“New Girl,” the best new comedy of the past year, had its season finale this past Tuesday. Now it’s time to reflect on what made this show one of the strongest additions to the television line-up. First of all, what’s special about this show is not the premise or the setting. A show about a group of friends sharing an apartment in a big city is absolutely as basic as you get. But the characters themselves are anything but simple. In my mind, the actors have physically and emotionally become one with their characters. Most of the jokes that are thrown around on this show are not just one-liners, but instead “inside jokes” that are only funny because of the character speaking the line. In honor of the season finale, let’s briefly go through why each character is amazing (spoilers ahead). While Jess may not be the funniest of the gang, she is the new girl. Zooey Deschanel tends to rub some people the wrong way. Her voice is weird and quirky, her bangs take up two-thirds of her face and sometimes she sings songs instead of speaking. Before the show, I wasn’t a fan of Zooey Deschanel. However, this show made me fall in love with her. I don’t care that she’s “adorkable” and wears sundresses and cardigans all the time. She’s so uncomfortable and awkward that it’s nearly impossible not to love her. Watching her life unfold is like watching a slow motion train wreck, if that train wreck were wearing hipster glasses and polka dot pajamas. Then, there’s Nick. He started out as the most normal member of the group and gradually turned into the most dysfunctional. As a man who dropped out of law school and is now a permanent bartender, he’s your typical underdog, fighting through the rubble of his life like a homeless fratstar. He has had a lot of sexual tension with Jess over the course of the season, and although they got very close to making moves on each other in the season finale, they kept their perfect relationship intact. It is a testament to this show that they are not using a Nick and Jess relationship as a crutch so early in the series. Winston is kind of the odd duck in the apartment. His purpose in the foursome is usually the voice of reason. While he doesn’t usually have interesting plotlines, his true gift is his one-liners. He hopefully will have more moments to shine next season, but for now, he will simply be the man who points out how ludicrous everyone else is acting all the time. Finally, the man of the hour, the cream of the crop, the peanut butter in my Reese’s, Schmidt- probably one of the greatest characters every created. This cardigan wearing, OCD, flamboyant, womanizing Jewish maverick is simply in a league of his own. Whether he is placed in the forefront of an episode or behind the scenes, he always manages to rise to the top. His relationship with Cece has blossomed over the course of the season into a beautiful, precious flower, but alas, that flower wilted slightly in the finale. Hopefully, those crazy kids can work it out, but I’m already excited to see an episode of Schmidt baking and listening to horrible music in an attempt to get over Cece. The finale left off on a tender note, focusing less on slapstick humor and more on how the characters have become so close over the past year. It also set us up for some developments that will happen next season. Schmidt will be single again, so he will naturally be on the prowl. Nick decided not to move in with Caroline, but it is unclear if they broke up officially or if he just chose not to live with her. Although there were no cliffhangers, it doesn’t mean “New Girl” fans won’t desperately miss the characters that have become our awkward family over the past year. -Mackenzie Bronk