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New Girl

New Girl is an American television sitcom created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for Fox that aired from September 20, 2011, to May 15, 2018. The series revolves around a quirky teacher, Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel), after she moves into a Los Angeles loft with three men, Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.). Former roommate Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris) and Jess's best friend Cece Parekh (Hannah Simone) later join the characters. The show combines comedy and drama elements as the characters, who are in their late 20s and early 30s, deal with relationship issues and career choices. New Girl is a joint production between Elizabeth Meriwether Pictures and 20th Century Fox Television and is syndicated by 20th Television.

For other uses, see New Girl (disambiguation).

New Girl

New Girl Jess

Sitcom

Elizabeth Meriwether

  • "Hey Girl" by Zooey Deschanel (seasons 1–3)
  • "Hey Girl" (instrumental) (seasons 4–7)

Ludwig Göransson

United States

English

7

146 (list of episodes)

  • Zooey Deschanel
  • Erin O'Malley
  • Pavun Shetty
  • Luvh Rakhe
  • Dana Fox
  • David Iserson
  • Ryan Koh
  • Megan Mascena Gaspar
  • Rachel Axler
  • Alex Cuthbertson
  • Matt Fusfeld
  • Kim Rosenstock
  • Bari Halle (pilot)
  • Josh Malmuth
  • Ryan Janata
  • Ryan Guellow

Film; Single-camera

21–24 minutes

Fox

September 20, 2011 (2011-09-20) –
May 15, 2018 (2018-05-15)

Produced in Los Angeles as a single-camera comedy, New Girl is an ensemble show aimed at a general audience. New Girl received acclaim from critics and was named one of the best new comedies of the 2011 fall season. The pilot episode drew 10.28 million U.S. viewers and a 4.8 adults 18–49 demo rating, making it the highest-rated fall debut for a Fox scripted show since 2001. Particular praise has been given to the performances of Deschanel, Greenfield, Simone, Johnson and Morris. On May 14, 2017, Fox renewed the series for a seventh and final season consisting of eight episodes, which premiered on April 10, 2018.[1][2][3] The show has garnered increased mainstream viewership following its inclusion on Netflix, becoming one of the most popular shows on the platform.[4][5][6] The series finale aired on May 15, 2018.

as Jessica "Jess" Day: a bubbly, offbeat teacher in her early thirties who is originally from Portland, Oregon. In the premiere episode, she moves into the guys' apartment where Nick, Schmidt, and Coach help her move on from a painful break-up with her boyfriend, Spencer. She later dates Nick on-and-off eventually becoming engaged in the final season.

Zooey Deschanel

as Nick Miller: Jess' roommate who works as a bartender at a nearby bar. At the start of the series, he struggles with a break-up with his long-term girlfriend Caroline. He and Jess have an on-and-off relationship but ultimately end up together.

Jake Johnson

as Schmidt: Jess' roommate, a seemingly confident ladies' man. He is a successful marketing associate in a female-dominated office. He dates Cece in the earlier seasons but this ends after he cheats on her. However, they later marry and have a child, Ruth.

Max Greenfield

as Winston Bishop: a former basketball player and Nick's childhood friend from Chicago. Returns to the loft after playing for the Latvian Basketball League, in the second episode. He later becomes a cop and meets his wife on the force. He is very close to his cat and sometimes is mocked for this.

Lamorne Morris

as Cece: a fashion model and Jess' best friend since childhood. In spite of their differences, Cece is a very loyal and protective friend to Jess. Initially skeptical of Jess' new roommates, Cece becomes interested in Schmidt and integrates herself more and more socially with the others as time progresses.

Hannah Simone

as Coach (pilot, season 4; special guest seasons 3 & 5–7): a cocky and driven former athlete who works as a personal trainer. He appears briefly in the "Pilot" episode as a roommate but leaves in the second episode. After a break-up with his girlfriend, Coach returns to the loft two years later and reintegrates himself back into the lives of his former roommates, becoming a coach at the middle school Jess teaches at.

Damon Wayans Jr.

as Reagan Lucas (starring season 5; recurring season 6): is an attractive, no-nonsense bisexual pharmaceutical sales rep, first appearing in season 5 when she comes to town on business and rents out Jess' room while the latter is sequestered on jury duty (during Zooey Deschanel's parental leave). She knows Cece from a previous gig they did together.

Megan Fox

Danielle and Rhiannon Rockoff as (season 7): Schmidt and Cece's three-year-old daughter.

Ruth

A 2012 book, The Douche Journals: The Definitive Account of One Man's Genius, compiled the many Schmidtisms from The Douchebag Jar, before Jess moved into the apartment. ISBN 9780062238672[95]

[94]

in January 2022, launched the New Girl rewatch podcast Welcome to Our Show, hosted by Deschanel, Simone, and Morris, who reminisce on their experience filming the show and provide behind the scenes details on its production.[96]

iHeartRadio

Reception[edit]

Critical reviews[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, season one holds an approval rating of 84% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.83/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 66 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[97]


In June 2011, New Girl was one of eight honorees in the "most exciting new series" category at the 1st Critics' Choice Television Awards, voted by journalists who had seen the pilots.[98] Robert Bianco of USA Today considered New Girl "fall's most promising new series" and praised how Deschanel and Meriwether "have shaped Jess into something we haven't quite seen before – a woman who is sweet yet crass, innocent yet sexy, beautiful yet clumsy, and brash yet irresistibly adorable." However, he noted how "Some people will be resistant to Deschanel's doe-eyed charm; others have a congenital need to insult anyone who most everyone else is praising, particularly if doing so gets them attention."[99] The Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman saw the show as a "mostly romantic comedy", and although Jess' adorability "might seem like a thin premise, [...] Meriwether manages to make the situations funny and lets Deschanel channel her charm – a winning combination."[100] David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle would rather see the show tone down. He felt "the show's fundamental setup isn't all that inspired, but it could work with smarter writing and better direction, especially with regard to Deschanel", who, in his opinion, overplayed Jess' weird habits "to the point of overkill within the first 10 minutes of the show".[101]


Alan Sepinwall of HitFix considered New Girl "the best new comedy of the fall season, and the only new show I genuinely enjoyed from start to finish" because it was so well developed from the start. He praised Deschanel's "wonderful comic performance" and said that while the supporting actors "all bounce nicely off of Deschanel", the scenes without Deschanel around them fell flat for him.[102] Writing for the Daily News, David Hinckley lauded how none of the characters "settle in as the stereotypes they could easily become", and presumed that all of them would evolve and get smarter as the show progresses.[103] Lori Rack of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the actors' comedic timing and playing off each other. Despite the guys sounding "like nightmares" on paper, "they have endearing, vulnerable cores that make them likable, and occasionally, lovable. [...] New Girl didn't give me as many laugh-out-loud moments as some comedies", but instead made her "feel warm and fuzzy".[104] Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said the show's pilot was "more charming than hilarious" and "cuter than it is funny, but when it does conjure laughs, its style of humor is reminiscent of ABC's Happy Endings".[105]


Many critics considered Max Greenfield the show's breakout star in season 1;[10][13][20][106] The A.V. Club even named Greenfield's Schmidt "the year's breakout TV character" as a "douchebag with a heart of gold".[11] Salon described Schmidt as "a sort of self-created alpha male and a collection of beta male qualities [... which] are performed with such conviction they congeal into a sort of deranged machismo, one slathered in sandalwood-scented lotion. As part of this transition, Schmidt has gone from being a douchebag in the classic model—a guy who, in the pilot, constantly wanted to show off his pecs and scam girls, and seemed capable of doing so—to a douche of a more unique variety."[106] The Huffington Post's Maureen Ryan said how "Schmidt could have easily been 'the dumb guy', or the show could have exploited his status as an eminently mockable douche. But thanks to Max Greenfield's endearing depiction of the would-be lady-killer, there's a lot more the writers have been able to do with the character."[13]


On Rotten Tomatoes, season two holds an approval rating of 88% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 6.56/10. After the teasing of the Nick–Jess relationship in the first season, critics named Jake Johnson the breakout star of season 2 as the characters' romance unfolded.[107][108] Saying that "Not since Ross and Rachel's tango on Friends has watching a comedy romance been so satisfying", The Hollywood Reporter said the producers "did the impossible by engaging their leads in a love story, which only strengthened the artistry of the single-cam comedy".[109] The New York Times said season 2 "erupted in fantastic and bizarre fits and starts" because of the characters' unmatched personalities, and lauded the writers for not playing up the will-they-or-won't-they dynamic. By emphasizing how the characters got together, the show "made for hilarious setups [that occasionally led] to high-level Abbott and Costello slapstick. The continued Nick–Jess relationship was criticized in season 3 for dropping the characters' personalities, lack of tension,[110] and for neglecting the show's female friendship between Jess and Cece.[111]


On Rotten Tomatoes, season three holds an approval rating of 88% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.46/10. Season four holds an approval rating of 100% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.67/10. The series' seventh and final season has an approval rating of 100% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.78, and a critical consensus of, "After seven years of friendship, New Girl signs off with a thoughtful, funny final season that bids a proper adieu to its colorful cast of characters."[112]

Official website

at IMDb

New Girl