You become vapid and bland when your heart is broken.

Enough Quirkiness! Why I Can’t Stand Zooey Deschanel. by Seyward Darby

Sorry this is wrong. Her new show is a hit. Darby:

With regard to Deschanel, I would argue that her persona not only wears thin very quickly, but her contentedness to present herself as so funky and thus harmless makes the actress herself seem vapid and bland. I suspect that she is neither, so I am troubled by the idea that she would be comfortable having her sharpness blunted—as both a woman and an artist. With regard to “New Girl,” it’s worth comparing Jess to Tina Fey’s character on the show “30 Rock.” Fey’s Liz Lemon is another quirky oddball, but she’s defined by much more than eccentricities—by her smarts, her career, and her relationships, for instance. With Jess, in contrast, we know little about her life outside of her breakup, apartment, roommates (all of which are new) and, most importantly, her kooky behavior. It doesn’t much matter why she loves being a teacher (her job, we’re told, which involves bringing home lots of popsicle sticks), or what she thinks about things other than, say, bubbles and unicorns (she loves them, of course). And heaven forbid we learn what she really hates—perhaps cheating boyfriends, although it’s not clear she thinks her ex is really such a bad guy.

I see her character Jess as being in a bit of daze because she was dumped. She's so heartbroken she's become sort of goofy. I love Fey too and would be reduced to a stuttering wreck if I met either her or Deschanel in person.

Deschanel's Jess has an intelligence and kindness behind her quirkiness and dorkiness which makes her compelling. She's why the show is a hit. The characters she plays in film and TV - see Mumford, Almost Famous, The Good Girl, Elf, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Go-Getter, Bridge to Terabithia*, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Tin Man, Gigantic, (500) Days of Summer - are all intelligent if not as out-going as Fey's characters. What's attractive about the two besides their looks is their mix of humor, smarts and confidence. Granted sometimes their characters aren't so confident - which is creating drama - but it seems realistic in their loss of confidence if that makes any sense. And of course their humor is about being likable and accessable to the audience which is why they are popular. They're not raging bitches.

I see what Darby is getting at but ultimately disagree. "Adorkable" may not be the most appealing or compelling trait - compared to a wise-cracking Fey or a manically goofy Poehler - but it seems more realistic than what is usually on offer. Many people are good-natured dorks and can identify with Jess which probably partly why the show is popular. And what if she's been "dorkified" because she's in mourning over being dumped. She could recover.

New Girl is okay as a sitcom - for me anything with Deschanel is good by definition - but what's interesting is that the roommate she's sort of connecting with because he was recently dumped too is played by Jake Johnson. Johnson was in Paper Heart a very clear-eyed, realistic mockumentary about comedian Charlyne Yi as a cynic who doesn't believe in love and goes around the country interviewing strangers about love, but in the end she falls in love with Michael Cera and has her heart broken. Maybe Deschanel and/or the creators of the New Girl liked that movie and wanted to bring it's realism and cynicism to a sitcom?
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*one of my favorite movies of all time.