This is a new and hopefully regular kind of post about what I watched on TV the previous night. There will be spoilers so don’t complain.
The new TV season kicked off for me last night when Fox premiered its Tuesday night comedy block. I already had “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project” written in ink on my schedule and wanted to give “Brooklyn 9-9” a try. I had no interest in “Dads.”
I managed to stay awake until 10 p.m. (not always the easiest feat) so had a clear view of all three shows. I’ll touch on them in the order of how I thought they landed things which, coincidentally, is the reverse order of how they aired.
The Mindy Project: The beginning of the second season can really present some problems, especially when a potential love triangle exists. Even though everyone knew Nick and Jess would eventually end up together on “New Girl,” they didn’t get to that point until the end of the second season. With Mindy, it was obvious that Danny held a candle for her as she took off to Hait with Casey (and he sassy, yet unfortunate, short hair-do).
But I saw the reasons why I think Mindy Kaling is one of the top comedy minds out there in the way she approached this episode, which she wrote. Danny’s intentions were right there for the viewer to see, but not overt in the storyline. The conversation on the fire escape had enough touchstones of one that two friends and colleagues would have to make it easy to see that Mindy didn’t see things. She obviously still loves Casey, but also loves herself and her life so much more that she doesn’t see what’s happening in the background.
They mixed this in with some clever stunt casting of James Franco, Danny’s personal crisis (“What’s a browser history?” was a great line) and the wackiness of the rest of the office staff for a pretty enjoyable episode which sets us up for the season. That’s all you can expect from a season premiere.
New Girl: As I said, these are in order of how I think the story landed. Just because I think this didn’t do as well as Mindy doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. They went manic as usual and managed to give us a glimpse into what the Nick/Jess pairing will mean for everyone, but had to focus so much on that payoff for fans, I think it was a little less enjoyable.
Not much though because I love learning that Winston likes to do puzzles without wearing pants and seeing Schmidt completely torn between two women. Plus, Nick threatening a kid and wanting to live out of a van shelter worked fantastically. The script really didn’t give Jess much to do until she had to rescue Nick and keep the group together in resort jail, but that shows how “New Girl” has matured. So many people want to think it’s about Zooey’s eyes and bangs and costumes, but it really has evolved into a great group comedy.
That’s why the scene of Nick and Jess starting at the door wondering what stood behind it for them as a couple felt so real. It also felt even more real when we discovered Nick doesn’t carry a key, the two of them made out and Schmidt and Winston couldn’t stand what was happening. The potential conflict scenarios with the group could make for a very entertaining season.
Brooklyn 9-9: As a pilot, this show had to end up at the bottom of the list. The format just makes it too hard to create a compelling half hour while also introducing the characters and giving the viewer a small glimpse into them. Mike Schur and Dan Goor did as good a job as you can expect. We will obviously learn much more about these folks, but the little moments – Samberg’s clueless reaction to the captain saying he’s gay, the tough-nosed detective telling the other guy that he’s sweet – provided the incentive to tune in next week.
They seemed to have nailed the casting pretty well and have two stalwarts like Schur and Goor running things. The Fred Armison cameo was hysterical, but could have been much funnier if Fox hadn’t beaten it to death in the promos. Hopefully they will call in lots of favors to create the same kind of wacky neighborhood characters that populate Pawnee, Ind.