Roommate Do's and Don'ts of the Week

This show is definitely suffering from a case of overcomSchmidting to an ensemble character. While Schmidt is definitely the scene stealer of the show, and the one guy who snagged an Emmy nomination, his character is a lovable douchebag who is best dealt with in small doses. Last night's episode, "Neighbors," was centered around him and that much focus is starting to make us forget why we liked him in the first place. While it was Jess who befriended the slackers across the hall, and Nick who did the lion's share of the pranking, Schmidt was the one who wanted in with the young people and who was also the prankee. As for poor Winston, he continued to mainly be in his own separate little radio storyline that is so poorly integrated with the rest of the show that it comes across like one of the trailers in Grindhouse. "The Secret Life of Winston," coming next fall to Fox?


The Do's
- Young cranky Nick taking someone's Frisbee and using it as a bowl.
- The high cost of pranking, which Nick willingly paid. Special contacts to make Schmidt feel like he was losing his vision? Destroying a chair to make Schmidt feel like he was hunching over? Doing some spackling and silkscreening on a wall and retailoring pants to make Schmidt feel short? So worth it.
- Little kid Winston not knowing how to go far enough with a prank.
- The first half of the meet the neighbors plot.
- Winston ready to smack Schmidt with a ski.
- Jess having to ask for bean casserole. In fact, we'd love a series of Jess' odd jobs.
- The life expectancy calculator that Schmidt pays a high monthly subscription for.

The Don'ts
- The second half of the meet the neighbors plot.
- Jess's terrible Urkel impression. Her Stephanie Tanner wasn't much better.
- Also, the idea that these twentysomethings were completely unfamiliar with Full House or Family Matters. That kind of stuff lives on in reruns still -- even our young interns know about that stuff. Now if she was doing her Alex P. Keaton impression, maybe there'd be a generation gap.
- Schmidt measuring himself on the wall and no one noticing it in all the time they lived there.
- Desperate Schmidt doing burpees while wearing that awful scarf.
- The need to make these kids polyamorous... just too many things in one episode.
- Winston's sad attempt at getting a promotion.
- No CeCe. There needs to be a grown up around to supervise these people.