TV REVIEW: New Girl’s “Fired Up” Children, Promotions, & Lawyers, Oh My!

By Nicole Bozzani

This week on New Girl, Jess got Coach a job as the volleyball coach, Schmidt enlisted Nick and, by proxy, Winston, to help him win a legal battle, and Cece met a much younger man while working at the bar.

Jess has always had trouble asking for what she wants and her promotion to vice principal was no different. Coach helps her realize she needs to go after what she wants in life, but only after unnecessarily getting hit in the head multiple times with a volleyball. There are pros and cons to the situation all of which aren’t really known to Jess when she begins her quest to become vice principal. Overall “Fired Up” really reinforced one of Jess’s most popular personality traits: loyalty. She’s extremely loyal to the kids are her school and really wants what is best for them even if that means their loud new volleyball coach. One of the strongest things Jess has going for her character is her friendships. Although we haven’t quite gotten used to Coach returning (and he didn’t really even remember her name at first) she’s still willing to fight for his job at the end of the day. Seeing kids give his coaching a purpose really meant something to her and even if at times she is slightly annoying, her goodness always always prevails.

Then there’s Schmidt who recently returned to live in the loft with an entire storefront’s worth of furniture, and naturally the only place to bring it would be an … empty storefront? This entire ridiculous plan comes to a head when a random patron who believes the store is a store falls, hurts himself and sues Schmidt. Who can Schmidt possibly turn to in his hour of need? Oh right, Nick who has passed the bar, but isn’t a lawyer, and doesn’t like lawyering, and his trusty aid, Winston who obviously has nothing better to do. The two put on their best power suits and get to work. This is where Nick really begins to take back the episode for himself. He doesn’t really like lawyering, but he is really determined to prove everyone wrong. That’s a new quality for Mr. Miller to showcase, not to mention he looks fairly dapper in his power suit. He tries so hard to win the case for Schmidt by playing by the book, but in the end it’s the true Miller fashion that helps him overcome the other lawyers. Well, that or they just really gave up trying to compete with him and legal drama-loving Winston.

For once Schmidt wasn’t saving the episode. Jake Johnson is finally getting to take some of it back for himself. Still, Winston gets the shaft and feels like he’s randomly tossed in for more comic relief. After further review, this might have actually been more interesting than Cece’s side story, which we will get to in a minute. The characters are becoming more and more plentiful, and with that comes the issues mentioned above. The three tier storyline is frustrating at times and not because it’s hard to follow, but mainly because some stories feel unnecessary at times, and at others they feel as though were they allowed to be fully developed they would be so, so funny. Such is the case with Cece’s younger man. When we first meet him he’s making off the cuff comments and speaking in a delightful accent. We don’t know very much about him, but in comes the bar manager, who may actually win the contest for most delightful. Kudos to you, Mr. Falcone. By the time the episode rolls to a close, Cece and the mysterious Australian reappear and decide to get coffee. It’s all very random and misplaced. At times it’s hard not to say “oh right, Cece exists.”

At the end of the day the court case was “won,” Cece got a date, Jess fought for what she wanted, and Coach got to keep his job. What’s most unfortunate is, despite New Girl being renewed for a 4th season, it seems to be losing its luster. It’s hard to know where it’s going or why it just doesn’t seem to be as funny as it used to be, but there’s a couple things worth noting this week: It’s okay to ask someone if they are from Australia or heaven, and just when did Ferguson become a cat lawyer?