Category: Features

Multi-part analyses of interesting works

The Endgame is You

October 9, 2018

In the mid-2010s, a revolutionary creative duo was born when the award-winning writer Aline Brosh McKenna discovered the comedy music videos of Rachel Bloom. And the script McKenna had in her back pocket at that time was for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a feature film she thought would be perfect for Bloom, considering most of those videos up to that point were about bringing violence and instability to romantic comedy. So this is a crucial moment not only for either woman but for television itself. The ingredients to make it so are McKenna, who’s navigated to the top of a system that works so well when it’s working against her and those like her, the idea for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend the movie, female-led and female-featuring, and Bloom, the quadruple-threat and counting with a completely new voice, and whose teaming up with McKenna turns a writer’s natural introspection into a dialogue. … More The Endgame is You

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Season 3 Recap

February 17, 2018

“Wow, I really underestimated this show,” is probably a thought I should only have once. But alas, and believe me, it’s only because Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a TV show, and generally, my expectations for a TV show are at least: this will be a TV show. And with dribbly phrases like
“golden era” and “peak TV” ubiquitous in television criticism, we know shows have experimented and pushed past old expectations for the medium. But this is different. … More Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Season 3 Recap

Why I Like Anime

November 27, 2017

Like many anime fans, interest in the form came from science-fiction fandom. In a survey book entitled The Rough Guide to Scifi Movies, by acclaimed author John Scalzi, the centerpiece chapter discusses 50 canonical works. Among the usual suspects of 2001, Blade Runner, Metropolis, and Star Wars, there’s also space for Akira and Ghost in the Shell, two animated films from Japan. … More Why I Like Anime

Josh Chan and the Slanted Gaze

September 13, 2017

Let’s talk about Josh Chan. Now, Josh Chan is an incredible character for reasons within and without the context of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I really like watching him do stuff, and I really like Rebecca do stuff around him. There was a video a while back called “Was It Supposed to Be Greg?” which had gone through several iterations since before the channel started, and at one point was more a discussion about Team Greg and Team Josh. So I guess now we have occasion to revisit that other part of it, but first note that of course teams is not the way to go about this. … More Josh Chan and the Slanted Gaze

Darryl and Friends | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Analysis

September 2, 2017

When Rachel Bloom talks about Darryl, one of the things I feel like she points out is that he’s a very lonely character who has this fundamental sadness and of course didn’t know why until meeting White Josh. As we see, he’s on a kind of desperate quest to be friends with someone. On paper, that sounds pretty tragic, but like Rebecca, he’s just too sunny to bring the tone of the show down. … More Darryl and Friends | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Analysis

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | Issues to Address

August 5, 2017

Media analysis can be rough, when you dig really deep you got to make sure you remember how and why you got there. This YouTube channel started under a simple banner: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is so good and so smart. But it’s been a few months since I was initially struck by the show’s unexpected good and smartness, “unexpected” measured not by a show that looks like this but by television itself, and in the time since, I’ve witnessed various negativity — one scathing review, a number of issues raised by the fan community, things like that. … More Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | Issues to Address

Heather: A Definition of Cool | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Analysis

June 4, 2017

By Rebecca’s definition, Heather is the cool one. And it isn’t hard to see why: she’s got style, she’s very chill, and when standing next to Rebecca, the chill is certainly amplified. Her easygoing nature is facility, though, as Rebecca and all sitcom protagonists require either encouragement or discouragement to move forward, and Heather’s good with pretty much anything. … More Heather: A Definition of Cool | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Analysis