As I told someone recently, it was when they had the episode where they played “True American” that I was sold. From theatlantic:

The End of Adorkable: New Girl Grows Up

A funny thing has happened on New Girl. Somewhere along the way, the show that started as a potentially irritating ode to star Zooey Deschanel’s signature quirkiness became one of the more enjoyable hangs on television. As its freshman season wraps up this week, it’s also evolved into a sneakily clever take on young adulthood.

Deschanel was already a polarizing figure when New Girl launched last fall—your tolerance for both her and her character, Jess, likely hinges on how much you relate to the need to curl up in a ball and watch Dirty Dancing on a loop post break-up. Or whether you are the kind of person who might own adult-sized footie pajamas. Early on in the season, Jess was a disappointingly one-note character, all cutesy eccentricity and little substance. In one episode she insisted on wearing fake hillbilly teeth to a wedding, and and in another she became so uncomfortable after accidentally seeing one of her three male roommates naked that she couldn’t bring herself to say the word “penis.” When she first moved in after discovering that her live-in boyfriend was having an affair, her roommates were understandably bewildered by this strange, doe-eyed creature who seemed capable of little more than weeping and bursting spontaneously into song.

But as the season progressed, the writing became both warmer and sharper, focusing more on the talented ensemble cast and tempering Jess’s excessive awkwardness with a much-needed dose of self-awareness. In one episode, she goes head-to-head with Julia, a tough-girl lawyer who dismissively refers to Jess’s kittens-and-rainbows outlook as her “whole thing.” In response, Jess proclaims: “I brake for birds. I rock a lot of polka dots. I have touched glitter in the last 24 hours…and that doesn’t mean I’m not smart and tough and strong!” While this may not have won over all the skeptics, it was a smart choice to make Jess’s foil a worthy opponent. Without dismissing the criticisms of both Deschanel and the character, it allowed Jess to show a tougher side to her personality and to make a case for her unique brand of femininity.

Read more. [Image: Fox]