New Girl: 10 Things That Make No Sense About Nick

Nick Miller from New Girl is easily one of the most chill people on television. The laid-back bartender from Chicago is the easiest person to hang out with, but also has a ton of issues, be it his disturbing lack of ambitions or his debilitating sense of hygiene, or even his inability to cope with modern technology.

But Nick is a loyal friend and a great partner and has proved that he will always stand beside his friends when they need him. But there are so many things which just don’t make sense about Nick, and fans have struggled for years to get to the depth of his character. Here are all the questions the New Girl fandom still has about Nick Miller.

10 His Finances

How did Nick Miller ever get by in Los Angeles? It has been established pretty early on in the show that he is extremely bad with finances. Even after working in Clyde’s Bar for years, he has no savings, no insurance and also has no bank account. He also doesn’t pay taxes and has a ton of debt. Interestingly, it’s never addressed how Nick plans to pay off his debts since he makes no effort to earn more. But fans have also wondered how Nick sustains himself in a city like LA on his income.

9 Why Did He Drop Out Of Law School?

Nick had dropped out of law school when he still had three semesters left to complete, but it’s never really revealed if he had any concrete plans for his future. Although his family wasn’t very wealthy, his parents did pay for his law school but Nick dropped out because he did not like the person he was becoming. It is also revealed that he did at some point, pass the bar exam, which is also confusing, considering he has never really wanted to become a lawyer and has often scoffed at the profession.

8 His Relationship With Phones

Nick has a very tricky relationship with phones and in Season 1 he actually decides to ditch phones altogether to save money. He talks about how he will be the only guy with no phone and tries to convince everyone that he likes this aspect.

He also talks relentlessly about how crazy phones are and clearly doesn’t know it all works. “Once your screen breaks, your information’s in the Twitterverse, man. And it’s all out there for everyone to see,” he tells his roommates. But when Jess’s rich boyfriend Russell gives him a new phone, he happily accepts it.

7 His Addiction Issues

It’s very obvious that Nick has a problem with alcohol. He works as a bartender and is often shown to be drunk during the day, and though the gang enjoys drinking occasionally, Nick is clearly the one with a dependency. It’s a little weird how his friends do not call him out or draw his attention to the fact that he is almost always drunk, especially considering how much they meddle in each other’s lives. In fact, Nick’s addiction issues have never been addressed in the show as a problem.

6 His Hygiene

It’s a miracle how Nick didn’t get interventions every now and then from his roommates about his unhygienic lifestyle, especially considering he lives with the picky Schmidt, who was really vigilant about his own hygiene. In season 1, it was revealed that Nick and Schmidt had accidentally been sharing the same towel for many months, and Nick doesn’t believe in ‘washing towels.’

It was also revealed that Nick sometimes uses his roommates’ underwear. Nick has also been spotted eating from the floor quite often, and himself admits several times that he is not a successful adult as he doesn’t know how to take care of himself. It’s not clear why Winston and Schmidt do not actually address this issue more severely.

5 His Take On Relationships

Nick is not really old fashioned when it comes to dating women; he’s perfectly fine with keeping things casual with Julia and didn’t want to label their relationship. This means he understands the dilemmas involved in sexual exclusivity. He has also been involved with other women without committing to a relationship, and was pretty flexible about it. And yet when Schmidt tells him that he is seeing both Cece and Elizabeth, he totally freaks out, and acts like he doesn’t even process what Schmidt is saying. This left fans confused considering Nick has, in the past, been a part of not-so-exclusive relationships.

4 His ‘type’

What is Nick’s type when it comes to women? Throughout the show Nicks’s romantic partners have been so vastly different from each other, that it was very difficult to pin down the kind of woman he’s attracted to. Although that’s not unusual, fans have often been surprised at the contrasting personalities Nick ends up with. While Jess is free-spirited, non-conformist, generous and challenges him intellectually, Caroline is domineering and unyielding, Reagan is emotionally unavailable and Julia is tough, workaholic, and also someone who’s the exact opposite of the laid-back Nick.

3 His Fascination with Russell

It was hysterical when Nick was completely blown away by Jess’ wealthy boyfriend Russell and referred to him as ‘Fancyman.’ In fact he even went to the extent of saying he was the only man both he and Jess loved. Russell was older, polished and extremely rich and a ‘functional adult’, something that Nick admits he could not measure up to.

It’s possible that he lived the life which Nick secretly wanted, and when Nick ventured into his classy office, he was extremely vocal about how he wanted it all for himself. This was also very confusing because Nick’s Big Lebowski-esque character had been set up as someone who would hate to have a life like Russell and definitely stands against many things Russell endorses.

2 His Encounters With Tran

Who really was Tran? Nick first met Tran in a park and Nick just started chatting with him spontaneously. When Tran didn’t say anything back and simply smiled at Nick, the latter found it hilarious. From them on Nick and Tran would often meet up and Tran even cradles him in a swimming pool. The only time Tran speaks is when he calls Nick  a ‘huge baby.’ The nature of their friendship was so weird that fans actually assumed he was just a figment of Nick’s imagination. But then Nick met Tran’s granddaughter who tells him that while Nick thinks of Tran as his best friend, Tran doesn’t feel the same way. But it’s bizarre why Nick felt so attached to Tran and could open up to him so freely, especially since he never even spoke.

1  His Novel

In the last season of New Girl Jess and Nick arrive in LA after concluding the European leg of Nick’s book tour for his detective series The Pepperwood Chronicles. While Nick has been working on the books for a very long time, the excerpts which were revealed on the show proved that his detective story was quite lame and somewhat amateurish. Nick wasn’t that great of a writer. So, Nick just becomes a better writer in the next few years? Is his work still bad? It’s clear that he worked hard to write the novel in New Orleans but it’s never revealed if his books are really successful.

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