A sign of "underlying issues to address"? But, Ma'am! Rebeca's certifiably cute and adorably obsessed! She doesn't have any underling issues to address!
I think that one of the most remarkable aspects of CXG is that, had the program ended with Season 1 and CW not renewed the show, we would have a sappy show that ends exactly the way poor deluded Rebecca wants it to end. She's literally in the arms of Josh and the music has swelled to a crescendo. But CW did renew the show, and in Season 2, it starts to deconstruct romantic comedies as its makers wanted to do.
Uh, we would? Cause the ending of season 1 (and the whole of season 1) definitely diddnt go that way. Season 1 does end with her in Joshes arms, but then she tells him the truth and he clearly becomes uncomfortable and the season ends on this awkward note that all but tells us things aren't going to go well. I'd also have to strongly disagree that the show only started the deconstruction in season 2. Or do you mean that things would have been written differently had the show not been renewed? Sorry, I'm just really confused as to what you mean.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 I mean that Josh's last expression of unease and surprise can be waved away and the episode overall being about Rebecca (and Paula) achieving their goals. By the time a show is not renewed, the last episode is already in the can.
@@pacificostudios the finale of season one reminds me of the end of The Graduate. The character gradually realizes that running off with someone they barely know may have been a mistake and we’re left wondering what comes next (though in The Graduate both characters have that realization). If they’d cut thirty seconds earlier it would have had a very different tone.
@@Jurgan6 - That's a very good observation, comparing the ending of Season 1 to "The Graduate." Nichols was another great Hollywood writer whose name is immortalized by the Nichols Prize.
@@pacificostudios I really don't see how you could wave it away. If season 1 had ended exactly like that and there was no season 2, people would be saying the show ended on a massive cliffhanger.
The lyrics are what Rebecca *wants* Josh to say. The line "that's the best messy bun I've ever seen" illustrates it all--it's her ideas in his mouth in that song.
@eveofthewood I agree with that for last bit, starting with, "me and her should give a 30-year mortgage a whirl." But most of the song is Rebecca misunderstanding what Josh wants. Rebecca doesn't want Josh to want her *because* she's good at ping pong or because she's indifferent. She just wants Josh and she incorrectly thinks Josh will find those things attractive.
when i first watched crazy ex gf i literally gasped when that song came on bc until then i was still wondering HOW self-aware the show was of rebecca's twisted world-view. but then that song came on and i was like, ah, no, yes, this show is definitely aware, and definitely amazing. and you put it into words PERFECTLY.
it still rewards her with three guys by the end, and her big struggle is having to choose between them. those guys were done dirty and I lost any remaining sympathy I had for her.
@@jmnemonic99 Fair, like getting stalked is just... forgotten by Josh. But honestly, her choosing herself made me feel warm inside, like glitter was exploding inside me.
This song is a perfect example of why I love this show: it's hysterical and devastating at the same time; it literally has me weeping which a song with the line 'a play about pieces of feces, is what we are together' has NO right to do. It's also extremely, gut punchingly realistic while also being of course, as ott as all musicals should be. I can't put into words how much this seo means to me, but I'm glad you can! Great vid!
@@smm855 I also had COMPLETELY the wrong idea about it! I thought based on the title it was going to be a lazy sitcom where the punchline was always 'bitches be crazy'. I think I found a list of the best songs in CXG or something and realised how WRONG I was 🤣
@@RaverHates i had had one friend who posted songs on youtube from it once in a while but i didnt think much of it, but when it showed up on netflix i eventually watched it and OMG I was obsessed!
when i first saw shitshow i remember i was absolutely floored, and i kept thinking about how perfect it was that he doesn't finish the song. he walks away and leaves it all unfinished, as unfinished as it feels to rebecca. i thought it was so thematically perfect and then rachel bloom said in an interview the reason he doesn't finish the song is because the network would only let them say "shitshow" twice.
This is one of my favorite examples of censorship forcing people to be more creative and actually producing great art. Censorship can suck but sometimes when people can't rely on easy things to convey emotion (like swearing) they have to work extremely hard at articulating exactly what they are trying to say and end up making something brilliant because of the constraints. Rachel Bloom said she cried trying to write the song because it was so hard and she had to work within what the censors would allow. But my God she nailed it
I'm so glad people are still talking about CXGF, it's literally my favorite show of all time and it's still so underrated. There's so much to analyze, during my I think? 6th rewatch with my partner we noticed so many things I missed previously, and I was telling them how I could spend a whole hour just analyzing the math of love triangles, and that's honestly true for almost every song. The show is just so well written and there are so many cool details and callbacks and chekhov's gun moments and yet I know only one person irl who watched it, and only because I made them watch it with me. I hope it can get the love it deserves
There's so much to talk about in this show, but you're basically the only channel that has cxg content. Thank you so much. This show means so much to me. It's great to have someone talk about it with so much care. ❤️
In some corner of the multiverse, Rebecca meets Tom from '500 Days of Summer' and they become the Rom-Com equivalent of Mickey & Mallory from 'Natural Born Killers'.
Something I take away from this is that sometimes we try too hard to make our lives fit structures and scripts more befitting of fiction. So it's pretty fascinating that a piece of fiction critiques this idea. Obviously there's a lot more nuance to this song and what it's saying, but that was a tiny idea that struck me from this analysis.
I have to say I also love the casting of Santino Fontana as Greg given that he literally played Prince Charming in the original broadway cast of Cinderella
I don't have BPD but I do have other traumas, and when I'm hurt a lot of my black-and-white thinking feels very mirrored to Rebecca a lot of the time. If someone is upset or mad at me, then they hate me. If someone distances themselves from me, or chooses to leave me, then they don't love me, maybe they never did. I used to think affection or loyalty was giving up everything for someone, no matter how much it hurt you, sometimes I still do. I remember watching Greg leave and couldn't help empathising with Rebecca, the scene left a sour taste in my mouth and I too hated him after. (Even though now I'm team Greg!) This show is just so raw a real in ways that can't be understood from the surface, by people who hold no trauma.
It’s a super relatable feeling to anyone neurodivergent or with significant traumas, that black/white distinction between loyalty and abandonment. I’ve struggled with it a lot, and it’s great to hear you found the show helpful and relatable 🥰 (Also, most diagnostic standards are shifting nowadays to replace BPD diagnoses with CPTSD instead. It’s not an accident that almost exclusively women are ever diagnosed with BPD, since it’s essentially a modern reincarnation of Hysteria. Plus Rachel has ADHD in real life, also frequently mislabelled as a personality disorder in women)
I love that that was such a strong message of the show as well. The girls go through a lot of life changes, physical moves, and different iterations of their relationships. But in the finale Rebecca's big revelation comes by letting her best friend see the most vulnerable, embarrassing parts of herself, and her best friend responds (mirroring with both the song & the camera movements, their moment in the pilot) with genuine excitement and affirmation. Not only is not weird, or dumb, or crazy, it's this very thing you're embarrassed about that makes you fantastic. That makes you special. Of course it had to come from Paula. I love that moment so much
I always thought this was parodying "My Way", which perhaps wasn't their intention but almost adds to it for me- Rebecca sees this as having been her way, the love that she wanted, the love she's holding onto because she won't let go of it because to her, she loves her and that's all and that's perfect and he's can't just go- except he does, which is why the song never quite ends
You always hit it spot on! The way you break down these shows is truly incredible! Thank you for putting so much into these because it shows and I love to see them :) also your editing is fantastic!
I was in a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend show and I did Greg's song "Settle for Me" where half of my face is zombified. Anyways I AM SO HYPE to see an analysis on this show. 🎉❤
This was so well written, and honestly made me take a good hard look at myself and how I relate to life via certain movies. I'm always aware they influence me (us, the world lol) but this had me digging a little deeper. Nice work!
This is why I think Greg is the perfect guy for Rebecca. The black and white thinking that comes with BPD is balanced out perfectly by Greg’s balanced thinking and acknowledgement that two conflicting things can be true. After he begins recovering from his alcoholism, his level-headedness can help to soothe the emotional rollercoaster that is BPD love. It kind of echoes my own irl relationship lol
I agree. But I'm glad that they didn't end the show that way. While she deserves love and happiness, that was never what the show was about. I do like to imagine they got together after a few years, though. 😊
But she slept with another guy on their first date, slept with his best friend, and slept with his dad. I loved Greg and Rebecca but she was dreadful to him and he should have never wanted her back!
phenomenal video, I enjoyed myself, but one thing I noticed is at 9:07 when you say that it's not a reference to anything, a good point to serve the rest of the video, but whenever I've heard the song I've always thought that it sounds a lot like My Way by Frank Sinatra, i don't know if this has been confirmed but I've always just heard the similarity, and I think it works this way also, since Greg had always been compromising for Rebecca, asking her to settle for him, and finally he is choosing to go to Emory and reclaim his narrative, do things "His Way", almost in a sense of even though this is a TV Show, in the world of the show Rebecca is not the main character and people change and live outside of her bubble
This is an amazing, well structured, and emotionally impactful analysis! I’ve watched this show like five times and you’ve given me a whole new lens for how to understand Rebecca’s journey circa season 2. I also want to grab a beer with Rachel Bloom, after this video more than ever!
First of all, thank you so much for inserting subtitles! So many people don't and it makes it difficult for those of us who are hearing impaired. You've been really considerate so thank you. It's just a bit weird to read your editorial notes to yourself in the script LOL! Like you wrote [insert note to explain] the word diegetic but then you didn't explain it (or I didn't hear it LOL!). It felt very odd though!
I love LOVE this show!! It's so special to me as someone with BPD :') your analysis about the show is so good and well thought out. Thanks for such amazing crazy ex gf content.
I loved the video! Though when you said there was no homage or reference I was surprised, since I'd always thought of this song as Greg's "My Way" since they have similar melodies/structures and are focused on self-awareness. I guess it's not a specific story or film/tv reference, but there it's a very specific musical reference.
yea! i can see the similarities too. i guess my point is it’s far more sober (ha ha) and less stylized which, in the language of the show, is rebecca’s inability to glamorize or categorize this moment
adding to the anticlimax bit, I think that Greg's last song being 'it was a sh-tshow' would have been a great, dramatic goodbye song... but Santino's final song in the show was actually We Tapped That Ass which was later in the episode
It's still technically both. Greg's last song IS "It Was a Sh*tshow", Rebecca still stunned by the rejection later, imagines a caricature of him in "We Tapped That Ass". She wants to hate him, We Tapped That Ass feeds that.
Around 3 weeks ago, this video was in my recommended and I decided to put it on while folding laundry. I don’t know why, but the first 2:36 of this video left me intrigued enough to click off before I got any big spoilers and watch the first episode to see if I liked it. Yesterday I just finished the entire show, and it’s definitely one of my favorite shows I’ve ever watched (probably #1 right now). I came back here today to watch the video in full and I loved this analysis since it highlighted many things I didn’t connect while watching it originally. Thank you so much for introducing this show to me because it’s become something I really enjoy.😊
Easily the best moment in the show for me. I related to Greg so much, wanting something so much it hurts. but it is not meant to be, and it won’t be real if you force it. I cheered for him when he chose himself over the constant pain. Get the hell out of there Greg.
This is easily one of the most brilliant analyses of the show I've seen by far, and it breaks it down in a way that I hadn't fully considered, especially from Greg's perspective.
Your observation about Rebecca quickly switching between extremes, from loving someone to hating them, is a common characteristic of Borderline Personality Disorder. They knew what they were doing when they diagnosed her.
@@5x5Takes my understanding is that they didn't know what kind of mental health issues Rebecca had early on, but that they wrote the story based on rom-com tropes and then got actual psychologists to diagnose her based on what was in the show.
@@Jurgan6 I believe the original thought process was romcom tropes + bipolar disorder(or at least Bloom's understanding of bipolar). The psychological consultant(s) said the behavior was classic BPD.
This show was so good. It's honestly so good, I started watching it expecting it to hate the lead Rebecca but holy guacamole, you watch her grow as the show goes on and you FEEL her growth. It's such a good show with amazing writing and music. The acting is phenomenal as well, love it 💚
I'm so glad someone's talking about this show! To be honest, I almost wonder if it was a good idea to bring Greg back into the show. Don't get me wrong, the recast isn't bad (despite I think character's VOICES play a big part, and it's hard to find a good duplicate of OG Greg). But it could've been kind of interesting to have a realistic scenario where she never sees Greg again. His exit is oddly perfect that trying to put him back into the show never quite hit the mark for me personally.
“To this point Rebecca has only been able to see things in extremes as either amazing or devastating” If only there was a diagnosis that perfectly encompasses this tendency and retroactively fit perfectly with the entire plot of the show despite not having been planned in advance by the writers..
I loved this. thanks for analysing it. also, thanks for including the other references in there. I particularly loved "diametrically opposed, foes" :D god, it's so nice to get pop references, isn't it?
i've never even heard of this show but watched your entire video because it was so well produced. going off to look up clips now. thanks! new subscriber.
This is honestly why I love this show so much Because sure, she backslides, sure, it gets spelled out to her, but thats honestly life, and the show isn't forgetting. The show isn't backsliding. Josh isn't the villain for saying no. Josh is so obviously hurting too. But this is life. And he is already familiar with addiction. This show was such a wonderful exercise in both heights, but it must have been also torturous, because it says, 'great, you got to the height, but you know there's a whole other side of the mountain you've gotta descend. This doesn't end here'. That's so hard to write. Thats such a difficult nuance to capture and make engaging in writing, and it requires you to have enough life experience with this very thing, and a willingness to expose your scars. It hurts. But its a good hurt. Its one we must all take in, and grow from.
cxg is such a perfect reflection of bpd. i'm not diagnosed yet, but analysing rebecca's behaviours and her journey with her own diagnosis hits so close to home for me, and helps me realise my own behaviours. chasing relationships that are just constant chemical hits, the black and white thinking (if they leave they don't love me, people are either against me or with me etc), the impulsivity and reckless self destruction, it's like staring into a fictional mirror sometimes. she's portrayed as neither the hero nor the villain, just a traumatised girl learning the same lessons over and over and i think thats a masterpiece of writing
My personal opinion is tht his character didnt need to come back because it wouldve been a lesson in the fact tht sometimes ppl leave your life & u dont see or meet them again ever
such a great video.. couldn't have said anything better. crazy ex gf is one of my favorite shows of all time and your analysis made me very happy. thank you ❤
This show is just so good. My wife and I watch this whole show at least once a year. My personal favorite songs are "Intercourse" that Nathaniel sings, and New Greg's song "I Hate Everything (But You)" (Skylar Astin is criminally underappreciated), because you will never not do a Bruce Springsteen song parody and have me screaming about it!
This show was a great deep dive into the myths of romantic love. Ultimately, what you and the show are talking about is dialectics. In dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), you can hold two seemingly opposing truths in your mind at once. They are often heartbreaking, and they are true. That's where you use the word AND brilliantly. Normally what we'd say is, "I love you, BUT I can't have you in my life " This framing invalidates the first statement. Using the word, AND holds space for both to be true side by side. "I love you AND I can't have you in my life." Think about people who fall in love with troubled people, those with active addictions, criminal behaviors, abusers, undiagnosed psychiatric conditions, etc. These people certainly deserve love (as all humans do) and have lovable qualities. They also have qualities that need addressing and can have life changing impacts on a partner. Greg needs to deal with his shit. So does Rebecca. They are good people who deserve love, including romantic love if they want it. AND their relationship would do more harm to both of them right now.
i disagree! I think their romantic arc ended there when it did because the two of them were separately dysfunctional, and together, a shitshow. but separately, they had both taken time to improve on themselves. it's clear when greg returns to both of them that they arent the same people they said goodbye to. and this growth allows them to reconnect and potentially try again. the recasting i feel isn't something to blame the narrative for. it happened and thus the narrative had to work with and around it, but it's symbolically not a bad thing because greg returns as someone similar but nearly unrecognizable to rebecca in both looks and personality. of course there are consistencies - his demeanor remains pretty similar even with a different actor playing him, and his dialogue suits the character for the most part. but hes less bitter habing pursued his dreams and having become sober for a while now. and he bravely confesses his love, something his friends all made clear in s1 that simply going after a girl is incredibly unlike him to do. Overall, I wouldn't exactly say that any chance of a romantic relationship ended in the song. My take is specifically that the toxic way that they navigated their relationship together was what ended in It Was A Shitshow. Rebecca no longer given the opportunity to hurt him, and he no longer gives himself the chance to be hurt by her. He stops denying himself the chance to chase his dreams and goes to the school that he always wanted to attend. He makes the choice to stay sober. And even when Rebecca backslides in s4, Greg remains level-headed the whole time and deals with it by walking away, something that you should do when someone keeps escalating a situation. Neither of them rush into sex as a band-aid over their real problems, and Rebecca immediately owns up to her mistakes and is conscious of why it happened instead of staying in denial. As they both progress individually, their ability to connect romantically in a healthy manner begins to open up as an option, and I think since season 4 is about her growth as an individual, I think it suits the themes to bring greg back to really show how far she's come, that we can see the potential of a healthy, happy relationship between her and greg. (separately but similarly, her and nathaniel, but since nathaniel's growth occurs on-screen, the show of growth isnt as visible and obvious as it is when you bring greg back into the picture)
@@zorro...... For me, the song wasn’t the nail in the coffin for their relationship; it was the culmination of everything that came before. Rebecca sleeping with Greg’s dad was the nail, the superglue, and the blowtorch sealing the coffin shut forever. As far as the recasting goes...it was obviously not their original choice for Santino to leave the show. So I doubt they had any choice but to change actors if they needed to bring the character back. I just don’t think his return was necessary. The new actor was never convincing to me as Greg, and his performance was essentially the same as every other character I’ve seen him play in a musical comedy. And while they made it part of the meta-narrative that he'd changed, with Rebecca not recognizing him at first, it made the whole season 4 storyline feel disconnected and inauthentic compared to previous seasons. It honestly felt to me like the show spinning wheels until the inevitable ending, where Rebecca chooses to work on herself rather than pursue a romantic relationship.
Man, I was so sad when this happened (even though it was a smart move for both the characters and the story) because they had fantastic chemistry together, more so than any of her other relationships. And don't get ne started on his return.....
ahhhhhhhh so that's why I listened to this song about 382 times when the episode came out. and why I loved and hated it at the same time, because DANG IT i really wanted her to get together with Greg - because while the show was slowly and sneakingly starting to tell a story about real people instead of characters - you view them as characters. Because they ARE characters in a TV show. Bex IS the protagonist, Josh IS the love interest, Greg IS the underdog. And then the show pulls the rug out from under your feet, because "hey, it's actually really unhealthy to view your life in that way" and that was so frustrating at times but also the best show I ever saw.
A sign of "underlying issues to address"? But, Ma'am! Rebeca's certifiably cute and adorably obsessed! She doesn't have any underling issues to address!
You should write the rest of that song😉
She's just a girl.... IN LOVE! blam!
@@sydneymomma11 She can't be held responsible for her actions!!
@@Lalameniaa of course not. She said "blam".
I think that one of the most remarkable aspects of CXG is that, had the program ended with Season 1 and CW not renewed the show, we would have a sappy show that ends exactly the way poor deluded Rebecca wants it to end. She's literally in the arms of Josh and the music has swelled to a crescendo. But CW did renew the show, and in Season 2, it starts to deconstruct romantic comedies as its makers wanted to do.
Uh, we would? Cause the ending of season 1 (and the whole of season 1) definitely diddnt go that way. Season 1 does end with her in Joshes arms, but then she tells him the truth and he clearly becomes uncomfortable and the season ends on this awkward note that all but tells us things aren't going to go well.
I'd also have to strongly disagree that the show only started the deconstruction in season 2.
Or do you mean that things would have been written differently had the show not been renewed? Sorry, I'm just really confused as to what you mean.
@@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502 I mean that Josh's last expression of unease and surprise can be waved away and the episode overall being about Rebecca (and Paula) achieving their goals. By the time a show is not renewed, the last episode is already in the can.
@@pacificostudios the finale of season one reminds me of the end of The Graduate. The character gradually realizes that running off with someone they barely know may have been a mistake and we’re left wondering what comes next (though in The Graduate both characters have that realization). If they’d cut thirty seconds earlier it would have had a very different tone.
@@Jurgan6 - That's a very good observation, comparing the ending of Season 1 to "The Graduate." Nichols was another great Hollywood writer whose name is immortalized by the Nichols Prize.
@@pacificostudios I really don't see how you could wave it away. If season 1 had ended exactly like that and there was no season 2, people would be saying the show ended on a massive cliffhanger.
God bless you for making fantastic Crazy Ex Girlfriend analyses. This show deserves to be talked about more!
Totally agree! An absolute masterpiece. Nothing like it .
Ping Pong Girl is a good example of Rebecca not really knowing Josh all that well. Only about half the lyrics are things he'd actually say.
“Sports!”
@@GavinMichaels "Segaaaaaa!"
The lyrics are what Rebecca *wants* Josh to say. The line "that's the best messy bun I've ever seen" illustrates it all--it's her ideas in his mouth in that song.
@eveofthewood I agree with that for last bit, starting with, "me and her should give a 30-year mortgage a whirl." But most of the song is Rebecca misunderstanding what Josh wants. Rebecca doesn't want Josh to want her *because* she's good at ping pong or because she's indifferent. She just wants Josh and she incorrectly thinks Josh will find those things attractive.
when i first watched crazy ex gf i literally gasped when that song came on bc until then i was still wondering HOW self-aware the show was of rebecca's twisted world-view. but then that song came on and i was like, ah, no, yes, this show is definitely aware, and definitely amazing. and you put it into words PERFECTLY.
“I could if I wanted” also sang by Greg is also great.
it still rewards her with three guys by the end, and her big struggle is having to choose between them.
those guys were done dirty and I lost any remaining sympathy I had for her.
@@jmnemonic99 Fair, like getting stalked is just... forgotten by Josh. But honestly, her choosing herself made me feel warm inside, like glitter was exploding inside me.
This song is a perfect example of why I love this show: it's hysterical and devastating at the same time; it literally has me weeping which a song with the line 'a play about pieces of feces, is what we are together' has NO right to do. It's also extremely, gut punchingly realistic while also being of course, as ott as all musicals should be. I can't put into words how much this seo means to me, but I'm glad you can! Great vid!
Yes! The show has an amazing way of being hilarious and devastating in the same breath
@@smm855 I also had COMPLETELY the wrong idea about it! I thought based on the title it was going to be a lazy sitcom where the punchline was always 'bitches be crazy'. I think I found a list of the best songs in CXG or something and realised how WRONG I was 🤣
@@RaverHates i had had one friend who posted songs on youtube from it once in a while but i didnt think much of it, but when it showed up on netflix i eventually watched it and OMG I was obsessed!
when i first saw shitshow i remember i was absolutely floored, and i kept thinking about how perfect it was that he doesn't finish the song. he walks away and leaves it all unfinished, as unfinished as it feels to rebecca. i thought it was so thematically perfect and then rachel bloom said in an interview the reason he doesn't finish the song is because the network would only let them say "shitshow" twice.
😂😂😂
This is one of my favorite examples of censorship forcing people to be more creative and actually producing great art. Censorship can suck but sometimes when people can't rely on easy things to convey emotion (like swearing) they have to work extremely hard at articulating exactly what they are trying to say and end up making something brilliant because of the constraints.
Rachel Bloom said she cried trying to write the song because it was so hard and she had to work within what the censors would allow. But my God she nailed it
I'm so glad people are still talking about CXGF, it's literally my favorite show of all time and it's still so underrated. There's so much to analyze, during my I think? 6th rewatch with my partner we noticed so many things I missed previously, and I was telling them how I could spend a whole hour just analyzing the math of love triangles, and that's honestly true for almost every song. The show is just so well written and there are so many cool details and callbacks and chekhov's gun moments and yet I know only one person irl who watched it, and only because I made them watch it with me. I hope it can get the love it deserves
There's so much to talk about in this show, but you're basically the only channel that has cxg content. Thank you so much. This show means so much to me. It's great to have someone talk about it with so much care. ❤️
check out bagels after midnight!
@5x5Takes I have :D but the latest cxg video there is 3 years old. Thanks anyway 😊
@@WhateverHonestly15 happy to :)
In some corner of the multiverse, Rebecca meets Tom from '500 Days of Summer' and they become the Rom-Com equivalent of Mickey & Mallory from 'Natural Born Killers'.
Haahahahaha!! Brilliant
oh my god the addiction parallel. i never thought of that. Plus he says he had his first drink at 16 and Rebecca had her first sip of Josh at 16
Something I take away from this is that sometimes we try too hard to make our lives fit structures and scripts more befitting of fiction. So it's pretty fascinating that a piece of fiction critiques this idea. Obviously there's a lot more nuance to this song and what it's saying, but that was a tiny idea that struck me from this analysis.
I have to say I also love the casting of Santino Fontana as Greg given that he literally played Prince Charming in the original broadway cast of Cinderella
I don't have BPD but I do have other traumas, and when I'm hurt a lot of my black-and-white thinking feels very mirrored to Rebecca a lot of the time. If someone is upset or mad at me, then they hate me. If someone distances themselves from me, or chooses to leave me, then they don't love me, maybe they never did. I used to think affection or loyalty was giving up everything for someone, no matter how much it hurt you, sometimes I still do. I remember watching Greg leave and couldn't help empathising with Rebecca, the scene left a sour taste in my mouth and I too hated him after. (Even though now I'm team Greg!) This show is just so raw a real in ways that can't be understood from the surface, by people who hold no trauma.
It’s a super relatable feeling to anyone neurodivergent or with significant traumas, that black/white distinction between loyalty and abandonment. I’ve struggled with it a lot, and it’s great to hear you found the show helpful and relatable 🥰
(Also, most diagnostic standards are shifting nowadays to replace BPD diagnoses with CPTSD instead. It’s not an accident that almost exclusively women are ever diagnosed with BPD, since it’s essentially a modern reincarnation of Hysteria. Plus Rachel has ADHD in real life, also frequently mislabelled as a personality disorder in women)
I love the phrase at the end, “enduring love”, with vid in the background of her and her girlfriends. 🥰
I love that that was such a strong message of the show as well. The girls go through a lot of life changes, physical moves, and different iterations of their relationships. But in the finale Rebecca's big revelation comes by letting her best friend see the most vulnerable, embarrassing parts of herself, and her best friend responds (mirroring with both the song & the camera movements, their moment in the pilot) with genuine excitement and affirmation.
Not only is not weird, or dumb, or crazy, it's this very thing you're embarrassed about that makes you fantastic. That makes you special. Of course it had to come from Paula. I love that moment so much
I always thought this was parodying "My Way", which perhaps wasn't their intention but almost adds to it for me- Rebecca sees this as having been her way, the love that she wanted, the love she's holding onto because she won't let go of it because to her, she loves her and that's all and that's perfect and he's can't just go- except he does, which is why the song never quite ends
Fwiw I always heard it as My Way as well 🤷
It's definitely an intentional homage to My Way
You always hit it spot on! The way you break down these shows is truly incredible! Thank you for putting so much into these because it shows and I love to see them :) also your editing is fantastic!
holy shit thank you!!!!!!!! your comment has me soaring flying there’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach
I think I know more about love after watching this show and that is rare for me
the moment you said 'diametrically opposed' i said out loud 'FOES' at the same time you delighted me by making the video do exactly that haha
I was in a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend show and I did Greg's song "Settle for Me" where half of my face is zombified.
Anyways I AM SO HYPE to see an analysis on this show. 🎉❤
This was so well written, and honestly made me take a good hard look at myself and how I relate to life via certain movies. I'm always aware they influence me (us, the world lol) but this had me digging a little deeper. Nice work!
The beautiful thing about cxg is that there's always something to think about and analyze
This is why I think Greg is the perfect guy for Rebecca. The black and white thinking that comes with BPD is balanced out perfectly by Greg’s balanced thinking and acknowledgement that two conflicting things can be true. After he begins recovering from his alcoholism, his level-headedness can help to soothe the emotional rollercoaster that is BPD love. It kind of echoes my own irl relationship lol
I agree. But I'm glad that they didn't end the show that way. While she deserves love and happiness, that was never what the show was about.
I do like to imagine they got together after a few years, though. 😊
But she slept with another guy on their first date, slept with his best friend, and slept with his dad. I loved Greg and Rebecca but she was dreadful to him and he should have never wanted her back!
@@kibble24 you and me both!
phenomenal video, I enjoyed myself, but one thing I noticed is at 9:07 when you say that it's not a reference to anything, a good point to serve the rest of the video, but whenever I've heard the song I've always thought that it sounds a lot like My Way by Frank Sinatra, i don't know if this has been confirmed but I've always just heard the similarity, and I think it works this way also, since Greg had always been compromising for Rebecca, asking her to settle for him, and finally he is choosing to go to Emory and reclaim his narrative, do things "His Way", almost in a sense of even though this is a TV Show, in the world of the show Rebecca is not the main character and people change and live outside of her bubble
yk what! so fair. love that
This is an amazing, well structured, and emotionally impactful analysis! I’ve watched this show like five times and you’ve given me a whole new lens for how to understand Rebecca’s journey circa season 2. I also want to grab a beer with Rachel Bloom, after this video more than ever!
this was amazing. i got so emotional when "oh my god i think i like you" started playing in the background
First of all, thank you so much for inserting subtitles! So many people don't and it makes it difficult for those of us who are hearing impaired. You've been really considerate so thank you. It's just a bit weird to read your editorial notes to yourself in the script LOL! Like you wrote [insert note to explain] the word diegetic but then you didn't explain it (or I didn't hear it LOL!). It felt very odd though!
I love LOVE this show!! It's so special to me as someone with BPD :') your analysis about the show is so good and well thought out. Thanks for such amazing crazy ex gf content.
I absolutely ADORED this show from beginning to end! I wish more shows like it existed.
I loved the video! Though when you said there was no homage or reference I was surprised, since I'd always thought of this song as Greg's "My Way" since they have similar melodies/structures and are focused on self-awareness. I guess it's not a specific story or film/tv reference, but there it's a very specific musical reference.
yea! i can see the similarities too. i guess my point is it’s far more sober (ha ha) and less stylized which, in the language of the show, is rebecca’s inability to glamorize or categorize this moment
You're making me watch crazy ex girlfriend with a different light, I always get more jokes and themes in the rewatch
adding to the anticlimax bit, I think that Greg's last song being 'it was a sh-tshow' would have been a great, dramatic goodbye song...
but Santino's final song in the show was actually We Tapped That Ass which was later in the episode
It's still technically both. Greg's last song IS "It Was a Sh*tshow", Rebecca still stunned by the rejection later, imagines a caricature of him in "We Tapped That Ass". She wants to hate him, We Tapped That Ass feeds that.
Around 3 weeks ago, this video was in my recommended and I decided to put it on while folding laundry. I don’t know why, but the first 2:36 of this video left me intrigued enough to click off before I got any big spoilers and watch the first episode to see if I liked it. Yesterday I just finished the entire show, and it’s definitely one of my favorite shows I’ve ever watched (probably #1 right now). I came back here today to watch the video in full and I loved this analysis since it highlighted many things I didn’t connect while watching it originally. Thank you so much for introducing this show to me because it’s become something I really enjoy.😊
i am so so delighted to hear that!!! it is a show that means an enormous amount to me, and i’m so glad that you could connect to it too. 💗
Easily the best moment in the show for me. I related to Greg so much, wanting something so much it hurts. but it is not meant to be, and it won’t be real if you force it. I cheered for him when he chose himself over the constant pain. Get the hell out of there Greg.
This is easily one of the most brilliant analyses of the show I've seen by far, and it breaks it down in a way that I hadn't fully considered, especially from Greg's perspective.
THEY WAY I YELLED FOES AND THEN IT WAS IN THE VIDEO OMG ILY 😂❤
Your observation about Rebecca quickly switching between extremes, from loving someone to hating them, is a common characteristic of Borderline Personality Disorder. They knew what they were doing when they diagnosed her.
it’s so wild seeing how perfectly it’s mapped out
@@5x5Takes my understanding is that they didn't know what kind of mental health issues Rebecca had early on, but that they wrote the story based on rom-com tropes and then got actual psychologists to diagnose her based on what was in the show.
@@Jurgan6 I believe the original thought process was romcom tropes + bipolar disorder(or at least Bloom's understanding of bipolar). The psychological consultant(s) said the behavior was classic BPD.
I love your videos so much! The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and She-Ra videos are some of my favorites on TH-cam.
OMG, I needed this! more of my favorite program and my favorite channel :) loved your previous video, you're amazing
I've never seen this, but... barong Tagalog guy and Lea Salonga? This feels like a show with representation way beyond its time. Love it!
That and the popular hunk she's chasing is 100% Fillipino and plays a Fillipino with a Fillipino family that serves Fillipino dishes
It also has a bi hymn. And one really good on mental health.
This show has a LOT of very good, nuanced representation. And none of it feels forced. Awkward, sure, but only when it's supposed to be 😅
This show was so good. It's honestly so good, I started watching it expecting it to hate the lead Rebecca but holy guacamole, you watch her grow as the show goes on and you FEEL her growth. It's such a good show with amazing writing and music. The acting is phenomenal as well, love it 💚
I'm so glad someone's talking about this show! To be honest, I almost wonder if it was a good idea to bring Greg back into the show. Don't get me wrong, the recast isn't bad (despite I think character's VOICES play a big part, and it's hard to find a good duplicate of OG Greg). But it could've been kind of interesting to have a realistic scenario where she never sees Greg again. His exit is oddly perfect that trying to put him back into the show never quite hit the mark for me personally.
while i like how they played w perspective w new greg, im inclined to agree w you
I read once that the reason they left the last line unfinished was because the network would only let them say the word "s**t" twice in an episode
no doubt! it works in multiple ways :-)
It’s one of my all time favourites ❤❤ Thanks for sharing your insightful analysis of the show 👏🏼
Great video! I do want to make the point that she does refer to Greg by name in one episode: My Mom, Greg’s Mom, and Josh’s Sweet Dance Moves.
good call! thought technically it’s not even greg, it’s his mom (and scenes that rebecca isn’t actually privy to)
“To this point Rebecca has only been able to see things in extremes as either amazing or devastating”
If only there was a diagnosis that perfectly encompasses this tendency and retroactively fit perfectly with the entire plot of the show despite not having been planned in advance by the writers..
I waited 9:46 for that moment you'd get me right square in the emotion. Well. Done.
*and now, back to watching the rest*
I had no idea this show even existed, and now I'm excited to watch it.
10:48 "WHICH is wild!" - cuts to Rebecca as a witch
Truly appreciate this moment
glad someone enjoyed that
I loved this. thanks for analysing it. also, thanks for including the other references in there. I particularly loved "diametrically opposed, foes" :D god, it's so nice to get pop references, isn't it?
i just finished rewatching cxg, so great timing!
i've never even heard of this show but watched your entire video because it was so well produced. going off to look up clips now. thanks! new subscriber.
the whole show is on netflix! i cannot recommend it highly enough
It's like that scene in Jane the Virgin when Jane's romantic gestures to win Rafael back and everyone tells her to stop
This is honestly why I love this show so much
Because sure, she backslides, sure, it gets spelled out to her, but thats honestly life, and the show isn't forgetting. The show isn't backsliding.
Josh isn't the villain for saying no. Josh is so obviously hurting too. But this is life. And he is already familiar with addiction.
This show was such a wonderful exercise in both heights, but it must have been also torturous, because it says, 'great, you got to the height, but you know there's a whole other side of the mountain you've gotta descend. This doesn't end here'.
That's so hard to write. Thats such a difficult nuance to capture and make engaging in writing, and it requires you to have enough life experience with this very thing, and a willingness to expose your scars. It hurts.
But its a good hurt. Its one we must all take in, and grow from.
And honestly, it was the right thing for her too.
quite possibly my favourite song from the show! loved the analysis! Great video ^_^
You are amanzing 😍
This was just perfect ♥️
Every time I watch your Crazy Ex-girlfriend analysis, I find more reasons to love that show
Loved this analysis! Your videos on CXG are part of why I started watching the show :) thanks for introducing it to me
cxg is such a perfect reflection of bpd. i'm not diagnosed yet, but analysing rebecca's behaviours and her journey with her own diagnosis hits so close to home for me, and helps me realise my own behaviours. chasing relationships that are just constant chemical hits, the black and white thinking (if they leave they don't love me, people are either against me or with me etc), the impulsivity and reckless self destruction, it's like staring into a fictional mirror sometimes. she's portrayed as neither the hero nor the villain, just a traumatised girl learning the same lessons over and over and i think thats a masterpiece of writing
My personal opinion is tht his character didnt need to come back because it wouldve been a lesson in the fact tht sometimes ppl leave your life & u dont see or meet them again ever
I loved this analysis and i love this show so much. It's been a long time since I've done a rewatch and this video just made me want to do one!
such a great video.. couldn't have said anything better. crazy ex gf is one of my favorite shows of all time and your analysis made me very happy. thank you ❤
this is an incredible analysis and I can’t wait to watch your other crazy ex gf vids!
Your videos always bring new insights. Love them, thank you!
This show is just so good. My wife and I watch this whole show at least once a year. My personal favorite songs are "Intercourse" that Nathaniel sings, and New Greg's song "I Hate Everything (But You)" (Skylar Astin is criminally underappreciated), because you will never not do a Bruce Springsteen song parody and have me screaming about it!
10:48
I commend how you matched the word "which" visually to the image of a witch. That was kinda cute n clever
i’m SO glad someone enjoyed that
I’ve been watching your AMAZING videos about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend non stop! I just love your analyses. Thank you so much!!! ❤
Do more of these and I will patreon, ty!
This was so great! I already live the show and this made me appreciate it even more
The show is such a powerful study of Borderline Personality Disorder. Greg escapes the constant chaos, and probably has a real chance at happiness.
Wow!! What a thorough and insightful analysis! I really enjoyed this show and now you're helping me to see it with new eyes. Thank you. 😁👍🏻
I am now in season 4 and I'm watching it with my sister. I really love the show and after an episode you really want to watch more and more.
Already thought this was a great song but you've given me a whole new appreciation for it! Love your crazy ex girlfriend videos!
Una de las cosas mas difíciles del mundo es ponerte en prioridad y dejar a la persona que amas.
I wasn’t familiar with this channel. Glad it randomly popped up! Love CXG
This show was a great deep dive into the myths of romantic love. Ultimately, what you and the show are talking about is dialectics. In dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), you can hold two seemingly opposing truths in your mind at once. They are often heartbreaking, and they are true. That's where you use the word AND brilliantly. Normally what we'd say is, "I love you, BUT I can't have you in my life " This framing invalidates the first statement. Using the word, AND holds space for both to be true side by side. "I love you AND I can't have you in my life." Think about people who fall in love with troubled people, those with active addictions, criminal behaviors, abusers, undiagnosed psychiatric conditions, etc. These people certainly deserve love (as all humans do) and have lovable qualities. They also have qualities that need addressing and can have life changing impacts on a partner. Greg needs to deal with his shit. So does Rebecca. They are good people who deserve love, including romantic love if they want it. AND their relationship would do more harm to both of them right now.
exactly!
This video sums up what people with BPD/unhealthy romantic attachment spend years and years in therapy trying to understand. Incredible video!
Hats off to you! This analysis is really well done! Thanks!
This video is everything I could ever ask for in discussion of my favorite song in the series.
It still bothers me that they brought “Greg” in the last season. It really undermined what was, to me, the perfect culmination to their romantic arc.
I agree! And they recast him for no reason. I hated it.
i disagree! I think their romantic arc ended there when it did because the two of them were separately dysfunctional, and together, a shitshow. but separately, they had both taken time to improve on themselves. it's clear when greg returns to both of them that they arent the same people they said goodbye to. and this growth allows them to reconnect and potentially try again.
the recasting i feel isn't something to blame the narrative for. it happened and thus the narrative had to work with and around it, but it's symbolically not a bad thing because greg returns as someone similar but nearly unrecognizable to rebecca in both looks and personality. of course there are consistencies - his demeanor remains pretty similar even with a different actor playing him, and his dialogue suits the character for the most part. but hes less bitter habing pursued his dreams and having become sober for a while now. and he bravely confesses his love, something his friends all made clear in s1 that simply going after a girl is incredibly unlike him to do.
Overall, I wouldn't exactly say that any chance of a romantic relationship ended in the song. My take is specifically that the toxic way that they navigated their relationship together was what ended in It Was A Shitshow. Rebecca no longer given the opportunity to hurt him, and he no longer gives himself the chance to be hurt by her. He stops denying himself the chance to chase his dreams and goes to the school that he always wanted to attend. He makes the choice to stay sober. And even when Rebecca backslides in s4, Greg remains level-headed the whole time and deals with it by walking away, something that you should do when someone keeps escalating a situation. Neither of them rush into sex as a band-aid over their real problems, and Rebecca immediately owns up to her mistakes and is conscious of why it happened instead of staying in denial. As they both progress individually, their ability to connect romantically in a healthy manner begins to open up as an option, and I think since season 4 is about her growth as an individual, I think it suits the themes to bring greg back to really show how far she's come, that we can see the potential of a healthy, happy relationship between her and greg. (separately but similarly, her and nathaniel, but since nathaniel's growth occurs on-screen, the show of growth isnt as visible and obvious as it is when you bring greg back into the picture)
@@zorro...... For me, the song wasn’t the nail in the coffin for their relationship; it was the culmination of everything that came before. Rebecca sleeping with Greg’s dad was the nail, the superglue, and the blowtorch sealing the coffin shut forever.
As far as the recasting goes...it was obviously not their original choice for Santino to leave the show. So I doubt they had any choice but to change actors if they needed to bring the character back. I just don’t think his return was necessary.
The new actor was never convincing to me as Greg, and his performance was essentially the same as every other character I’ve seen him play in a musical comedy. And while they made it part of the meta-narrative that he'd changed, with Rebecca not recognizing him at first, it made the whole season 4 storyline feel disconnected and inauthentic compared to previous seasons.
It honestly felt to me like the show spinning wheels until the inevitable ending, where Rebecca chooses to work on herself rather than pursue a romantic relationship.
that analysis was perfect I'd love to see more of them for cxg especially for Nathaniel and Rebecca's relationship with her father
Thank you for this! I also felt while watching it was a turning point!
I completely agree with this video, except I think the song is a parody/pastiche of Sinatra's "I Did It My Way"
very fair
Liked the analysis, and loved the endless references! "Life doesnt make narrative sense"-josh groban
Dude the second you put the instrumental for it on i started tearing up
What an awesome video with so much fascinating insight. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Such a great analysis 💛
God this hit me hard (like your videos always do)
Man, I was so sad when this happened (even though it was a smart move for both the characters and the story) because they had fantastic chemistry together, more so than any of her other relationships. And don't get ne started on his return.....
I saw shitshow on youtube and that was the song that made me watch cxg!
Also that Hamilton jumpscare got me so off guard
Santino fontana's recasting was cleverly handled, but he will always be Greg.
This was such a good analysis
MORE CXG ANALYSIS WOOOOOOOOO
WOOOOOO
YES, thank you so much, you have to do more Crazy Ex-Girlfriend annalyses
Great analysis!❤
Awesome analysis ❤
my ex sent me this song after we broke up, which would seem shitty except i was clearly Greg in the situation i
ahhhhhhhh so that's why I listened to this song about 382 times when the episode came out.
and why I loved and hated it at the same time, because DANG IT i really wanted her to get together with Greg - because while the show was slowly and sneakingly starting to tell a story about real people instead of characters - you view them as characters. Because they ARE characters in a TV show. Bex IS the protagonist, Josh IS the love interest, Greg IS the underdog. And then the show pulls the rug out from under your feet, because "hey, it's actually really unhealthy to view your life in that way"
and that was so frustrating at times but also the best show I ever saw.
YEYEEEAAAAA
Shitshow is my favourite CXG song, thanks for explaining why I love it so much in such detail!
Your crazy ex girlfriend videos are insanely amazing!!!!! thank you!!!
God damn! This has made me want to rewatch the show, but for once it’s not on Netflix! Grr.