What to stream this weekend: Your new favorite show is black, musical comedy 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'
'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' is smart, and really funny They don't make celebrities like Rachel Bloom anymore. She's more than a triple threat: Not only does she star in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the musical black comedy she cocreated with The Devil Wears Prada writer Aline Brosh McKenna, she also sings, dances, and writes the two or three songs that appear in each episode. Not enough people watched the show's first season on the CW, so thank the streaming gods its first season is on Netflix.
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The premise can feel off-putting on its surface: Rebecca (Bloom) is a depressed lawyer who leaves her ostensibly successful New York life behind to chase her high school boyfriend to West Covina, Calif. But it's less about a woman chasing a man than it is about happiness, depression, and the families we form out of the friends we have. Plus, it's really, really funny.
The music ranges in genre, from the slow jam rhythm and blues of "Sexy Getting Ready Song" to the old-school musical showstopper "West Covina" to the Disney-esque "I'm the Villain."
We could wax lyrical on many aspects of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: It's smart, its cast is effortlessly diverse, it deals with depression in a way that is both funny and yet heartbreakingly real. But the real draw is Bloom herself, who won a Golden Globe for her role. She pulls the entire wacky production together. Her performance is deep and meaningful, but most of all really, really funny.
Where to stream it: Netflix.
Like this? Binge these: The sweet telenovela Jane the Virgin (Netflix); Flight of the Conchords (HBOGo).