As many of you know, I liked the first season a lot. The second season is much better. The first season introduced us to likeable, interesting, flawed characters and put those characters into funny situations. It was very well-written. However, in the second season, we got to know those characters, and their stories started to move forward. For example...
...Nick and Jess. In the first season, it was clear that something would happen between them eventually. In the second season, something did happen, and it was, at different times, hot, touching, messy, and frustrating. Always believable.
The two have their first kiss in episode fifteen, "Cooler." The plot of the episode is as follows: Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Winston (Lamorne Morris), and Nick (Jake Johnson) plan to go out with the intention of getting laid. Jess (Zooey Deschanel) wants to go, too, as her hot doctor boyfriend, Sam (David Walton), is working late; however, Nick tells her that she can't because she's his "cooler": he never gets laid when she's around. At the same time, a neighbor's trench coat has been delivered to their apartment by accident, and Nick loves it and begins wearing it everywhere even though it is a woman's trench coat.
The guys go out, and Jess is initially just bored at home alone, but then she begins hearing scratching noises at the door and gets scared. She tries calling Sam, who initially doesn't answer because he's busy at work; her best friend Cece (Hannah Simone), who is out on a date with Shivrang (Satya Bhabha), a man she is in the courtship stage of an arranged marriage with; and finally Nick. Nick answers, of course, because he loves her. Anyway, the guys wind up leaving the bar with a couple of girls and coming back to the apartment; they are eventually joined by Cece, Shivrang, and Sam. They play a "sexy" version of the drinking game True American, and at one point the "rules," such as they are, require Nick and Jess to go behind a door and kiss. Nick drags his feet about kissing her, to the point where Jess begins to feel a little insulted and wonders why he doesn't want to kiss her. "I just don't want to kiss you like this," he blurts out. She is flabbergasted-- what does he mean, like this?
Later that night, the game is over. Jess and Sam go to bed in her room. Nick goes to bed in his. However, eventually the scratching starts up again, and Nick and Jess both go to investigate. It turns out to be a large dog being chased by a woman. The woman is apologetic until she realizes that not only has Nick not returned the trench coat that has been delivered to him by mistake, but he has apparently been sleeping in it ("It gives me confidence," he tries to explain). She leaves, and Nick and Jess start to head back to their rooms. But then Nick takes her hand and pulls her to him, and they share what I daresay is one of the best TV kisses I have ever seen. Jess agrees; in the next episode she will tell Cece, "He just...took me! He was firm, yet gentle! He was a man, and I was a woman, and for just a minute, I saw through time and space!"
Regardless, the two don't instantly become a couple. She's still dating Sam. Then she and Sam break up, but by then, Nick is dating his new boss at the bar. Then Nick's dad dies; it brings Nick and Jess closer, but when they try to go out on an actual date, it's kind of a mess. Finally, Nick remembers something his dad told him: the best things in life are the things you don't think about. Jess is about to leave to meet up with the guy she lost her virginity to years ago, who is in town and has contacted her. She gets on the elevator, but just before the door is about to close, Nick holds the door and gets in with her.
"What are you doing?" she asks.
"Not thinking," he says. They go back to the apartment and make love.
Here's what I love about all of this: the two are a great couple in a lot of ways. They have great chemistry. They're always there for each other. However, the show doesn't try to ignore the characters' flaws or the actual problems they would realistically have. It's been established that Nick is kind of a mess; he dropped out of law school and now works as a bartender, which isn't horrible, or anything, but he doesn't really have any idea what he wants to do next, drinks too much, and has kind of a Grumpy Old Man personality. He has a lot of good qualities, too, and it seems like he will try harder at life for Jess, but it's not like he just automatically becomes the perfect guy or like the show tries to sweep his issues under the rug. I also like that while, sure, it's pretty normal for TV to delay the couple getting together, all of the things that get in Nick and Jess's way are pretty believable. Finally, I like that through all this, the show still stays its wacky self. Games of True American. Silly storylines like the whole trench coat thing. Schmidt and Winston eventually trying to sabotage Cece's wedding. It stays the show we knew and loved in the first season, but explores the characters with more depth.
This brings me to Schmidt. He was my favorite part of the first season. I liked him in the second season, too, but I feel like as we got to know the other characters more, they all started to be more of a balanced ensemble, with no one standout. I consider this a good thing. Also, he stopped being just the womanizing, clean freak, formerly overweight funny guy with commitment issues to a fully rounded character. Near the end of the second season, we meet Elizabeth (Merritt Wever), who he dated for years when he was overweight. She still is overweight (though she is not now, nor was she ever, as heavy as Schmidt once was). They initially fell in love because she didn't care what anyone thought, which he appreciated and loved about her when he was heavy; however, as he began to lose weight, *he* started to care more about appearances, and, as she puts it, "got mean." They start to date again at the end of the second season, though it's not like he still doesn't care about appearances or isn't generally his funny but slightly douchey self, and it's not like he's not still hung up on Cece, who he dated off and on through much of the first season. Again, the show doesn't skate over any of this or try to pretend he's suddenly this perfect, stand-up guy. I liked this a lot.
Oh. And the second season also manages to work in the song "22" by Taylor Swift and to give Swift a cameo in the season finale. That's also pretty awesome.
Bottom line, I fell in love with this show even more during the second season. I can't wait to catch up on the third.
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