On TV tonight: Fox's 'New Girl'

Fox’s "New Girl" won’t be for everyone.

The series, which premieres at 9 p.m. tonight, has a quirky sense of humor that I wasn’t so sure about at first. But star Zooey Deschanel and her co-stars soon won me over.

Deschanel is Jess, who is, well, a little odd. She’s awkward and dorky, drops references to Gandalf and Middle Earth into conversation and is prone to breaking out in song (often, they’re her very own theme songs).

But she’s still relatable and likeable, and the show is cute, all thanks to the charms of Deschanel.

After a particularly bad break-up, Jess answers a Craigslist ad and winds up moving in with three single guys: Schmidt (Max Greenfield), your stereotypical wannabe ladies man, who thinks taking off his shirt will make women swoon; Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.), a personal trainer who doesn’t know how to talk to women; and Nick (Jake Johnson), a sad sack bartender trying to get over an ex-girlfriend.

"They’ll ruin your life if you let them," he tells the guys as they weigh the pros and cons of living with a woman. "They’ll break down your will to live."

And the pros? "They’re really good at folding."

OK, then.

Nick gets a lot more likeable by the end of the first half hour, and I daresay there will eventually be some sparks between him and Jess. I just hope this show finds an audience, so we can see them.

Side note: Don’t get too attached to Wayans’ Coach, though; he was contractually obligated to stay with ABC’s "Happy Endings," so when that show got picked up, he had to leave this one. He’ll be replaced in the second episode.