New Girl is a charming, offbeat comedy about friends, flings and modern relationships. After a bad breakup, free-spirited optimist Jess (Zooey Deschanel) moves in with three bachelors who have plenty of issues of their own. Winston (Lamorne Morris) is a former athlete, Nick (Jake Johnson) is a law school dropout, and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) is a wannabe womanizer in love with...himself. Together with her super-hot BFF Cece (Hannah Simone), this New Girl discovers that hanging out with the guys can be a challenging - and hilarious - adventure!
It seemed as though everyone was talking about New Girl at the start of last season, well, at least most of my friends were, and everyone loved it. This is probably the first time I've jumped into a new show mid-way through a season, and watched streaming episodes on the web to catch up to the airings. Yes, I liked it, and I liked Zooey Deschanel. She's cute, and has this innocence about her that makes you like her even more.
This 3-disc set includes all 24 episodes from the first season:
Disc 1 (2:56:09)
Pilot (23:40)
Kryptonite (21:22)
Wedding (21:46)
Naked (21:48)
Cece Crashes (21:45)
Thanksgiving (21:46)
Bells (21:47)
Bad in Bed (22:15)
Disc 2 (2:54:05)
The 23rd (21:46)
The Story of the 50 (21:45)
Jess and Julia (21:46)
The Landlord (21:46)
Valentine's Day (21:46)
Bully (21:47)
Injured (21:45)
Control (21:44)
Disc 3 (2:54:21)
Fancyman (21:44)
Fancyman 2 (21:46)
Secrets (21:46)
Normal (21:47)
Kids (21:46)
Tomatoes (21:42)
Backslide (21:48)
See Ya (22:02)
Video
I have little to complain about with the Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) picture on this set; the colors are good, black levels are good, and the only issue is a bit of noise in some scenes. The discs all contain a "play all" feature, but there isn't a chapter placed right after the opening credits. Speaking of opening credits, am I the only one that feels ripped off every time we get the shortened version of the opening? I like the full one!
Audio
Though the set features a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, it's a comedy, and those rarely make the best use of the format. 95% of the audio comes from the center speaker, with the other speakers used for music, and some sound effects. I'm not sure the bass kicked in at all. There are English, Spanish and French subtitles, as well as closed captions.
Commentary Tracks
I prefer the track with the producers over those with the actors. It's chaotic, but I found there was more substance in what they said.
Pilot - Elizabeth Meriwether, Brett Baer, David Finkel, Jake Kasdan and Katherine Pope
Bad in Bed - Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield and Lamorne Morris
See Ya - Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield and Lamorne Morris
Dress Like Jess (7:43)
Let's take a trip to the costume department and check out what Jess wears. This is a very fun featurette.
Deleted Scenes and Extended Scenes (13:49)
Each disc has some deleted and extended scenes on it.
Auditions with Lamore (5:03)
Check out Lamore's audition tapes.
Alternate Jokes (6:04)
Sometimes they tried different jokes in scenes; you can watch them here.
New Girl: Evolution of an Episode (9:24)
What goes into an episode of "New Girl"? Just watch this featurette.
Gag Reel (8:44)
Wow, this is a long gag reel.
Sneak Peek: Ben and Kate (5:02)
A nice sneak peek at the new show Ben and Kate. It worked, because I want to watch the show now.
Summary
New Girl sucked me in last season, and I really enjoyed rewatching the episodes on DVD. I find the show to be "cute," and not absolutely hilarious like Modern Family, but not every comedy needs to make me laugh so hard I cry (few can). The characters on the show are all likeable, with Schmidt being one of my favorites. He could have easily been the "jerk" character on the show, but the writers, and Max Greenfield, gave him a sweet side as well. I had nearly forgotten that Lamorne Morris wasn't in the pilot, and I enjoyed listening to the commentary track to find out what happened with the casting situation there.
Fox has put together a decent release for the set, giving us some commentary tracks (I prefer the producer track), some interesting featurettes, and some decent material that was cut from the show. The audio and video quality is good as well, though it's an obvious downgrade for those that watched HD broadcasts of the show. All said, it's a solid release.
