Why is no one else talking TV?
Jeopardy - Let's throw this into the mix as well. So, recently, Jeopardy had its Tournament of Champions and it was awesome. The final 3 ended up being the final 3 I had guessed were the strongest possibilities provided they didn't play one or the other in a semi-final elimination game. As it was, they were all spaced out to never face one another until the finals. As it was, the Finals wasn't really that competitive but it was still an awesome match to behold with one player dominating through his run the tournament. Returning to regular Jeopardy has been rather painful the past week and compared to what was showing during the tournament, the contestants have just seemed brainless with all sorts of clues being left on the board at the end of a round and unrevealed. I hate that! That tournament has spoiled my regular Jeopardy viewings right now.
But finally, we come to the show I most want to talk about. My number one and favorite show of the week has become Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and I was definitely not expecting that and I bet many users here wouldn't be thinking that it would be getting my highest recommendation for viewing but I find it bloody brilliant.
When I first heard the name of the show in the fall-time, I thought it was weird idea for a comedy. Then finding out it was a musical comedy seemed even crazier. But crazy is the name of the game with this show. Seeing a commercial for it one night actually left me intrigued about it that I thought it was something I might check out if there was nothing else on. Well, it turned out there was nothing else on! Ha ha ha. Actually, referencing The AV Club, I was surprised to see the pilot get an A- review with the following headline, "Please oh please, don’t let Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s title deter you. The [fall] season’s most inventive pilot is a whirlwind." This intrigued me so I read and was now more interested in checking out. As it turned out, the station that normally plays Elementary aired the first 3 episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in the Elementary timeslot until the new Elementary season began. So, I checked it out and was hooked. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a critical consensus at 96% and an audience consensus of 83%. The scores for the first 7 episodes of the show so far on the AV Club have been A-, B+, B+, A-, B+, A-, and A- respectively. Of the current comedies I watch right now, which admittedly isn't a lot, this is my favorite.
I never got into Glee or Smash but unlike those shows, the songs sung on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend are not just popular songs grafted into the show. They are all original made for the show. In addition, most are comedic in nature making them more comparable to Weird Al's orginal songs on his album. In addition, the show is constantly changing up the style and type of song it displays. There's been a county song, French song, rap song, 30's style musical and others. The songs continue to be a highlight of each episode and I marvel at well the show has been able to constantly come up with all this material of songs and at a great consistent level.
It's got a great cast and part of the fun has been meeting more and more of the inhabitants and people that make up West Covina and Rebecca's world. That's not to say the songs are the only source of comedy. There are still plenty of other jokes when not in song which is actually the majority of the episode. I think the songs take a while to perform and edit so they are generally not that long but keeping them short and sweet is probably another reason why they are so successful. Yet, at the same time, the show has an odd heavy undercurrent to it as the main character does seem to suffer in some ways from a mental disorder. It's comes off as very believable depiction despite the heightened reality that the show exists in and yet it's direction and writing is such that you don't feel unease at the performance. It's able to blend comedy and drama so well together and it truly comes off as a unique show. As much as TV is filled with the brilliant but troubled genius type trope, this is something that takes it in a new direction. As the theme song says, "She's so broken inside. The situation is a lot more nuanced than that."
I'll finally be shutting up about TV tonight to go watch the newest episode that airs tonight. But I've just got to do my part and shill for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and get the word out.
And hey, just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here's one quick little song that appeared on the show. I'd say this is probably a lesser song as there are others I think better than it but I don't want to spoil those as I'd prefer people just watched the show fresh as I've been able to. In this clip, Rebecca is thinking about people she can invite to a house warming party. The episode deals with the trauma she also experienced at another party she had as a young girl so the clip is showing the similarity between the young Rebecca and the older Rebecca. That said, watching it again for the 5th time, the song still makes me smile and laugh. Maybe that's because I have a better context for it but I hope it will still make a good representation without that insider knowledge.