With the mirror theme throughout the season, I just realized season 4's whole arc started when Rebecca almost killed Trent, her ultimate mirror, at the end of season 3
Her relationship with Audra is one of the most important in her life and it's brilliant of the show to explore that in so few scenes. Initially she sees Audra as everything she wants to be, thus hating her, but later as what her mother projected in her, a cage that doesn't allow for real emotions and much needed breakdowns. She extends empathy towards her, and its the final letting go of the path not taken
oooh I think recognizing the ways Josh, Greg, and Nathaniel mirror parts of Rebecca make her choice at the end of s4 to choose herself & her love of musical theater much more interesting. she is embracing the future rather than her past
Also interesting that Greg actively seeks out women who are not interested in him, actively mirroring rebecca in that his parents divorced and his mom left him and his dad. the difference is he realizes his mom did not actively abandon him as he thought, he's just using the idea of it for angst. He's an interesting mirror / foil to rebecca.
the impact of this show is clear just by the fact that it was a network show that ended years ago and people are still making videos about it. There's an infinite amount of things to say and analyze in crazy ex-girlfriend.
You can actually see the setup for the mirror theme in the season 3 theme song. If you watch closely every character she plays describing being crazy has a reflective surface or a mirror shown.
Yooooo so well said as always. I also think it's interesting how much Rebecca sees herself in Tucker despite not both being raised by the same parent. Like does that help her come to peace with her mother seeing that being raised by her father maybe wouldn't have been as different as she's made it out to be in her mind? idk just some half baked thoughts
thank u so much. i loved this. i know the fans have a tenuous relationship with season 4, and as someone living with bpd, season 4 is actually my subjective favorite because it offered me the most hope of any season. rebecca's authenticity in season 4 gave me something entirely new in media to look and smile at, and while it doesn't hit season 3's dramatic highs...it doesn't and shouldn't want to. and that's why it's my favorite: enough of the drama, enough of that heist, just live your life and have fun in the gray. thank u again!!
Recasting Greg was tough, but I also think part of why the series got more difficult as it went on it's because it is really hard to portray characters getting healthy being as funny as characters who are deeply messed up, as evidenced by the 1st season illustrating how every sitcom trope would actually be sociopathic if acted out in real life. I think they still brought incredible writing and some good laughs, but Watching characters make positive healthy choices is never going to be quite as comedic as watching them make terrible choices. One of my favorite moments in this series which still makes me cry is that after she has gone to therapy, taken the meds, and done all of the work she still feels lost and like the same person who has not figured out how to love in a healthy way. I related to that so much I sobbed. Then to have her finally embrace the thing about herself she is the most insecure about, that she hides and thinks is weird and unlikable but it's truly her deepest Passion, Then to have her finally embrace the thing about herself she is the most insecure about that she thinks is weird and have that be a means to TRUE SATISFACTION was incredible. That it was perhaps a way to experience romantic love in a healthy way down the line was also moving. The choices that they made and how they had Rebecca begin to truly build herself as a person for the 1st time was so beautiful and relatable to me. In my personal opinion, the 1st season was by far the funniest, but this show is a musical dramedy in ways I never would have expected. The comedy is so incredibly broad yet the emotions and the realism are so deep. It's the most relatable to picture of lifelong mental health struggles I have ever seen, and it made me cry so many times, relating to Rebecca
Yeah like the one I have issues with is season three bc I don't think the Nathaniel stuff was well thought n tht did carry over to season four (tht episode where he n Heather 'were not so different After All.. ) kinda crystalized in amber my issue in how the show treats heather n Valencia especially wrt screentime when Nathaniel got introduced
I’m always happy to see an essay about CXG! This was a beautiful summation of chapters and characters. Loved the points you shared - especially nuances I missed about Greg and Nathaniel.
I've watched your other CrExGf video The Art of an Opening soooo many times, so I got super excited seeing another analysis of the show pop up in my feed! They are both incredibly well formulated and presented, I can't wait for my friends to finish the show so I can rewatch both these videos with them! (I had never noticed the colour palette on Naomi's/Rebecca's/Audra's outfits, that's awesome!) There's so much effort in your videos, and they've made me really happy, so thank you! 🥳
LOVED this video!!! I'm on my 6th? rewatch of crazy ex gf and I'm noticing new things each time. This round I'm focusing a lot on Josh and his dynamics and it's actually so interesting how much he mirrors Rebecca as well. They both make drastic life decisions as a way to run away from taking responsbility for how they got to their circumstances (leaving rebecca at the altar instead of addressing his concerns before that point; rebecca being broke and seeing valencia forgive josh and abruptly buying a plane ticket and running away to new york). Josh also has this incredibly idealized perspective on relationships. Father Brah talks to him at one point about how he has this "thing" of "running to the nearest pretty girl because he thinks she'll solve all his problems." He also is deeply lonely in a similar way to rebecca and can't stand to be with himself-- he has an entire song about how he can't be alone with his thoughts! and jumps into 3 different relationships in 2-3 months. It's so interesting how at first look Josh is this very put together well functioning if a little immature antithesis to Rebecca (normal to her weird, "dumb" to her smart, happy to her sad) but he actually has fairly similar core issues despite a vastly different upbringing.
Thanks! The message of the video was something important to hear right now. I've lost a person I love. I feel like I'm the only one to feel like how i feel. I mean, I know I'm not the only one in the world with a heartbreak but I'm on the ACE spectrum so it's difficult for me to find someone. I've been alone for such a long time and then I was so happy and now i feel more alone and hopeless. I will try to open myself again
Great video! I love Crazy Ex Girlfriend because I like Rebecca have always felt a little "weird." And the perceived weirdness often lead to loneliness as I would put up walls to prevent what I assumed would be inevitable rejection. You encapsulated the themes and takeaways that the audience was supposed to gleam from Rebecca and the rest of West Covina's experiences. It was a great reminder that while Crazy Ex Girlfriend is a fictional show set in a fictional town with fictional people, can still have real world applications. If we allow the lessons that Rebecca and Co. learn over the 4 seasons and take them to heart, we too can live a more connected and authentic life.
I've been meaning to rewatch cxg and this had me 1)convinced and 2) crying. You're right that the show is narratively tight, to the point that it can be hard to tease out some of the broader, less explicit themes. i honestly can't wait to rewatch s4 with renewed appreciation!
This was beautiful. I always get so emotional about this show, and your interpretation of Season 4 as a culmination of everything the show (and Rebecca) was building towards is just *chef's kiss*
Fascinating and informative! I was delighted to learn about small details I didn't pick up on before (like Audra and Rebecca wearing opposing colours and how they did the same thing earlier but switched with Rebecca and her mum). You reminded me why I love this show so much ❤ Great job
MORE CXG CONTENT YAY No, but seriously, there isn't much content about the show around, and to see much high quality stuff being made this long after the show ended is super cool. Great work!
You continue to be one of the best video essayist on youtube imo I would watch you do a deep dive on any tv show, even shows I don't like fantastic video !!!
You know a video is good when you get distracted by looking up what else the creator is uploaded putting 5 in background tabs and subscribing before 10 minutes of view time.
Great video, I love it 💝 When I first watched the series, I knew it was great but it's with all the analysis done that I understand why. CXG is a mirror for all of us and an opportunity to recognise the symptoms of our wounds so we can start our own path for healing
Such an insightful and thought-provoking essay. I've had so many thoughts about growth and seeing the world as black and white in the past few weeks, and this video really helped me put some things into perspective. Thank you so much! 🙂
Damn. There are so many things I didn't notice about season four, and it just baffles me just how can we find new stuff to nitpick about even after years of the season finale release
Oh my fucking goddess, I'm rewatching the show with a friend and I'm so happy to see someone talks about it with such knowledge and understanding. Thank you sis, you have my sub.
While I enjoyed the show as a whole, I initially took issue with the season 4 finale. I think because there was a similar storyline done in Ugly Betty where she had to choose between two guys (well 4 if you count her boss and her dad). I was bummed and thought it was written poorly. The season 4 finale of CXG was attached to that bachelorette storyline and "Love's Not A Game" sequence so I thought Rebecca would end up with someone. I understood the show was a subversion of rom-com tropes and in earlier seasons always said Rebecca would end up either choosing herself or finding out her true love was music/musical theatre all along BUT the way the finale & episodes leading up to it were structured it seemed like they were really pushing for a choice. For awhile I disliked the finale and have been reevaluating my dislike. Anyway this was such a great video! Please don't be a stranger to covering more CXG in the future
Can you do 20k more crazy ex girlfriend videos. I love the way you discuss shows and I feel like no one has given the show a good insight as well as you.
Wow! Thank you for this outstanding video essay! I have rewatched this series multiple times, every time there are another layers (thematic, visual gags, colors of wardrobe, puns, etc) I have not seen before. You put into words what I saw but can't exactly articulate, especially in season 4. Thank you!!!
I had a friendship deteriorate while watching cxg. The friend wanted me to watch it with her because she identified so heavily with Rebecca to the point of her saying "this person is literally me" She seemed to recognize Rebecca as flawed, but she didn't seem to grasp the lack of realism behind Rebecca's relationships. The selfishness and manipulation went over her head as being relationship ending. I felt more and more like Paula, who used to bask in her big, quirky personality but grew more alienated as I realized I was an enabler who was being used. I later read a reddit post about how this is where the show went wrong, as people who have BPD tend to leave a trail of broken relationships behind them. I wasn't impressed by Rebecca's growth in the end, but at the same time I saw her flaws as very human, rather than on the binary of good and evil. The show didn't really help me reconcile this relationship, but rather opened my eyes to who this person was and how I was being treated.
I love this show so much, it's brilliant. This video is great, thank you for all this info, it's so fascinating!! 💗💗 your way of seeing all the hints of mirroring and explaining is very interesting.
season 4 imo is the perfect conclusion for CXG and tbh I just love it and find it wholesome in many ways. great video BTW!! and yes I did watch the whole playlist you have on the show and I really love your analysis so like and subscribe!! can't wait to see your other stuff 😄💜
It's kind of funny that given her father's proclivity to flee relationships when things start getting difficult, that both his kids with totally different women have very similar psychological issues. Dude, the women you marry aren't the problem, YOU have terrible genes.
Thank you so much for this. CXG has really helped me so much and your reading of it in this vid has just cracked a new insight for me that I can't put into words right now. 💜🖤💜🖤
It’s been awhile now since I last watched the show, but I still know it like the back of my hand and wow it’s so nice to watch videos like this from someone who sees the show so similarly to the m way I do, made me cry multiple times in the best way, thank you 🥲🥹💞
