Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Anger, Depression and Show Tunes

There are not a lot of shows that are on today that have musical numbers every episode. And of those shows that have musical numbers, they aren't about violent obsession like the show "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."The show is about Rebecca Bunch, a successful lawyer and was offered a partnership at a prestigious law firm in New York, but something was missing. After a chance meeting with a former boyfriend, Rebecca impulsively decides to give up her life in New York and relocate to West Covina, Calif. She hopes West Covina will be the perfect home base as she embarks on a quest for love, adventure and true happiness.
The show truly shines with how it articulates something real about being a woman in 2017. Women want to be independent and self-possessed but have been conditioned to think they need a man. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend cleverly picks apart the sexism fundamental
to the term "psycho ex." While the show does this, it doesn't lose sight of the fact that Rebecca is a woman with serious mental health issues that she refuses to properly acknowledge, which is another point where the show truly shines
. She regularly engages in self-destructive activities like chugging alcohol from the bottle and hooking up with a stranger while she's supposed to be on a date with someone else. Rebecca is both riddled with fears she is inherently unlovable, and a persistent narcissist whose perspective we can never fully trust.
Her mental-health history, which includes attempted arson and institutionalization, was revealed to her friends in West Covina is an episode. Rebecca responds to their offers of help by lashing out at them, alienating herself from the people who love her most. Rebecca eventually hits rock bottom by sleeping with a different ex-boyfriend’s father. She realizes how low she’s gone. She’s not in a “sexy French depression,” a romanticized view of her symptoms she adopts in a Season 1 song. She’s not “just a girl in love” who “can’t be held responsible for her actions” as the Season 2 theme song mused. Rebecca’s issues aren’t that simple. They can’t be solved with a pill. They can’t be summed up in a single song or episode or even a season. In one of the episodes during the new season, Rebecca can't take it anymore and decides to take her life. She takes a bunch of pills, but then calls the airline attendant over and gives her the empty pill bottle and says, " I need help..."
It's rare in today's pop culture world for mental health to be shown in such a raw and messy way. Only a few shows have really gotten it right, like "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." An example of another show is in "You're the Worst," how the show depicts chronic depression. For all of its flaws, like that cringe-worthy title, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" has gotten the most crucial part of its story right: Mental illness is disruptive. It can cause people to make poor decisions.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a show that not a lot of people are watching and that's a shame. Its one of the only shows that really nails mental health issues and does it in a fun musical way without being crude and disrespectful to people with mental health issues. The show is well written and everyone should give the show a try.