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crack_van2013-10-01 11:42 am
blithers.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2013-10-01 11:42 am
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Fandom Overview: New Girl
Hi, my name is blithers, and I'll be your New Girl ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crack_van driver for this month!
New Girl is a show that was marketed upfront as a Zooey Deschanel vehicle, in which ZD does her Quirky Girl!(™) act to the amusement and bewilderment of her three male roommates, half hour sitcom-style. But a funny thing ended up happening: partway through the first season, the ensemble cast of New Girl started to break through. The writers grounded and gently matured Zooey Deschanel's character, so she could act as the straight woman as well a source of comedy. And the three guys of the show began to shine, and each one of them was hilarious in their own distinct and messed-up way.
New Girl is a hilarious ensemble comedy, with strong, balanced, and thoughtful character and relationship work underlying the humor. We're just starting the third season, coming off a year almost universally loved by critics and fans, where the show took that leap forward that great sitcoms do and just nailed their second season. It's a great time to jump into the show and catch up on some fantastic episodes (and fantastic fic!).
Fair warning: the rest of this overview includes spoilers. It's really easy right now to stream (the first two seasons are on Netflix), so if you want to jump right in and start watching, I'd recommend just going for it!
The pilot episode starts out with Jess being dumped by her long-time boyfriend. She finds an advertisement for a roommate on Craigslist, and meets her future roommates - grumpy bartender Nick, high-achieving and douche-y Schmidt, and the intense Coach. Reluctant but sweet roommate bonding occurs. In the second episode, Coach leaves (Damon Wayans Jr. went back to the show Happy Endings) and is replaced by Winston, a former overseas basketball player with a passion for pranks and a penchant for taking things too far.
Romantic and interpersonal relationships drive most of the plot in this show: Schmidt starts to date Cece (Jess's childhood best friend, now a model in LA). Jess dates a couple different guys while Nick, also reeling from a bad breakup, spends the season getting over his college girlfriend and Winston tries to figure out his life after basketball. Most importantly, however, Jess becomes one of the guys through the course of season one, and a sweetly functional (and simultaneously dysfunctional) loft dynamic is born.
Then, halfway through season two, Nick kisses Jess unexpectedly (it's clear he's had a crush on her for a while by this point, and, uh, it is SUPER HOT), which sends shippers the world over into a frenzy and kicks off Nick and Jess's tentative attempts at figuring out what this thing between them is. Meanwhile, Schmidt starts to date Elizabeth (his old college girlfriend) while still struggling with feelings for Cece.
The second season finale finds Nick and Jess deciding to jump head first into a real relationship, and Schmidt being forced to choose between Cece and Elizabeth, which are the issues the beginning of the third season is dealing with right now.
Jessica Day
(source)
Jess is a middle school teacher with a sometimes-awkward zest for life, a big heart, and a girly sense of style. Her best friend is Cece, who she's known since childhood. She's had a couple long-term boyfriends (Spencer, Paul, Russell, and Sam) and is now dating Nick.
Nick Miller
(source)
Nick is a grumpy, outwardly angry dude. Nick is originally from Chicago, and has been friends with Winston his whole life and has been roommates with Schmidt since college. He was studying to be a lawyer before dropping out, and currently works as a bartender. His father dies in season two. He is currently dating Jess.
Schmidt
(source)
Schmidt is a high strung marketing professional who has been Nick's roommate since college. He lost a lot of weight after moving with Nick to LA, and broke up with his college girlfriend Elizabeth at that time. Schmidt dates Cece for much of season one until they break up, and gets back together with Elizabeth after Cece announces her engagement to another guy.
Winston Bishop
(source)
Winston is originally from Chicago as well, and was Nick's best friend growing up. He lived in Latvia for a couple years playing professional basketball before moving back to LA. He dated Shelby in season one and Daisy in season two, and currently works at a sports radio station.
Cece Parekh
(source)
Cece is Jess's childhood best friend and a working model in LA. She dates Schmidt in season one, and after finding out that she has a short window of time to have kids in season two starts to date seriously and consider settling down. She becomes engaged to Shivrang, but breaks off the wedding during the second season finale when she realizes she still has feelings for Schmidt.
Other characters!
Elizabeth - Elizabeth is Schmidt's college girlfriend. They broke up with each other after moving to LA. They start dating again toward the end of season two.
Coach - Coach is the original third roommate in the pilot episode. Coach is coming back for a multi-episode arc in season three, so we'll be learning more about him soon!
Sam - Handsome Dr. Sam! Sam is a children's doctor who Jess has a friends with benefits relationship with during the first half of season two. The two agree to try a more serious relationship just before the Nick/Jess kiss happens (which obviously puts the kibosh on Sam).
Russell - Russell is Jess's fancyman boyfriend during the back half of season one. He's the father of one of her students - a divorced, older, stable man. Jess breaks up with Russell after feeling that there is a lack of passion in their relationship.
Paul - Paul is a fellow middle school with Jess, who she dates during the first half of season one. Paul is basically a clone of Jess's personality, so they're twice as adorkable together. Jess breaks up with Paul when he gets too serious, too fast.
Caroline - Caroline is Nick's college girlfriend. They have a volatile relationship and are already broken up before the pilot episode, though they briefly hook up again at the end of season one before Nick decides that their relationship should be over for good this time.
Shivrang - Cece's fiancee for the second half of season two, until they break the wedding off.
Shelby - Shelby is Winston's girlfriend for part of seasons one and two.
Daisy - Daisy is Winston's hookup for the back half of season two.
Nick/Jess is by far the largest ship in the fandom, comprising close to 70% of the fic on AO3 and almost 90% of the fic on fanfiction.net. A lot of the fic for this ship (and the fandom in general) really blew up after the couple kissed halfway through season 2. By the way, if you haven't seen it before, you should definitely check out a clip of The Kiss, because it's kind of ridiculously hot.
Pretty much any other pairing you can think of in the show could be considered a rare pair. That being said, some of the different ships you'll see around include Schmidt/Cece (especially popular during season one of the show, though with only moderate amounts of fic), Nick/Schmidt, Jess/Cece, and Schmidt/Elizabeth.
The previous two seasons of New Girl on are Netflix, and the current season is on Hulu/Hulu Plus.
[tumblr!]
The main New Girl fandom can be found on tumblr. Track the new girl tag for the general community, and the ngedits tag for original graphics and gifsets. There are lots of fantastic New Girl tumblrs out there, but here are a few to get you started:
allaboutnewgirl
newgirlthings
apartment4d
safewordapricots
dayandmiller
[weekly episode reviews]
Alan Sepinwall
AV Club
[fic]
FanFiction.Net
AO3
[lj communities]
The fandom for New Girl isn't really on LiveJournal, so these communities have varying levels of activity.
newgirl
the_new_girl_tv
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ontd_newgirl
newgirl_icons
newgirl_fic
newgirlonfox
[behind the scenes]
Paley Center panel 2013
The Writer's Room New Girl episode
AV Club Feature: The New Girl showrunners on wrangling season two (a five part series)
[other interesting links]
The official New Girl site on Fox
The Roof - a ff.net forum
TWoP New Girl forum
Why You Should All Be Watching "New Girl" - a show manifesto
How 'New Girl' Got Smarter, Sexier, And A Lot Less Annoying - excellent show meta
crack_van driver for this month!New Girl is a show that was marketed upfront as a Zooey Deschanel vehicle, in which ZD does her Quirky Girl!(™) act to the amusement and bewilderment of her three male roommates, half hour sitcom-style. But a funny thing ended up happening: partway through the first season, the ensemble cast of New Girl started to break through. The writers grounded and gently matured Zooey Deschanel's character, so she could act as the straight woman as well a source of comedy. And the three guys of the show began to shine, and each one of them was hilarious in their own distinct and messed-up way.
New Girl is a hilarious ensemble comedy, with strong, balanced, and thoughtful character and relationship work underlying the humor. We're just starting the third season, coming off a year almost universally loved by critics and fans, where the show took that leap forward that great sitcoms do and just nailed their second season. It's a great time to jump into the show and catch up on some fantastic episodes (and fantastic fic!).
Who's That Girl?: A New Girl Fandom Overview
Fair warning: the rest of this overview includes spoilers. It's really easy right now to stream (the first two seasons are on Netflix), so if you want to jump right in and start watching, I'd recommend just going for it!
The Story So Far
The pilot episode starts out with Jess being dumped by her long-time boyfriend. She finds an advertisement for a roommate on Craigslist, and meets her future roommates - grumpy bartender Nick, high-achieving and douche-y Schmidt, and the intense Coach. Reluctant but sweet roommate bonding occurs. In the second episode, Coach leaves (Damon Wayans Jr. went back to the show Happy Endings) and is replaced by Winston, a former overseas basketball player with a passion for pranks and a penchant for taking things too far.
Romantic and interpersonal relationships drive most of the plot in this show: Schmidt starts to date Cece (Jess's childhood best friend, now a model in LA). Jess dates a couple different guys while Nick, also reeling from a bad breakup, spends the season getting over his college girlfriend and Winston tries to figure out his life after basketball. Most importantly, however, Jess becomes one of the guys through the course of season one, and a sweetly functional (and simultaneously dysfunctional) loft dynamic is born.
Then, halfway through season two, Nick kisses Jess unexpectedly (it's clear he's had a crush on her for a while by this point, and, uh, it is SUPER HOT), which sends shippers the world over into a frenzy and kicks off Nick and Jess's tentative attempts at figuring out what this thing between them is. Meanwhile, Schmidt starts to date Elizabeth (his old college girlfriend) while still struggling with feelings for Cece.
The second season finale finds Nick and Jess deciding to jump head first into a real relationship, and Schmidt being forced to choose between Cece and Elizabeth, which are the issues the beginning of the third season is dealing with right now.
Characters
Jessica Day
(source)
Jess is a middle school teacher with a sometimes-awkward zest for life, a big heart, and a girly sense of style. Her best friend is Cece, who she's known since childhood. She's had a couple long-term boyfriends (Spencer, Paul, Russell, and Sam) and is now dating Nick.
Nick Miller
(source)
Nick is a grumpy, outwardly angry dude. Nick is originally from Chicago, and has been friends with Winston his whole life and has been roommates with Schmidt since college. He was studying to be a lawyer before dropping out, and currently works as a bartender. His father dies in season two. He is currently dating Jess.
Schmidt
(source)
Schmidt is a high strung marketing professional who has been Nick's roommate since college. He lost a lot of weight after moving with Nick to LA, and broke up with his college girlfriend Elizabeth at that time. Schmidt dates Cece for much of season one until they break up, and gets back together with Elizabeth after Cece announces her engagement to another guy.
Winston Bishop
(source)
Winston is originally from Chicago as well, and was Nick's best friend growing up. He lived in Latvia for a couple years playing professional basketball before moving back to LA. He dated Shelby in season one and Daisy in season two, and currently works at a sports radio station.
Cece Parekh
(source)
Cece is Jess's childhood best friend and a working model in LA. She dates Schmidt in season one, and after finding out that she has a short window of time to have kids in season two starts to date seriously and consider settling down. She becomes engaged to Shivrang, but breaks off the wedding during the second season finale when she realizes she still has feelings for Schmidt.
Other characters!
Elizabeth - Elizabeth is Schmidt's college girlfriend. They broke up with each other after moving to LA. They start dating again toward the end of season two.
Coach - Coach is the original third roommate in the pilot episode. Coach is coming back for a multi-episode arc in season three, so we'll be learning more about him soon!
Sam - Handsome Dr. Sam! Sam is a children's doctor who Jess has a friends with benefits relationship with during the first half of season two. The two agree to try a more serious relationship just before the Nick/Jess kiss happens (which obviously puts the kibosh on Sam).
Russell - Russell is Jess's fancyman boyfriend during the back half of season one. He's the father of one of her students - a divorced, older, stable man. Jess breaks up with Russell after feeling that there is a lack of passion in their relationship.
Paul - Paul is a fellow middle school with Jess, who she dates during the first half of season one. Paul is basically a clone of Jess's personality, so they're twice as adorkable together. Jess breaks up with Paul when he gets too serious, too fast.
Caroline - Caroline is Nick's college girlfriend. They have a volatile relationship and are already broken up before the pilot episode, though they briefly hook up again at the end of season one before Nick decides that their relationship should be over for good this time.
Shivrang - Cece's fiancee for the second half of season two, until they break the wedding off.
Shelby - Shelby is Winston's girlfriend for part of seasons one and two.
Daisy - Daisy is Winston's hookup for the back half of season two.
Ships
Nick/Jess is by far the largest ship in the fandom, comprising close to 70% of the fic on AO3 and almost 90% of the fic on fanfiction.net. A lot of the fic for this ship (and the fandom in general) really blew up after the couple kissed halfway through season 2. By the way, if you haven't seen it before, you should definitely check out a clip of The Kiss, because it's kind of ridiculously hot.
Pretty much any other pairing you can think of in the show could be considered a rare pair. That being said, some of the different ships you'll see around include Schmidt/Cece (especially popular during season one of the show, though with only moderate amounts of fic), Nick/Schmidt, Jess/Cece, and Schmidt/Elizabeth.
Watch It
The previous two seasons of New Girl on are Netflix, and the current season is on Hulu/Hulu Plus.
Fandom Resources
[tumblr!]
The main New Girl fandom can be found on tumblr. Track the new girl tag for the general community, and the ngedits tag for original graphics and gifsets. There are lots of fantastic New Girl tumblrs out there, but here are a few to get you started:
allaboutnewgirl
newgirlthings
apartment4d
safewordapricots
dayandmiller
[weekly episode reviews]
Alan Sepinwall
AV Club
[fic]
FanFiction.Net
AO3
[lj communities]
The fandom for New Girl isn't really on LiveJournal, so these communities have varying levels of activity.
newgirlthe_new_girl_tvontd_newgirlnewgirl_iconsnewgirl_ficnewgirlonfox[behind the scenes]
Paley Center panel 2013
The Writer's Room New Girl episode
AV Club Feature: The New Girl showrunners on wrangling season two (a five part series)
[other interesting links]
The official New Girl site on Fox
The Roof - a ff.net forum
TWoP New Girl forum
Why You Should All Be Watching "New Girl" - a show manifesto
How 'New Girl' Got Smarter, Sexier, And A Lot Less Annoying - excellent show meta
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Also YES YES YES to those last two links.
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I love both of those last two links. Such wonderful thoughts about our show, both of them.
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I just really like Cece, and I think the show shortchanges her soooo much. I want better for Elizabeth too. Maybe I'll write the two of them running off together.
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Now going to stalk those links you posted.
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