By Grace Boll

I recently finished the seven-season series New Girl on Netflix. The first episode of New Girl aired in September 2011 on FOX, and the last episode aired in May 2018. The main characters include Jessica Day (played by Zooey Deschanel), Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris), and CeCe (Hannah Simone). There were other characters that would occasionally appear throughout the seasons, such as Coach (Damon Wayans, Jr.) and Reagan Lucas (Megan Fox). New Girl helped to launch Fox’s and Deschanel’s careers. All of the main characters are in their late 20s/early 30s, and the show is set in Los Angeles, dealing with the daily life dramas of Jessica and her friends and roommates. 

The show begins when Jessica finds out that her long-time boyfriend, Spencer, had been unfaithful to her. Since they lived together at this point, she was forced to move out and find another place to reside. Jessica comes across an ad on CraigsList and decides to meet up with the owners of an apartment she is interested in. When she arrived at the apartment, she was greeted by Coach, Nick, and Schmidt, who were more than willing to take a chance on Jess and let her into their home when they saw her best friend, alluring fashion model CeCe. The first week that she settled into her apartment, she went through a series of mood swings and continuously watched the 1980s romance classic Dirty Dancing. The boys were not pleased with her gloomy state, and encouraged her to go on a date with a man that she had met. When her date stood her up, and the boys got word, they immediately went to cheer Jess up. That is where their friendship began.

My favorite character in the show is Winston Bishop, because he is a prankster and is not able to take himself or others seriously. Winston’s character demonstrated the most growth and character development throughout the seasons when he began showing his true self, as well as becoming better acquainted with the rest of the cast. Over the course of the show’s seven seasons, he settled into a career path and became a police officer, changing up his wardrobe to make his closet full of bird shirts, and only bird shirts. He also began showing more of a feminine side, as well as growing a love for cats, and making it clear to all his friends that he would most definitely choose his cat (named Furguson) over them. Unfortunately, Furguson was killed off in the final season, but Winston, as expected, had a funeral for the beloved cat. 

According to Shaad D’Souza in The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, the show became “faster and more insane, each of the four main actors proving themselves gifted physical comedians able to play off each other with ease.” I agree with D’Souza, because the show did have a bit of a slow start. It was clear that the cast developed more chemistry as the show progressed. D’Souza claims that the show is similar to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, because both the shows share a plot with “four unhinged, spiteful lunatics trying to scrape through life.” 

There are other New Girl fans around Collegiate. Match veteran Haley Jenkins (‘21) says, “I loved it. I thought it was super upbeat and funny. There was never a dull moment, and I loved watching the relationships form between each of the characters.” Ellie Craig (‘21) “likes New Girl because it’s super funny, you can’t watch it without laughing, and it’s nice since you don’t have to really pay that much attention to know what’s going on.”

The seventh season only had eight episodes. Apparently, according to Fansided, a fandom-focused site on sports, lifestyle, and entertainment, New Girl ended so abruptly due to the “decision that was made by Fox and not the showrunners.” Although I was upset that the season was cut short, I was pleased that the creators decided to make the last episode of the last season (season 7, episode 8) an episode that flashed forward three years, and that way the audience was able to get a look at what the characters were currently up to. Although I won’t give it away, I was pleasantly surprised by the end of the season, and I felt that it left viewers with closure.

Featured image credit: Fox Television.