‘New Girl’ season 2, episode 8 review: Meet Jess’ parents!

Whenever shows tend to throw in “parents” into the mix, it can often have polarizing results. Why? Oftentimes, the actors end up disrupting the chemistry of everyone else on the show, especially when it is someone like parents who can cause characters to act differently.

On Tuesday night’s new episode of “New Girl” season 2, this really happened in two different forms: with Jess’ parents, and then with Schmidt’s cousin. There was also a Thanksgiving theme thrown in here, with a little bit of “The Parent Trap” for good measure. You see, Jess has long had a desire to hook her parents back up together after their divorce, and she therefore orchestrated the entire situation of getting them in the same place at the same time to make it happen here. Rob Reiner and Jamie Lee Curtis were both surprisingly fun in these roles, and thankfully their presence did not change the characters we know at all.

For one example of this, Nick actually started to get close to Jess’ mom, at least before the “plan” looked like it was seemingly working. Unfortunately, they were just a one-time hookup here, and them getting together briefly only ended up spawning a larger fight in the end. Somehow, though, they did work it out … but not before Jess tried to dump the turkey in the garbage disposal.

As for the Schmidt storyline, the biggest MVP out of the entire group was actually Winston, who enjoyed the sort of rivalry going on between Max Greenfield and Rob Riggle’s characters that he engaged in plenty of manipulation in order to make it happen. Unfortunately, even he fell victim to this hilariously, as Riggle’s character earned the “true Schmidt” title by kissing him. Somehow, his guy locking lips with Winston managed to bring the family together.

What did you think about this episode, and did the presence of Jess’ parents here help or hurt “New Girl” in your eyes?

Photo: Fox