Everybody Hates Schmidt

New Girl, S02E04

Jess began to hang out with some kids that had just moved in, but didn't seem to like Schmidt because he was too old.  Winston worried about not having very long left to live.  Nick became obsessed with pranking Schmidt, especially in making him feel like he was getting older by the second.

It's funny what manages to ruffle Winston's feathers, and this time it was Schmidt's actuarial.  I mean, he really took that thing to heart, despite he thought at first it told him he should have died about 4 years ago.  Of the 3 guys, I would guess that Winston would live the longest because Nick both fails to take care of himself and is prone to stupid decisions, while Schmidt just seems like someone who would end up being stabbed or shot one day.  Still, I guess Winston freaking out about his life running short did inspire him to not so very eloquently demand that he be given a promotion at work.  Although he has his own show, it's at a graveyard time slot, so it's almost a non-promotion, but hey, he's at least taking a step forward.  I think that will end up being a very interesting new job for him.

Nick, on the other hand, was letting his insanity sink him further into debt because he wasted over a grand playing pranks on Schmidt!  What the hell??  One of the most elaborate was when Schmidt noticed that his height line was higher than his current height.  I was shocked at the detail he put into that when he explained it to Jess:

I took a photo of the wall, shrunk it down, made a copy at an architect’s office.  From there, it was just your basic spackle-and-silkscreen job.

Seriously??  I've never seen Nick put so much energy and work into something, and when he does it has to be something spiteful.  He is so crazy!  And Winston is also crazy because he doesn't know how to prank adequately.  I don't which is funnier:  the fact that he goes too small (like sprinkling dust near Schmidt's car) or goes too big (hitting people with skis or throwing acid on them).  I'm actually a lot more concerned about Winston attempting a prank than Nick.  Nick will bankrupt himself playing his tricks, but Winston is likely to kill you.

Finally, in the Jess and Schmidt story, it was a treat to see those kids looking upon Schmidt like an unwanted growth.  But I think when Schmidt first caught on that he was hated and had to pretend he had work so he could refuse the kids' invitation to hang, I did feel bad for him.  No one wants to be the unpopular guy, so I couldn't help but want Schmidt to somehow win them over.  But it was pretty funny in general watching Jess being treated like the coolest person in the world, while Schmidt, with all of his bad slang and nonsense hype, got nowhere.  I also loved when Nick said that nothing about Schmidt being hated was new:

If I had a dollar for everybody I couldn’t hang out with because they hated Schmidt, I’d be rich.  Like, fill my gas tank all the way up rich.

I wasn't too surprised that even when Jess tried to help him that Schmidt still failed because he was just trying too hard.  But what I really liked is that Jess came clean about stealing catchphrases from 80s sitcoms and realized that she wasn't really identifying with those kids, but had already grown as a person beyond them.  But the kids still liked her and wanted to hang with her.  Aww.  I like when people like Jess because she is sweet and fun, but sometimes people don't like her because she does things her own way and is overly awkward in the most simple situations (and is the victim of bad luck).  It really shows that interacting with younger people is what she was born to do.

 This was a great episode.  I wonder if Jess will continue to see her new neighbors every now and then--I think they could add a little more crazy situations in their apartment building.  I'm pretty sure Winston's little show is going to make his job even more interesting or probably make him go insane with the strange work hours.  Don't really care what happens with Schmidt right now, but I'd like to see Nick not do anything else to throw the money he doesn't have away.  Nick would be living in an alley right now if he didn't have his friends.

Eden Rocks The Altman Boat

Suburgatory, S01E20

George continued to have problems while dating Eden, the biggest being that Noah was being overprotective of her and his baby inside of her.  Shelia started to fill Jill's head with the possibility that Eden would try to steal Noah away from her, adding to the negative atmosphere around Eden.  Tessa was enjoying her job at Dallas' store and got a promotion.  However, George, noticing how much time and money she was putting into her job, asked Dallas to cut back Tessa's hours.  Dallas agreed, even though George just wanted Tessa to have more time to spend getting to know Eden.  In a side story, Lisa began to think that she was adopted and looked for evidence.

George really must have no other friends he can make because if he did have another option besides Noah, I would say he was an idiot to continue interacting with Noah at all.  He has gone above and beyond paranoid and intrusive with his questions about George's intimacy with Eden and making George sign a contract about what he could and couldn't do with Eden while pregnant.  I was really hoping that Noah's insanity would make George snap, and he might literally slap some sense into him.  However, George kept respecting his friend's crazy demands, while Eden could barely hug George without him awkwardly pulling away.

I'm not sure what nosy Shelia is up to, but I can't believe Jill was so stupid to listen to her.  Everyone in town knows that woman does nothing but give out advice that no one asked for or needed.  And she's a chronic gossip.  She'll say anything, as long as it looks true enough in her eyes, regardless of what the facts might be.  I don't know if Lisa's conclusion that her mother's strange actions are linked to her being adopted, but that would be an interesting turn of events.  It would be sad, though, that her family treats her like an afterthought and she was an adopted child.  It'd be like why did you adopt her if you were only going to make her feel second-best all the time?

As for Tessa, it was nice to see her so good at her job and making some serious cash.  I got annoyed that George had been busy with Eden and hadn't even seen Tessa for a while, but only wanted to start spending time with her again so that she could get to know Eden.  How selfish!  Even if he thought Tessa was in danger of spending too much money or becoming Dallas or something, as long as Tessa was happy and doing well at school, why bother her??  Sure he and Eden has something special, but it didn't give him the right to be butting into her life like that.  As sweet as I thought it was that George provided Eden refuge from crazy Noah and Jill, I leaned toward taking Tessa's side who had to suddenly live with her father's new girlfriend and had to work less at a job she was doing well at.  No matter how well Tessa and Eden may get along, I think that George owes Tessa a huge apologetic gesture.

The last thing I thought was good about this episode was that Dallas started to show signs of jealousy that Eden and George were clicking so well.  So her feelings for George are still there, after all.  It's nice to see the shoe on the other foot because I know that George wasn't too pleased with all the boy toys Dallas had after her divorce, too.  But since he has met Eden, he hasn't bothered with Dallas since (until needing her to cut back Tessa's hours).  I'd love to see Dallas and Eden interact soon.  It'd be funny to see her try to hide her dislike of Eden.

Good episode, although I would have loved some more Dalia in it.  I'm interested to see what Lisa finds out from the DNA test she seemed to be taking at the end.  I wonder how Ryan's feelings would change for her if she was adopted?  It'll be even more interesting to see how Tessa handles another woman under her roof.  I'm pretty sure that even as sweet as Eden appears to be, there's little chance that Tessa will welcome her into their home with open arms.  Sounds like we can expect some entertaining conflict in the next episode!