new girl, i am having feelings about you, and they are complicated

fun fact: this is what you get if you google image search "menzies"

In last week's episode, Menzies, New Girl went on the offensive. By which I mean, the offensive offensive. By which I mean, there was a silent old Asian man who helped Nick reach "zen" and Jess had the most intense PMS of all time.

click gif to go to gif-maker's site

On the one hand, the whole PMS thing was so intensely overblown that it was funny in its absurdity - it seemed more like "this is seriously what people think PMS is for all women, hyuck hyuck hyuck" than "this is seriously what PMS is! Dudes! Am I right! Your girlfriend has totally done this!" So I could get on board with that, especially since there were a few things that happened where I was like, okay, yes, that is hilarious because it is factual to my life, but I will not specify which things because I like to keep things confusing.

click gifs for link to gif-maker's tumblr

On the same side of that hand, one could interpret the whole Nick-old-Asian-guy thing as being a severely over-the-top to the point of satire thing - but I'm not sure that most people would view it that way. I feel like most people in my demographic (i.e., white, raised suburban and middle class) would group this guy, who I'm pretty sure remains nameless throughout the episode, since he only speaks like five words, into a Mr. Miyagi-type category - oh, look, a quietly mystical ethnically Asian man is using his mysterious, Eastern knowledge to help a young white person! Rad!

Look, New Girl, I'm not convinced that you're not smart enough to be doing this in a satirical manner - you've done some really wonderful stereotypes-way-past-the-edge-of-absurdity thing in the past, and I don't doubt that you can do that in the future - I just am also not convinced that this episode was meant to be funny in the pushing-back-at-tropes way, and not in the racist-stereotypes-as-humor way.

I will give you another chance, New Girl, because you have Schmidt, and that is all I really need right now (seriously, Schmidt and Jean-Ralphio and I'm done. DONE, I tell you). Also, you're one of very few shows to have at least two minority characters in your main cast (I'm counting Cece in the main cast, which TVEquals did not, but I think she definitely is a main cast member). I think that, for the most part, you're doing positive things. It's just, when I like a show, I don't want to have to admit to any flaws about it (unless it's Secret Life, in which the entire point is that it is nothing but flaws). I expect more from you, New Girl, and I really think you're capable of it.