New Girl won the audience over thanks to its characters and sense of humor, but Jess wasn’t received with arms wide-open in season 1, and she was different from the Jess seen in subsequent seasons. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, New Girl made its debut on Fox in 2011 and was generally well-received from the beginning, with critics praising its tone and the performances of its main cast, particularly those of Max Greenfield and Jake Johnson – but not all characters were safe from criticism.
New Girl followed bubbly teacher Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel), who after finding out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, moved into a loft with three strangers she found on the internet. After a period of adjustment for all those involved, Jess ended up being very close to her roommates Schmidt (Greenfield), Nick Miller (Johnson), Coach (Marlon Wayans Jr), and Winston (Lamorne Morris). Jess became a favorite among New Girl fans and also critics, but it wasn’t an easy road for her, as she was criticized when the series came out.
Jess was vivacious, sensitive, creative, and clumsy – or, as New Girl’s promotional tagline said, “adorkable”. She wasn’t afraid of showing her feelings, as seen in the very first episode where she cried for days while watching Dirty Dancing in order to deal with her breakup. Jess was also very girly, but she could easily take part in activities generally perceived as being “for men” (though she could be quite clumsy at them). It was this girlishness, both in appearance and personality, that drew a lot of criticism during New Girl season 1, as she was perceived by many to be no more than a male fantasy, a “woman-child in a polka-dot dress”, and to not be empowering at all. Jess’ personality was also seen as too odd and “out of the box”, especially when interacting with her roommates.
If Jess seemed to be too different from other female characters is because that was the goal, as Meriwether didn’t want her to fit into a mold. Meriwether had to explain that Jess wasn’t meant to be emblematic of all women, and she was “just writing about herself” and giving Deschanel “fun, interesting things to do every week” so they could present “an interesting, funny female character on television”. All the criticism towards Jess’ girlishness was referenced in the series, specifically in the episode “Jess & Julia”, where Nick’s girlfriend, Julia (Lizzy Caplan), didn’t like Jess precisely for being too girly. In the end, Julia and Jess made amends and got along after that (though they were never friends).
Jess was better received in subsequent seasons thanks to a combination of toning down those “too girly” elements critics pointed out and critics themselves understanding the character a bit better. As New Girl progressed, so did Jess’s arc, and she grew up and learned from all her bad experiences but without losing her essence and trying to fit into certain standards, which definitely helped her become a favorite among viewers.