Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-Present)

I just finished catching up with season 1 of this wonderful CW show on Netflix, which has spent the past two-and-a-half weeks eating my brain in the most delightful way.  Expect many posts about the show building up to and following the premiere of its second season on October 21st.

High-powered lawyer Rebecca is living a successful but unfulfilling life in New York.  On the verge of getting a huge promotion, she careens toward a nervous breakdown, knowing she ought to be thrilled but continually haunted by the question, “When was the last time you were truly happy?”  As such, she’s not in the best state of mind when she runs into Josh, an old boyfriend from summer camp, and thinks she’s finally able to answer that question.  Before we know it, she’s packed up her old life and moved to sunny West Covina, California (where Josh “just happens” to live,) ready for a somewhat-regressive take on a fresh start.  At her new rinky-dink firm, she makes a friend in paralegal Paula, who learns of Rebecca’s way-more-than-slightly-unhealthy Josh fixation and – an instant-convert Rebecca/Josh shipper – vows to help bring them together.  Oh, and did I mention it’s a genuine musical with an average of two original songs an episode, sending up a variety of genres, romance conventions, and societal misconceptions?

I’m still very new to the show, so I haven’t had much time to talk it up to friends yet, but I’m also in an awkward phase of trying to figure out how to talk about it.  I mean, “Woman quits her job and moves across the country for an ex-boyfriend she dated for two months ten years ago?”  That sounds horrific, from both a feminist standpoint and a straight-up plot standpoint.  In trying to suss out how to sell it, the most I’ve come up with so far is, “It’s not like it sounds, trust me!”

Because, as the theme song says, “The situation’s a lot more nuanced than that.”  Even as the show enjoys the whacky bad-decision hijinks, it also explores the very real mental-health issues Rebecca is struggling with.  This character is on a really interesting journey stuffed with deep-seated patterns of self-destructiveness; she wants to do better but is still figuring out how.  The tone can be amped-up wild sometimes, a cartoon come to life, but it can also be utterly real and raw.  In much the same way, all the characters are far more than they appear at first glance, the humor and the drama are equally on-point, and the fantastic songs are at once hilarious, smart, and genuine ear worms (tell me about it – I’ve been humming for days!)  Not to mention, I also love the show’s low-key approach to inclusion with both racial and sexual diversity.  Don’t let the title or the premise fool you; this is a series chocked with goodness.

Rebecca is played to perfection by Rachel Bloom, who is also the show’s co-creator and has a hand in coming up with many of its hilarious, pitch-perfect musical numbers.  Bloom is new to me, but I’ve since fallen in love with her awesomely-dirty comic music videos on YouTube, her pre-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend claim to fame.  Familiar faces (or rather, voices) include Donna Lynne Champlin, who I was shocked to realize played Pirelli in the 2005 revival of Sweeney Todd, as Paula, and Santino Fontana (Hans from Frozen) as acerbic bartender Greg.  As with Bloom, I’m not familiar with Vincent Rodriguez III, who plays Josh, but he’s terrific as well.

Warnings

Language, sexual content, drinking, and strong thematic elements.

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