Zooey Deschanel's New Girl: Fall's best new TV show?

Apparently quite confident in its incessantly publicized new sitcom New Girl, Fox has made the pilot episode available for free on iTunes — and soon on Hulu, too — in advance of its Sept. 20 premiere. The series stars Zooey Deschanel ((500) Days of Summer) as a quirky, "fully adorkable" free spirit who, after a bad breakup, moves into a new apartment with three out-of-their-element guys. The show is earning high praise as the best new series of the fall, but for some, its star's trademark Zooey Deschanel-ness is too cutesy to bear. Now that critics have had a first look, should you tune in for more?

Yep. It's the fall's best new comedy: New Girl is "heartbreakingly funny, endearingly offensive, snarkily sweet, and wrong in all the right ways," says Kristin Dos Santos at E! Online. The cast has rare, spot-on comedic chemistry, and Deschanel gives a fearless performance in the name of racking up laughs. In fact, it's her "best work yet." It's not just for chicks either; "plenty of guys" will pick this pilot as their "favorite of the fall."

"Five fall shows we love: The no. 1 new series you cannot miss is…New Girl"

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It all depends on your fondness for Deschanel: One's enjoyment of New Girl is directly related to how charming — or intolerable — one finds Deschanel, says Jesse Carp at Cinema Blend. Her "awkward yet lovable mess" shtick is in full force: Her character sobs her way through Dirty Dancing and sings, to no one in particular, a theme song she wrote for herself. Personally, "I find her absolutely adorable," but "if you don't like Zooey Deschanel then don't tune in."

"Deschanel shines as awkward but lovable Jess in Fox's New Girl"

It's good — but not groundbreaking: Deschanel's confident-in-her-own-skin character may seem empowering, says Jessica Grose at Slate, but it's actually a rehash of old ditz stereotypes. She's introduced in the opening scene naked underneath a trench coat en route to seduce her unworthy boyfriend, says things like "pink wine makes me slutty!" and spends an entire scene "ineptly using a curling iron." While New Girl "is really promising, we're not exactly breaking new ground here."

"The New Girls"