Quirk is definitely the new cool. This terrific new comedy premiered tonight on FOX and earns an immediate place as one of the best new comedies of the season. TV Guide nailed it when they dubbed star Zooey Deschanel "adorkable" and she'll have no trouble sharing the FOX spotlight with big sis Emily (Bones).
Deschenel plays Jessica Day, an overall-wearing, Dirty Dancing-loving, Lord of the Rings-referencing, marching-to-her-own-drummer gal who finds herself newly single after - yep - finding boyfriend Spencer with another girl. Suddenly homeless, it's Craig's List to the rescue, leading Jess unknowingly to the abode of three single guys (their ad, which used words like "sun-soaked" and "beige-y" was misleading): Nick (Jake M. Johnson, fairly new to TV), a sweet soul dealing with his own breakup issues; Coach (Damon Wayans, Jr., Happy Endings, My Wife and Kids and the pedigree of being a Wayans), who has no knack for talking to the fairer sex; and Schmidt (Max Greenfield, already a TV veteran with roles on Raising the Bar, Ugly Betty, Greek and Veronica Mars), who single-handedly keeps the trio's "Douchebag Jar" in healthy abundance of cash.
Deschenel is delightfully, playfully awkward and weird as Jess, who admittedly "can't hide the crazy." She infuses cooky voices in her conversation, dances inappropriately and constantly sings outloud to herself, even making up her own theme song on the spot to pump herself up to start dating again (the ditty is actually used for the series' title sequence with a cute homage to Marlo Thomas' That Girl). Ally McBeal once went in search of her theme song ... Jess has it covered.
Quite the motley crue this foursome makes, but it works. The characters compliment each other nicely and you can't help but fall in love with the dudes when, learning that Jess is being stood up on her first date back out there, serenade her - badly - at the restaurant with "I've Had the Time of My Life." The show doesn't end the number with the stereotypical group applause but instead has the quartet kicked out of the place ... and you thank them for it, cause that's this show. Nobody puts these guys in the corner!
Bottom line: These misfits fit right in.
Catch The New Girl Tuesday's at 9 .m. on FOX.
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