The Kiss's Many Effects

New Girl, S02E16

Jess and Nick couldn't face each other after the kiss, so they both tried to avoid each other by spending time with their friends.  Unfortunately, they ended up running to the same place, a marriage convention.  Schmidt attended so that he could stop Cece from finding a husband there, but he ended up defending her when the table placing made Cece look like an outcast.

I should have known that neither Jess nor Nick would be able to play off such a passionate kiss like it was nothing.  I didn't think that Nick would resort to moonwalk retreating from Jess, though.  I really loved when he kept doing that because it's such an flashy way to run away from someone, at least when Nick does it.  It doubles the attention you would get from just walking away normally.

Winston also had a funny reaction to hearing about their kiss.  He surprised me both by hitting Nick in the balls and telling him that Nick would have to move out if he didn't make it right.  I know that Nick isn't the best roommate in the world, but I thought for sure he would stick by his childhood friend's side.  That was great.

Another great moment in this story was when Jess and Nick had to make that table out of newspaper and tape.  Despite them bickering through the whole activity, they made the strongest table.  I liked seeing Nick jump on the table to prove that it would break and it remained intact under Nick's weight and another guy's.  It was nice to see like a physical piece of evidence that Jess and Nick would make a strong couple.

 Before that, Nick said something really funny about their kiss, which was great not only because it was a flimsy argument but it also showed that he's oddly attracted to Jess:

You have to take a little responsibility!  Tarting around in that little, soft, pink robe and not expecting to get kissed!  I'm a man, Jessica!  Pink robes are my catnip!

What man can't control himself when he sees a girl in a pink robe?  What?  The weirdest things turn Nick on, and I love it.

I was glad that Jess didn't try to lie about the kiss to Sam, but I felt bad that he wanted nothing to do with her as soon as he heard about it.  I thought Jess might get some time to explain or something, but he was done with her pretty much the second she ended her sentence about Nick.  Sam continued the series of surprises in this story when he swiftly punched Nick in the chest when Nick came along to defend Jess.  Wow.  He got his one hit on Nick, said his piece and was out.  That is not how I imagined the end of their relationship, and the speedy end actually made me a lot more sad than I had thought.  I mean, Jess got dumped pretty hard.  Plus, it wasn't like she was going to run into Nick's arms right after that, so it wasn't painless for her.

I did love Nick's dancing to a Taylor Swift song while Jess was drinking in sorrow.  He has such gaudy and strange dance moves!  If it were me, I would have forgiven him instantly after seeing that.  It was cute that he wanted to cheer her up, and I sort of wish that Jess would have laughed at him like I had.  Later, though, I was disappointed that Nick looked like he was going to break his promise to not to kiss her again, but he only hugged Jess in an unnatural way.  I guess that's just how it's going to be between the two of them for a while.  I doubt they'll let down their pride and admit how much they like each other for real.

Schmidt, on the other hand, has no pride at all showing up at the Indian Marriage Convention dressed in traditional Indian clothes.  Nick was too busy running from his problems to comment on how ridiculous he looked, so I was happy that Winston managed to get the job done:

You look like the fortune-teller in Big.

 However, Winston didn't look too bad in the white shirt he was wearing, but Nick looked just as bad as Schmidt (I don't think Nick can pull off any hat, really).  It's no wonder that the coordinator at the convention was literally all over Winston's ass.  I loved seeing that, even if he's sorta with Daisy now.  That lady was super-aggressive, and it made Winston a little uncomfortable.  I would have liked to see him get with her.

I wasn't really moved by the grand speech that Schmidt made to defend Cece at the end, but I did like how he ended it:

You people could have had it all.   And you shoved her over there at a table with Nick.  Get your crap together, India.

I liked that he brings up Nick like everyone knows who he is.  It was just generally interesting in the first place that Nick and Cece were seated at the same table.  I never thought of her life choices being similar to Nick.  That's a wake up call, if I ever saw one.  It made me notice that she is the type of person to just go from one thing to the next without much planning.  I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but apparently it didn't make her the most attractive wife candidate.  It's pretty surprising considering how beautiful she is.  Guess looks will only get you so far.  Damn.

Schmidt and Cece ended up sleeping with each other again.  They might have missed doing that, but I sure haven't.  It hasn't been long enough since the last time we had to hear Schmidt talk about their sex, nor see the two of them jump into bed.  Gross.  I mean, I'm happy they're sort of back together because I'm tired of Schmidt stalking her, but I'll never get used to how dirty Schmidt makes everything they do in the bed sound.

This was a good episode, full of a lot of reactions that I didn't expect.  I mostly didn't calculate that Sam and Jess would be over so soon after the kiss was done.  That was good for the sake of Jess and Nick in the future, but I couldn't help but feel bad for Jess getting tossed away in a blink of an eye.  I liked Sam enough that I could have tolerated them at least trying to work it out.  I'm not too much overjoyed to see Schmidt and Cece working their way back to a shared bed.  I haven't missed the filthy things I have to see and hear regarding that.  I just wish that Nick and Jess would stop being so ashamed of their love.  They need to turn all this awkward energy resisting each other into an awkward power couple!

Hip Hop Flop

The Cleveland Show, S04E02

Cleveland discovered a secret hip hop society meeting at Kenny West's house and tried to bring down West to become a member.  Junior joined up with other rejects of the marching band to form their own polka band.

I have to say I was looking forward to the episode a little more than others because of the number of guest stars.  I was particularly interested in what Bruno Mars was going to be doing or saying, but it was quite a let down.  Although, the "Hip Hop Illuminati" sounded like it might provide an interesting story, it wasn't much more than an intriguing name.  But at least with that many talented singers on the show, there were a few songs performed that weren't all-together horrible.

I suppose what I disliked most about this episode was that Bruno Mars didn't really get to say anything to funny or anything at all significant.  I'm sure that there were reasons for that, but the fact that when he opened his mouth, he basically sounded like a foolish kid, annoyed the hell out of me.  I don't want to say that he was made a fool of, but he just didn't seem to have a necessary role in the story.  They could have just omitted him and there would have been no difference in the overall story.  I guess that's what bothers me.  He was probably the least memorable member of the HHI.  So disappointed.  Glad I didn't just tune in for the sake of him or I'd be super pissed.

I won't mention the rest of what didn't work for me and will instead mention some of the things I did enjoy.   It was kinda cute to see Kenny West and Questlove dancing on the huge remote like it was the keyboard from the movie from Big.  I got a little chuckle when Cleveland claimed that a pile of white pillows were racist because I guess he didn't land on them.  It was actually funnier when they repeated the gag when Cleveland passed out on the floor but failed to land on the pillow pile again.  I don't even know why.  But the second time that joke really worked for me.  There were also two lines that I thought weren't so bad.  The first was when Lester was annoyed that he would have to start an ostrich delivery service:

Now I got a job I don't want.  Thanks, Obama.

The other was from Cleveland regarding Questlove:

 If you're looking for your comb, it's in your hair.

This one may have been my favorite just because it was so like Cleveland to say something that ignorant.  If only there had been more funny things like that in there!  But you get what you get.

Lastly, I just wonder why they were playing that Curb Your Enthusiam theme at the end when Questlove was surprised that Will.i.am wasn't Wyclef.  Maybe it's a joke from that show that I just don't get and I really haven't watched enough of it to know a lot about it.  Either way, I thought it was a dumb way to end the episode.

Hopefully we won't see another episode packed with so many celebrities in one story.  It might have been overkill and not particularly funny.  I'm sure that this show doesn't get as good ratings as the others in Seth MacFarlane world, but I don't know if it's necessary to use such ploys to keep people interested.  Or perhaps others really enjoyed it and it's just me.  I might have been unable to appreciate the story for itself because I kept hoping that Bruno Mars was going to have a really funny line.  I might need to rewatch this episode with less biased eyes.