I have finished watching the first two seasons of New Girl and there were numerous episodes that I could write about for my blog entries. Among those, I am focusing on the writing of the “Pilot”, the first episode of season 1 of New Girl for my first Blog Entry.

It was written by Elizabeth Meriwether. She wrote the plays Heddatron (2006), The Mistakes Madeline Made (2006) and Oliver Parker! (2010) and the romantic comedy film No Strings Attached (2011).

Elizabeth Meriwether, the writer of New Girl

The dialogue in New Girl is structured in conversations between the characters as the story-line is revealed. The dialogue here is very informal as it is the conversation between friends. The characters make jokes and use slang. All of the conversations are direct and there is no voice-over. This matters because it indicates that the show is emphasizing more on the conversations between the characters rather than the self talk. This means that they focus more on the relationship rather than individual characters.

Silence is used to move from one scene to another. This clearly indicates transition between scenes and therefore it is easy to follow the flow of the plot.

At the start of this show, there is a literary allusion. Jess referred her boyfriend cheating on her to the typical horror movies. Since it is the first episode of the show, there are also multiple recollection scenes. These throwback scenes allow us to know what different characters went through in the past. It helps us to understand the personalities of the characters and to predict the reaction of the characters in certain situations.

Jess finding out her boyfriend is cheating on her

I believe this episode stands out because it was a good way to start this show as it showed the background of each character. This helped the viewers to predict how the plot of this show is going to be. It also builds up the relationship between Jess and her three roommates and leaves the audience to look forward to different kinds of incidents this relationship might lead to.