10 New Girl Episodes To Skip On A Rewatch

"New Girl," created by Elizabeth Meriwether, is undoubtedly one of the funniest and most popular sitcoms of the modern era, which means there's a lot of rewatch potential. The Fox series began as the simple story of a down-on-her-luck Angeleno moving in with three strange men and eventually blossomed into a decade-long glimpse into their lives, complete with inside jokes, heartfelt moments, and much more for viewers to watch again and again.

However, not every single one of its 146 episodes, which aired between 2011 and 2018, was a comedy or cultural gem. The truth is that there are a handful of episodes that simply don't live up to the standards of what an average "New Girl" episode is capable of. Maybe the writers were having an off day, or maybe they stayed up too late the night before playing a rousing game of "True American."

Even though it's an early episode of the show, there's a lot here that doesn't ring true for the characters — specifically, Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris). When Jess (Zooey Deschanel) brings home some troubled youth who chose bell choir over detention, Winston proves himself, out of nowhere, to be almost supernaturally good at playing the bells. Genuinely, his talent feels almost reality-breaking for the series. Meanwhile, Schmidt (Max Greenfield) says some pretty harsh things to Nick (Jake Johnson) about his status in life.

What makes this episode skippable is simply that too many people are acting out of character. Winston is horrible to the children when he realizes he's good at something. Nick explains that's how he gets, but it doesn't really ring true (pun intended) for him for the rest of the series. Sure, he's a wildcard and reliable loose cannon, but not mean. Additionally, Schmidt and Nick's class warfare is fun and in keeping with their characters, but they get unnecessarily cruel without ever really apologizing to each other or addressing it. The episode just kind of ends with them being fine.

This episode sees Jess babysit her student who also happens to be the daughter of her new, older boyfriend. Unfortunately, that's not the only age difference at play in this episode.

The 12-year-old kid immediately develops a crush on Nick that gets out of hand way too quickly. Although kids can be dramatic with early crushes, this girl takes it to another level, saying she's going to die if she can't be with him — and everyone takes her feelings seriously. Meanwhile, Nick is trying to prove that he can date a mature woman — a path that somehow leads him to accidentally court an 18-year-old.

If you find yourself squirming in your seat, you're not alone. This episode's humor is cringe-worthy at best, deeply uncomfortable at worst. Even as the adults treat the child's crush as real, the kid fluctuates between teenage emotions and toddler-like behavior on a dime. At one point, she puts on a bunch of bras for really no reason. The end result is a disjointed mess of an episode where no one on screen is acting or reacting the way a human being would in their situation.

The episode also includes a pregnancy scare for Schmidt and Cece (Hannah Simone), which might sound significant to the overall plot, but it ultimately goes nowhere. Fans will have to wait another six seasons for that particular plotline.

Speaking of cringe humor, the Season 2 episode "Neighbors" is filled to the brim with it.

The episode sees Jess and Schmidt meet their new, younger neighbors in the building. The youngsters immediately clock Schmidt's desperate attempts to fit in with them and hate him for it, which only makes him try harder. Meanwhile, they like Jess because they're unaware that she's ripping off 1980s sitcom catchphrases to make them laugh.

What makes this episode so skippable is the fact that it came out in 2012, almost 15 years ago now. So, it relies heavily on what was cool to young people then, which doesn't really hold up now. Additionally, it relies heavily on Zoey Dechanel doing impressions like Steve Urkel, Balki Bartokomous, and Frasier Crane, which are not only even more dated references, but the impressions aren't impressive.

The episode may have worked when it first aired, but upon rewatch it's just an outdated mess that can totally be skipped.

This episode is plagued by issues of consent and boundaries with almost everyone in the loft, specifically within Jess and Nick's relationship.

It takes place in the early days of Nick and Jess' relationship when they're having a lot of sex. Schmidt, who just got dumped by both Cece and Elizabeth (Merritt Wever) for two-timing them, has vowed to ruin the happy couple in a move that's pretty shocking. It's hard not to feel like Schmidt has no right to be mad at them given how much lying and cheating he was doing prior to this episode that resulted in him being single and unhappy.

He mischievously tells Jess to try a move in bed he claims Nick likes. She does, and it makes both of them profoundly uncomfortable, which is not fun to watch through a modern, consent-focused lens. As if that's not bad enough, the situation culminates with a desperate Schmidt sabotaging Nick's condoms and ingesting Jess' birth control himself. While these acts are played for wacky comedy, the reality of the situation is pretty dark.

Ultimately, this episode turns Schmidt into a cartoonish villain when, just one episode prior, he was demonstrating some real emotion while getting his cheating comeuppance. By the end of this episode, he's right back in that emotional spot, making the events of "The Captain" totally skippable.

This episode is challenging because it's not a good watch, but it does end with a plot point that may seem jarring if you skip it.

After another toxic encounter with Jess, her ex-boyfriend Sam (David Walton) takes out a restraining order against her. This sends Jess into a spiral of epic proportions that the series devotes an entire episode to. It sends her down the tired and somewhat sexist "crazy ex-girlfriend" trope.

Jess violates the restraining order by trying to leave Sam a note on his truck, only for her to dive into the truck bed to avoid being seen by him. After some not-so-stealthy moments, she finds herself on the hood of his car shouting "I'm not crazy!" in a moment that's supposed to be funny but just feels hacky.

What makes this so much worse is that it ultimately leads to Sam, who has spent the episode making it clear to Jess that he needs her out of his life, succumbing to temptation and deciding to start their relationship up again.

So, while them being back together might make no sense if you skip this episode, the truth is that it doesn't make a lot of sense even if you watch it.

This episode, which premiered on September 27, 2026, is very tied to the then-upcoming 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Since that time, there have been two presidential elections and that number is only going to increase over time. So, it makes this far and away the most dated episode of "New Girl" that exists and therefore perhaps the easiest one to skip.

In it, Jess and Cece hit the campaign trail for Clinton, spouting a lot of campaign slogans and viral talking points from the time period that, as we know from history, don't pan out for that particular candidate in real life. So, the episode becomes 21 minutes of the audience knowing a lot more than the characters who are making jokes about an election cycle that's long done.

There's even a small subplot that sees Schmidt talking about campaigning for Paul Ryan to be president in 2020, which was meant to be nonsense back then but is just really wrong now. Overall, everything about this episode became obsolete and a waste of time after the 2016 election. Ten years later, you can omit it from your rewatch and not miss a thing.

Once again, this episode sees Jess acting needlessly odd, bordering on pathetic.

When Schmidt and Cece reluctantly invite Jess on their couples glamping weekend with Winston and Aly (Nasim Pedrad), she gets weird... too weird. She seizes it as an opportunity to invite her entire singles-only support group that she co-founded with everyone's least-favorite romantic character, Robby (Nelson Franklin).

The episode is wall-to-wall cringe-worthy jokes where the singles are a very unwelcome presence on what would otherwise be a lovely romantic weekend. However, that's not this episode's biggest sin. As the plot drives forward, an unlikely romance that no one asked for between Jess and Robby starts to develop. However, it doesn't crystallize into anything concrete by the time the credits roll, meaning it's totally fine to skip this one. After all, there's really no amount of setup that can make a Jess and Robby romance not feel like it's totally out of left field.

Some of the very best "New Girl" episodes are themed around Thanksgiving. Even that one where they find a dead body is considered by fans to be pretty darn good. However, by Season 6 it seems the writers were struggling to find new stories to tell around the holiday and, instead, relied on delving into characters who fans weren't necessarily interested in.

Specifically, Robby and his relationship with Jess, as well as Schmidt's father and their rocky father-and-son dynamic. After their odd coupling, Jess is finally thinking about breaking up with Robby, but it's hard because he's in a cast and needs her for care. Meanwhile, Schmidt is excited for his dad to be around for the holiday, only for him to show up completely heartbroken by a breakup.

So, the episode tasks the viewer with caring about Robby's feelings and Schmidt's dad's midlife crisis. No one really does care, and the end result is a filler episode that feels like more wheel spinning ahead of the show finally being able to write a final season.

Yet another addition to the list from the show's penultimate season where the name of the game seemed to be killing time. The episode sees Jess spiraling out about starting her new job. To help her out, Schmidt and Nick take her to the Rumspringa festival in an old-timey Danish village located in California. While there, her insecurity rubs off on her friends and, when they end up locked in a basement, they lean on each other to figure things out.

If that premise seems shaky and a little all over the place, that's because it is. So many elements of this episode come out of nowhere and make the entire thing feel disjointed and generally off. "New Girl" has some of the most well-structured, funny, and character-driven episodes of any modern sitcom. However, "Rumspringa" is none of those things. In fact, this episode is a really great one to highlight if you want to make the point that the show was running out of ideas ahead of its final season.

The final season of "New Girl" made a bold call to do a three-year time jump in its premiere. It ended up working out for the series overall, but there's one exception. After shocking viewers in the premiere with major life changes for all the characters, Episode 2 begins with all of them struggling with their new, busy schedules and different lives.

However, it doesn't take long before all that very interesting character development goes out the window in favor of a very on-the-nose parody of "Three Men and a Baby" and some really unique and off behavior for Jess and Cece.

After making time for a power lunch, the two longtime friends get drunk and decide to confront Jess' new boss-slash-ex-boyfriend for making her do busywork. Ultimately, they drunkenly crash a meeting even though Cece is basically too plastered to stand and Jess simply makes a fool of herself, almost tanking her new career. The episode is skippable because there are ultimately no consequences to any of the self-sabotage plots. Instead, the episode is a cavalcade of characters risking the new lives that the audience hasn't become accustomed to yet.