New Girl: “Virgins” (Episode 2.23)

The more I watch New Girl, the more I come to the conclusion that it might be one of the best—if not THE best—sitcoms on television. Most sitcoms about a group of friends can be funny, having little stories for the entire group to play around with, and sure, that can be an amusing episode of television. Shows like Happy Endings, Community and Parks and Recreation, just to name a few, can have great half-hours of comedy without really advancing the stories. Even How I Met Your Mother, in which every episode should be part of a larger narrative hinted at in the title, fails to do this more than it should.
But on New Girl, the show has combined the typical sitcom ensemble idea of a group of friends hanging out and having fun with elements that do continually move the story forward and constantly change the relationship dynamics between its main five characters. These characters can go on their adventures and various tangents, but New Girl has figured out how to have each episode’s final moments become a remarkable catharsis or change, even when you don’t realize the episode needs it.
One of the best examples of this is “Virgins,” which on paper sounds like nothing more than a flashback episode. New Girl has always had fun playing around with the pasts of these characters, especially Fat Schmidt, so seeing the moments when these characters lost their virginity is a perfect way for New Girl to relish in that.