New Girl: "Cece Crashes" Review

Note: Full Spoilers for the episode follow.

In this week's New Girl, we got kimonos, sheep dogging, parkour, and DJ Dia-beat-it. But more than that, we got a whole lotta Cece, played by Hannah Simone! Up until now, we haven't really seen too much of Jess's supermodel gal pal, but as the title of the episode suggests, "Cece Crashes" is all about -- well, Cece! The big question is, does she fit in with the rest of the roomies? The short answer: Absotively!

With Cece crashing at Jess's apartment for a few days, we got to see what it was like adding another girl to the mix, and naturally, it was only a matter of time before Schmidt was on the prowl to shack up with Cece. This, of course, led to some brilliant one-liners from Schmidt. The guy is an absolute WIN machine for quotable quotes. I'm not sure who writes for Max Greenfield, but that person should win a medal for their finesse in scoob-speak. It's ridonkulous.

By far, the best Schmidt moment this week was his longwinded list of things he loves about the Indian culture. A full 28 seconds (yes, I timed it) of items like Slumdog, pepper, Ben Kingsley, cobras in baskets, anyone named Patel, mango chutney -- any type of chutney -- and an immense respect for cows, of course. The envelope is constantly being pushed on Schmidt's tooliness, no doubt, but I think it's his naivete that makes him so darn likable. How can you be threatened by a guy who thinks handholding is a form of "closing the deal?"

Meanwhile, Cece suggested that Nick might have a thing for Jess, which I think marks the first time we've heard this potential hookup mentioned out loud. As a result, Jess went through a series of tests to see if Nick saw her as more than just a friend. Of course, I wouldn't put much stock into that Parallel Feet Theory thing. Regardless, we finally got the ball rolling on some longterm romantic arc-age between Nick and Jess, and that's pretty awesome!

As for Cece, I think she makes an excellent fit for the group. It was actually kind of refreshing to have a different type of comedienne paired with Zooey Deschanel's now trademarked "adorkable" persona. The two actresses play very well off of each other. Cece has a bit more of a bite to her. She's sassy. One of the night's best lines was her remark to Schmidt, "If you tell anyone we held hands, I have two people in my phone that will kill you. Literally." She makes for a fun dynamic that hopefully we'll see more of in the future. Plus... she's pretty smokin.'

New Girl has definitely started to hit its stride, and the jokes are hitting more consistently every week. Jess also came off like an actual human being this time around (albeit, lovably dorky), and in general, the guys remain ever charismatic with each passing installment. And with Cece headlining her own episode, we're starting to see that even the auxiliary characters come with some depth. All in all, the whole cast is really starting to take shape in all the right ways.

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