Steve Welch’s editing gives comic ensembles time to react without letting every pause become a performance. We rate that restraint, particularly in New Girl, though Furious shows that a series can be carefully made and still run too long.
Fi1m perspective
In New Girl (2011), the douchebag jar charges a flatmate for being objectionable. We laughed because it seemed a practical response to spending so many evenings together. Steve Welch’s editing gives the others room to react without treating every pause as an event. The group seems comfortable together, without the cutting having to insist that we notice.
His editing career began on Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995). On Malcolm in the Middle (2000), he edited dozens of episodes and directed nine. Feature work includes Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), but sustained work with television ensembles remains the clearest thread through his credits. It is also where we find the strongest reason to follow him.
His New Girl credits include editorial associate producer and director of five episodes, though the cutting is where his contribution is clearest to us. Zooey Deschanel is good company, but the programme improves when Jess’s awkwardness stops being the whole joke. Welch’s handling of reactions supports that change by giving the other flatmates their share of our attention. It cannot sort out the overworked romantic plotting, which sometimes demands more patience than the friendships do.
On Furious (2026), he is both producer and one of four editors working across eight episodes. He shares the cutting with Ralph Jean-Pierre, Katie Ennis and Julie Kreinik, and the programme maintains a consistent look despite its four directors. Cinematographers Doug Emmett and Brian Lannin light the wealthy houses evenly, while production designer Chris Trujillo gives them pale floors and sparsely decorated walls. Ariel Marx’s spare score knows when to stop, particularly when Alice is working. It is careful, well-acted work, but the series is two episodes too long.
There is enough here to recommend Furious to thriller viewers, with patience for the extra length. It gives us less reason to single out Welch than the comic timing and companionable pace of New Girl. Start there, provided a few overworked romances will not spoil the evening.
Biography
Steve Welch is an American film and television editor. He grew up in a small town in Oregon and attended Emerson College.
Welch edited many episodes of the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle (2000–2006) and its 2026 revival miniseries Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair. Other credits include the films Not Another Teen Movie (2001), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), Year One (2009) and Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021), and the series New Girl (2011–2017), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Dying for Sex (2025). He has also directed episodes of several television shows.
Welch has received multiple Primetime Emmy Awards for picture editing.
