movie review new girl

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

Heartwarming roommate comedy with innuendo, drinking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Highlights the importance and value of friendship.

Jess is awkward but lovable and honest; the guys s

New Girl's diverse ensemble includes characters li

On rare occasions, arguments lead to punching and

References to exotic dancing, infidelity, and sex.

Words like "hell," "ass," "damn," and "bitch" are

Lots of pop culture references to films like Dirty

Characters drink beer, wine, and cocktails, someti

Parents need to know that New Girl is a heartwarming sitcom that has mature sexual content, including references to exotic dancing, having sex, and infidelity. Cast members are shown partially dressed, in their underwear, and implied to be naked (but there's no nudity). Expect frequent drinking (beer, wine,…

Positive Messages

Highlights the importance and value of friendship. Responsibility isn't reinforced.

Positive Role Models

Jess is awkward but lovable and honest; the guys soon grow to like her and be protective of her. Some characters seem motivated by selfishness, but usually they choose to do the right thing over the fun thing when it counts.

Diverse Representations

New Girl 's diverse ensemble includes characters like Cece (Hannah Simone), who has Indian heritage and is bisexual, and Winston (Lamorne Morris) and Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.), who are Black. Women are depicted as intelligent and independent. Besides Cece, a few other LGBTQ+ characters appear in positive supporting roles, including Reagan (Megan Fox) and Sadie (June Diane Raphael). But there isn't much variety in terms of body type or characters with disabilities.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

On rare occasions, arguments lead to punching and shoving, but no blood is shown. Violence is used in a comedic, nonthreatening way.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

References to exotic dancing, infidelity, and sex. Cast members are sometimes shirtless, in their underwear, under the sheets, taking off their clothes, and/or implied to be naked (no nudity). Flirting, talk of hooking up, jokes about erections, etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Words like "hell," "ass," "damn," and "bitch" are audible. The term "douche bag" is used frequently.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Lots of pop culture references to films like Dirty Dancing and Lord of the Rings , etc. Dell and Apple laptops are visible, but their logos aren't displayed.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink beer, wine, and cocktails, sometimes to excess. Nick is a bartender, so scenes frequently take place at the bar. References to marijuana and "pot cookies," as well as methamphetamine.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that New Girl is a heartwarming sitcom that has mature sexual content, including references to exotic dancing, having sex, and infidelity. Cast members are shown partially dressed, in their underwear, and implied to be naked (but there's no nudity). Expect frequent drinking (beer, wine, cocktails) and iffy language ("ass," "damn," "douche bag," etc.). Characters also reference marijuana and methamphetamines. The ensemble features Black and Indian characters in leading roles, and women are depicted as strong and intelligent. While friendship is clearly valued in the show, characters are flawed and don't always do the right/responsible thing.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (23)
• Kids say (85)

Based on 23 parent reviews

Sweet show, but lots of mature sexual content

What's the story.

NEW GIRL stars actress and singer Zooey Deschanel as Jessica Day, an awkward but lovable 20-something looking for a new place to live after she discovers that her longtime boyfriend is cheating on her. Luckily she meets three single guys -- sensitive Nick Miller ( Jake Johnson ), womanizer Schmidt ( Max Greenfield ), and athletic Winston Bishop ( Lamorne Morris ) -- who have a fantastic apartment and a room to rent. Adjusting to a female roommate isn't easy for the guys, but helping them get used to her is Cece ( Hannah Simone ), Jess' best friend, who also happens to be a beautiful model. Together they create an unorthodox family and support each other through good and bad times.

Is It Any Good?

This lighthearted series offers some well-timed witty moments thanks to Deschanel's performance. The group dynamic between the men in New Girl is funny too. Some of the slapstick jokes fall a little flat, but this goofball humor is part of the show's overall charm. Thanks to its focus on dating, romance, and sex, New Girl has lots of mature subject matter, none of which is discussed in explicit terms. But the show's overall focus on friendship makes it a heartwarming choice for teens and up.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what makes a TV show like New Girl funny. Is it the writing? The acting? The timing? Are there things that you think TV shows and movies show as being funny that really aren't? Why not?

Who would you pick as roommates to share an apartment with? How would you divide household duties?

Do you have people in your life you aren't biologically related to, but you consider family?

• Premiere date : September 20, 2011
• Cast : Jake Johnson , Max Greenfield , Zooey Deschanel
• Network : Fox
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Friendship
• TV rating : TV-14
• Last updated : March 13, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Big Bang Theory

Three's Company

Comedy tv shows for teens, best sitcoms for your next family binge-watch, related topics.

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

Anne Hathaway's 'Tonight Show' Interview Hits An Awkward Snag After The...

11 Best New Movies on Netflix: May 2024's Freshest Films to Watch

John Green’s ‘Turtles All the Way Down’ Cameo Is a Treat for His...

Spider-Man Swings onto 'X-Men '97' — But This Isn't Just Any Spider-Man

'GMA' Weatherman Rob Marciano's Firing Sparked By "Heated Screaming Match"...

Huey Lewis Tells Drew Barrymore What He Learned About Bruce Springsteen...

Sydney Sweeney Sings “Unwritten” Into Glen Powell’s Butt in Iconic...

Holly Madison Calls Bob Guccione A "Horrible Person" For Publishing...

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘New Girl’ On Peacock and Hulu, A Sitcom That Surpassed The “Adorkable” Label and Provided Genuine Laughs

Where to stream:.

• Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel Denies That “Nepotism” Helped Her In Hollywood: “No One’s Getting Jobs Because Their Dad’s A DP”

Stream it or skip it: ‘dreamin’ wild’ on hulu, a contemplative music biopic about big ambitions, harsh realities, and the promise of family  , stream it or skip it: ‘trolls band together’ on peacock, a threequel stuffed with visual tomfoolery and cutesy karaoke, best christmas movies on hulu: 2023 edition.

Though New Girl premiered back in 2011 (and ran for seven seasons), the show will be available to a new audience now that it’s landing on Peacock and Hulu starting today. Early in its run, the show’s star, Zooey Deschanel, was billed as being “simply adorkable” but the tag line reduced Deschanel and the show down to a novelty: She’s a quirky weirdo! What unusual things will she do next? In fact, she and the show were much smarter and more entertaining than that motto let on. As we reflect on the show’s pilot 12 years later, there’s a lot about it that holds up, and we can happily report that it’s still a great hang.

NEW GIRL : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Jess, the star of our show, faces the camera and says, “So, you know in horror movies when the girl’s like, ‘Oh my God, there’s something in the basement! Let me just run down there in my underwear and see what’s going on in the dark.’ And you’re like, ‘What is your problem? Call the police.’ And she’s like ‘Okay!’ but it’s too late because she’s already getting murdered? Well, my story’s kinda like that.” As she finishes her story, she offers a shrug and a half-wincing grimace. You might think Jess is revealing all of this to a therapist, but no, she’s talking to the three men who will become her new roommates.

The Gist: Jess (Zooey Deschanel) is a teacher who has just discovered that her live-in boyfriend, Spencer, has been cheating on her. She discovers this because when she arrives home from work early one day to surprise him with an afternoon delight (she shows up naked under a trench coat, pretending to be a stripper named Rebecca who’s putting herself through college), Spencer and his lady friend have just finished having sex.

The show, created by Elizabeth Meriwether, who wrote the pilot, wastes no time getting Jess set up in a new apartment, occupied by Schmidt (Max Greenfield), who votes Jess in as a new cohabitant because her best friend Cece is a model, Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.), who’s a vaguely toxic bro with a hot temper, and Nick (Jake Johnson), who has just gone through a breakup himself that he’s not over, and he does not like the idea of living with this weirdo who is overly emotional, sings to herself often , and loves Dirty Dancing .

It takes an act and a half for the guys to warm to Jess, who spends a lot of time wallowing and mourning the loss of her relationship. So when they take her to a party and she meets a guy she likes and plans a date with, Jess’s misery seems like it’s coming to an end, and the guys seem happy for her. When that guy turns out to be a jerk who stands her up after declaring he just wanted to sleep with her, the roommates spring to action; they get Jess from the restaurant where she’s been waiting alone, and take her home so they cal all watch Dirty Dancing t ogether. It’s sweet, it’s charming, it’s kind. These bros might not relate to Jess’s feminine energy, but they feel protective of her and she’s obviously just what they need in their apartment.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? At it’s core, New Girl is a modern take on shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda , about an irreverent, professional woman looking for love, but in tone, it’s a direct descendant (or perhaps sibling) of shows like Friends , Happy Endings , and How I Met Your Mother , full of running gags, solid jokes, and an ensemble with genuine chemistry.

Our Take: There’s one major shift between the pilot episode of New Girl and the rest of the series, and that’s the fact that Damon Wayons Jr., who was originally cast as Coach, was replaced by Lamorne Morris who plays Winston. (This was due to a scheduling conflict Wayans had with Happy Endings . Morris doesn’t show up till episode 2). Aside from that, New Girl sets up exactly what kind of show it is from the moment the pilot begins. Though Zooey Deschanel has stated that she dislikes the term “manic pixie dreamgirl,” the show sets her up to be a version of that archetype, a quirky, flighty, irreverent woman who doesn’t really fit a specific mold. She’s awkward and unsexy, yet she’s romantic. She sings – so much – and while Deschanel herself is a talented singer, Jess plays her vocal stylings for laughs, often to the irritation of her roommates. But even though Jess and the men around her (and her best friend Cece, played by Hannah Simone), are all “types,” the show immediately rounds out their characters with heart, flaws, and self-awareness. Schmidt is the womanizing business bro who constantly has to put money in the apartment’s “Douchebag Jar,” one of the many funny recurring gags that appears throughout the series. Coach is the talented and cocky athlete who’s actually terrible with women. Nick is the cynical guy’s guy who thinks Jess is all just a bit too much. But of course, Nick is also the roommate who doth protest too much, and his soft spot for Jess (and their will-they-or-won’t-they dynamic) is established early on, giving the show a romantic tension that carries over for it’s entire run.

Though New Girl is not a new show and we have the luxury of looking back on its seven seasons in hindsight for this review, with it’s high points (Prince! True American!) and low points (Schmidt’s love triangle with Cece and Elizabeth!), overall, there are far more good episodes of New Girl than there are bad ones and despite a few bumps, it always managed to find its way back to funny.

Parting Shot: As the four roommates sit together on the couch to watch Dirty Dancing , Schmidt leans over to Jess and tells her,”Jess, I know you’ve had a really rough go of it. I just want you to know that no matter what, for me at least, I would still totally do you.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Jess says before immediately calling out for the Douchebag Jar where Schmidt puts a dollar in every time he acts like, you know, a douchebag.

Sleeper Star: Back in 2011, Jake Johnson was probably the least-known of the four main actors in the pilot, and he’s become one of the most consistently entertaining actors out there thanks to his roles in Minx and Into The Spider-Verse . When you watch these early episodes, even though he’s a grumpy crank who basically hates himself, he’s one of the most lovable characters on the show.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Who’s that girl? It’s Jess!” Jess sings to motivate herself after Schmidt invites her out to a party to get her out of the house. “Did you just make up your own theme song?” Nick asks. She sure did, because that’s what Jess does. The joke is also that this is actually the show’s theme song.

Our Call: STREAM IT! New Girl has genuine laughs straight out of the gate. In hindsight, there are certainly a few episodes worth skipping, but overall, the show is entirely worth a watch (or re-watch) if you’re looking for a comforting sitcom to binge, filled with people you wish you could be friends with.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction .

• Stream It Or Skip It

Does 'Yellowstone' Return Tonight? The Latest Updates On 'Yellowstone' Season 5, Part 2 Premiere Date

Anne Hathaway's 'Tonight Show' Interview Hits An Awkward Snag After The Audience Reacts In Silence To Her Question

Whoopi Goldberg Accuses 'The View' Producer Of "Side-Eyeing" Her After She Promised Not To Speak About Israel-Palestine Protests: "He's Starting To Get Annoyed"

'The View's Whoopi Goldberg "Enraged" After Donald Trump Claimed America Is "Anti-White": "Nobody In Your Family Was Hung"

'The View': Whoopi Goldberg Calls Out 'Unfrosted' For Not Casting People Of Color — Then Takes "Everything Back"

When Will 'BMF' Season 3, Episode 10 Be On Starz?

• Newsletters

Site search

• Israel-Hamas war
• Home Planet
• 2024 election
• Supreme Court
• TikTok’s fate
• All explainers
• Future Perfect

Filed under:

New Girl is 146 episodes of quirky comedic enjoyment, and it’s all on Netflix

In the world of New Girl, spring 2020 still involves kissing, so the show has that going for it.

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: New Girl is 146 episodes of quirky comedic enjoyment, and it’s all on Netflix

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about: The seventh and final season of New Girl takes place in the spring of 2020, courtesy of a three-year time jump after the season six finale , which took place in the spring of 2017. In New Girl world, everything is great in 2020. The series’ central characters have all found love and happiness. Downtown Los Angeles remains sunny and bright and filled with people.

A fantasy? Perhaps. But it’s the kind of fantasy that some of my friends and I are increasingly turning to in these times of stress and social distancing. The Office shows us a world where people still go to work every day (at a paper company, no less). The Simpsons shows us a town where no matter how bad things get, they’re never all that bad. And New Girl shows us a candy-coated city where kissing is always great and never scary.

New Girl has rough patches, but even at its worst, it’s competently made — and that matters a lot more than you might realize. When you’re looking for something to watch that will stretch on and on, a competently made sitcom is better than almost any other type of television. One episode rolls into the next, and a show’s good stretches (of which New Girl has many) and bad stretches (of which New Girl has many) start to blend together.

But as one New Girl episode becomes another becomes another, as the show’s central couples come together and fall apart, over and over again, the series’ top-notch acting, writing, and directing carry me through. With the very similar Friends no longer streaming on Netflix (it’s coming to the new streaming service HBO Max in May) and with so many people looking for their next sitcom marathon — now might be New Girl ’s time to shine.

New Girl started as a Zooey Deschanel vehicle. It became one of the best ensemble sitcoms of its era.

The first half-season of New Girl was that rare thing in modern TV: a massive, massive hit. Its first few episodes set new ratings benchmarks, and its success helped several other shows on the Fox network thrive.

New Girl 's early success was largely tied to its star, Zooey Deschanel . When the show premiered in 2011, Deschanel was well-known for her roles in a variety of films, ranging from the sweetly plaintive ( All the Real Girls ) to the kookily mainstream ( Elf ) to somehow both at once ( 500 Days of Summer ). New Girl ’s ad campaign plastered Deschanel’s face all over buildings and buses across America, with the word “ADORKABLE” stamped atop her. It was an aggressively irritating campaign, but it worked. The show quickly found an audience.

Its initial high ratings dropped across the first season, as the series became more than The Zooey Deschanel Show . Yet some of the viewers who came for Deschanel ultimately stayed for what became one of the top ensemble casts of the 2010s. The show’s central premise involved a young, newly single woman named Jess (Deschanel) moving in with three single guys in a downtown Los Angeles loft.

The dyspeptic and unambitious Nick (Jake Johnson), the smooth-talking would-be Lothario Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and the walking non-sequitur Winston (Lamorne Morris) formed a great comedy trio, and Deschanel had fun chemistry with all of them — though her romantic chemistry with Johnson became the engine that fueled the show’s second (and best) season.

New Girl ’s pilot featured a different roommate named Coach, who was played by Damon Wayans Jr. The character left the series in episode two and was replaced by Morris’s Winston because Wayans was committed to a different TV show. But in later seasons, after Wayans was free of his other obligation, Coach returned. New Girl never quite figured out how to use him, but he’s so funny you might not mind. (Also spending an extended stint of episodes in the apartment, eventually: Megan Fox, of all people .)

Like all comedies built around will-they/won’t-they pairings — and New Girl has two of them, if you include Schmidt’s flirtation with Jess’s best friend Cece, played by Hannah Simone — this one has its ups and downs. Watching the show week to week, those ups and downs could feel hard to ride out. But in a marathon, you’ll blow past the weaker moments so quickly you might not even notice.

New Girl has 146 episodes to work your way through, with just enough of a serialized spine — largely about Nick and Jess’s romance — to create a sense of forward momentum. Some episodes are perfect for watching over and over again (like any of the ones featuring the show’s made-up drinking game, True American) while others will just be a pleasant way to pass time.

But in all of them, you’ll get to hang out with fun characters, who say funny things, who are played by terrific actors. You’ll live in New Girl ’s bright and beautiful world for 21 minutes at a time, and even when things go wrong, they’ll never feel truly dire. If you’re looking for a new Netflix marathon, try it out. Worst case is you’ll probably find yourself wondering just how these characters might survive being quarantined with each other here in our world.

New Girl is streaming in its entirety on Netflix .

One Good Thing is Vox’s recommendations feature. In each edition, find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend.

Will you support Vox today?

We believe that everyone deserves to understand the world that they live in. That kind of knowledge helps create better citizens, neighbors, friends, parents, and stewards of this planet. Producing deeply researched, explanatory journalism takes resources. You can support this mission by making a financial gift to Vox today. Will you join us?

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via

Next Up In Culture

Sign up for the newsletter today, explained.

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

Thanks for signing up!

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

What the backlash to student protests over Gaza is really about

The lessons from colleges that didn’t call the police

Should humans get their own geologic era?

The longshot plan to end the war in Gaza and bring peace to the Middle East

Drake vs. everyone, explained

Where billions of cicadas will emerge this spring (and over the next decade), in one map

Movie Review: Nick from ‘New Girl’ directs himself in high-concept comedy thriller ‘Self Reliance’ on Hulu

Jason Fraley | [email protected]

February 2, 2024, 3:11 PM

• Share This:
• share on facebook
• share on threads
• share on linkedin
• share on email

It’s been fun watching the cast of TV’s “New Girl” find new projects: Winston (Lamorne Morris) just had a heroic turn in FX’s “Fargo,” Schmidt (Max Greenfield) was a perfectly-cast douchebag in “Promising Young Woman,” and CeCe (Hannah Simone) is the best-friend sidekick in ABC’s “Not Dead Yet.”

Still, I didn’t have on my bingo card that Nick (Jake Johnson) would become a slick indie filmmaker after playing Zooey Deschanel’s roommate/love interest, an underrated love story compared to Ross and Rachel in “Friends” or Jim and Pam in “The Office” for a happy ending that eluded Joseph Gordon-Levitt in “(500) Days of Summer.”

Yet that’s exactly what happened as Johnson writes, directs and stars in “Self Reliance,” a high-concept comedy thriller that’s almost as outlandish as Nick’s novel “The Pepperwood Chronicles” but one that is handled with enough clever care that Neon purchased it after its premiere at South by Southwest to now release on Hulu.

Set in modern-day Los Angeles, the story follows Tommy (Johnson), who just broke up with his girlfriend and has no real direction in life. That changes when Andy Samberg (playing himself) pulls up in a limo and offers to take him to a mysterious warehouse. There, he’s cast on a reality TV show to win $1 million if he can survive 30 days evading hunters who can only kill him if he’s alone, so he begs family, friends and strangers to stay by his side.

You’ll enjoy pointing at the screen to play “six degrees of sitcom separation” with your significant other on a date night. Hey, look! It’s Nick from “New Girl” heartbroken over Tom Haverford’s girlfriend from “Parks & Rec” (Natalie Morales)! Too bad he can’t confide in Audrey from “Grace Under Fire” (Nancy Lenehan) as his mother or Shawnee from “Veep” (Mary Holland) and Stevie from “Schitt’s Creek” (Emily Hampshire) as his skeptical sisters!

It’s more than just meta casting; Johnson seems keenly aware of our pop-culture touchstones, mining some of his biggest laughs from stars playing themselves. It doesn’t actually make sense that Samberg, Christopher Lloyd and Wayne Brady make self-aware cameos while other famous stars like Anna Kendrick play fictional roles, but she delivers tender moments as a hopeless romantic. We believe them as a couple of misfits who need each other.

Not only does Johnson coach fine performances in his directorial debut, he also writes the screenplay. His funniest- written moment is a toilet scene showing Tommy is terrified to be alone, while his funniest- directed moment is a group of reality show production assistants popping out of the bedroom with ninja-like stealth. Other choices like the hero hanging out with a homeless stranger feel like a retread of Nick with pal Tran in “New Girl.”

In the end, there’s no escaping comparisons to David Fincher’s “The Game,” which did it first and better. There are also hints of Netflix’s “Squid Game” with the proverbial “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” The thrills are never as tense as David Robert Mitchell’s horror flick “It Follows,” which similarly kept its main character on the run from stalkers, nor is the comedy as funny as Peter Weir’s hidden-camera masterpiece “The Truman Show.”

Still, if you don’t mind the derivative, it’s an enjoyable enough romp on Hulu if you’re looking for something fun to watch on a Friday night. Your significant other may wish for more falling action with a rom-com epilogue, but you might just think it cuts to black at the right moment — and that’s probably exactly what made it a festival darling.

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here .

© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Hailed by The Washington Post for “his savantlike ability to name every Best Picture winner in history," Jason Fraley began at WTOP as Morning Drive Writer in 2008, film critic in 2011 and Entertainment Editor in 2014, providing daily arts coverage on-air and online.

• 202-895-5115

Related News

‘Star Wars’ actor Mark Hamill drops by White House for a visit with ‘Joe-bi-Wan Kenobi’

Music Review: Dua Lipa’s ‘Radical Optimism’ is controlled dance pop

Doug Liman, Matt Damon and the Afflecks made a heist comedy for Apple. ‘The Instigators’

Recommended.

3-year-old girl killed in Southeast DC shooting

Suspects in Dunbar drive-by shooting in police custody

First legal DC marijuana patio to open 'any day now'

Related categories:.

• Skip to main content
• Skip to secondary menu
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

Pepperdine Graphic

Review: ‘New Girl’ Motivates Viewers To Make the Most Out of Life

September 23, 2020 by Samantha Torre

The official poster displays the main characters in the TV series “New Girl.” The heartfelt comedy aired on Fox for seven years and followed the lives of five friends in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of IMDb

Elizabeth Meriwether’s “ New Girl ” is charming, hilarious and, above all, heartwarming. The show aired on Fox from Sept. 20, 2011 to May 15, 2018. It aims to inspire viewers to stay positive and remain true to themselves despite the struggles that may come their way.

Have you ever planned something, only for it to turn out horribly? Well, Jessica Day did. When a surprise for her boyfriend reveals he was cheating on her, Jess must adjust to a new apartment, new roommates and new problems.

Her new roommates, on the other hand, have to get used to someone with the personality of a Disney princess — random singing and all. It’s an adjustment, to say the least.

The series serves as a refreshing reminder that sometimes people can be difficult and life can be a mess, but what matters most is that it is possible to keep going because great things are around the corner. This is especially relevant now, as COVID-19 brings new challenges and disappointments to everyday life.

A large part of “New Girl’s” charm is its talented cast, which includes Zooey Deschanel as Jess, an extremely sweet but slightly unrealistic woman who has to adjust to three new roommates. Jake Johnson plays Nick, a realist who has to adjust to living with an optimist. Max Greenfield plays Schmidt, who looks for happiness in all the wrong places. Hannah Simone plays Cece, who is figuring out relationships. Lamone Morris , who plays Winston, has to learn how to move on from failure. Damon Wayans Jr. plays Coach, a character who comes in and out of the show to offer friendship and advice.

As the show progresses, the characters learn a lot about themselves and those around them. The characters overcome their insecurities and try to find common ground despite confrontations and misunderstandings. By the show’s conclusion, the group of friends is even closer.

“New Girl” captivated its audiences for so long because all of the characters love and support one another. While there are arguments, pranks and the occasional broken TV, each of the characters is able to go to one another with their problems and receive a heartwarming dose of support.

Mishaps allow these characters to meet, as their carefully thought out plans are changed. These changes, however, are true to real life. Sometimes someone loses a dance-off to an 8-year-old, blows up a turkey or gets a frozen burrito for Christmas. When mistakes happen, it is important to look for the positives in the situation.

“New Girl” demonstrates that failures are chances for success, as the friends work past their problems. Thus, the show embodies the saying, “When one door closes, another one opens” and revolves around the constantly changing nature of adulthood.

“New Girl” has a hopeful undertone while still managing to come off as realistic and not overly cheesy. Each member of the group ruins touching moments because each actor offers a realistic portrayal of friendship.

In the age of COVID-19, it may feel like nothing is going according to plan. Events are limited in capacity, classes are happening from home, and hanging out with friends is limited to texts or FaceTime sessions; it can feel extremely frustrating.

“New Girl” reminds viewers that making mistakes is a part of life. It shows viewers the joy of connection and the importance of supporting those around them.

Instead of going to movie theaters, host streaming parties with friends. Enroll in an online cooking class. Join that club you wanted an excuse to look into. Support your friends, and be there for people. Cook dinner for family one night. Send a playlist to a friend who is struggling, or recommend “New Girl” to someone who needs a laugh.

“New Girl,” at its core, is a story about friendship and resilience. It shows audience members that it is OK if something doesn’t end in the way they hoped and that problems and solutions are a part of life.

“New Girl” is available for streaming on a variety of sites, including Netflix, Hulu, YouTube TV, Sling, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, Amazon Prime and TBS.

___________________

Follow the Graphic on Twitter: @PeppGraphic

Email Samantha Torre: [email protected]

‘Prom Dates’ Proves the Teen-Girl Raunchy Sex Comedy Is Here to Stay, Thank God

SOME GOOD NEWS

Antonia Gentry and Julia Lester star in the spirited new movie, “Prom Dates,” which is the spiritual successor to “Bottoms” we need this spring.

Emma Stefansky

Disney / Brett Roedel

For a while there, high school sex comedies used to be the realm of the boys. In their heyday, the genre was dominated by the Superbad s, the Napoleon Dynamite s, the American Pie s—raunchy, goofy movies about the absurdity of being a teenager, having all this energy and nowhere to put it. Then something shifted, and we started delving deeper into the other end of the spectrum, tuning in to find out what a girl actually wants and immortalizing it in absurdist, hilarious movies like Booksmart , Blockers , and Bottoms . Hulu’s new comedy Prom Dates is a sibling of these, a hysterically funny odyssey through the highs and lows of a teen best friendship that pokes and prods at a familiar formula.

Graduating seniors Jess ( Ginny & Georgia ’s Antonia Gentry) and Hannah ( High School Musical: The Musical: The Series ’ Julia Lester) made a blood pact (complete with fainting) at 13 to have the best prom ever at the end of high school. Now that the two of them are older, wiser, with devoted boyfriends, everything seems to be going according to plan. Except, the day before their senior prom, Jess and Hannah dump their partners—Jess because he cheated on her, and Hannah because she’s actually gay—and find themselves suddenly single, with only one desperate night to find dates to the big dance.

It’s a problem, but not a huge disaster for the two pals, whose best-friend energy (frenergy?) is palpable from minute one. Gentry and Lester are whip-smart and knife-sharp in their expert delivery of every line, with the kind of runaway back-and-forth patter you usually only see between two people who have known each other their whole lives. They ping-pong off of each other in every scene, with none of the dead space that’s present in other comedy films that feel the need to let their jokes breathe. The pair and their equally brilliant supporting cast delight in writer D.J. Mausner’s dialogue, casually shooting off the funniest thing you’ve ever heard before immediately launching into the next funniest. They barely even need the anchoring presence of comedy veterans John Michael Higgins, who plays the school’s principal, and Chelsea Handler, who plays Hannah’s boyfriend’s overbearing mother obsessed with teaching her dog how to use talk buttons.

Julia Lester, Kenny Ridwan

The movie and its director, Kim O. Nguyen ( Never Have I Ever ), take pains to follow each girl equally, though Hannah’s fast-paced gay awakening and coming out understandably take over much of the plot. Her storyline, wherein she’s finally free to flirt with girls (and to figure out how exactly one flirts with girls), feels richer at times than Jess’s more John Hughes-influenced gotta-find-a-boyfriend plot, but the chemistry between the two leads is enough to dispel the notion that the film is favoring one character over the other.

There’s conflict between the friends, but it feels natural instead of forced into the movie just so there’s momentum. This being a comedy of a certain type, you basically know how things will turn out. It sticks to a certain formula, kind of like an edgier Disney Channel Original Movie whose moral lesson is to be yourself, as aggressively as possible. That predictability is helped by the fact that the leads are somewhat unpredictable: You’ve seen this story before, but not this version . The absurdity is almost cartoonish, with the same understanding of physicality that makes animation funny.

Julia Lester

The movie sprinkles in repeated in-jokes—dog talking buttons with ominous words, a character who’s so tall her head never fits in the frame—that help ground the movie when its plotting almost gets out of hand. The notion that one MUST have a DATE to prom is a classic structure, and Prom Dates feels like an homage to a beloved genre that feels right at home in the present.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast  here .

READ THIS LIST

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• The Fall Guy Link to The Fall Guy
• I Saw the TV Glow Link to I Saw the TV Glow
• The Idea of You Link to The Idea of You

New TV Tonight

• Hacks: Season 3
• Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: Season 1
• Shardlake: Season 1
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz: Season 1
• A Man in Full: Season 1
• The Veil: Season 1
• Acapulco: Season 3
• Welcome to Wrexham: Season 3
• John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA: Season 1
• My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Season 4.2

Most Popular TV on RT

• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1
• We Were the Lucky Ones: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Them: Season 2
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Hacks: Season 3 Link to Hacks: Season 3
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Star Wars TV Ranked

Netflix’s 100 Best Movies Right Now (May 2024)

Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

TV Premiere Dates 2024

6 TV and Streaming Shows You Should Binge-Watch in May

• Trending on RT
• The Fall Guy
• The Idea of You
• Best Movies of All Time
• Play Movie Trivia

New Girl: Season 1 Reviews

It's so drenched in amiable nurturing that it could be mistaken for a Canadian series.

Full Review | Dec 3, 2020

The show has an exceptional way of blending all these colourful characters into one smooth painting.

Full Review | Jul 17, 2020

Overall, New Girl's first season is a great case study of a new show adjusting its tone and personality on the fly over the course of a freshman season.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 24, 2020

New Girl might just be the best comedy that the network has made as of yet. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Sep 24, 2018

If you can deal with Jess's kookiness and the stereotypes are toned down, New Girl may turn out to be a very knowing and truthful comedy of modern manners.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2018

New Girl has a lot of great qualities but, like Jess, it needs to learn when to hold back and stop trying so hard to make a good first impression.

Full Review | Jul 2, 2018

Deschanel proves she's truly an ensemble player, balancing Jess' flights of fancy with a relatable empathy for her TV buddies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 15, 2017

My problems with New Girl, which I mildly enjoy but don't love and don't terribly have a lot of confidence in, mostly center on how formless the whole thing is.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 20, 2011

The way that New Girl is funny suggests to me that it knows its characters and is smart enough to treat them like people going ahead.

Full Review | Sep 20, 2011

The show might become a huge hit with kids who haven't lived long enough to know how fast they'd run to avoid these people if they were real.

In another, less imaginative show, Deschanel's Jess would be the wacky sidekick, the comedy-boosting help for the glammier star of the sitcom.

They have certainly laid the groundwork for some fun, new characters that have the potential to really resonate.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 20, 2011

Boy, has she pulled the bangs over everyone's eyes with this atrociously cutesy sitcom.

Full Review | Original Score: F | Sep 20, 2011

The promos for New Girl suggest that it's something new or at least mildly unusual. But its first episode looks like more of the same.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Sep 20, 2011

New Girl tries too hard and falls short for doing so.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 20, 2011

Deschanel is the cilantro of actresses - just the right amount is tasty, but too much is a disaster.

I'm a Zooey-holic. I love this show, because I love the wide-eyed star, who is fully engaged in her role here.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Sep 20, 2011

If this show's going to succeed, it's going to have to figure out how to build a slightly more complex inner-life for its protagonist.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 20, 2011

If you love Zooey Deschanel, this one's for you.

New Girl possesses ample energy.

Review: Zendaya's 'Challengers' serves up saucy melodrama – and some good tennis, too

The saucy tennis melodrama “Challengers” is all about the emotional games we play with each other, though there are certainly enough volleys, balls and close-up sweat globules if you’re more into jockstraps than metaphors.

Italian director Luca Guadagnino ( “Call Me By Your Name” ) puts an art-house topspin on the sports movie, with fierce competition, even fiercer personalities and athletic chutzpah set to the thumping beats of a techno-rific Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross score. “Challengers” (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) centers on the love triangle between doubles partners-turned-rivals ( Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor ) and a teen wunderkind ( Zendaya ) and how lust , ambition and power dynamics evolve their relationships over the course of 13 years.

The movie opens with Art (Faist) and Tashi (Zendaya) as the It couple of pro tennis: He’s eyeing a U.S. Open title, the only tournament he’s never won, while she’s his intense coach, manager and wife, a former sensation along the lines of a Venus or Serena whose career was cut short by a gnarly knee injury. To build up his flagging confidence after recent losses, Tashi enters Art in a lower-level event that he can dominate – until he faces ex-bestie Patrick (O’Connor) in the final match.

Justin Kuritzkes’ soapy screenplay bounces between that present and the trios’ complicated past via flashbacks, starting when Art and Patrick – a ride-or-die duo known as “Fire and Ice” – both have eyes for Tashi. All three are 18 and the hormones are humming: The boys have been tight since they were preteens at boarding school, but a late-night, three-way makeout session, and the fact that she’ll only give her number to whoever wins the guys' singles match, creates a seismic crack that plays itself out over the coming years.

All three main actors ace their arcs and changing looks over time – that’s key in a nonlinear film like this that’s all over the place. As Tashi, Zendaya plays a woman who exudes an unshakable confidence, though her passion for these two men is seemingly her one weakness. Faist (“West Side Story”) crafts Art as a talented precision player whose love for the game might not be what it once was, while O’Connor (“The Crown”) gives Patrick a charming swagger with and without a racket, even though his life has turned into a bit of a disaster.

From the start, the men's closeness hints at something more than friendship, a quasi-sexual tension that Tashi enjoys playing with: She jokes that she doesn’t want to be a “homewrecker” yet wears a devilish smile when Art and Patrick kiss, knowing the mess she’s making.

Tennis is “a relationship,” Tashi informs them, and Guadagnino uses the sport to create moments of argumentative conversation as well as cathartic release. Propelled by thumping electronica, his tennis scenes mix brutality and grace, with stylish super-duper close-ups and even showing the ball’s point of view in one dizzying sequence. Would he do the same with, say, curling or golf? It’d be cool to see because more often than not, you want to get back to the sweaty spectacle.

Guadagnino could probably make a whole movie about masculine vulnerability in athletics rather than just tease it with “Challengers,” with revealing bits set in locker rooms and saunas. But the movie already struggles with narrative momentum, given the many tangents in Tashi, Art and Patrick’s thorny connections: While not exactly flabby, the film clocks in at 131 minutes and the script could use the same toning up as its sinewy performers.

While “Challengers” falls nebulously somewhere between a coming-of-age flick, dysfunctional relationship drama and snazzy sports extravaganza, Guadagnino nevertheless holds serve with yet another engaging, hot-blooded tale of flawed humans figuring out their feelings.

Advertisement

Supported by

What to Watch: ‘Baby Reindeer,’ an Astonishing Stalker Drama

The Netflix series is based on the real-life experience of its creator, Richard Gadd, who also stars in the show.

• Share full article

By Margaret Lyons

Richard Gadd created and stars in the mesmerizing, complex drama “Baby Reindeer” (on Netflix ), which is based on his experience of being stalked. Here he plays Donny Dunn, an aspiring comedian and miserable bartender, living with his ex-girlfriend’s mother and stewing in regret.

So one day when Martha (Jessica Gunning) sits at his bar, he feels bad for her — he sees a fellow wounded bird who deserves a moment of compassion. But Martha isn’t just a sad sack; she is a convicted stalker. Soon she is emailing Donny hundreds of times a day, harassing his family and his exes, showing up at gigs and outside his house. It’s relentless, it’s terrifying, it’s … flattering?

“Reindeer” is candid and disturbing, but not lurid. On lesser shows, nuance can play like a lack of conviction, but here it is the conviction, a rebuttal to pat victimhood narratives. It delves into the absolute pits of human experience not with a sage, well-adjusted perspective but with the mischievous bravado of a prop comic at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (“Baby Reindeer” is adapted from Gadd’s solo show of the same title, which premiered at the festival.)

We see Donny’s act bomb and bomb and bomb; to be a comedian is often one big indignity. Donny recognizes and articulates the dangers of wanting fame, how it warps his judgment but also could solve his problems. (One person knowing your darkest secret is unbearable, but a million people knowing it is stardom.) Agony and attention are bound together here — Look at me! No, not like that! — twin snakes choking the life out of their prey. The show is relentlessly, fascinatingly compassionate, answering the questions of “why would you …” and “why didn’t he just …” with probing clarity. Everyone is shaped by suffering, their choices and identities carved by humiliations large and small.

The show is seven half-hour(ish) episodes, and they are the good kind of heavy.

SIDE QUESTS

If you want something autobiographical and introspective about masculinity but without the horrors of stalking, all three seasons of “Ladhood” are on Hulu and the Roku Channel .

If you actually love the horrors of stalking and want to add in serial murder and sultry whispers, all four seasons of “You” are on Netflix . (Only the first three are good.)

If you want another fabulous show that started out at Edinburgh, it is always a good time to watch “Fleabag.” Both perfect seasons are on Amazon .

Margaret Lyons is a television critic at The Times, and writes the TV parts of the Watching newsletter . More about Margaret Lyons

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

The Netflix stalker series “ Baby Reindeer ” combines the appeal of a twisty thriller with a deep sense of empathy. The ending illustrates why it’s become such a hit .

We have entered the golden age of Mid TV, where we have a profusion of well-cast, sleekly produced competence, our critic writes .

The writer-director Alex Garland has made it clear that “Civil War” should be a warning. Instead, the ugliness of war comes across as comforting thrills .

Studios obsessively focused on PG-13 franchises and animation in recent years, but movies like “Challengers” and “Saltburn” show that Hollywood is embracing sex again .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, minnesota is nicer than miami in the winter. you betcha.

Now streaming on:

We open on a gathering of the Scrappers Club, four women around a kitchen table pasting things into scrapbooks. The moment we hear one of them talking, we're not too surprised to learn that her name is Blanche Gunderson. Her sister Marge, the trooper, must have been the ambitious one. Not that Blanche isn't, just that she's relentlessly nice.

So are most of the folks in the town of New Ulm, Minn., which is so cold in the winter that scrapping warms you up. (Old Ulm, I know you were wondering, is the burg on the Danube where Einstein was born.) To this frigid Minnesota outpost flies Lucy Hill, a high-powered exec from Miami, whose mission is to downsize the local food products plant more or less out of existence.

Lucy is the cute-as-a-button Renee Zellweger , so we know she's only kidding when she pretends to be a heartless (rhymes-with-witch) who hammers around on her stiletto heels and won't smile. That doesn't scare Blanche ( Siobhan Fallon Hogan ), Lucy's assistant, who invites her home for dinner ("We're only havin' meat loaf"). So uncannily does her accent resemble Marge in " Fargo " that I was trying to remember where I had heard it recently, doncha know?

The extra man at Blanche's table turns out to be Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr.), the widowed dad of a 13-year-old girl, who Blanche obviously thinks would be a great match for Lucy. That Ted, the union guy at the plant Lucy plans to downsize, is perhaps not a perfect match never even occurs to Blanche, who like all Minnesotans and most Dakotans is just plain nice. I mean that. I've been to Fargo. You should go sometime.

Ted doesn't seem nice at first, but then, jeez, he's originally from out of town, y'know. Ted and Lucy get in such a fight at the table that they both stalk out, which means they miss out on Blanche's famous tapioca pudding. Glossary Rule: Whenever a recipe is much discussed in the first act, it will be tasted in the third.

So firmly do we believe Lucy is visiting relatives of the "Fargo" cast that it's a surprise to learn "New in Town" was actually filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which here looks nothing like the glittering metropolis in Guy Maddin's masterpiece. New Ulm consists of some houses, a VFW hall with a Friday fish fry, the food plant and not a whole lot else, except snow. But the people are friendly, hard-working and proud of their plant; soon Lucy softens, begins to like them and reveals she was Renee Zellweger all along.

Because this is a rom-com with no ambition in the direction of originality, Lucy is single, and Ted is the only eligible unmarried man in the cast, so do the math. The only remaining question is whether Lucy can save the plant, if you consider that much of a question. Am I giving too much away? This is the kind of movie that gives itself away. I've used that line before.

The real question is, do you like this sort of rom-com? It's a fair example of its type, not good, but competent. The plant workers seem to function like the chorus in an opera, shutting down the line for Lucy's arias from a catwalk, and moving as a unit, with foreman Stu Kopenhafer (J.K. Simmons) always in the front. Simmons has grown a bushy beard and is wearing a fat suit (I hope), so you may not recognize him as Juno's dad. Let the bushy beard be a lesson: A bushy beard is the enemy of an actor's face unless he is playing Santa or attacking with a chain saw.

The only question remaining after "New in Town" is: How come there's never a movie where a small-town girl leaves the snarly, greedy, job-ladder-climbing people behind and moves to the big city, where she is embraced by friendly folks, fed meat loaf and tapioca, and fixed up with Harry Connick Jr.?

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Peyton Robinson

Food, Inc. 2

Glenn kenny.

Monica Castillo

Clint Worthington

Brian Tallerico

Asphalt City

Film credits.

New in Town (2009)

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language

Harry Connick Jr. as Ted

Renée Zellweger as Lucy

Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Blanche

J.K. Simmons as Stu

Frances Conroy as Trudy

Directed by

• Jonas Elmer
• Kenneth Rance

Latest blog posts

The Weight of Smoke (and Blue in the Face): The Magic of Paul Auster

Retrospective: Oscar Micheaux and the Birth of Black Independent Cinema

Phil Lord and Chris Miller Made the Multiplex Safe for ‘The Fall Guy’

Initially Promising Dark Matter Sinks Under Weight of Prestige TV Bloat

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Lassie: A New Adventure review – canine crusader is star of quaint family fun

Eponymous hero tackles a pooch-pinching operation by getting captured in this old-fashioned production

I n some ways, the Lassie films are like the canine answer to the James Bond series. Both have literary antecedents, both have been big screen successes for MGM, and the basic formula remains essentially the same: a hero saves the day. The equivalent of Sean Connery is probably Pal, the rough collie dog who portrayed Lassie in seven feature films in the 1940s and 1950s. In Lassie: A New Adventure, Lassie is played by Bandit, who brings what is needed to the role, in a slick, handsome, functional way that suggests the Lassie franchise is perhaps in its Pierce Brosnan era, though unfortunately more Die Another Day doldrums than GoldenEye high point.

It bears mentioning at this point that the film is more properly titled Lassie – Ein Neues Abenteuer; this is a German production which has been fairly obviously dubbed into English, with the same director (Hanno Olderdissen) and human lead actor (Nico Marischka) as Lassie Come Home from 2020, also a German production. The premise is simple and straightforward: a nefarious couple have been pinching pooches, the aim of their dognapping operation being to auction off the luckless hounds to the highest bidder. When Lassie’s pal Pippa is snatched, Lassie deploys the time-honoured strategy of deliberately getting captured, and everything works out exactly as you might expect; this is not a film interested in surprising the viewer, and is very much made with younger audiences in mind.

As far as that goes, it’s a wholesome enough way to pass 90 minutes, though depending on how media-saturated the family viewers in question are, it may feel rather quaint and old-fashioned. Compared to savvier family fare available (see: The Mitchells vs the Machines , the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, or even the existential dread of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), it is all incredibly well behaved, with the human characters failing to offer much interest, despite a well-meaning arc about foster care, and some game performances from the villains. Perhaps it’s time for Lassie to explore a Daniel Craig-era pivot to a slightly more sophisticated offering.

• Family films
• Action and adventure films
• Film adaptations

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

• Cast & crew

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for a... Read all Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

• Josh Friedman
• Amanda Silver
• Freya Allan
• Kevin Durand
• Dichen Lachman

• Proximus Caesar

• Youngster #1
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

The Big List of Summer Movies

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia This film is not a reboot and is set after the previous trilogy.

Proximus Caesar : What a wonderful day!

• Connections Featured in H-Cast: Insiders Expose Marvel! Blade Reboot, The Marvels & MORE! The H-Cast EP 78 (2023)

New and Upcoming Sci-fi & Fantasy

• When will Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes be released? Powered by Alexa
• May 10, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Planet of the Apes Ride
• Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia
• Disney Studios Australia
• Jason T. Reed Productions
• Oddball Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 25 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• 12-Track Digital Sound
• Dolby Atmos
• IMAX 6-Track

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed