My Future Self
I have started watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I am currently watching it, actually, and I am torn. My impulse is to hate it, but my impulse was also to hate Selfie and that turned out to be a wonderful show. I feel like this show might suffer from the same problem of having just a terrible title.
For reference, this happened on Selfie and it was beautiful:
If you weren't moved by that performance on it's own you have no heart. If you watched the show you'll immediately remember the journey that brought Eliza to this point- the show was actually kind of empowering. Karen Gillan and John Cho did a great job of building up their relationship and the script allowed them to shape each other rather than have Henry (Cho) steamroll her personality into a functioning human-being. I'm going to have to buy the series at some point- note to self. The finale was perfect because Eliza (Gillan) finally realized what she wanted in life and was able to overcome some huge crazy-girl issues that I could totally relate to. Alas, I am on my 17000th "cleanse" so I don't think I've caught up.
Anyway, back to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (which I paused to write about Selfie because Selfie deserves love).
The main character has just reconnected with her ex and I guess the actress should be commended for how well she was able to pull off crazy face. I get that this is a comedy but I am heartbroken that they had her throw away her career for a guy. She also sings like a Disney princess, which I think is kind of complimentary to the horrible fairy-tale-based-happy-ending fantasies that must have plagued this character's life to drive her to make such terrible choices. Mom issues are always a good jumping off point for the basis of female crazy. I know this from personal experience.
Twenty-four minutes in we are at a bar and this is incredibly awkward. I am not sure how fun I find this awkwardness. Every interaction Rebecca(?) has had is really aggressive and confrontational. I am most pleased that the lead actress looks a lot like Maria Bamford. In my mind this is kind of an elaborate skit that may have gone awry but I love Maria Bamford so I'm letting it slide.
She just mentioned The Notebook and I am now quite sad. No one should ever have to even pretend to like The Notebook. There is not a character in this show that does not wreak of desperation. Well, maybe Josh, but he did move from New York to date a girl he dated in high school so that's probably not a good sign on the desperation front.
Thirty-five minutes in and she has made an enabling friend. This has taken no positive turns. I really wanted to love this because there is a hole in my heart aching for the musical format from the better seasons of Glee and it looks like that will remain unfilled. I think this show wants to be subversive but somewhere along the writer's line there's a lack of self-awareness that allows really awkward material to get through- and become like all the material. I will watch the second episode and hopefully that will improve things. If not this will be the hate-watch show by virtue of having watched it as I was sitting at my lap-top. It's also the most entertaining of all the hate-able shows on right now. The Muppets is just entirely too corny, Rosewood sadly feels like it could be a cool show if the premise wasn't to play the "man-appreciates-life-because-he-is-dying" angle to death, and Blood and Oil is meh. Just meh. It's nice to see the guys from Gossip Girl are getting work again, but honestly I could also do without. The biggest stars should have been Leighton Meister and Taylor Momsen and neither has really found their footing in post-GG fame. (Side note- in googling because I could not remember Taylor Momsen's name I discovered there was apparently a spanish-language spin-off called Gossip Girl: Acapulco that I now desperately need in my life, there is no way that show is not entertaining. No. Way.)
I digress.
The second most recent new fall show I have yet to watch is Truth Be Told. It did not get good reviews elsewhere (unlike Crazy Ex-Girlfriend which I just Googled, and surprisingly was given the benefit of the doubt by A.V. Club (my personal entertainment critic heroes) so maybe I have it all wrong and I will enjoy the next episode? My counter point is that I do not think that it's refreshing to allow characters to be unlikable because unlikable people are easy to write for- the majority of people are unlikable...but anyway) I had to pause to remove myself a little from the pandering "comedy" of Truth Be Told. A laugh track is never a good sign. "It's refreshing to watch a beautiful tiny woman break a cleanse, it makes me feel like I'm not alone. I've tried dieting!"- scream all the older women in America. All you really need to know is that a 4 year old wears some form of sparkly Uggs in this pilot. That one wardrobe choice perfectly sums up the middle-class-America atrocity of this show's jokes.
For reference, this happened on Selfie and it was beautiful:
If you weren't moved by that performance on it's own you have no heart. If you watched the show you'll immediately remember the journey that brought Eliza to this point- the show was actually kind of empowering. Karen Gillan and John Cho did a great job of building up their relationship and the script allowed them to shape each other rather than have Henry (Cho) steamroll her personality into a functioning human-being. I'm going to have to buy the series at some point- note to self. The finale was perfect because Eliza (Gillan) finally realized what she wanted in life and was able to overcome some huge crazy-girl issues that I could totally relate to. Alas, I am on my 17000th "cleanse" so I don't think I've caught up.
Anyway, back to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (which I paused to write about Selfie because Selfie deserves love).
The main character has just reconnected with her ex and I guess the actress should be commended for how well she was able to pull off crazy face. I get that this is a comedy but I am heartbroken that they had her throw away her career for a guy. She also sings like a Disney princess, which I think is kind of complimentary to the horrible fairy-tale-based-happy-ending fantasies that must have plagued this character's life to drive her to make such terrible choices. Mom issues are always a good jumping off point for the basis of female crazy. I know this from personal experience.
Twenty-four minutes in we are at a bar and this is incredibly awkward. I am not sure how fun I find this awkwardness. Every interaction Rebecca(?) has had is really aggressive and confrontational. I am most pleased that the lead actress looks a lot like Maria Bamford. In my mind this is kind of an elaborate skit that may have gone awry but I love Maria Bamford so I'm letting it slide.
She just mentioned The Notebook and I am now quite sad. No one should ever have to even pretend to like The Notebook. There is not a character in this show that does not wreak of desperation. Well, maybe Josh, but he did move from New York to date a girl he dated in high school so that's probably not a good sign on the desperation front.
Thirty-five minutes in and she has made an enabling friend. This has taken no positive turns. I really wanted to love this because there is a hole in my heart aching for the musical format from the better seasons of Glee and it looks like that will remain unfilled. I think this show wants to be subversive but somewhere along the writer's line there's a lack of self-awareness that allows really awkward material to get through- and become like all the material. I will watch the second episode and hopefully that will improve things. If not this will be the hate-watch show by virtue of having watched it as I was sitting at my lap-top. It's also the most entertaining of all the hate-able shows on right now. The Muppets is just entirely too corny, Rosewood sadly feels like it could be a cool show if the premise wasn't to play the "man-appreciates-life-because-he-is-dying" angle to death, and Blood and Oil is meh. Just meh. It's nice to see the guys from Gossip Girl are getting work again, but honestly I could also do without. The biggest stars should have been Leighton Meister and Taylor Momsen and neither has really found their footing in post-GG fame. (Side note- in googling because I could not remember Taylor Momsen's name I discovered there was apparently a spanish-language spin-off called Gossip Girl: Acapulco that I now desperately need in my life, there is no way that show is not entertaining. No. Way.)
I digress.
The second most recent new fall show I have yet to watch is Truth Be Told. It did not get good reviews elsewhere (unlike Crazy Ex-Girlfriend which I just Googled, and surprisingly was given the benefit of the doubt by A.V. Club (my personal entertainment critic heroes) so maybe I have it all wrong and I will enjoy the next episode? My counter point is that I do not think that it's refreshing to allow characters to be unlikable because unlikable people are easy to write for- the majority of people are unlikable...but anyway) I had to pause to remove myself a little from the pandering "comedy" of Truth Be Told. A laugh track is never a good sign. "It's refreshing to watch a beautiful tiny woman break a cleanse, it makes me feel like I'm not alone. I've tried dieting!"- scream all the older women in America. All you really need to know is that a 4 year old wears some form of sparkly Uggs in this pilot. That one wardrobe choice perfectly sums up the middle-class-America atrocity of this show's jokes.
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