Watercooler: In Praise of the New New Girl

Whoo whoo! We are loving the new Jess!

When New Girl started, Fox's favorite misfit roomie was totally adorable (not gonna use that other word), but pretty odd. Like "socially stunted" weird. The kind of klutzy, sexually reversed freakish oddity who could only exist in hipster-porn fan-fic and on TV. And even there, her shelf-life seemed limited. How on Earth could we invest long-term in unicorn-flavored pin-up who was a just a few animated pixels away from being a Pixar creation?

But lately, our Jess has been doing some changing and last night, we finally got to see a side of her that was as real as our love for Zooey Deschanel. After finding out that best friend Cece had been secretly sleeping with Schmidt (for two months!), the Queen of Cutesy reacted like a grown-up instead of a toddler hopped up on paste: With shock, disgust and then understandable anger at being lied to. Granted, her "Mexican-wrestler" ensemble was patented old-school Jess, but hey, we heart her quirky side, too. It's just nice to see this season's breakout sweetheart developing into a real live Girl.

Did you check out New Girl last night? What do you think of Jess' evolution?

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