It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do or how old you get, Martin Starr — you’ll always be Bill Haverchuck of Freaks and Geeks to me. And yes, I’ve seen Party Down.
In fact, Martin Starr’s guest role on New Girl last night as Nick’s law school friend Dirk actually reminded me a little of Starr’s character from Party Down.
In “Fancyman, Pt. 2″, Dirk and Nick revisited their college years while Jess struggled to appear sophisticated enough to date Russell, and Schmidt and CeCe were found out!
This was another successful episode for New Girl, and one that made me hope they keep Dermot Mulroney around for a while. I like watching this new, awkward relationship between Russell and Jess play out. Their first date (in which Jess looked fantastic) ended awkwardly – Jess said “Guys my age always want to go straight for the gold…which I don’t give them! I’m stingy with my gold…unless they dig for it.” Yeah. And then instead of going in for a kiss, Russell gave her a weird, fatherly hug and patted her back.
With her confidence boosted by CeCe, Jess called Russell for date number two – but he bailed early. So she went home, to find Nick and his visiting pal Dirk throwing a huge rager in the apartment, complete with slutty drunk co-eds. Yes, it turns out that Dirk collects both degrees (he has several) and STDs, because he uses his old guy credibility to pick up 20 year-old girls. To a woman his age, Dirk would be a mega loser. To young idiots, he’s a poet! And Nick is a guy who mixes drinks for a living — so he can get you drunk professionally.
Of course, as soon as Jess began to partake in the debauchery, Russell showed up to apologize and explain – his daughter had had a health emergency, so he left in a rush. (Leaving Jess a wad of bills for dinner, plus an extra hundred for the cab ride. This girl would’ve been taking that cab straight to the shoe store.)
The whole course of events gave Jake Johnson the opportunity to play drunk in a very hilarious way, and eventually Jess and Russell kissed. We all won.
Meanwhile, CeCe allowed Schmidt to have sex with her in his “Fantasy Location #3″ after she told Dirk she was “the boss” in her current relationship. (She also pretended to play “sexcretary”, because that was the role assigned to Schmidt.) That location was the back of Schmidt’s SUV, which Winston decided to borrow for an impromptu trip to Mexico. Yes, he made the huge mistake of telling Shelby they needed space right before her sexy trip, and he didn’t even mean it. It was kind of cute to see Winston panic like that and chase after his girl.
Then the funniest moment of all came: Winston singing along to the soundtrack of Wicked in the car. I could watch that guy try to belt out “Defying Gravity” every day for the rest of my life. Hilarious.
When Winston crossed back into Mexico after discovering that Shelby had gone back to the States because she missed him (awww), he discovered Schmidt and CeCe, naked in the trunk. Ah. Maze. Ing. I can’t wait to see what happens with this.
What did you guys think of the episode?
Favorite quotes & moments:
- The various things you can call top-no-pants. I think it should universally be known as “Winnie The Pooh”.
- Schmidt: “No, CeCe. I’m not having sex with you right now. I need to get everybody in the company’s name into a version of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’.”
CeCe: “Totally fine. What do you need? Like 20 minutes?”
Schmidt: “Okay, this is real work, for my real boss, who is not you.”
CeCe: “Oh, I get what’s happening here. It’s because pony tail out there called you a “sexerceptionist.””
Schmidt: “A sexerceptionist answers calls all day. A sex-cretary does scheduling, light filing… basically runs the office. So, first of all, thank you for the demotion. And second of all, I quit.” - Of course Schmidt calls his car “the manbulance”.
