Saturday, December 17, 2016

What I’m Watching: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Season 2, Episode 6 “Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?” (B+)

Sometimes this show is a bit weirder and more irreverent than I would like, but when episodes that feature such things end up trying it all together in a truly compelling way, it’s completely forgivable. There were some normal strange things that worked well in this hour, like Rebecca, Heather, and Valencia singing in British accents about their ambitious and terrifying squad goals. The whole notion of that friendship is odd, but it works so well since Valencia constantly misreads every situation and asks a newly accepting Heather if she’s responding in the right way. But when it really became poignant was when Rebecca looked at Paula’s phone and lashed out at her for not wanting to be part of the group and for judging her for replacing her when she had done the very same thing with Sunil. Rarely do we get such sincere drama on this show, and I really liked that. I also loved Rebecca’s instant rivalry with Sunil based mainly on his overemphasis of his theater major and “Fiddler on the Roof” facts. I’d like to forget all about Angelique, so let’s not mention that. At first, Darryl was being horrible to Maya in the same way that most are to him, but it was all rectified when they showed up to do their awesome “dance-mergency” routine and then he named the dance the Maya. I like when supporting characters get their own threads. Trent’s return was also a bit random, but his trying to infiltrate Josh’s guy group to get with Rebecca was appropriately-timed and superbly awkward in its execution. I like that Josh got confused with Trent’s “rent” pneumonic device, though I prefer the helpful tip that if you take out the “t” it’s tent. Rebecca sleeping with Trent because she was bored and didn’t have anything else to do doesn’t really recommend her as all that good of a person anymore, especially when she repeated the action following Trent’s revelation of his virginity.

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