jess – English 1102: Television and Feminism

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Talk the talk

On November 13, 2018

Let me start by saying I can’t believe this is my last blog post. This semester has flown by quicker than I could have ever imagined.

In today’s blog I’m going to discuss something that always interests me in television (and all types of writing): the manipulation of dialogue/dialect. I’m going to look at the different ways the characters on the show talk and how that impacts what the writers are trying to say about each character. Let’s start with Schmidt.

One thing I have noticed about Schmidt’s dialogue is that when he talks to talks continuously. In the most recent episode, when he is running from the shower to his room he stammers “Nobody look. Nobody look, yo. Nobody look. Seriously, no body is looking?” This line makes it very obvious that Schmidt is super needy and always looking for attention. I believe that’s why the authors always have him talking and yelling, ALOT, they’re making his (attention hungry) personality evident.

Nick is actually very different from Schmidt in this regard. When Nick talks he somewhat rambles and trails off in his sentences. What he says is usually pretty witty but it happens just fast enough for the audience to recognize it as funny but not long enough to gain attention. For example, when Julia wants to go to his room he quickly says “Julia is about to be very disappointed.” This line is witty and funny but the other characters brush it off and so does the audience. I think this is done by the authors to shape Nick’s persona, funny but unnoticed.

Finally, let’s talk about Jess. Anyone who has watched the show for more than 5 minutes will know that Jess speaks in a very high pitched voice and often does her own weird sing songy voices. For example, when sitting in court Jess starts saying random lawyer jargon in her sophisticated voice. I think the reason the author sets Jess up with this high pitched soft voice is because Jess really is a nice person but also because her voice can sound child like and a lot of the time in the show she comes across and innocent and naive, like a child. The reason she uses so many impersonations is because most of the time she has a hard time expressing her emotions, like the awkward courtroom scene, so she resorts to her own humor.

I love how these different dialogues all fit together so seamlessly to create a well flowing show but they also have specific purposes to guide the audience to a specific idea.

Clever writing and great characters, ingredients for an amazing show.

Moving forward: Goodbye Coach -Topic 6

By Anika Islam

On November 12, 2018

In Review Topic 6

Not every person we like gets to stay in our lives. Often, we have to leave behind a majority of our friends, family members, and acquaintances. The episode of New Girl titled “Clean Break”, really explores this concept. This episode focuses on the idea of leaving people behind, and whether you should try to take things that remind you of them.

One of the main characters and roommates, Coach, is moving away with his girlfriend May.

Coach and May

Coach explains to Jess that whenever he moves, he “makes a clean break”, and does not like to get sentimental. The episode starts off with Coach only wanting to take the essentials with him and leaving everything else behind. Coach then convinces the rest of his roommates to do the same thing and get rid of unnecessary things in their lives and clean up their rooms. Nick, who is basically a hoarder, is unable to and claims that everything he owns has significance. I really like this episode because it contrasts the different ways people deal with moving. Coach tries to be completely apathetic and only wants to pack essential items, whereas Nick hoards everything including candy wrappers.

I can really relate with Nick since I like to keep mementos from every milestone in my life and have a really hard time throwing away sentimental things.

Later, Coach who is adamant about leaving all memories behind, argues with Winston- another roommate- about what he should and shouldn’t pack. Winston insists that Couch keep a frying pan they bought when they were really drunk because it symbolizes their friendship and pancakes. However, Coach refuses to take it with him. But before Coach leaves, he accidentally hits his suitcase, and it is revealed that Coach took memories of his friends with him and that he wasn’t truly able to just pack the essentials.

When Coach leaves, a song played in the background, that solidifies this as one of my favorite episodes. The lyrics of the song goes “a year from now we’ll all be gone. All our friends will move away. And they’re going to better places. But our friends will be gone away”. This line from the song really impacts me because of all the people in life I left behind to be where I am right now.

This episode really resonates with me because I have moved so many times in my life. I have this desire to keep every friend I ever had in my life, however, that is just not realistic. At the end of the day, the people in your life change and evolve and most the people you love can’t stay by your side forever. You have to move on and meet new people, as hard as that may be.

The message of this episode

New Girl: Seriously Awkward Silence

By Matthias Heyrman

On November 11, 2018

In Review Topic 2

New Girl is a show that thrives on awkwardness (as anyone who has read my previous posts knows I love). The show will often build up to dramatic moments of silence where the air becomes stiff and viewers are left thinking how they would respond in such a situation. The genius of New Girl is how this awkward silence is broken by the ridiculousness of the characters’ actions. This is used perfectly in the finale of New Girl, Elaine’s Big Day, during [Spoiler] Cece’s failed marriage, while Jess and Nick’s dysfunctional relationship is falling apart.

Silence can be used in a comedy as a way of changing the mood of the scene to be serious and awkward. This focuses the audience on the careful words or actions of the characters, allowing for the crafting of serious moments in an otherwise light-hearted show. In Se2Ep25, Jess and Nick are in conflict due to their relationship. In a mere 20 minutes, the two begin by having an adorable relationship, which quickly falls right apart and is built immediately back up in 5 minutes without any unbelievable leaps of logic: all thanks to the writer’s use of silence in a particular scene.

Specifically, Jess and Nick are discussing how their relationship is clearly not functioning, and Nick decides to break it off, informing Jess that it was never going to be anything serious anyway and that they should just end it. This strong emotional shock to an otherwise fun show is left in several seconds of silence, where the audience is recoiling from the shock that Jess must be going through. The silence is used to display the thoughts going through Jess’ head as she is being broken up with, being told that her relationship was never meant to be serious in the first place.

Se2Ep25 Some awkward silence

This episode uses silence perfectly at this moment to display a serious moment, where Jess’ emotional struggles are in plain view as there is no comedy to cover it. It then does nothing to break the tension of this silence. Rather than saying something, Jess just awkwardly nods and walks away, leaving Nick in silence as he and the audience must think about the consequences of the episode.

New Girl usually uses silence to indicate a more serious moment, but ultimately breaks it with some awkward comedic moment, such as later in the episode when Schmidt is presented with two girls who love him and ask him to choose, he just stands in silence and after a moment starts running off, breaking silence with comedy. However, in the case of Jess and Nick, the silence is never broken. It is left perpetually as Jess just walks away from Nick. In a comedic show, the silence was written in to create a serious moment that leaves the audience in a real feeling of tension and regret for Nick.

New Girl: Ruining Relationships

By Matthias Heyrman

On November 6, 2018

In Review Topic 6

New Girl is a show that revolves around the concept of one woman living with 3 men without anything sexual between them, creating an awkward (but hilarious) relationship in which quirks of each sex gets compared mockingly to the other. There was a healthy dynamic between the characters that worked. However, the writers of New Girl had Jess and Nick kiss in Season 2 Episode 15, Cooler. This may seem romantic, and in the short-term, it adds to the awkward dynamic of New Girl as Nick and Jess try to hide it and move on. Unfortunately, longer-term messes with the dynamic of the characters.

The Kiss that ruined it all Se2Ep15

In a show, movie, cartoon… Whatever… adding a romantic interest between the emotional centre and the more unconventional and independent but favoured character is common. In a classic 5-man band seen in most modern media, this is especially common. Creating a passion between 2 characters that have a spark adds a narrative as their relationship is expanded and explored. However, this does not work as well in New Girl since the entirety of Season and most of Season 2 (yes, even after the kiss) is centred around the tribulations of the relationships of the loft-mates. This does not work as well if two of the loft mates are in a relationship with each other by the end of Season 2.

While I’m waiting for a gif to process, here’s an opinionated description of this plot development. There’s a plot issue. Jess originally joined the loft because she left her ex-boyfriend’s house when he cheated on her. While Jess and Nick as characters are describable as being rather irrational, there’s no logic in the two characters beginning a relationship when they already live together, as this should only lead to Jess having another break-up and having to find another place to live (poor… poor Cece).

Continuing the relationship conundrum: while I watched the show, my favourite part was guessing the characters’ next blunder in relationships. When it seemed that Winston had a stable relationship in season 2, it fell apart. I thought it was a good relationship arc that returned Winston to his original state of Single. Another example of a relationship that completes itself is Cece getting married to… Not Schmidt. The antics in Schmidt’s and Cece’s relationship drove an entire hilarious subplot for much of season 2, and watching Schmidt strive and fail to get Cece back later was hilarious. However, New Girl ended this when Cece was to get married, ending the entire, funny exchange.

Completing a relationship in a show can create an interesting new dynamic. In many cases, the show was teasing the relationship during most of its run, in which case the audience may be excited for the sudden appeasement of their shipping. But in a show like New Girl, which relies on the fact that the characters are individually facing problems that they need each other to solve, putting main characters like Jess and Nick together just bothers the dynamic.

Gender Representation in New GIRL

By Navya Katragadda

On November 3, 2018

In Review Topic 5

In New Girl, the gender spread is pretty balanced, with quirky Jess as the lead and her beautiful, smart and supportive best friend Cece along with the three roommates that Jess fights with, lives with and learns with. The only two genders represented are female and male whereas there are many more genders that could be represented. Technically, the male characters have more representation but this is balanced out by the fact that Jess is the main character and that the spotlight is always on her. In terms of agency, Jess is mostly able to make her own choices but it is also important to consider the fact that Jess cannot usually act on her desires sometimes. This is shown by the fact that the other characters, both Cece and her male roommates have to sometimes push Jess to do things and stand up for herself. Nick seems to make decisions in a more low-key way contrary to characters like Schmidt. This show also does not really connect gender to race as much as other shows usually do. Race and gender representation do not really correlate in this show as the amount of representation a character has is usually not dependent on what race they are. Sometimes when watching an episode of this show, class and gender representation is sometimes a connection I make. Characters like Schmidt who obviously makes more money than his roommates sometimes has an attitude of superiority over his female and male counterparts.

Jess being a boss.

Also, since everyone in New Girl is heterosexual, there isn’t any discrepancy in the representation that every character gets as there lacks diversity in sexuality. Disability and Mental illness are also not addressed much in this show, as it usually tries to keep a very light mood throughout the episodes. Heavy issues aren’t discussed usually in this show. Overall, the gender representation is pretty balanced out of the episodes I have seen thus far.

Thanksgiving with Jess: Themes in New Girl

By Navya Katragadda

On September 29, 2018

In Review Topic 4

This episode of ‘New Girl’ is centered on one of everyone’s favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. The theme of the episode is Jess and all her friends plus a new guy that she’s crushing on: Paul. By inviting Paul to their house, the day just turns into chaos. The episode goes over all the issues they have during the day such as Nick being irritated, all of the food preparation going wary (the turkey gets WAY too burned) and ends up with them finding a dead body in their neighbor’s house. Regardless of all of these scary and chaotic events, the group of friends still manage to have a meaningful and fun Thanksgiving day together.

Jess going all out for Paul and her roommates.

The show makes this argument by starting the episode with all of Jess’ roommates hating on Paul, but in the end, they all warm up to him and welcome him into their small family. This relates to the overall theme that despite issues and differences, people can still come together and enjoy a holiday together. This theme relates to the show as a whole because every episode, the characters have conflict but still manage to come together and realize their love and care for each other at the end of the day.

I think this episode, in particular, relates to a greater cultural meaning as it shows the importance of holiday’s, especially Thanksgiving, where in America it’s a holiday where you’re supposed to be thankful for the people regardless of the circumstances. Besides this, a lot of what happened in the episode was extreme, and would normally not occur in normal life, but it was done for humor purposes. Also, I have a feeling that Nick likes Jess, which I also think was the purpose of this episode – to overlay this fact. That is why I think Nick dealt with Paul, to make her happy. The things you do for someone you love are endless.

English 1102: Television and Feminism

Dr. Casey Alane Wilson • Georgia Institute of Technology