Decider Essentials: 10 Episodes Of ‘New Girl’ You Must See Before The 4th Season Starts

New Girl roared onto television three years ago with its smart and witty pilot. The pilot not only sets up the character dynamics that would define the rest of the series (Jess’s weirdness weirds the guys out, Schmidt is fussy, Coach is cool and the lovelorn loser Nick has a soft spot for Jess’s feelings), but establishes a cool and comforting tone. It’s no wonder the show was an instant hit.

“Cooler” might be this writer’s favorite New Girl episode of all time. It’s funny, gives every character something fun to do, oh, and Nick and Jess FINALLY kiss after a boozy game of True American. Did you hear that? THEY KISS!!! 

Flashbacks are a hallmark of sitcom storytelling and New Girl nailed it with their season two episode, “Virgins.” The episode reveals the hilarious ways in which every character lost their virginity. Evidently, Schmidt needed a LOT of lubricant.

Most of the criticism that New Girl received in its first season had nothing to do with the comedy or writing, but Zooey Deschanel’s “adorkable” persona. The show gamely tackled this burning feminist issue – no really, it was a burning feminist issue in 2012 – and produced a great half hour of comedy that only affirmed that women have the right to choose what types of women they want to be.

Jess enlists Nick’s help when she suspects that one of her students is obsessed with her and wants to kill her. It’s just really, really funny, okay?

Friends used to corner the market on Thanksgiving-themed episodes and New Girl seems to be following in that classic sitcom’s footsteps. The series’ very first Thanksgiving episode is a must-see. Jess romances a co-worker, a turkey gets cooked in a drying machine and CeCe starts to fall for Schmidt.

Jess has to cope with unemployment AND a vicious case of PMS in this episode. Not only does New Girl give us some of the most hilariously accurate descriptions of that time of the month — “I feel like I want to murder someone, and also I want soft pretzels.” – but the B plot is wonderfully hilarious. Nick befriends an old man in the park and finds himself cradled in his arms.

“Normal” isn’t just a hilarious half hour of television. It also introduces one of the most deliriously hilarious conceits of New Girl: the wild nonsensical drinking game called True American. Even though we love the fact that the writers pull back and give us only one True American episode a year, we also kind of hate it. Every episode should be a True American episode. True American all the time!

“Mars Landing” boasts the third appearance of True American, but this time the results are far less romantic for Nick and Jess. The brutally hungover duo have a serious talk about where they see their futures and they have to realize that they are not going to work out as a couple. The B-plot follows Coach, Schmidt and Winston as they try to dumbly impress their hot new neighbors. This episode should receive all the bonus points for its multiple visual and thematic callbacks to “Cooler.”

After an uneven third season, New Girl seemed to find its groove again in its solid and funny season finale. Check out “Cruise” if you want to get up-to-date on where all the characters are right before the start of Season 4. 

Watch New Girl Seasons 1 & 2 [Netflix]  and Season 3 [Hulu].

New Girl Season 4 premieres Tuesday, September 16 at 9 PM EST on Fox. You will be able to stream new episodes the next day on Hulu.

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