Elizabeth Meriwether has created magic as New Girl came to being in 2011, and has followed through with so much finesse through the seven seasons that followed. The show centers on an endearing but socially awkward woman, Jess Day (played by the ever-so-charming Zooey Deschanel!), and how she moves in with three guy roommates. The charm of the show is really in the mundane adventures of how these four different characters go about living together and build their wholesome relationships with one another.
The show captures the balance of the female presence in a male-dominated environment: it’s better, more warm-hearted, earnest, and fun. Aside from that, it’s a sitcom that has absurdist millennial humour and just creates a fresh insight to how these 30 somethings get by together as roommates. Also, the male characters have been crafted in a way where they are also multifaceted but not in a toxic-masculine way. They are caring and in no way threatened by Jessica’s intelligence, her eagerness to correct, and care for those around her.
My only issue is that their way of exercising diversity is casting one Black guy and an Indian woman as side characters. The show ended in 2018, but they could’ve done better with the gender diversity and the white-majority… Plus, the way they have depicted Schmidt’s OCD struggle, could have been less stereotypical. But in terms of humour, writing, and the overall essence, it’s done a pretty good job.
8.5/10: Yes to female multifaceted female leads and the strong female gaze of women writers!! Periyaht!!!, but can we make it less white tho? Just saying.