New Girl 1x13: Valentine's Day

Original Air Date: 14 February 2012

Storyline: Single for the first time on Valentine's Day, Jess convinces Schmidt to be her wingman as she attempts to have an attachment-free fling with a handsome stranger. Nick's romantic plans are foiled when he finds himself spending more time with Julia's law firm assistant than with her. Winston becomes one of the girls when Shelby invites him over on the holiday.Best Quote:

Schmidt: Where's your boyfriend?
Cece: We're meeting up later because he has a little surprise for me.
Schmidt: Spoiler: it's his penis.

She's Adorkable!: I've got the dirty twirlies, Schmitdy!

The Douche Factor: This is a horrible neighborhood. There are youths everywhere!

Review: I must refrain myself from speaking ill of series using holidays to build up a story, but I will never ever be ok with this. Ever. Especially when the show is still so new that you can't say it already went through most topics it could have touched and is now in complete lack of inspiration. 

Did New Girl rock its Valentine's episode? It definitely didn't. I can say that, out of all the episodes so far, I consider this probably the most annoying and one I wouldn't freely chose to watch again, despite having the gorgeous Ryan Kwanten make an appearance as Jess' one night stand. I was expecting him to go a little bit beyond his True Blood character - hunky, but dumb - but the differences between Oliver and Jason were minimal, as in he didn't speak with a Southern accent in this week's installment.
The episode felt chaotic to me, and without any real purpose other than creating the premises for an unlikely - but oh so expected - coupling. And it's not Jess and Nick, everyone, but instead we're talking about Schmidt and Cece, who ended up doing the nasty on Valentine's and were almost caught in full action by a hormone-driven Jess, whose needs almost trumped her judgment.
I wish I could say that I was at least amused by part of the main arc, but I ended up cringing at everything, from Jess' awful high-waist shorts (why do people insist on wearing those?) to Oliver's tacos list. The only time I cracked a smile was when Cece's boyfriend thought "shrooms" would be a great Valentine's surprise for the sophisticated model. 
Unfortunately, Nick's Valentine's evening with the lovely Julia was even less funny and seeing how adorable Lizzie Caplan looked with that pink hearts barrette did not make me find her less annoying.
On the good side, we got to see a little bit more of Winston, who got in touch with his feminine side and made me actually like him a little bit more. He can come and make me sangria anytime.
With four different stories unraveling in less than half hour, it's no surprise that this week's installment felt crowded. But I will not go as far as to say there weren't any funny moments at all - Schmidt finding out the "youths" had stolen his tires being only one of them. Nevertheless, I expect more from this show and hope to get it in the second half of this season.New Girl 1x12: The Landlord Back to Season 1