With graduation and the end of the school year only a few short months away, many students are shifting their focus from their academic work to job searching. Whether for a summer internship or a first job after college, job hunting takes time, navigating exhausting cyber etiquette and handling strings of rejection. But there is a way out for students overwhelmed by the job hunting process: stop doing it and watch “Crazy Ex Girlfriend.”
Originally airing on The CW in 2015, this four-season musical comedy has something for everyone: romance, power struggles and discussions of serious mental health issues through comedic song and dance. In spite of critical success and the adoration of its fandom, according to Wikipedia, “Crazy Ex Girlfriend” is, “one of the lowest-rated shows in television history to be renewed through four seasons by its parent network.” However, don’t let this stop you. Keep in mind that Netflix launched its streaming platform in 2007, followed a year later by Hulu, so in the context of TV history, by 2015 network television viewers were probably dropping across the board since how people consumed content was changing.
The historical context of “Crazy Ex Girlfriend” as a cable channel show in the mid to late 2010’s, as well as its having been a show on the CW that was not about werewolves or vampires, are just a few of the many rabbit holes you can go down as you watch “Crazy Ex Girlfriend.” The show itself offers plenty of distractions. There are more couples to ship than “Twilight.” Not only does the show ask us to ask ourselves, “Who will Rebecca end up with?”, it also begs the questions, “Who will Darryl end up with? and “When they sing, is it just in Rebecca’s imagination, is everyone else imagining it to or does it actually happen in the world of the show?” An entire love square develops in season four, prompting the send up of old Marilyn Monroe musical comedies, “The Math of Love Quadrangles,” which is itself a send up of “The Math of Love Triangles,” a musical number featured in an earlier season. This show is more self-aware than a college senior trying to balance humor and professionalism in an email to a former internship supervisor.
Some may find the show drags a little at the beginning of season four, but do not let your future career and need for economic stability distract you from watching. You won’t want to miss their spoof on Chicago’s “Cell Block Tango.” It’ll have you singing “ra ta ta” as you stare blankly at your LinkedIn page for three hours before deciding you have done enough job hunting for the day.
“Crazy Ex Girlfriend” has something for everyone entering the job market. Those who are not men may find comfort in one Season 3 opening number, “Let’s Generalize About Men,” since honestly it’s still a man’s world out there no matter what industry you’re going into. The same season also offers comfort to all the men out there needing to dance out their feelings of rejection and fear and childhood trauma in, “Fit Hot Guys Have Problems Too.” Either way, these little ditties will cure you of the fatigue of having to write “I hope this email finds you well in these uncertain times” over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
And of course, for those of us feeling some nostalgia about college coming to an end, maybe even contemplating applying to grad schools in the next year just to drag this stint in academia out a little longer, “Crazy Ex Girlfriend” is here to remind us exactly what college has been: “It Was A S*** Show.”