I don't think Nick and Jess work as a romantic pair.
I know this is controversial. The two leads of the show who had great romantic chemistry and were a great couple when they were together, how could they not be endgame? I just don't see it.
I think they got together at the right time for both of them. They were both well removed from the horrible relationships that they had just gotten out of in the first episode of the series and were trying to date again. In season two there was a "maybe they like each other" thing going on and building while she was seriously dating Doctor Sam and he briefly dated Olivia Munn.
Then one of the greatest kisses in television history happened.
It took time to sort out the aftermath of that kiss, and they got together at the end of the season when they decided taking the plunge on a romantic relationship was worth the risk. It was nice while they were together, they were fun, but I think it was good for the both of them that their relationship ended before the point of no return for their friendship. And I was happy with how they stayed friends. but We got to see people who used to be in love stay friends and not constantly getting back together, like some other sitcom about friends sharing a living space.
What came out of that, to borrow a term from Grey's Anatomy, is that they became each other's person. They were each other's go-to to talk about the difficulties in their lives and be sounding boards for the other.
Seasons four and five were great, especially four in terms of pure comedy. Just check out "Background Check", "The Crawl", and "Spiderhunt" for proof of that.
Will-they/won’t-they have come to define some of the most iconic relationships in television. It would have been great to see a show eschew the will-they/won't-they in favor of two people deciding to be friends. They had their relationship, it was good while it lasted, but they realized they weren't the one for each other, and kept being friends. This could've been settled for good in the season four finale "Clean Break" when Coach moves out of the loft and when packing him up, they find the mug they used to signal when they wanted to have some sexy times. Acknowledge that what they had was good, but it's been a year, we've moved on, and we're good. It could've been a sweet, emotional, moving moment.
Season six, Jess got saddled with pining for Nick while he was with Reagan. And I loved Nick and Regan as a couple and I wish they could’ve had a fair shot without the specter of Jess and the seemingly inevitable. Megan Fox was great on show, and the way everything was handled made it feel like Reagan never even had a chance. I would have liked to see Jess find another guy to date and find herself in a more serious relationship than she ever had on the show.
More time could have been spent across the show that Nick owned the bar and how that aided him in growing up, and kept his novels as fun side projects. Because I always thought that his great love was Schmidt, and his second was the bar and being a bar tender. He found it at a low point in his life and chose it over being a lawyer.
Also, it would've been fun to see new people interact with the loft, and then join the loft. Aly, Nasim Pedrad's character, was a great new addition to the show. I love seeing what happens to characters that manage to stick around for awhile, and how they gel with the weirdos who occupy the loft. Also, we already had two members of the core group shack up together with Schmidt and Cece. Ever since Friends, it seems like we need at least two couples to end up together out of the initial friend group once the show comes to an end. Everyone doesn't have to end up with each other. Other people exist. They can fall in love with those people. Or maybe have it end with one of them single.
I still love the show. It is one of the best ensemble comedies of the 2010s and deserved more critical and awards attention than it got. It gave me one of my favorite sitcom characters in Nick Miller and one of my favorite sitcom gangs/found families. I will happily rewatch many episodes until the rest of time. It's just a storyline I didn't like the second time around.
