figure out that while still keeping Nick and Jess one of the more interesting dynamics on television, than New Girl can do what all good comedies do as they approach their middle age and reach a nice, cozy point where the show levels off and just focuses on making good, consistent television. Hopefully it can manage that, because there's still a lot left to like in this show.
Final Grade: B
No comments:
Post a Comment