I always laugh my butt off when I watch New Girl. For a long time, that’s the main value I found from it...I would allow the show to play in the background as I did other things...turn to it...laugh hysterically...and forget about any daily troubles getting at me. Or, it would be what friends and I would watch when we’d be drinking and socializing.
New Girl is, first and foremost, comfort. It is a show that allows us to laugh at a bunch of hilarious and lovable characters...and also at ourselves. But, after analyzing the show a bit more in our last We Ship It Episode, I realized there is also a deeper meaning as to why the show is my go-to. New Girl does an incredible job of illustrating the importance of community, a message that our culture sorely needs right now.
This community is established between a group of very different characters who grow together under a common roof. The loft has a lot to do with how these vastly different people find and create a family in each other. This is a symbol of our human desire for community with one another. And, even though flawed, the show portrays a pretty good example of this ideal community.
Here are some good examples from the show that show this growth of an almost familial bond among the friends:
Example 1: Time of My Life → After being stood up on a date in the Pilot episode, the boys run to comfort Jess in her time of need. Nick not only chooses Jess over Caroline but the boys also miss out on “the party of the year” (and an evening with the ladies) to be with Jess in her broken state. They storm into the fancy restaurant just as Jess is asked to give up the table, claiming all to be her boyfriends. In an attempt to cheer her up, the guys break out into a poorly rehearsed rendition of “Time of My Life” from Jess’s favorite film. While they might’ve gotten thrown out of the restaurant, they didn’t get thrown out of Jess’s heart. From the very beginning, we see this little family forming amongst these friends.
Example 2: Candy Cane Lane → After her boyfriend, Paul, breaks up with her at a Christmas party. The loft troop rallies together to lift her spirits. Nick skips his flight home for the holidays and drives the crew to Candy Cane Lane, a street plastered with holiday lights and decorations. However, upon arrival, the lights have gone dark for the night and they miss the spectacle. So, in a grand gesture, the gang yells “turn on the lights” in an effort to bring a simple smile onto Jess’s face. It’s these kinds of grand gestures that show how willing the group is to come together in each other’s moments of need.
Example 3: The Gang Pays for Nick’s Ultrasound → When Nick gets hurt playing football with the gang, this small incident brings up larger issues: possible cancer, no health insurance, and the fact that Nick doesn’t live his life to the fullest! After being hounded by the loft to go to the doctor, Nick attends an ultrasound. Turns out, he’s okay! There’s no real answer to his diagnosis (as Nick is too ecstatic to listen to the doctor’s response), but the real moment is when he goes to pay - using his plastic bag wallet - he learns that the crew paid his medical bills. Nobody gave the gesture a second thought...they just did it because their friend needed them. That’s what friends do for each other!
These are just 3 of our favorite examples of the beautiful community that is formed among these friends throughout New Girl...of course...there are a million more. The show does a fantastic job of portraying a group of broken people coming together to love each other...and being there for one another no matter what. It’s the epitome of true, loving relationships, and it all stems from a 4-bedroom (or makeshift 4-bedroom) loft!
Their little community all blossomed because of a communal space...one that saw the best and worst of all of them. And that little space that led to all of this love ended up seeing all of their happiness, sorrow, heartache, loneliness...really the group’s best and worst moments. This is where they played True American, where Schmidt’s douche jar lived, where many of the couples ended up getting married, where Nick wrote his novel, where Winston and Ferguson shared a little life together, and where that weird space alien wall-painting was born. Most importantly, it was a space where all of these different souls got to share in their happiest and darkest moments for a time...together.
So...why is this important?
Well, friends, we live in an age...and in a world...that is so far from community bonding and love. We all NEED this kind of love in our lives. Watching shows like New Girl are inspiring...and they remind us that no matter our differences, we can all come together in our similarities (for this group, it was their living space in the loft) to create the impenetrable and necessary relationships that will help each of us on our way...on our struggle...on our journey through this life.
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