New Girl and Single Parents might seem like they only have one thing in common (the fact that they’re both sitcoms) but it turns out that they share more than just a genre. Both series were created by Elizabeth Merriwether, and Single Parents feels like the grown-up version of New Girl.
Both shows are well-done and worth watching. Let’s take a look at how they stack up against each other in terms of characters, storylines, and setting. Here are five things that Single Parents does better than New Girl and vice versa.
Single Parents: Parent/Child Relationships
There’s nothing sweeter than watching CeCe and Schmidt become parents to their daughter Ruth, and it turns out that CeCe wants to go to work and he wants to be a stay-at-home father. He’s great at parenting and even has a binder with everything that there is to know about Ruth, including her snack preferences.
But since Single Parents is about, well, single parents, it makes sense that this show would examine the subject a lot better. Everyone struggles with being a solo mom or dad, from Miggy wondering where he fits in to Poppy feeling lonely to Angie trying to stick to a budget. It feels moving and also realistic.
New Girl: The Friendships
Single Parents may be about moms and dads but New Girl is about a great group of friends, and showing true friendships is what the show does best.
Nick and Schmidt have been pals since their college days, and once Jess moves in with them and Coach (and Winston) in the loft, the quirky characters realize how special and wonderful their friendship is.
Single Parents: The Characters Have Interesting Jobs
Sure, the characters on New Girl work… but the characters have pretty dull jobs. Jess is a teacher, Schmidt works some boring traditional job, and who knows what Nick does.
The gang on Single Parents have much more compelling jobs. Will is a weatherman (or he was before becoming a single dad) and he does try to get his career back in the first season. And Poppy runs her own business, a wine bar/bookstore hybrid called The Wineberry. (Isn’t that genius?!)
New Girl: The Setting
The setting of a sitcom is a key part and it’s safe to say that New Girl wins here since the loft setting is too much fun.
This apartment is even better than Monica and Rachel’s on Friends… which is saying a lot. Since the place is so massive, it feels equal parts awe-inspiring and unfair that the gang can actually live there. Of course, in real life it seems like it would be super expensive, but in TV land, it’s feasible. Most of the show takes place in the loft as the characters hang out and, sometimes, act crazy.
Single Parents: Talking About Adulting
While 18-year-olds are technically grown-ups, it’s tough to feel like you really have a handle on adult life when you have that important birthday. The gang on New Girl are nowhere close to being real adults, and while that’s pretty funny to watch, the characters aren’t really discussing growing up in a realistic way.
Single Parents talks about adulting as the characters are attempting to act their ages and be good role models for their children. When Angie realizes that she can’t stop spending money in silly ways, for example, she wonders about budgeting. It’s impossible not to relate to that scene.
New Girl: Pranks And Quirky Situations
Winston loves pulling pranks on New Girl, and the characters always seem to find themselves in truly hilarious and quirky situations. They are quite the odd bunch of friends but that’s exactly why fans love watching the show so much.
Even the series finale becomes an epic prank when Winston pretends that everyone has to move out of the loft. The fact that this was part of the show’s ending proves what a big deal pranks are to New Girl. There are so many episodes when everyone seems to be acting totally nuts, and it would be hard for any other series to do that quite as well.
Single Parents: Will They/Won’t They Tension
Single Parents does “will they/won’t they” tension better than New Girl because it’s fascinating to watch several of the characters and see if they’re going to finally admit how they feel about each other.
Poppy and Douglas are in love, and so are Angie and Will, but it’s taking a long time for everyone to speak up about their romantic feelings. Fans finally got to see Poppy and Douglas together in the season one finale, but Angie and Will are taking their sweet time. It’s okay, though. There will be a season two so there’s still time for this love story.
New Girl: Solid Couples
While the tension between Douglas and Poppy (and Angie and Will) is top-notch on Single Parents, New Girl wins for having solid couples.
Sure, it’s true that the show did try to make viewers wonder if Nick and Jess really would get together… or stay together. The question of whether they would date, and later, whether they would get engaged, was always part of the series. But no one really thought that these two characters would remain apart. It was always super obvious that they were going to end up together, so it wasn’t anything to fret about. New Girl has many great couples, including CeCe and Schmidt.
Single Parents: Adorable Kids
Single Parents wins in the “adorable kids” category… mostly because the sitcom is literally about solo parenting a bunch of cute children. It’s definitely a requirement.
Graham, Rory, Sophie, Amy and Emma both act and say hilarious things and they live up to the reputation of sitcom kids saying the perfect thing at the perfect moment.
New Girl: Starting A Family
While the kids on Single Parents are as cute as you would expect them to be, watching Schmidt and CeCe decide to start a family is such a moving experience. When it comes to what New Girl does better than Single Parents, it would be showing what it’s really like when a couple wants to start a family. The characters on Single Parents are already moms and dads, so they don’t examine what that big decision is like.
The characters know that their lives will change forever, but they welcome it, and when the show returns for the sixth and final season, it’s too cute to watch them as parents to their precocious daughter Ruth.
