The poster child for retro quirk, actress, and She & Him frontwoman, Zooey Deschanel, returned last Tuesday for a fourth season as the star of Fox’s “New Girl.” The show chronicles the daily life of Jess, a middle school educator and knitting enthusiast, in her L.A. loft with four male roommates. After last season, when viewers saw the relationship between Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess end as quickly as it began, the show had some explaining to do.
Season four of “New Girl” begins with an almost painfully forced emphasis on platonic camaraderie, presumably in an endeavor to distance itself from the mishap that was season three. The show awkwardly brushes season three under the rug, creating ungraceful discontinuity.
Season four opens at the denouement of wedding season. Following a lackluster season three, “New Girl” attempts a sexier approach in an overzealous attempt to redeem itself. In an episode that covers the span of one relatively uneventful day, Jess and her roommates, accompanied by Jess’s long-term model best friend, Cece (Hannah Simone), take on wedding season, each vowing not to leave the wedding reception alone.
Jess sets her sights on the best man, a fruitless and somewhat desperate pursuit that began at the bar and ended when Jess finds herself locked in the men’s restroom sitting alone in a bathroom stall. Meanwhile, Nick and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) are preoccupied with endeavors which test the boundaries of their comfort zones. While “New Girl” contributes its usual unconventional spin with Nick attempting to woo the bridesmaids in his shiny Goodwill tap shoes, overall, the endeavor is rather uninteresting.
Winston (Lamorne Morris), and Coach (Damon Wayans Jr) (who has recently returned from a hiatus after being not-so-subtly replaced by Winston’s character post-pilot episode), seem to be struggling to establish their respective character’s identities. Winston has begun to fade into into the background almost comically, receiving little attention from the show after the chronicles of his love-hate relationship with his feline companion Ferguson. An oft-forgotten point in the central action, he goes unnoticed for long periods of time, only to appear with the occasional witty quip or offering of off-kilter sage advice.
Winston's humor comes from how easily the viewer forget about him until he appears suddenly out of the background — the sad part is that writers seem to have forgotten about him as well, inserting him sporadically with little purpose or direction. Both Winston and Coach’s characters are disengaged and are often incongruous with the chemistry of the rest of the group. Though presented as among the show’s lead characters, the two fall behind.
The season premiere further attempts redemption with the appearance of guest star Jessica Biel, cast as Jess’s fiercely competitive frenemy, simultaneously admiring shoes and vying for the attention of the best man. This cliché, catty competition becomes a bit dull early on. Though Biel’s performance was relentlessly advertised as a part of the show's comeback mission, she contributes little more than her star status, and fails to deliver the anticipated spark.
Next to her character’s sleek-haired rival, Deschanel unashamedly continues to relish in the quirkiness of a character marketed as “adorkable.” Clad in her usual 1960s housewife-esque garb of full floral print skirts and candy colored heels, Jess maintains her wide eyed naivité in a sex-driven plot. Despite her blatant consciousness of her quirks, and awareness of a carefully constructed image, Deschanel’s character manages to salvage the show’s comedic value with endearing honesty.
Though “New Girl” has taken a slightly bawdier turn, this focus is not the revival the show needs.
Season four hints at the reprise of old storylines and the continuation of its uninspired post break-up lull. As the gang’s wedding conquest proves to be a bust, the episode concludes with the group gathering around the kitchen table trashing wedding invitations and drinking to the triumph of friendship over relationships in overly bromantic fashion as optimistic music plays.
Despite valiant efforts to liberate itself from last season’s plateau, “New Girl” continues to hover in familiar territory at the start of the new season. Hope remains, however, that the show’s initial wacky wit and playful banter may be revived as the season further separates itself from Jess' and Nick’s regrettable relationship.
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