New Girl 1x17: Fancyman (Part 1)

Posted on the 17 April 2012 by Tvgeek @TVGeek_blog



Original Air Date: 20 March 2012


StorylineJess reluctantly dates the wealthy father of one of her students. Meanwhile, Nick attempts to buy a new cell phone and Schmidt and Winston get ultra-competitive playing bar trivia.Best Quote:

Jess: Do you have like a box of charity phones you're sending to Africa? Can he just have one of those?


She's Adorkable!I had to take condoms off 30 cucumbers, and condoms are harder to take off than I thought. I know how to put them on, but I didn't know how to take them off. I guess someone else has always done it for me.


The Douche FactorWinston, don't worry about it, man. It's your public school education. You'll catch up. Jar again.


Review: I am deeply amused by people who say the corporate system sucks just because they don't have enough money to buy a phone. Or, better yet, quite annoyed. New Girl's Nick is one of these people. Sometimes I have the impression that he's a little bit of a communist, but in reality he's just covering up his own professional lack of success by mocking those who do better than him. It's one of his most irritating traits, after not washing his bath towel. At this point, to be honest, as much as I want to like Nick, he's the character I least enjoy, and having an episode like this, with so much focus on him, is almost taking all the fun out of watching this show.

Fortunately, despite me wanting to punch him in the nose so much, he had a couple of hilarious scenes as he "fell in love" with Jess' new suitor, a rich and older gentleman whose kid is in her class.
After the disappointment caused by Ryan Kwanten's useless part in the Valentine's episode, I was glad to see they brought in Dermot Mulroney to play the part of Jess' newest romantic interest. He's not the best actor when it comes to comedic parts, despite his presence in countless romantic comedies, but I think he fits well with the rest of the ensemble and I can't wait to see if the relationship Jess will have with him will make her more mature. As Cece said, she needs someone that can take care of her, as opposed to an underdog who sleeps on washcloths. 
Jess' awkwardness in her interactions with the gorgeous and sophisticated Russell made for some classic sitcom moments, that reminded me of Dharma visiting Greg's parents' house for the first time. Nothing new, but enchanting nonetheless, though the bidet scene might have been a tad exaggerated and useless. Her little curtsy and her condom rambling were pure Jessica Day, though, and I found them refreshing among all that Nick craziness. And it was great to see her at work one more time, especially since that loon of a principal, Tanya, made another appearance.
As usual, Winston got the B-plot this week. As his relationship with the beautiful Shelby progresses, he starts to feel inadequate: he's a part-time nanny and he can't even master a simple thing as bar trivia, at which Schmidt excels because he is able to memorize useless facts like Calvin Coolidge's birthplace. I don't even know who Calvin Coolidge is... The best this about this little arc though is the return of Elvin, the kid Winston is baby sitting; I really really want to see more of him.
So now I'm waiting for the second part of this episode, to see where the relationship between Jess and Russell leads. It should be a fun thing to watch.New Girl 1x16: Control Back to Season 1