Welcome to Fix It, our weekly series examining projects we love — save for one tiny change we wish we could make.
I love New Girl. The Fox sitcom — which follows a quirky schoolteacher who moves into a loft with a bunch of guys she meets on Craigslist — has well-crafted characters, hilarious situations, and amazing friendships. While all of these things make the show great, one of the biggest motivators for me to rewatch it time and time again is the compelling romance between roommates-turned-lovers Nick and Jess.
There are lots of popular TV couples who seem destined to be with one another. But part of what makes Nick and Jess so great is that they’re not the perfect couple. They’re messy with their emotions, they’re still figuring out who they are, and they’re even given the freedom to fully invest in relationships with other people that look like they could turn out to be the end game. This is part of what makes their final reunion in Season 6 so satisfying. Jess — now mature enough to realize what she wants — has packed up her stuff and is moments away from moving out of the loft, believing that Nick will never feel the same way about her as she does him. Then he comes running back to meet and make out with her in the elevator as Lorde’s “Green Light” plays in the background. It’s a glorious moment of TV and a fantastic ending to a fun sitcom. The problem? This isn’t where the series actually ends.
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New Girl scored one more final season – this time, shortened to eight episodes — which picks up three years later. Winston and Aly are anticipating the arrival of their first child, Schmidt and Cece are navigating parenthood, and Nick is searching for the perfect moment to propose to Jess. But while Season 7 has its funny moments, it’s devoid of any tension. The biggest plotline running throughout the whole series from Season 1 — the “will Jess and Nick get together?” thing — has been resolved. So the writers tried to stretch the show further with a collection of unnecessary episodes focused on things like Schmidt and Cece’s daughter Ruth attempting to get into a prestigious preschool and Winston trying on colorblind glasses for the first time.
The last season of New Girl isn’t terrible, but it’s more like a victory lap that fizzles out rather than a long-awaited conclusion. And because of this, the overextended Season 7 — which even goes so far as to reverse some of Nick and Jess’ character development for extra laughs — is much harder to care about.
Could this have been prevented? Yes, and here’s how.
With a longer, time jump-free Season 7
Image: fox image collection via getty images
New Girl was at risk of being canceled even before its seventh season, so I get that this probably wasn’t a realistic possibility. However, a longer Season 7 without the three-year time jump into the future could have helped the show greatly.
When I first watched the Season 6 finale, I remember so badly wanting to see what happened in the moments after the elevator kiss. Sure, another season of these two figuring out how to make their relationship work might sound familiar — but they were different people at this point. Nick had admitted that he messed things up beyond repair, and Jess had planned to move back to Portland because she refused to keep hanging onto the idea of Nick. But then these two, who had fully believed they wouldn’t get a happy ending with one another, were thrust together in an instantaneous magical moment. Where would they take it from there? That’s a story I’d want to see.
The other characters were also set up for a busy seventh season. We could have watched Schmidt and Cece prepare for the birth of their child and Winston continue his quest to find his father. (The latter of these two subplots was resolved in a single, under-nuanced Season 7 episode). Nick and Jess could have still gotten married by the end of it.
Extra episodes would have allowed these characters more time to naturally develop, and because Nick and Jess were at better places in their lives, I don’t think it would have been unreasonable for them to have gotten married quickly. The fact that they waited three whole years to put a ring on it after getting back together is what’s actually insane to me, especially because they had waited so long to be with one another.
If the writers wanted us to meet Schmidt and Cece’s adorable child, Ruth, they could have jumped forward to the future in the last episode. Aly could have still gotten pregnant and the gang could have still moved out of the loft. But eight whole episodes in epilogue land? It’s a bit excessive.
With a single, double-length final episode
Image: fox image collection via getty images
Let’s continue with the idea that the writers weren’t going to be granted a full Season 7 and just wanted to tie up some loose ends. This could have easily been completed with a single, final episode. In fact, the biggest, most important plot points of Season 7 would have worked better inside one episode instead of the stretched-out eight we got.
Imagine that in this mythical last episode, Jess and Nick receive a proper wedding. Pretend that a pregnant Cece is trying to play the perfect bridesmaid while moments away from going into labor. Meanwhile, Schmidt runs around as he splits his duties between being an attentive husband and the perfect best man. Jess has trouble focusing on her wedding day because she is worried about Cece overextending herself, and Nick is getting into trouble every time Schmidt leaves Winston in charge of best man duties for a few minutes while he checks on Cece. The ceremony eventually happens, the baby soon comes, and when all the festivities are done, Nick and Jess move out of the loft to start their lives as a married couple out on their own.
The wedding Nick and Jess actually got is far less sentimental. Jess slips on a dog toy after getting out of the shower and ends up with a beat-up eye on her wedding day, which she covers up with an eye patch. She then gets high, Nick gets drunk, and the two ultimately decide to get married at the hospital after Aly — not Cece — goes into labor. While I guess this was supposed to prove that the couple loved each other and wanted to commit to one another despite the circumstances, this conclusion wasn’t nearly as satisfying or sexy as the elevator ending we got in Season 6.
Sure, Nick and Jess’ relationship is filled with silly, awkward moments, like when Jess gives Nick finger guns in response to his “I love you” in Season 3 or when, a handful of episodes later, the couple argues about their future while attempting to put together a baby toy hungover. But this wasn’t all there was to their relationship. There were also the swoon-worthy moments, like the time Nick pulled Jess into that first, passionate kiss after a game of True American in Season 2, or when he swooped her up in the elevator and carried her off to the bedroom soon after.
Because these characters were mature enough to realize their feelings for each other by the Season 6 finale, it seemed counterproductive for them to freak out that their wedding day might be cursed up until moments before the ceremony. This bad-luck plot was played up far too much, turning what could have been a funny, sweet, and emotional wedding into a tropey, ineffective one.
With the Season 6 finale
Image: FOX Image Collection via Getty Images
As much as I hate to suggest that one of my favorite sitcoms of all time should have ended earlier, it might have made more narrative sense for Nick and Jess’ grand elevator kiss to mark the end of the series. Sure, I wanted to spend more time with them. I wanted to see what happened next. But the most important plot points had been tied up because the writers had written the Season 6 finale like it would be the final episode just in case New Girl didn’t get renewed. I had no questions moving forward, and I had no doubts that Nick and Jess would end up together — even pre-wedding — because the elevator scene was built up to be this spectacular, flirtatious, long-awaited reunion.
Throughout Season 7, though Nick and Jess are firmly in a relationship, they still revert to old habits that should have died by now — and not just the ones adopted during the wedding episode, like Jess’ clumsiness and Nick’s drinking. Jess believing she accidentally killed Winston’s cat in the fourth episode of the final season? Totally feasible. But a nearly 40-year-old Jess getting so sentimental about the loft after they receive an eviction notice that she holds her friends hostage there in the series finale? Seems extreme.
I almost wish Season 7 hadn’t happened so I could imagine Nick and Jess moving forward into a near-perfect future. It’s disappointing how in the final episodes, their romance is devoid of the magic that made it so great early on. By making Nick and Jess’ previously resolved relationship more chaotic for the sake of comedy throughout the final season, we miss out on that spark that made us root for the couple in the first place.
I will always love you, New Girl. But I will forever wish you ended better.
New Girl is available to stream on Netflix.