Yeah, I've been back home in MA and have had more time on my hands than even I tend to have, so don't judge me.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is, in a lot of ways, a deconstruction of the romantic comedy. But in another way, it is a dark and devastating romance. But here's the thing: the will-they-won't-they is not about any of the men in Rebecca Bunch's life - it's about herself. Can this poor, broken woman learn to love herself? Can she live happily ever after, but with herself?
And holy crap do I ship those two.
The title of the show, as we've discussed before and as was mentioned in season one's opening title song, is a sexist term that the show is all about exploring and deconstructing. Rachel Bloom creates a character that is so well-conceived and well-performed that we can't help but sympathize with her. She's the sort of character who might be peripheral on other shows. Sure, we do tend to empathize with the main characters on a show, but unlike Seinfeld or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the mission of this show is for us to see the likable, good person buried under all this toxic behavior and psychology.
The last few episodes of season two see Rebecca get back with Josh, get engaged, and plan an absurdly quick marriage. And the proposal comes literally right as Rebecca is about to finally start delving into her problems with Dr. Akopian. Her man problems - problems that even saw her committing arson and being institutionalized in the finale's big reveal (well, one of the big reveals) - are all just symptomatic of her self-esteem issues.
By so many standards, Rebecca is a success. She's a brilliant lawyer with two Ivy League colleges on her resume (though the reason there are two and not one is actually significant to her problems as it turns out.) And while the central motivation for her move to West Covina was unhealthy, it's a good thing she realized her life in New York was not what she wanted it to be.
She diagnosed the problem: she was unhappy, but chose a terrible prescription.
And there were two major factors at work: one being the relationships with her parents, particularly her father (not that my parents are perfect, but judging from how many characters on TV have issues with their dads, I've got to count myself lucky. Actually, I appreciate that Greg had a good relationship with his.) The other being the narratives that we love. And look, I think the shows I post about make it clear I have a pretty standard guy-nerd set of tastes, and you do not see me rushing off to every rom-com that makes it to the theaters.
But the toxic idealized narratives of the romantic comedy that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is all about tearing down can affect anyone, regardless of your gender or orientation. There's something so appealing about the idea that another person could fix you - that a mix of sex and affection and having someone to be with you all the time will allow your underlying problems to melt away. I've sure as hell daydreamed about women I've had crushes on coming in and breaking me out of whatever rut I'm in (the manic pixie dream girl trope is all about this,) but that sort of thinking gets you stuck in place.
So, it might be kind of out of left field, and maybe it's because I've been watching one show while bingeing the other (and I'm about to hit that serious show-withdrawal) but in a very odd way, there's a parallel with Legion here.
Stick with me.
In this week's episode of Legion (and spoiler alert for those of you in the CEGF/Legion Venn diagram,) David finally starts to learn to take some control of his power once he looks inward and personifies his rational mind as another version of himself. They talk things out, and doing so allows David to become grounded enough that he can break out of his, in this case literal, mental prison and actualize his powers.
What Rebecca Bunch needs is to step outside of herself, take a look, and learn to be happy with who she is in a relative vacuum - not by the standards of who she's currently attached to. And it should probably be a duet.
Of course, we can't go there yet (just as David can't have total control of his powers yet) because then the series would end. On the other hand, CEGF is also about subverting the idea that there are happy endings - having everything wrapped up neatly is another one of those toxic fantasies. And we have seen Rebecca make real progress, only for her to backslide.
But even with backslides, progress can be made. Rebecca needs to learn that the idea that all of her problems will disappear is something that just won't ever happen. But she can reduce them, and she can get herself into a place where she can deal with them as they come. And that's as good as it'll get, but it's not bad.
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