The other day I was in a discussion about girls with my 9 year old son Aaron, and he brought up how cute girls are when they have “off” eye/hair color combinations, such as brown eyes & blonde hair instead of blue eyes & blonde hair, or blue eyes & black hair instead of brown eyes & black hair. For so many of us, the little touch of “different” draws us in you know?
Like most adult American males, when thinking about girls with blue eyes and black hair, my mind immediately go to Zooey Deschanel and I swoon just a little bit. Not only is she gorgeous with that little “different” look, but she’s a singer, songwriter, and musician in addition to being an actress. She’s all sorts of artistic yumminess!
Zooey Deschanel
Which of course brings me over to the new fall comedy, New Girl. I remember when I first heard about it, how it was basically pitched as “Everyone loves Zooey Deschanel… she’s adorable, she’s quirky… so let’s do a show where adorable and quirky Zooey Deschanel gets to be adorable and quirky!” I have to admit I was worried. Yes, I love love Zooey, her adorable quirkiness… but I imagined that it’s a quality that could quickly spoil if it were pushed too hard. Still, it was Zooey Deschanel and I had to give the show a chance… and I’m glad I did.
New Girl is GREAT!
Turns out that New Girl is a great little show! Not only does it showcase just the right balance of Zooey being adorable and quirky, but they’ve really assembled a nice cast of supporting actors who’ve done a great job of establishing themselves as much more than window dressing for a star vehicle. The three guy roommates all have their own distinct personalities — especially Schmidt, the dude on the far right in the picture above, who’s hilariously odd week in and week out. I was fairly sure I was going to find his character really annoying while watching the first episode, but he’s now my favorite!
CeCe and Jess
Zooey Deschanel as Jess is a joy to watch each week. FOX apparently coined the cringe-worthy term “adorkable” to describe her character, but as much as I hate to admit it, it’s the perfect description.
What has really surprised me on the show however is the character who’s Jess’s best friend. The exotic and beautiful Hannah Simone plays CeCe, and while it’s totally believable that her character is a model, her friendship with the decidedly unglamorous and dorky Jess felt artificial in the first couple of episodes.
Hannah Simone as CeCe
The character struck me as a cheap cop-out by the writers… “Say, wouldn’t it be SO funny if this girl moves in with three guys, and it turns out the girl’s best friend is a super-model? Wouldn’t that be HILARIOUS!?“ Anyone could’ve written the scenes that flow out of that situation– super model shows up, the guys are shocked, the guys lust after the super model, tripping over themselves, the supermodel rolls her eyes, etc. etc. etc. And yes, there were those scenes… but all the actors did a pretty good job of muddling through those awful first scenes and peppering them with actual character moments. To the point where now it doesn’t feel forced at all, and the relationships feel organic. They even nicely explained that Jess and CeCe have been friends since they were kids… which would still ring a little false, but Hannah Simone has been bringing some nice depth and nuance to her character in recent episodes that I can suspend disbelief. Last week’s episode CeCe Crashes focused a lot on her character, and was filled with so many actual LOL moments that I saved it on my DVR.
Cece Crashes
This week’s Thanksgiving episode was filled with nearly as many LOL moments (especially how they go about thawing the turkey), and Cece’s character built on a lot of her character development last week. CeCe has gone from incongruous eye-candy to a real part of the ensemble. Bravo, Ms. Simone for the performance, and a big thumbs-up to the show’s writers!
Have you been watching New Girl? What do you think?
Zooey in a strange top
(I couldn’t sign off without posting a couple more Zooey pics…)
One of my favorite Zooey pics
I’ve given the show one shot (Zooey is the fake date at somebody’s wedding) and it didn’t catch my fancy. But I trust your judgement and will try it again.
I think the past 3 episodes the show has really gelled… start with Naked and CeCe Crashes and this week’s Thanksgiving episode, I think you might be surprised.
I love this new show.. And Zooey is totally adorkable! Lol
Hahaha! Yeah, I love the show too… the first couple episodes I was sticking around for Zooey, but the cast has really come together and the show has hit its stride these past few episodes.
[...] Popular Women of Fall TV: New Girl “Zooey Deschanel as Jess is a joy to watch each week. FOX apparently coined the cringe-worthy [...]
[...] adorable and I imagine she’s rather hot with no clothes on… but I can’t help but think that New Girl has diminished her “lust appeal” a bit. Don’t get me wrong—I love the show, but the [...]