[First lines, facing
camera]
Jessica
Day
[played by Zooey Deschanel]: “So you
know in horror movies when the girl's like: ‘Oh, my God, there's something in
the basement. Let me just run down there in my underwear and see what's going
on.’ And you're like, ‘What is your problem? Call the police.’ She's like,
‘Okay,’ but it's too late because she's getting murdered? Well, my story's kind
of like that.”— New
Girl,
Season 1, “Pilot,” original air date
Sept. 20, 2011, teleplay by Elizabeth Meriwether, directed by Jake Kasdan
I never watched New
Girl during its original run, but in the last couple of weeks, I have
watched several episodes from its first and second seasons on DVD. I’m still
not sure the direction in which the sitcom would eventually take off.
But the scene that follows this amusing intro by the
titular character, Jess Day—i.e., doing an impromptu striptease for her
boyfriend, only to find he’s been fooling around with someone else—is both
excruciating and hysterically funny. (Indeed, part of the reason why it’s hilarious
is because it’s excruciating.)
A
scene like this, by itself, is enough to make an audience come back, even if
subsequent episodes might be a bit disappointing, because of the hope that if
magic can occur once, it can be summoned once again.
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