As the 2014-15 TV season opens, we will be checking on the state of television comedy, old and new. Check out this space the day after most comedy premieres throughout September and October.
The seminal early episode of New Girl is “Wedding,” which sets up, for the most part, the basis of the friendship between Nick, Jess, Winston and Schmidt. By all accounts, it’s the series’ first hints at the heights that would come. It makes sense, then, that Season 4 — which began Tuesday night — would look to a wedding to get the show started off on the right foot.
Season 3 of New Girl was almost universally derided for its reliance on Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess’ (Zooey Deschannel) relationship, which the writers appeared to be running out of original ideas for sometime around episode eight or nine. I’m of the opinion that their relationship was more a chance to watch two really good comedic actors bounce off one another, even when it didn’t always work. Throw in the Linda Cardellini arc and one of my personal favorites, “Exes” (AKA the Frank Skabopoulos episode), and Season 3 is far from the off-year many critics and fans paint it as.
That said, you can’t blame the show for wanting to reboot now that Nick and Jess are no longer dating. Even for a Season 3 optimist, it’s positive that New Girl is doing so as the ensemble that originally made late Season 1 and Season 2 some of the bona fide best comedy on television. Everyone has something to do, the focus isn’t really on any particular character, yet this doesn’t feel forced.
For example, Coach (Damon Wayans, Jr.) — who struggled to fit in when he returned from the unfortunate cancellation of Happy Endings — had very little to do aside from a perfunctory C- or D-story where he kept running into women he’d flirted with at previous weddings. However, he still got in a few lines and his presence was felt in a late scene without him even being there.
The show is also seemingly reigning in its secret weapon, Winston (Lamorne Morris), who pretty much turned into a crazy idiot in the best way possible throughout Season 3. The character is obviously never coming back from there, but is deployed carefully and plays more of the straight-man role. Going right to Winston and Bertie renewing acquaintances would probably be too much, too soon in a season premiere.
New Girl still doesn’t seem ready to commit to getting rid of all the romantic knots between the main cast (Schmidt is still pining over CeCe somewhat) but everything about “The Last Wedding” feels like a blank slate for the show as it heads into a fourth season, where it likely needs to win back a lot of fans to survive to a fifth.
The Mindy Project is a show that I’ve tried to get into and bailed on about a half-dozen times during its two seasons on the air. I fully understand that this cast and the crew behind it should be right up my alleyway, especially since the addition of the immortal Adam Pally. I’ve just never been able to get on the series’ wavelength.
The show remains more of a “let’s throw everything at the wall” type of comedy than a coherent ensemble, though it appears that at least the comedy’s gotten more consistent, and the cast finally has stabilized. Reading Mindy Project casting news was, at times, more entertaining than the actual series in its early going. (Remember Anna Camp being on this show?)
Mindy is, in a way, the most Adult Swim-y thing on television in how it litters its cast with go-to comedy guest stars. Whereas New Girl‘s main antagonist was Jessica Biel, The Mindy Project‘s premiere featured a cameo from Rob McElhenney, who fits in with the show’s penchant for poaching the best parts of better series. For example, McElhenney’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-star Glenn Howerton (appearing with a brief, funny bit as the brilliant Ike Barinholtz’s cousin), and previous appearances from the ubiquitous Duplass brothers and Workaholics’ Anders Holm, not to mention comedy all-stars like Seth Rogen and James Franco and dramatic heavyweights such as Anna Gunn.
Like I said, the show remains a lot of really funny people whacking away at a premise for 21 minutes rather than an actual show, but the current state of Mindy appears to be a little more together, and quite a bit funnier. The premiere was at least enough to get me to stick around to next week, something I haven’t always been able to say.