Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is not a perfect show. It straddles that line between good and great. The artistry in the musical numbers, the sets, they're undeniable. But the writing straddles this line more than anything. This show can so often be Tina Fey-esque White Liberal. Rebecca almost ruins a man of color's life- Josh- with false accusations by using society's inclination to view the white woman as vulnerable against him, and the racial aspect of this is never brought up. Likely because the writers just didn't think about it! The pregnancy plotline is messy, almost obligatory. Valencia's bisexuality, while welcome, springs up during a timeskip and doesn't get the time and attention Darryl's romance got. This season- like the previous seasons- is messy!
And yet.
Despite the undeniable whiteness to Rebecca's journey, I still related to it intensely. The excuses that nothing's ever your fault, because of your illness, your trauma, your upbringing. The mistakes, saying this is the last time and feeling so sure in the moment and baffled when you do it again, like you were in a trance. The latching onto someone because they're the only one that makes you feel like you matter, that anything does. That they can save you. The feeling of being trapped in an endless loop of misery and delusion. The mental illness is real, raw, and honest. But even this, like everything else, is caught in that surface level liberalism when the season ends with Rebecca thinking the prison system is some ultimate way of taking responsibility for your actions. This show can never escape its whiteness. But it manages to be worth it anyway.
Review by JCVIP 4BlockedParent2020-10-24T01:12:52Z
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is not a perfect show. It straddles that line between good and great. The artistry in the musical numbers, the sets, they're undeniable. But the writing straddles this line more than anything. This show can so often be Tina Fey-esque White Liberal. Rebecca almost ruins a man of color's life- Josh- with false accusations by using society's inclination to view the white woman as vulnerable against him, and the racial aspect of this is never brought up. Likely because the writers just didn't think about it! The pregnancy plotline is messy, almost obligatory. Valencia's bisexuality, while welcome, springs up during a timeskip and doesn't get the time and attention Darryl's romance got. This season- like the previous seasons- is messy!
And yet.
Despite the undeniable whiteness to Rebecca's journey, I still related to it intensely. The excuses that nothing's ever your fault, because of your illness, your trauma, your upbringing. The mistakes, saying this is the last time and feeling so sure in the moment and baffled when you do it again, like you were in a trance. The latching onto someone because they're the only one that makes you feel like you matter, that anything does. That they can save you. The feeling of being trapped in an endless loop of misery and delusion. The mental illness is real, raw, and honest. But even this, like everything else, is caught in that surface level liberalism when the season ends with Rebecca thinking the prison system is some ultimate way of taking responsibility for your actions. This show can never escape its whiteness. But it manages to be worth it anyway.