By LAYANN BASILEH
Staff Writer
The CW Network kicked off the second season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on October 21, 2016. The show has been praised for its writing, musical numbers and performances, earning actress Rachel Bloom a Golden Globe for her role as the main character, Rebecca Bunch. But despite the show’s commendations, the first season suffered low ratings due to its inconvenient Monday evening time slot and poor advertising. Although Crazy Ex-Girlfriend now airs on Fridays, it continues to be harmed by its misleading commercials.
Through the advertisements, the show is presented as a simple story about a woman desperately chasing after an old flame. Bloom’s character, a highly successful, yet miserable lawyer in New York, bumps into her high school ex-boyfriend, Josh, from summer camp in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Upon seeing him, she’s immediately filled with overwhelming joy, and impulsively decides to move to West Covina, CA when she learns that he is moving there. On the surface, the show may sound incredibly cheesy and perhaps even pathetic. However, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a humorously executed satire that mocks this type of archetypal character present in many romances. The show makes it clear that Rebecca has glorified her ex-boyfriend and constantly features other characters calling out Rebecca for her overly obsessive behavior and selfish actions. For example, Josh asks Rebecca to lie about their past relationship in order to avoid dealing with his current girlfriend’s jealous streak, and in a funny musical number, Rebecca insists that she is a good person while she insults onlookers who she brands as “below” her and drops a $300 studio mic into a glass of beer.
A refreshing view on romantic leads isn’t the only the thing Crazy Ex-Girlfriend brings to the table. The show also features a cast of diverse actors, all of which manage to entertain and draw laughter from the audience while also being able to successfully address the many sides of their well-rounded characters, going from gleefully breaking and entering in order to steal a secret recipe to expressing dissatisfaction with their current lifestyle.
As well as amusingly illustrating Rebecca’s obsessive tendencies, the series also lightheartedly, yet cleverly discusses her struggles with depression as well as other characters’ personal issues, such as immaturity, alcoholism and sexuality.
Overall, despite an initially off-putting premise, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a fantastic series for anyone looking for an intelligent, yet silly and fun show about the modern world.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend currently holds a 8.2/10 on TV.com and a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. The series airs on The CW on Fridays at 9/8 central.
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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: A TV Show Review
November 7, 2016
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