New Girl is the hit US comedy TV show starring hipster heart-throb Zooey Deschanel, which hit the UK at the beginning of January. The audience follows the life of the unlikely hero Jess, embarking on life with her new male flatmates and as a new singleton after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend. The situation will resonate with a large number of young viewers, who either as a student or a young professional will be familiar to the stresses and joys of house-sharing no matter what their gender, and it provides and interesting dynamic for a comedy show.
Jess is just like any other girl – she pines over her ex-boyfriend, she obsesses over gorgeous potential lovers and she agonises over every single difficult decision she encounters in her life. But still she’s not quite as average as you would like. For one, she sings to herself. About herself. Secondly, she makes references to Lord of the Rings. Weird. And thirdly, she cant even throw a basket ball indoors without breaking something. Is there something wrong with her?
Some people feel quite strongly about the depiction of this kind of woman in New Girl. Vanity Fair consistently dissected each episode to determine whether Zooey Deschanel’s kookiness was tolerable or not. And UK online magazine, Emerald Street (sister to Stylist, the free paper of the cosmo-woman) announced last week that “being a ditz isn’t cute anymore” resolving that if Alexa Chung says a thing is over, then it’s really over.
This reaction might have been triggered by Fox’s heavy emphasis in their promotion of the show on how adorkable Deschanel’s character is. But wait, we’re not adverse to the hapless in sitcoms are we? The epitome of the adorable dork would have to be Frank Spencer in ’70s British comedy series Some Mother’s Do ‘Ave Em. Frank is most certainly a kook in all sense of the word, and yet he is often hailed as one of the greatest comedy characters of all time.
So why has New Girl hit a nerve? It’s a comedy that revolves around a modern-day woman who isn’t overtly ambitious, high-flying or sleeping her way around the city and this is different to what audiences are used to seeing on their screens. Jess is a girl’s girl, not a lady that men can drool over. Ok, she has really, really great hair, but she is also funny, cute and clearly enjoys living her life no matter how many people tell her that she’s doing it wrong (Miranda Hart being a slightly more acceptable ‘old maid’ version) – does that sound strange to you?
I know that I indentify with Jess, and when I watch New Girl it reminds me of my female friends. But I would never describe them as “kooky” or as “dorks” - I admire them for how charming and confident they are. The focus of the show is a girl who is a bit different, who doesn’t always get the guy and is relentlessly teased by her flatmates, but you know, that’s alright because she has fun.
Perhaps it’s a generational thing - ten years ago we were laughing at women talking about sex in and that was considered ground-breaking in its own right. But if I had to choose to be best friends with Carrie Bradshaw or Jess Day, I know who I would pick every time. No matter what Alexa Chung says otherwise.
New Girl is on Friday at 8.30pm on Channel 4.
