New Girl Review: Hanksgiving vs. Dudesgiving

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Justin Long guest stared on tonight's "Thanksgiving", and if I may say so, he was a welcome addition. If the show is setting up an eventual tug-o-war of feelings for Jess between the similar Paul and the cynical Nick, Long is the right guy for it.

Justin Long on New Girl

The Good. Where to start? I knew this would be a winner as soon as we saw a sample of Paul's dark Halloween musical. It's a bit of the absurd balanced with realistic, relatable elements in which New Girl seem especially adept. Even Jess' characterization is a perfect example of this balance. She's got her quirks, but her issues and worries are mostly the same as ours. In this case, her concern is how to impress the guy she likes.

Little by little, the guys' personalities are emerging. Even Winston is shaping up to be more three dimensional. He loves his grandparents, he pays attention to details (Mason and Charles, nice), and he's just a bit more tolerant than Nick. Nick's character is going the grumpy old man route, but I do believe a bit of that grumpiness may have come from a bout of jealousy. Weren't their toes just pointing toward each other in the last episode? Even Paul asked Jess if there was something more between them.

And Schmidt? Schmidt is the most absurd of them all. That's okay because, in my opinion, he is the funniest of them all. He's the constant surprise. A sometimes trying-too hard guy, with a bit of insecurity lurking underneath the brash exterior, but always earnest in whatever he does. That earnestness shows up in his cooking, too, which just shot him up in my estimation by 100 percent. Show me a girl who doesn't get turned on by a guy who can cook, and I'll show you a girl who only orders salad for every meal. Cece doesn't know it yet. She still scorns his eagerness in favor of the bad boy types, but he's a catch.

I want everyone to have a happy ending (in both sense of the phrase), but I know it's too soon. In the meantime, I'll enjoy Jess declaring the different ways she'd like Paul sexually... within his earshot. And I'll enjoy Cece try to get Schmidt to yell at her by getting her germs all over Schmidt's raw ingredients. 

And I have to give a hat-tip to my favorite laugh-out-loud moment of the episode: Paul's girlish scream as he discovers their neighbor's dead body, right in the middle of a special performance. I liked that unexpected - but hilarious - twist so much, I rewinded it a few times. 

The Bad. Not much to complain about. My past issues were usually centered around Jess going too over-the-top, and Winston's blandness. Jess was finely balanced here. Winston had a personality, and also brought the funny. Let's see more of that.

Stray Observations

  • I'm with Schmidt on his gagging fit. Unwashed hand rolling around in raw ingredients is gross!
  • Are you guy's team Nick or Team Paul? I know some of you are even team Schmidt. I'm team no one for now.
  • I hope to see Justin Long again, and soon.
  • Is it Thanksgiving already next week? *This is the point where I scream in horror, and you are all very lucky to not hear it.*
Want more Jess and the gang? Check out our quotes page.

Thanksgiving Review

Editor Rating: 4.8 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 (120 Votes)
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New Girl Season 1 Episode 6 Quotes

Oh my God, there's two of them!

Nick

Well I can blanch or I can talk but I can't do both!

Schmidt