And apparently, I'm not the only one. Sez Time's James Poniewozik:

Since having the best comedy pilot of the fall season, New Girl has been one of those shows that I’ve liked… but. But Jess was irritating. But the show was too forcefully trying to make us love Zooey Deschanel’s naif cuteness. But this or that episode was kind of a clunker. But the show had not successfully transitioned from Damon Wayans Jr. to Lamorne Morris. But…

I’m now officially at the no-more-buts point with New Girl; this is simply a funny, likeable comedy that I enjoy the hell out of, without qualification.

I get the criticisms, too. There's something about Zooey's way-too-precious persona that makes my teeth want to shatter into a billion pieces... and here comes my BIG BUT! But I will fight anyone to the death that tries to tell me that the ensemble power in New Girl isn't right up there with that in Community. Since diminishing the role of Jess (and making her a little less fucking weird) the writers have been playing up the obvious star power of the three men in the series who work together with the same hot chemistry as a modern-day Marx Brothers. In particular Max Greenfield (who also played Leo D'Amato in Veronica Mars... swoooon!) as Schmidt is quite probably the funniest character on TV right now.

More and more I've been getting texts and emails and comments like this: "Ummm... is it okay for me to like New Girl now? I actually think it's kinda good." IT'S TOTALLY OKAY. America—stop fighting the rest of us. Come out of the closet. Own your love for New Girl (FOX, Tuesdays, 9 pm).

However! It's totally also way okay for you to HATE, HATE, HATE Zooey's "The Fabric of Our Lives" cotton commercial. BLECHHHH!!

Cant we just call it New Schmidt?