Born Awkward - How "The New Girl" Fails At Its Premis

I would like to preface this by saying that I really enjoy The New Girl. It's not always the best comedy on television, but it makes me laugh consistently enough that I really can't fault it. Nick's recent "I stab and I stab" speech, read off the papers of one of Deschanel's students from creative writing, had me rolling. Where I feel the show has really dropped the ball, though, is in its presentation of awkwardness. In the show, Zooey is presented as this individual whose social awkwardness and lack of grace makes life for her more socially adjusted roommates a difficulty. This is paired against the individual awkward attributes of others like Winston, who finds it difficult to talk to women and strips naked when he panics. Still, it never feels genuine, and it's something that bothers me on just about every episode. 

Perhaps one of the problems I have with the show is the use of physical attributes to pen off certain individuals. For the record, these are her roommates on the show.

And while you may have individual opinions on each one of these characters' sexual and physical appeal, the fact is that from Zooey to Lamorne Morris, the African American character of the show, all have a certain height, weight and physical fitness level. Schmiedt, portrayed by Max Greenfield in the middle of the boys lineup, is often portrayed as the most physically fit. However none of them could be considered overweight. The men have jobs as bartenders, models and basketball players. Zooey herself, despite her awkwardness and role as a elementary school teacher at the beginning of the show, goes on to have a role in modeling, dates a handsome doctor, and is physically usually dressed cute and lovely. She's presented as awkward only in the most obvious fashion, made to be buffoonish in public situations in order for the scream to show "She's awkward!"
Meanwhile, this is Robby, a boyfriend of the a character on the show who comes across as truly different from the rest of the cast.

I want to draw a line right now and say that being physically distinct or heavier doesn't, by its nature, make a person overweight. However, when placed alongside a bartender, basketball player and model, Robby is not only physically distinct by occupationally as well. I'm willing to bet at least half of America's men look closer to Robby's body type than Schmidt's type. He's slightly oblivious to Schmidt's ongoing sexual desires for Cece, he's deaf in one ear, he's a really bad dancer. It's not just these traits that mark him aside, and it's not his physical differences that do, it's that combination set alongside his general nature and style of acting. He's not mean or bitter, the way Schmidt and Nick come across. And yet he's the one who gets underused, underplayed and cut out of the show three fourths of the way into season two, so that Cece can reunite with Schmidt, the other model.
It's almost a meta statement. So genuinely unappealing is Robby that the producers of the show couldn't use him. The prettier people deserved more camera time. Robby's generally good nature wasn't intriguing enough. He wasn't a social boor. It also reminds me of how Lamorne Morris is underplayed on the show. Of the three roommates, he's probably the most genuinely 'nice' individual. He's not bitter like Nick and not a jerk like Schmidt. He's more often soft spoken, and the ways in which he is awkward, although buffoonish like everything else in the show, are truly offputting. Who else strips their clothes off when panicking? Both have the commonality of being nice guys though, who have trouble with women.

In no element of New Girl's universe does Zooey, Nick or Schmidt have trouble with the opposite sex. It's verbally played that Zooey does, but she lands a successful doctor shortly into season two, has Nick secretly desiring her and even at her worst, when the writers are portraying her with clownish behavior, is dressed so enticingly the visual never matches the portrayal we're supposed to receive.

I guess I keep comparing her against what comes across as a truly awkward character, Liz Lemon.

I'm not saying Liz Lemon doesn't have buffoonish moments, that's obviously played for laughs many times. However, how Tina Fey acts, portrays the character, comes across distinctly different from Zooey. Fey really does seem genuinely awkward in most of her scenes. When she tries to dress sexy, it's often a failure, and when it's successful it's an ongoing problem for her throughout the night because she'd rather be wearing her sweatpants. Her failures with men range from dating her cousin, to dating a successful snob who lives in an impenetrable bubble of ignorance, in an ongoing process of failure. She doesn't reek of the indie pretty that Zooey has, even if I do think Tina Fey is gorgeous. She tries to prove she's not racist even when she doesn't have to, against African American characters that inadvertently come off as reverse racists themselves. There are so many socially awkward and difficult situations in which Lemon seems to barely survive that Zooey's character would emerge out of, somehow that much more beautiful and attractive. 

I just find it easier to identify with people like Robby and Liz. They don't look like the model people, not that there's anything wrong with looking like that, but I think the struggle with self appearance, weight, and conformity to a norm all play a role in why people find themselves awkward in social situations. In reality, Tina Fey has a scar over her eye that has dictated how she wears her hair and faces the camera. That's awkward. I remember quite well what it was to be the guy wearing a jacket in ninety degree weather because I wanted to cover up my weight. I remember wearing glasses and having a bad haircut, and thinking I had to overcompensate. It didn't come across as endearing, and had an ongoing effect on what people thought of me, only increasing my social anxiety and awkwardness. I didn't find inadvertent success in romance because of it. I ended up more like Robby and Liz, with relationships that went sour, that I had to battle through and that left ongoing impressions on me that affected future relationships.

At the beginning of The New Girl's first episode, Zooey finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. The two girls basically stare each other down at near nude levels. Zooey was just as easily as pretty and styled as the other girl. There's no contrast. And none of Zooey's behaviors in the show genuinely mark her as being truly awkward. Being socially awkward isn't a matter of acting buffonish. It's a feeling of being located at the social periphery and having little to no chance of finding one's way to the interior. Zooey's character never seems to genuinely feel that. I think Liz, though, can better understand.

Killing Women in the name of Plot Device

As of late, I have been watching a television show you may or may not have heard of, called Supernatural. In watching it I became quite aware of a growing discomfort I felt toward one of the repeating plot devices used in order to usher the plot forward, a plot device I know is not uncommon to television shows and that is, frankly, lazy and unoriginal. What I speak of is the killing of women to motivate male protagonists, a sort of sacrificial alter at which writers worship and usher forward male avatars into the realm of fictional storytelling. There are a number of terms you could use to describe this plot device. Sexist, perhaps. Chauvinistic. But really, the greatest insult is that it's lazy, a trite practice that has infiltrated all levels of writing and story telling and that is rarely used well.

Don't get me wrong, the death of a woman to motivate a man to action does not have to, inherently, be lazy or drip with sexism. Important bonds can be established, deep relationships created in which the woman emerges as a genuine character, one with feelings and motivations all her own that, when robbed from the audience, evoke a similar sense of loss as the protagonist's. That ability to identify allows us to connect with the hero further, and without using women as mere plot devices.

What occurred to me as I watched Supernatural was that nearly every episode was initiated with the death of a female victim, often in ways that were implied to be quite gruesome. Of course, it's a half hour show and needs to kick off with a plot device that allows it quick entry into the main bulk of its story, which involves supernatural methods of dealing with the ethereal threat in question. I understand that, even if I don't entirely forgive the practice.

I'd be more inclined to let it pass, though, if it weren't symptomatic of a larger problem in narrative storytelling. Let's take a nerd fan favorite, Joss Whedon. Creator of fan favorites Buff, Angel, Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Whedon has emerged as a man who likes to place female character front and center. He's a good, though not fantastic director whose idea of strong women involves one that puts stakes through the hearts of vampires. Fair enough, and good enough. Angel is particularly interesting as an analysis of women being killed off, often brutally, in order to advance the plot. In Buffy the women are only superficially strong, while internally weak characters that break when relationships don't work out. Still, this post deals with the killing of women to advance plot, and there's no greater offender than his Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Spoilers ahead.

In Dr. Horrible, the love interest of both Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer is Penny, as played by internet-beloved Felicia Day. The arc of this love triangle culminates with her death, leading to Dr. Horrible assuming his full, super villain identity. Fair enough, it's an understandable plot motivation. However, the audience is never provided a Penny that comes across like a full human being, with complex motives and decisions all her own. She falls for Captain Hammer when he saves her from an oncoming truck, and the bulk of the following arc follows that relationship and Dr. Horrible's resentment toward it. I recently read an article in which women exclaimed how frustrated they were at men who, after doing a good deed, expected sex out of it; I saw this parallel in the story of Dr. Horrible. Because she is saved, she owes a relationship to Captain Hammer. Is this necessarily the case? How can we know? Penny is constantly put forth as a Mary Sue, an image of perfection in the eyes of Dr. Horrible, one whose only mistake was falling for Captain Hammer. As a character she lacks depth. She's only positive, in every way that counts. Selfless, willing to help the poor and starving, trying to make Captain Hammer a better hero. What about the days when she's selfish, or doubts that relationship, or considers a life of only singleness? We're given a one dimensional character, thrown up in order to be killed and to motivate Dr. Horrible.

There's a whole trope about this at TV Tropes called Disposable Women, describing how women are used almost solely as plot devices to drive forward the heroic tales of men. In Braveheart it's Wallace's wife, which starts his rebellion. In Gladiator it's to motivate Maximus' vengeance tale. In The Dark Knight it's Rachel Dawes, duly to push Harvey Dent into his role as Two Face and also to drive Bruce Wayne further into his identity as Batman. In video games widely marketed to young men, it's abundant. In Max Payne it's the loss of Payne's wife and daughter. In God of War it's Krato's wife and daughter. And so on, and so on.

The problem is not that this can't be a proper motivation for male stories. It's that with the expansion of media into a multitude of formats, it continues to be done so widely, and yet so poorly, that the females become little more than throw always to set a male down his path. With little to no characterization, repeated ad nauseum throughout our various medias, women become paper cutouts, meant to die in order to start a male's story.

I'm not pleading with writers to rid themselves of this as a plot device. I'm asking writers to use it a bit more sparingly, and that when they do it, to use it well. I myself have killed off an important female character in a recent fantasy novel I wrote, not as a way of motivating the male hero, but as a conclusion to a long arc whose narrative was the female's willingness to sacrifice her life, if necessary, for the good of her people. She becomes less of Wallace's wife, in other words, than Wallace herself. Please writers, don't be afraid of killing off your female characters, but find ways to do so that doesn't always come across as a way to make men the real heroes. Again, it's fine when done well, but as a plot device it's too abundant and too shallow in the current level of media.

A New Day Dawns: Sarah Palin is leaving Fox News

The New York Times reports:

Fox News has indeed parted ways with Ms. Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee, a Fox spokeswoman confirmed on Friday, reducing if not altogether ending her exposure to the channel’s millions of loyal viewers.

Although the picture isn't entirely clear, it seems that Sarah Palin is leaving Fox News following a fairly small contract extension offer. In essence, Fox was not willing to renew her million dollar a year contract. That isn't surprising, considering she was in highest demand coming off her role as a vice presidential candidate and a 'rogue' outsider. I mean, I guess, if she's the definition of rogue Republicans buy into. Still, whatever brand of crazy Sarah Palin was selling was eclipsed and surpassed by even crazier members of the Tea Party, which culminated in the 2010 debacle. Still, America seems to have entered the regret phase of their relationship, and that same Tea Party suffered a good number of losses just two months ago in the 2012 election.

With people identifying as Tea Party members in miniscule levels and most of the blame for the economy being shouldered by the Republican party, Republicans are now arguing that messaging is their biggest priority. While Democrats may argue otherwise, that it's really their principles that is the issue, the consequence of Republican re-branding may mean that the more 'loose cannon' style commentators are no longer of the value they once were. Even big names like Rush Limbaugh have caused profit losses due to their ill chosen comments in the last year, and if you can cut into his profit margins, you can certainly cut into Sarah's.

Palin was never the draw Limbaugh was though, and her appearances on Fox were growing less frequent. There were several reports that the honeymoon between the two was over, and in the wake of that, the offer they made seems to have been intended to finalize their divorce.
Nobody believes that this is the end of Sarah Palin's time in the media spotlight, but there's at least hope it's in its twilight phase. Without Fox to prop her views and provide her a camera, Palin is going to have to find ways to get exposure that don't include official backing from the Republican propaganda machine.

For now, let's toss this as one more log onto the fire consuming the Palin tv brand. Hopefully she doesn't find new life in some Glenn Beckian way.