The Other McCain

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Salon Trashes Zooey Deschanel; Dustbury Hardest Hit

Posted on | September 21, 2011 | 21 Comments

by Smitty

I have no problem admitting Zooey is totally Rule 5. A brunette Meg Ryan, even. She even does some recording, in addition to acting roles, with a delightfully retro feel:

Maybe Zooey is insufficiently trashy. Her new show was panned at Salon:

In fact, there are times in tonight’s pilot where Deschanel’s character, Jessica Day — a goofy, highly emotional quasi-basket case recovering from a busted relationship with a cheater named Spencer — seems as though what she needs isn’t True Love, but tough love, or very strong medication. To its credit, “New Girl” seems inclined to critique the Deschanel screen persona when it’s not celebrating it as irresistibly darling. “I could pretend to be more like you, and live on a sparkly rainbow, drive a unicorn around and just sing all the time,” a more jaded female friend tells her. That’s a good start, but it’s really not enough to sustain a very thin, very cutesy sitcom that rarely rises above the merely pleasant.

What should she do, a duet with Katy Perry?

Meanwhile, deep in Oklahoma, a blogger plots courses of action.

Category: Rule 5

Comments

21 Responses to “Salon Trashes Zooey Deschanel; Dustbury Hardest Hit”

  1. McGehee
    September 21st, 2011 @ 4:49 pm

    I got maybe three minutes into the pilot episode before I decided life was too short.

    I like Zooey. I don’t like her TV show.

  2. Peregrine
    September 21st, 2011 @ 5:16 pm

    The first few minutes are unremarkable, which is strange for a pilot episode. But by the end I was laughing a lot. Actually, the episode could be used as the basis for some very useful social education.

  3. ThePaganTemple
    September 21st, 2011 @ 5:16 pm

    Its a sitcom, more than enough to know its thirty minutes of wasted time.

  4. Joe
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:01 pm

    I like Zooey too, but that McGehee review does not sound good (and I generally agree with most McGehee says).  I will try to catch it on the interwebs, but this is not a good sign. 

  5. Joe
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:04 pm

    Oh, Kate Perry is a dirty skank.  Sorry.  She is.  She can do a skankroutine with some other skank out there.  Maybe a threesome of her, Lady Gag-a and Grandma Madonna. 

     Zooey Deschenel is very talented and I have generally liked her in most films she has been in. 

  6. Dave C
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:08 pm

     Salon: Leave Zooey  Dechanel alone!!!

  7. Anonymous
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:12 pm

    I wonder if it’s on Hulu or one of the other streaming services.

  8. McGehee
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:40 pm

    Maybe I’ll check out the second episode, before the first one disappears from the wastebasket on my TiVo. If Ep.2 is good, I can retrieve Ep.1 and give it another chance.

  9. McGehee
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:41 pm

    I’m a cantankerous old coot, so I may not be the best judge of TV sitcoms about a woman who moves in with three guys who keep a penalty jar for when one of the guys acts like a douchebag.

  10. Nobody
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:46 pm

    Yep, current holder of the “Meg Ryan Terminally Cute Cup”

    Now, if we could just get her to fake an orgasm in a NYC deli…

  11. Nobody
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:47 pm

    PS: very funny in “Big Trouble”, too.

  12. Anonymous
    September 21st, 2011 @ 6:50 pm

    Bingo.

  13. jonathan.camp
    September 21st, 2011 @ 7:05 pm

    I watched the pilot on Hulu a few days ago.  She was how you’d expect her to be — cute and quirky.  The rest. .  meh.  I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t like it enough to bother watching it again either.

  14. dustbury.com » Around twee o’clock
    September 21st, 2011 @ 4:01 pm

    […] Smitty suggests a duet with Katy Perry. Hey, if it works for Rebecca […]

  15. Jerry Wilson
    September 21st, 2011 @ 8:14 pm

    I stand with Dustbury.

  16. BlogDog
    September 21st, 2011 @ 9:36 pm

    You can already watch it on Hulu.

  17. Adjoran
    September 21st, 2011 @ 9:52 pm

    They laughed at Rebecca Black, too . . .

  18. Charles G Hill
    September 22nd, 2011 @ 1:34 am

    Then again, I also count myself as a Rebecca Black fan.  (McGehee probably understands that a little better.)

  19. emf
    September 22nd, 2011 @ 4:24 am

    I’m seeing a little Buckaroo Banzai in the very beginning.  That and Zooey is 100% win.

  20. Bob Belvedere
    September 22nd, 2011 @ 12:37 pm

    Let us hope she doesn’t age as badly as Mzzzz. Ryan.

  21. Bob Belvedere
    September 22nd, 2011 @ 12:37 pm

    Both are cuties.