8.4 /10 1 Votes
98% Rotten Tomatoes Network The CW | 7.7/10 IMDb 7.9/10 TV | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genre Romantic comedy
Black comedy
Satire
Comedy-drama
Musical Created by Rachel Bloom
Aline Brosh McKenna Starring Rachel Bloom
Vincent Rodriguez III
Santino Fontana
Donna Lynne Champlin
Pete Gardner
Vella Lovell
Gabrielle Ruiz Opening theme "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" performed by Rachel Bloom (season 1)
"I'm Just a Girl in Love" performed by Rachel Bloom (season 2) Ending theme "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (instrumental, season 1)
"I'm Just a Girl in Love" (instrumental, season 2) Composer(s) Adam Schlesinger
Jerome Kurtenbach (pilot only)
Frank Ciampi Awards Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy Program creators Rachel Bloom, Aline Brosh McKenna Cast Rachel Bloom, Vincent Rodriguez III, Santino Fontana, Donna Lynne Champlin, Pete Gardner Profiles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is an American romantic musical comedy-drama television series which premiered on October 12, 2015, on The CW. The series was created by Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna, and stars Bloom in the lead role.
Contents
On March 11, 2016, The CW renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on October 21, 2016. On January 8, 2017, The CW renewed the series for a third season.
Synopsis
Rebecca Bunch is a Yale- and Harvard-educated lawyer, who works for a top New York firm. She panics when offered a partnership and bumps into Josh Chan on the street. Josh was her first love from summer camp in 2005 and she never got over the way he dumped her at the end of camp. Josh tells her he could not hack it in New York and is moving back to West Covina, California ("Just two hours from the beach, four hours in traffic"). While watching a butter spread commercial, Rebecca decides to follow Josh in search of happiness. She hops a plane to L.A., gets a job at Darryl Whitefeather's West Covina law firm, buys a house, and flushes all her depression and anxiety meds down the sink. She becomes friends with the firm's paralegal, Paula, and begins an on-again-off-again relationship with Josh's friend Greg, while trying to reconnect with Josh.
Main
Recurring
Guest Stars
Production
The series was originally developed for Showtime, and a pilot was produced, but Showtime opted not to proceed with it on February 9, 2015. The CW picked up the series on May 7, 2015 for the Fall 2015–2016 season. The series has been extensively reworked for The CW, expanding the show format from a half-hour to a full hour and adjusting the content for broadcast television, as the original pilot was produced for premium cable. On October 5, 2015, shortly before the series premiere, The CW placed an order of five additional scripts. On November 23, 2015, the CW ordered another five episodes, raising the total for season 1 to 18. On March 11, 2016, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was renewed for a second season, along with eleven other CW series. The second season commenced on October 21, 2016. The second season will be shown in the UK on Netflix with episodes available the Saturday after US airdate.
Casting
On September 30, 2014, Santino Fontana, Donna Lynne Champlin, Vincent Rodriguez III and Michael McDonald joined Rachel Bloom in the series regular cast. With the move to The CW, the series went through casting changes and McDonald departed the cast. Shortly afterwards, Vella Lovell and Pete Gardner were added as regulars; with Lovell in the role of Heather, Rebecca's underachieving neighbor; and Gardner replacing McDonald in the role of Darryl, Rebecca's new boss.
On May 23, 2016, it was announced that Gabrielle Ruiz, who portrays Valencia, was promoted to series regular for season two. In November 2016, it was announced that Santino Fontana would be departing the series, with episode four of the second season resulting as his last as a series regular.
Music
Each episode contains two to three original songs. These are usually sung by Rebecca or a character with whom she is having a direct interaction, parodying the musical theater conceit of characters bursting into song at significant moments in the plot. In "Josh Has No Idea Where I Am", it is revealed that Rebecca has these musical fantasies out of passion for her love of musical theater. In later episodes, several other characters sing while Rebecca is not present.
A few of the songs on the show are shot twice, one clean version and an explicit version. The explicit versions are posted on Bloom's YouTube channel.
The first volume of the soundtrack of season one was released on February 19, 2016. It includes all the songs from the first eight episodes of season one, alongside Bloom's a cappella rough demos of "Feeling Kinda Naughty", "I Have Friends", "Settle for Me" and "Sex with a Stranger" as well as Adam Schlesinger's demo version of "What'll It Be".
Critical reception
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend received critical acclaim, with critics praising the show's writing, musical numbers and Bloom's performance. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the first season received an average score of 78 based on 23 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season a 96% positive rating, with an average rating of 7.7 out of 10 based on reviews from 49 critics, with the site's consensus stating: "Lively musical numbers and a refreshing, energetic lead, Rachel Bloom, make Crazy Ex-Girlfriend a charming, eccentric commentary on human relationships."
The second season received a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 9 out of 10 based on 13 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend remains delightfully weird, engaging, and even more courageous and confident in its sophomore outing." On Metacritic, it has a score of 86 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".