DianeDobbler

AnnaRose, what you're describing - the selfish behavior that comes in a charm and excitement package, with other superficially appealing characteristics - says borderline to me. I just don't want it to be that because I've been told by social workers and psychologists that it's the hardest thing in the world to treat. Only something like DBT - Dialectical Behavior Therapy - which is all about giving the person tools to manage their behavior and regulate their emotions, and not so much inquiry into childhood and adulthood - has any effect. I absolutely totally believed she slept w/Greg's dad. It was horrifying, but it's because I bought it that it was horrifying. I don't think Greg ever was to her what he wanted to be to her, although she did count on his being hung up on her whenever she needed someone like that and she was losing in other facets of her life. I do think Rebecca has been good to her friends, although it's hard to unwind her good behavior from her self-serving behavior. I think going to the burning man thingie was good for Valencia, and all the validation Rebecca gives her friends is good for them. She reacts to them as them, not in socio-economic categories, so she makes them see their own potential. She was very supportive to Josh. Yes, she wanted him to love her, but she believed those things about him. Even in Jap Battle Rap, she tried to befriend Audra. Yes, some of it is so she could validate herself to herself, but I also think her basic decency is real. She sees good things in people. For example, when she and Valencia were researching Anna Hicks, it wasn't "Look at this basic blonde bitch doing eyebrows." It was, "look at this perfect angel with the perfect name whose career puts her in connection with every cool thing ever." I don't care about the tracking devices. This show is heightened reality; it addresses real things but through a comic lens, so that's the context. They use farce to make their points. I bet Rebecca tips well. I think she is always ready to recognize the positive attributes in someone else whether it's their looks, their abilities or something about their personality. What I admire most about Rebecca Bunch is she's completely democratic. Look at her friends; look at her love interests. Of all the guys she's slept with, only Trent and Nathanial were remotely her professional and educational peers. She is one of those people who has to be herself - she feels smothered when she conforms - this is the career, this is what your apartment should look like, this is who you marry. Her best friend is a paralegal at the law firm where she's the highest performing attorney. Anyone can walk in her door and be her friend or be treated like a peer - a guy who makes vegan food, the Fedex dude, the underachieving slacker chick with a gazillion community college credits, the yoga teacher with bad credit, an underachieving bartender. I think she takes people as she finds them and sees value in what they have to offer, and there's been more than one time one of her friends has been a little incredulous that someone with Rebecca's credentials values what they have to say. She knows the worth of Harvard and Yale and wields those credentials when it's going to get her where she needs to go, but she doesn't judge people by their income, their education, their lifestyle. My favorite part of Rebecca is the Rebecca in pillow talk with Nathanial. He's telling her everything he's arranged to happen to Josh's family, and she's like "What? She just got on the Dean's list." and "Joseph? (Josh's dad)." and "Josh's Lolo? He loves him!" Rachel Bloom has said that being a lawyer is not a good fit for Rebecca, whereas it's a good fit for Paula (and we can see that Paula is really engaged by case work and research). Anyway, the way Rebecca talked about Josh's family, it played that they were people to her, it wasn't just Josh's dad, it was "Joseph" to her, and not just his grandpa, but "Lolo". People in their own right. That's the best part of her.

I think Rebecca was obviously terrified, so she went for the jugular with all of her friends - yep, trapped animal. The horrible part is all of her barbs really hit home, except, I think, for Valencia. Valencia wanted to marry ONE guy and it didn't work out. She hasn't been husband hunting or in a series of relationships where the guys bolt when the M word comes up. And about Valencia, the writers tend to default to a muted mean girl persona for her too often, IMO. I know that was who she was, but I think she was more interesting when there was more energy in the writing for her, such as when she and Rebecca went to the burning man thing and when they stalked Anna. White Josh and Darryl's conflict is one of the weak parts of the show. You can't have happy relationships, so they need something, but Darryl wanting a baby and White Josh not is kind of feeble. It might make more sense if White Josh wanted one and Darryl was like - dude, I'm middle aged, I have a kid, I don't want to do that again. Josh came off ok in this episode, but too much of the writing, IMO, rests on the old trope of not letting two people have a conversation. When Rebecca confronted him in the church, she unloaded. She wanted her catharsis, so she did all the talking. And by the time she and Josh were in the same space in this episode, she had stalked and terrified him, and threatened his mother, so he wasn't going to listen to her. I am very very curious as to what her diagnosis is going to be. Her trapped animal attack seemed a bit like what I've read about borderline personalities, but I think she is too kind and too generous of heart to be borderline. She can let her friends down, such as the time she didn't get Paula's recommendation in on time, and she can be manipulative, but I don't think manipulation is her default. It's what she does to get from point A to point B - it's much more on the surface for her, not her default. I wonder why Josh Chan never talks about career with Father Brah. Talking to him about finding direction seems like a good idea. And I wonder why Josh isn't bothered by sort of drifting through life (his address showed he was on Driftwood Street), since he comes from a high achieving family.

Oh, definitely Josh will have to deal with his shit. The fact that he was right in calling off his wedding to Rebecca doesn't excuse him deserting her instead of talking to her, and the fact that she reacted as she did and probably would have reacted the same way if he had handled it like a mature adult also doesn't excuse him. I think the show knows this. I also think the show constantly has Josh distracted, because for some reason Josh's "evolution" is on a slower track than even Rebecca's, although we can still see some basic decency, as when he yanked her back from falling in that hole. Now I'm gonna say this knowing MMV, but I always hated Santino Fontana's acting on this show, and whenever the actor who played his dad was on, I was always, there, THAT's the guy. That's how you do that character (the old version, the way Rebecca called him "Old Greg.") I bought the whole thing in 2 seconds, the dad knew Rebecca's deal, but when there was even a tiny opening, he jumped right in. That is really low. I enjoyed this episode. It got really dark without feeling forced, it was earned, as they say. I have no idea what's next, although I think Rebecca spending time with Naomi makes complete sense. Naomi going to say a lot of wrong things but in the end do a little bit of good. I hope.

Really good point ddawn23. During the conversation with Mateo/Adam, I forgot that the kid was still in diapers when Michael died. And even if he were older, no way that conversation happens.

I think Rebecca is obviously still locked in the narrative from grade school that she has no friends, and the reality that she DOES have friends just doesn't penetrate when she's in crisis. Or she thinks she's succeeded in fooling them. My issue is even if Josh called White Josh "Fancy pants" at some points, the examples they used to validate Rebecca's claims were silly. Here's the thing - Rebecca's 911 call went viral. The one where she pooped herself and set her own home on fire. Her entire social circle knows this. The entire gang at the bar was on the party bus when Rebecca did her mortifying pole dance. The entire gang showed up at that Cali-mex restaurant to cockblock Rebecca when she was trying to be alone with Josh. And that's just Josh's crowd. Of course they don't approve of what he did to Rebecca, particularly him running away and not speaking to her, but that disapproval has nothing to do with these guys knowing Rebecca is fully capable of trashing Josh like this in response. In fact, Josh leaving her at the altar would make what she's saying about Josh even MORE obviously a lie. And didn't White Josh suspect she'd clogged her own sink? Then there's Paula. She has told a gazillion lies for Rebecca and has heard Rebecca tell a bazillion lies. She knew how manic Rebecca was leading up to her wedding, trying to appropriate a pinterest DIY and turn herself and Josh into that couple. Rebecca, for weeks, has been telling Paula that she wants a stronger, more visceral revenge. Then she comes out with all of these implausible-sounding lies about Josh and Paula BUYS them as real? I think we were meant to accept this because Rebecca undermined Paula's legal skills, making Paula feel vulnerable, but I'm not buying that either.

Yeah, now that I've digested the episode, I thought Vera Lovell's song was weak. There was a review online that thought it was brilliant, so, different strokes, I guess. "I go to the zoo" wasn't a great song, but it did land its main joke beats - the beat where he goes to the aquarium, and the line about San Diego being such a better zoo. But as I said in a previous post, it sounded like a Josh song to me. Paula's credulity where Rebecca was concerned threw me right out of the episode. First time, she might give Rebecca the benefit of the doubt, but as the episode went on, particularly "I never really knew her." I was just gone. I used to watch soap operas a lot and there were often times when a character would be shoe-horned into some plot. When that happened I would keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it never did. "Nope, the character actually believed that." "The character actually chose that." It would be so fucked up I'd usually bail until the soap got different writers. "Don't Date Him." But as far as Rebecca knew, Josh was in priesT school, ready to vow a life of celibacy. Don't date him made no sense.

I like Estaben. I remember when he was originally introduced, I didn't think he was nearly as handsome as Rogelio, not enough to plausibly be said to have so much in common with him. But the night he helped Xo in the recording studio a couple? of seasons back, I realized he was a good actor and did have charisma. He's funny. Jaime Camill was good in this episode. I also liked the actress who played Katherine. Lots of times in a role like that they get someone who isn't that great, just looks right, but she was decent, and had a good amount of humor and vulnerability, although I know she's playing a bitch. I guess I'm just really relieved not to have to deal with any Petra boyfriend. They've all been irritating as hell, whereas Rafael's various hook-ups have been at least marginally better.

I hope her friends react with concern as well, but that brings me to another Paula issue. Her character was really distorted to confrom to this episode. "I never really knew her?" Paula, you put a camera on Rebecca's dress so you could watch her get in good with Josh's family on Thanksgiving, you and your husband ran to Rebecca's house and threw a rock through her window to back up Rebecca's lie about a break-in, you yourself set things up to get Rebecca and Josh together at dinner - all of this is extremely Robert-level behavior, minus the arson, but don't tell me you're shocked. Valencia as well. Not only did she and Rebecca track Anna Hicks via social media (which I completely buy as the behavior of normal, relatively immature ex girlfriends) but they broke into Anna's place of business - ok, in order to cover their tracks, but both of them that entire episode were OTT. Rebecca is "crazy" but it's a crazy that fits in with everything else her friends know about her, particularly if you pull back ten years when she was likely even less mature, more reactive, more obsessive than she is now. BTW, absolutely loved Rebecca's "mug shot" on what looked like her psych intake form. Perfect facial expression. I have two thoughts about Bloom this season 1, I think her singing has become a bit brassy and her vocals have lost some flexibility (albeit most of the material she's sung has required belting), but 2,, her acting is a knock-out. Even during "After everything I've done for you" that she sang to Josh, you could see the upset, heartbreak and disappointment of each incident she described, as well as the anger. About the arson - I've posted before that I have a friend who was quite Rebecca-like, including what Aline Brosh McKenna describes as Rebecca's essential goodness and empathy. If I had heard that, in her past, my friend had done something like this, I'd have envisioned a scenario where she slugged back some whisky, threw some whisky on the guy's clothes and lit a match - the opposite of sociopathy - just someone who is so flooded with feelings they're completely in the moment. Now, I think even at my friend's most disordered, she actually wouldn't have done anything like that - at her worst she was reality based enough to stop herself. But if she'd done something in the vicinity of illegal, and knowing her, I would have figured it was some explosion of emotion stemming from whatever her DSM thing was. I wouldn't think she was someone I didn't know.

I really was annoyed at how credulous Paula was for most of the episode. I really wasn't buying it. By Rebecca's third shot at spinning her, the Paula *I'm* familiar with would have known Rebecca was scamming. By the time Rebecca listed Josh's made up flaws - his bigotry, etc., Paula wouldn't have been puzzled or confused, she'd have known her little obsessed stalker friend had done something and was frantically trying to fix it. So that was a real distraction and annoyance. I don't believe for a second Josh's friends would have believed that he was homophobic either- they've known him since childhood, and "Rebecca's a smart lawyer" is not a reason for them to doubt she's capable of this. If Rebecca's lies about Josh had been more clever, then the episode would have worked better, but they were stupid lies that sounded and looked like stupid lies, so all the people who believed them ended up looking stupid, and that's why this episode was damaged for me. I think the lies being so asinine but having everybody believe them on first read just made a lot of characters look stupid, and it was disappointing. Better lies, that would have made a difference. They went for comical lies, but instead of nobody buying it, Rebecca won with them. OTOH while I was "eh" on Nathaniel last week, and last SEASON I wanted George to be gone SO badly, putting them together is really working and I have to give the show credit. Making George sort of Nathianel's valet almost, his little henchman and influencer, is funny, and their rhythms do play off each other well, particularly in the scene where George was telling Nathaniel how to recover his status. I also thought the actress who played Rebecca's mini me did her best acting in the role to date. One other note - while I know the "I go to the zoo" song was a funny contrast to Nathaniel's veneer of sophistication, many of the lyrics sounded like a song Josh would sing. It was a comical juxtaposition to Nathaniel's public self, but when I listened to the words I thought - this is like "Duh." Josh could be singing this. The only parts I don't think were Josh-like were the going to the club, in my "rari", having bottle service and hanging with babes parts.

I liked Nathaniel last season but these season the air is out of the balloon, or whatever metaphor. I kind of missed the beat where he decided to stop being "nice" - I guess moping after Rebecca - and get ... evil again? enough so that Rebecca sought him out. I didn't feel any heat in the "Strip away my conscience number" although Bloom herself was sexy in it and Scott Michael Thomas's acting was fine. I don't know, I'm just not that geared up to meet his family and find out the whole dynamic. I don't care about his character that much. I can't wait, though, to meet Paula's parents. Also, it's obvious that the show runners think he's the hottest hunk ever, and of course as an actor, romantic lead, he is good looking and he fits the part. But comparing him to the handsome he's supposed to be, I'm not feeling it. He reminds me of certain soap opera actors who could be hot or not depending on the personality and chops of the performer. You know, you see their picture and are like - he's ok, but if they have charisma and charm, they become the hottest thing, and if not, you don't even look at him when he's in a scene. IMO SMT is not the kind of good looking where you just enjoy looking at him even if he's not good.

I thought Rachel Bloom did a great job in the "hot" number, Strip Away My Conscience, but there was one move - the timing of when she shook her boobs on "Who doesn't worry about what's decent or right." and her baby voice when she said "Cause somehow you don't have that sucky thing called emotions." that felt familiar. While the number was conventional and Chicago-esque, not some pretending-to-be-unique thing, there were these two specific performance moments and other aspects of her performance that made me wonder if Rachel Bloom had scene Alison Brie's Sexy Santa from Community, even though the mood is totally different.

I was worried the country music character beating up the car was Britney Spears. Glad it was Carrie Underwood. They're all assholes on this show, Josh no more so than the other leads. Greg was an asshole. Nathanial is an asshole. On the same show where Josh felt absolved of his guilt after learning what Rebecca had done, Nathanial had arranged to ruin the lives of innocent people and to actually kill one. All for sex. Nobody is absolving anybody on this show - not Rebecca, not anyone. CEG has a lot of people behaving horribly and myopically and then digs into why. I can't use the rules of farce or comedy to excuse Nathanial but hold Josh to the rules of drama. I am confident CEG understands Josh needs to deal with his shit, like Greg needed to deal with his, Paula with hers, and most of all, Rebecca with hers. Josh and Rebecca likely will be the last two characters to evolve. This episode wasn't the final statement on Josh's character. He looked for validation for a wrongheaded course he'd already chosen. Rebecca's done it a thousand times herself. For me, Josh was the worst when he was behaving in a reality based way, living with Rebecca, living OFF Rebecca, and enjoying sex with Rebecca, but refusing to actually be in a relationship with Rebecca because of some bro code. Not only was that selfish bullshit, it was asinine. While I enjoy the Door Priest a lot, I think Father Brah's absence from the first two episodes is puzzling. He was the one who helped Josh work through his stuff. In fact, now that I think of it, Father Brah talking to Josh about his doubts, his issues, etc. absolutely paralleled Rebecca talking to Dr. Akopian about hers, and for all the hard work Father Brah and Dr. Akopian put in, both Rebecca and Josh consistently and triumphantly remained willfully in denial and ran off in the wrong directions. I see this show as heightened reality, obviously, so I don't judge in a real world context. As others have pointed out, Paula's behavior was pretty deranged back when she got involved in Rebecca's life. I don't think we're meant to look at what she did as literally reality-based. What she did is a heightened expression of where she was as a character - dissatisfied with her own life, lonely, living vicariously through Rebecca. Also pretty obviously using the schemes they plotted as a channel for her thwarted intelligence and drive. In the real world, I don't think a guy could come straight from his wedding to a seminary, and actually be able to live at the seminary while a skeptical but compassionate priest tried to make him see he had no idea about religious life. Josh doesn't even seem to be in a seminary. He seems to be living on a parish church property, in the rectory or something. These shortcuts would be irritating in a drama but not in a musical dramedy.

Definitely not excusing or negating Josh, just saying that in the universe of Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Rebecca has been just as terrible and been forgiven, and so I don't think what Josh did makes him stand out as more terrible than other characters. He's right in line with the main characters. BUT, now that I think about it, I do feel that there are times when context is overlooked in certain plotlines. I recall Rachel Bloom re-emphasizing in interviews that at the time Rebecca chased Greg to the airport, she had just told Josh she was pregnant, chattered on about having a baby, switched to "Oh I'm not pregnant!" and then propositioned him for sex. Yet many viewers saw the "Chase to the airport" sequence as romantic rather than disturbed / deranged because we are so used to these tropes. I believe she said Aline Josh McKenna had to edit in Rebecca's therapist in order to remind viewers what was actually happening here. So with Josh, as wrong as what he did was, I do like to remember how he ended up with that wedding date in the first place, what went down during the planning (including Rebecca kissing Nathaniel in the elevator), and I also like to remember that given her history, Rebecca would likely have reacted the same way or worse if he had confronted her maturely and told her he couldn't go through with it. She'd have felt just as vengeful, just as betrayed. I'm very sympathetic to Rebecca. I thought this episode showed the fun things about her - she gets all worked up about getting "Revenge" without really knowing what that entails, and is properly appalled when Nathanial describes what he's planned for Josh's family. "Josh's Lolo?!" I am likewise sympathetic to Josh because I see him and Rebecca as quite alike in their methods of avoiding introspection and confronting uncomfortable truths. They both run away. They both tell themselves convenient narratives that look absolutely nuts to outsiders - Rebecca's whole trajectory towards her wedding was crazy, Josh deciding he should be a priest was crazy. I see them as more ying and yang than others might. And btw, although Rebecca spilling her guts about everything she did to land Josh made Josh feel relieved of his guilt, I disagree with him. Of course he should have told her he couldn't go through with it, and retroactively discovering what had gone down to bring him to the altar in the first place isn't justification. I just think it's right in there with what everyone else on this show does, and no worse.

I don't think the envelope is a Chekhov's gun. It probably just contains the Robert details. What Rebecca has told Josh about how she's behaved vis a vis him, Josh, is plenty. If they throw in that she had a nervous breakdown after burning her beau's house down when her married college professor/beau rejected her, it's not going to exactly be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Josh was already in full cold feet, backing out mode before Trent ever showed up. I think it's to Josh's credit that he never looked at Trent's data to find an external excuse to do what he wanted to do (call off the wedding). Instead he followed what probably felt to him like an authentic excuse - he had a priestly calling due to all his tete a tetes w/Father Bra. I believe the entire point of Trent having that dossier of Rebecca's background was for Josh to not go through with the wedding WITHOUT reading any of it. IOW, it was a red herring, nothing more. As poorly and immaturely as Josh has behaved, I think it would reflect much worse on him if he'd actually married Rebecca given everything that led up to the wedding. At the point Rebecca had set the date for two week's hence, I think all of her girlfriends, even, who are on her side, were purely humoring and enabling her, just getting through it. She was absolutely batshit during that time, but nobody had the stones or the authority to call it. I don't think it's a real spoiler, but Rebecca actually reminds me of a very good friend of mine, particularly in her sexual authority and lack of inhibition, so to speak. One of the most striking moves Rebecca made in "Strip away my conscience" was when she did a shoulder shimmy, shaking her boobs, and she never broke eye-contact during the entire number. There is nothing coy about her when she gets like this - it's almost B movie femme fatale what she does, and my friend was the same way. When I'd see her operate in clubs, or with a boyfriend she was mad at, it was almost cartoonish, just as Rebecca is. She went to all kinds of therapy, because she had a lot of the other Rebecca type symptoms - a propensity for drama, personalizing everything, coming up with a new scheme or plan or storyline, etc., externalizing everything, acting out sexually, especially, even though her core issues, IMO, weren't especially sexual. She drank the way Rebecca drank, slamming that whiskey glass on the table. What happened is the older she got, the more she calmed down, til in her mid-thirties she was hardly a shadow of how she'd been. I think therapy helped, but I also suspect she had a frontal lobe maturity thing that needed time to settle down. I keep reading that for men, the frontal lobe doesn't settle down til after 24, but with her, it was every year after 24, she got calmer, even though it was hit and miss w/therapists. So I guess I'm very curious what Rebecca's deal will turn out to be. I'm sure the show has researched it very thoroughly. I don't think she's borderline or narcissist - if anything she is loaded with empathy. So I'm really interested.

I'm super relieved they didn't do "Aneska pretends to be Petra" as I was positive they were doing in the last episode. Agree, bybrandy, with the enjoyment of Xo. I think this is a case where the writers ended up modifying both Rogelio and Xo in response to attributes the actors project in the roles. Due to the actors who play the roles, both Rogelio and Xo are obviously a couple of homebody mensch types not nearly as wild or sexually unreliable as originally conceived, so they've been toned down, and their maturity emphasized a bit more (Rogelio's less so than Xo's, but I'm not sure the original conception of Rogelio would be believable even as far along as this season as a guy who was happily married and settled. But I believe it because I think it's more natural to both performers.) I think Gina Rodriguez is extremely talented and very versatile, and a strong leading lady, but this season is sort of confirming for me what I've felt before, that her one weakness is generating chemistry with leading men. Yael Grobglas generates chemistry with almost everybody, the actress who plays Xo is good at sparking up with anybody opposite her, male or female. I LOVED Michael but it was down to Brett Dier's playful chops and how versatile and charismatic HE was. It was - do I want to watch (zzzzzz) Rafe and Jane, or do I want to watch the endlessly entertaining and resourceful Dier's Michael with Jane. Thus far I think Gina Rodriguez has had her best chemistry with Melanie Mayron's professor, and in her scenes when Petra was giving birth. I can still watch the scenes where Gina Rodriguez reads aloud from Jane's novel while Petra is screaming, and laugh my head off. I don't really care about Adam, even though I can't fault Rodriguez's performance. It's just that with her leading men so far, I think a certain je ne sais quois is absent. Plus Tyler Posey ain't that great an actor. Not that one needs to be, but even if you're one note, it should be a good note. For all I've ragged on him through this show, I think Justin Baldoni has figured out what he's doing and is now delivering a good Rafael. Not that I think he has chemistry with Jane.

I DID hear the "Sexy Getting Ready Song" refrain when Rebecca received the box of clothing from Nathaniel. I love the actor (Scott Michael Thomas) but I'm not feeling the character this season the way I did last season (the Nathaniel character). I think Josh is hiding from his guilt and his denial by focusing on becoming a priest, albeit I think the fact that the denial and guilt exists should be apparent a bit more. And p.s., I love the compassionate but eye-rolling reactions of the priest to Josh's romanticism of religious life. And while what he did was shitty, the lead up to the wedding was a complete train wreck - a railroad job by Rebecca, to extend the metaphor. Josh is not someone who confronts a lot - he lets things happen to him. The fact that he actually broke up with Rebecca that time she told him she was pregnant, got manic about having his baby, then switched to proposing period sex was kind of an outlier for him - I guess it was so OTT he legitimately freaked out enough to actually break up that time, instead of waiting to be broken up with. I can't particularly think of him as extra awful within the universe of the show, as I could see Rebecca doing the same - abandoning someone at the altar, hiding out in some role playing narrative situation that justifies herself to herself, feeling a bit guilty about not communicating with the person ("I know, I know!") but not enough to actually get around to it. I do think the script is a bit flawed in not alluding to everything that led up to Josh's decision to run away to the seminary. He was freaked out by Rebecca again - the bizarre wedding plans that had nothing to do with either Rebecca or him, the mania in her that resurfaced, including moving the wedding date up by two years, her calling him "Robert", her obsession over her dad. But I suppose the story he tells himself isn't that he was fleeing in terror from his wedding, but that he'd suddenly discovered a calling to religious life. I think he and Rebecca are lot alike, or at least two sides of the same coin. He avoids his problems by literally avoiding his problems, Rebecca avoids her problems via manufactured drama. And in any event, Rebecca has done a lot of bad things to people, and then rationalized it in hindsight. There's also this - as humiliating as it may have felt, I don't think anybody at that wedding was comfortable with Rebecca's motivations and behavior leading up to it. Her saying "He humiliated me!" is surface-y true, but she's hiding behind it. That's not the real issue. She's mad because that wedding was the panacea that would cure all of her problems (as her song that morning showed), but she was full of anxiety, and bug-eyed with mania even before Josh fled. I think she'd be raging just as much if he came up and told her the wedding was off, or if he'd spoken to her afterward. Nothing he could have said would have made her reaction or her feelings better or different. You know how things are true on paper but not true emotionally? I don't think she's mad that he ran away and left her. She'd have been just as angry if he'd told her to her face. "Robert" told her to her face, and she burned his house down. And let's not forget Greg (and I'm no fan of Greg, nor of the actor who played him) also intended to leave town without informing her. She had too much pull on him, so he had to do it that way. I mean, they were friends if nothing else, so he should have told her, but he didn't in order to protect himself. Very possibly if Josh had tried to speak to Rebecca face to face, she would have railroaded him back to getting married. I think once the leaving her at the altar was done, no communication from him would have helped, as she was angry at the lost wedding itself. I'm not giving Josh credit for knowing any of this, but I think his actions are absolutely par for the course with CEG, including Rebecca's actions. I don't think Paula forgetting what she told Tim about orgasms signals anything about her own life. In the premiere she and her husband ended up having satisfying sex. I just think Paula is very quick, very smart, and told Tim that because what she overheard made the situation super obvious to her, but she forgot about it soon afterwards because she has more important stuff going on in her life. If this show had a romantic end game I could see Rebecca and Josh, but most especially Rebecca and Trent. I remember when they were both ragging on someone who went to Cornell. Trent obviously has some sort of social dysfunction, but he IS smart, has a similar educational background, and a risk-taker the way she is.

I read this has been picked up for a second season. I really loved this in a way I never really liked Gilmore Girls. Rachel Brosnahan is completely believable as a stand-up. You can't really act that. I wasn't sure when I saw the preview of her wedding day speech, but she actually was really funny. Midge is super smart, very quick, very observant, and makes decisions quickly, which also makes her believable as a natural for standup. She's also got loads of intelligent confidence. I liked that she, as the show runners explained, enjoyed her life. She was on top of it, was clearly the engine that powered the family, and in a different time could be running a business better than her husband, just as she's a better stand-up than her husband. Since I live in NYC and my relatives go way back in both Brooklyn and Manhattan, I completely enjoyed everything and was drooling over the apartment she lived in, as well as her parents' apartment. I had friends whose parents had apartments like that. Good luck either family in the same circumstances, however comfortably well off, acquiring spaces like that today. The club manager's apartment with the Murphy bed whose foot landed right up to the entrance door was also exactly right. I liked how comfortable she acted in her space, sitting on the bed and propping her feet up. Today that would probably be renovated into cute, outrageously overpriced studio. That stuff is disappearing. It made me nostalgic for New York even though I'm here. Even the dumps are disappearing/have disappeared if they're remotely in a desirable area, plus more and more areas have been gentrified into becoming desirable. Places like the Gaslight Club are gone and going as well. And even though Zabar's is still here, places like the meat market where she ordered the lamb and picked up a couple of black and white cookies don't proliferate either anymore, and places like Zabar's are as much tourist attractions as they are local shops. Like so many big cities, New York City is losing its character. Alex Borstein, who plays the female club employee, is the voice of Lois on Family Guy. I think she and Brosnahan are matched well. The only parts of this I couldn't watch were her husband's stand-up routines - I'm bad with second-hand embarrassment. The actor who played Joel reminded me of Kevin Rahm, who played Ted on Mad Men. Only thing I'm a little in the dark about is who pays for what. Who does Ethan work for? While the apartment they live in is completely plausible for that era, and for a young, upper middle class professional family of the time, her husband doesn't seem to be all that high up at work, not the one running things. If he was part of a family business or if HIS family were in the picture it would explain things more. P.S. - the only thing I flat out didn't believe was Rachel's arrest. I don't believe there are cops standing outside at that hour anticipating that a drunk housewife from the Upper West Side will spontaneously take the stage and pull down the top of her peignoir. Lenny Bruce, fine. He was a regular on the comedy circuit and known to the police. The fact that so many cops hustled in to pull her off stage the absolute second she dropped her top in the very first time she'd ever been on a stage made no sense at all.

I agree but that's expecting more maturity from Josh than he has shown at this point, than Rebecca has shown at this point, than most characters other than maybe White Josh are capable of at this point. Rebecca's not the only "crazy" one on the show. Nobody on CEG has handled their relationships in a mature manner. Rushing / impulsive is Josh just as much as it's Rebecca. He's never been alone on the show as far as I remember. When he's not w/Rebecca, he's with someone. That's his dysfunction. Greg showed maturity the episode he left, but it was a LONG time coming for him. (And Rebecca should have told him "It's not you, it's me." on their date instead of just disappearing and taking a stranger home.) I don't think there's much wrong with how Josh, Rebecca and others feel on this show, it's how they handle it that creates drama, and that's across the board, not just with Rebecca. It took two seasons for Valencia to confront the reality about her relationship with Josh - she was pushing for marriage with a guy who just wasn't into it - for FIFTEEN YEARS. I don't necessarily think this show is about a crazy, dysfunctional woman and the people around her. The people around her are nearly as crazy in their own way, and then they intersect with her. I just don't want to hold them to a higher standard than I hold her.

The reason I can't be mad at Josh - whom I like - is I can see Rebecca doing the exact same thing under similar circumstances. Maybe he's not as "crazy" as she is, but his coping skills are the flip side of the same coin. In fact, in a lower key way, she DID do the same thing, in Season 1. "Settle for Me. " I'm not a Greg fan, and I know many people saw that date they went on as a great date Rebecca sabotaged. I did not. I saw it as Rebecca persuaded by Greg's logic, and what it looked like on paper - Josh is unavailable, Greg's attractive, he IS available, they get along, and doesn't it make "a certain sense", as Rebecca sang in "settle for me." But during the date, which went well superficially, I saw Rebecca become more and more claustrophobic, while still urging herself along, and when Greg suggested they move things along to her place, she retreated to a port'o'potty to get her bearings, and sang "Settle for him." in the mirror. She couldn't. She wasn't there. She wasn't feeling it. I think it's one thing to hook up, and another to enact a facsimile of a dating relationship where you're supposed to show more. I think she was suffocating, and she bailed, grabbing the vegan guy and hooking up. I think Greg, who counted on getting laid, was more pissed that she shagged a stranger instead of him, but that was the whole point. She wasn't afraid of intimacy - Greg didn't represent intimacy at that point. He represented a "smart choice 'on paper'" but she wasn't ready and was forcing herself through it. She couldn't do it, and retreated to her comfort zone, a one night stand." I get it. That is so much better than trying to do what the guy wants, a guy who wants more than you've got to give him. So essentially Rebecca ran out on this date and fucked somebody else, and IMO her reasons were legit even though her actions were rude. I don't think she owed Greg a bang, even through of all her inconsideration and lack of disclosure on that date, he seemed most appalled she fucked some other guy when he thought that slot was his that day. So, this aborted Josh/Rebecca wedding. Until two weeks prior, Josh and Rebecca were getting married in two YEARS. Abruptly she announces the venue is available, and it's two weeks. Josh still remembers the time Rebecca declared she was pregnant, turned out she wasn't, and how manic and disturbing she'd been behaving. The engagment abruptly went from two years to two weeks, with Rebecca appropriating someone else's pinterest ideas for the theme. She was acting extremely intense and not always rational (we remember the DIY wedding prep, right). She was almost on drugs without being on drugs - super intense, tunnel visioned, obviously repressing and railroading over a ton of things. Josh is no whiz kid but he could feel all of this, and he's getting no clarification from his financee. Finally the Robert thing comes out and Rebecca lies to Josh. PLUS let's remember she had the hots for Nathanial at the time, another reason she decided to suppress those wayward feelings and railroad Josh to the altar on an accelerated schedule. Josh was more and more uneasy and stressed, Rebecca was unavailable despite their engagement, and finally he ran, and ran TOWARDS something particular, to cover his ass probably. I have a vocation! I'm not just dumping the bride. Also, remember the song Rebecca sang the morning of the wedding. It was all about the validation getting married would bring her. Getting married was going to solve all of what she thought were her problems. Rebecca should definitely not have been getting married. I switch them out, put Rebecca in Josh's shoes, and I get it, and I get what Josh did. I don't think Josh did anything Rebecca wouldn't have done if the shoe were on the other foot. Rebecca is always trying on roles. That's what Josh is doing. A role that will justifiy and validate their confused, unended circumstances in life an appear to reconcile all the pieces.

Forgot to mention that I thought Rachel Bloom did some really great acting when her character got teary-angry and cried that she hadn't even seen Josh since before he deserted her at the altar - they haven't talked, she hasn't laid eyes on him. Something about the way she delivered that really made Rebecca's experience real. The show is so hilarious, but the way Rachel Bloom delivered that dialogue I thought "God, that is just devastating."

I was fine with White Josh and Darryl. Darryl admitted he'd gone OTT about the baby and he said, "And I'll stop." he said it without equivocation. But not only was White Josh irritated about the baby stuff, he seemed to use it to criticize stuff about Darryl that were just who Darryl was, as Darryl pointed it out, AND as Darryl pointed out, a lot of it was positive. I never thought about Darryl being a catch before until I realized - yeah, he is. He's one of those people who might feel "embarrassing" but then you realize how many people like him actually end up getting things done and moving their lives forward - which the writing also pointed out. White Josh was using the baby overkill to point out flaws in Darryl - but as in turned out, these aren't flaws, not really. His baby overkill was actually one of his assets in overdrive, as is often the case. We all have positive attributes and talents that, when taken to an extreme, need to be pulled back. But the impetus still comes from a positive attribute. Both musical numbers were incredible, although of course, "Let's generalize about men" was brilliant. Last season I wondered how CEG was going to deal with the secondary women. Valencia they kept on after they liked Gabriella Ruiz, but then does that mean there's less for Heather to do, and how is Paula needed then? Instead the show leaned in. I loved loved all the women in the episode. I believe it too. Maybe in a routine social environment the women wouldn't hang out, but it's not uncommon for women, via their connections with other women, to have friends of diverse ages and backgrounds. Paula plays "mom" to Rebecca really often, so it's good for her to bounce things off the other two when SHE has issues. I agree about Ruiz and musical numbers - she is so much fun to watch. But trulyl, all four women were obviously having a blast in their big number.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Adam. It's such an old trick. Bring in someone to pre-empt established love stories. Wasn't Jane 23 when the series started? Didn't she recall kissing Rafael 5 years before as the most magical ever thing? How does that fit with Adam? Anyway, it's a tactic I hate - it's insta-importance and it's lazy. Oh, didn't you know? THIS was the guy she loved first, to whom she was engaged, who had her heart. It's lazy, it's a crutch, it bugs me, and it's a bullshit ploy to grab insta-importance to a new character and give him airtime. Of course, if Tyler Posey had sold all of it or had chemistry with Gina Rodriguez it wouldn't matter, but he wasn't memorable with her nor interesting in his own right. Other observations. Justin Baldoni has become a much better actor. He was so bad the first few seasons, and then after that, only decent opposite a few of the show's actors, and just bad with others (including Rodriguez, IMO). Now he has a solid grip on himself, is much more relaxed and can hold his own in any scene. However, as soon as Petra mentioned that she and Aneszka fell into the water together and Aneszka was lost, I clicked off my computer (I watched on the CW stream). ENOUGH. This is nothing more than a plot device. I got it immediately - this is Aneszka and she's going to fuck up Petra. I don't think anyone enjoys it. I don't think anyone enjoys Sin Rostro and Luisa. After all the kudos the creators received for the first three seasons, I can't believe how unimaginative, repetitive, and irrititating they've become.

I liked that conversation too. I also liked the Sam/Debbie conversation about soap operas. As a former soap fan, I think he nailed how soap opera show runners punished female leads who were too smart, too talented, and too popular.

I also enjoyed Bash and Carmen. Throughout, Bash had more dimension than I expected, and I thought his perspective on stereotypes was a necessary antidote to Sam's over-complication. I did enjoy watching them bash each other around, knowing that it's all rehearsed, that every body slam, choke hold, hair pull is technique. It's fun to see women having fun using their bodies that way - as Debbie said, "I get back in my body - it's not Randy's and it's not Mark's. If you go on instagram you can track Alison Brie's training for this part - she wasn't fooling around, and that's why her body has changed. I loved when we saw Bash put on eyeshadow. Whatever it was or wasn't saying about his sexuality, it was a great way to show how absolutely passionate and invested emotionally he is in GLOW. I think Alison Brie is gorgeous, and no matter how they try to make her plain, IMO it's obvious she's gorgeous. The only time she was convincing as not drop dead gorgeous was her first audition scene - had to do w/the skin tone.

I ignored this until I read today that Alison Brie was the star, then I binge-watched. I didn't recognize her throughout the opening monologue - think it was the tan. Then when her character broke character, I recognized her. She is a bit thinner but she's also amazingly fit. She's gone from "Actress fit" to "athlete fit". I'm sure there are doubles, but there are sequences throughout this show that are all Brie, and you have to be in great shape. Really enjoy the cast. Am not the biggest Betty Gilpin fan, AND I don't think she's as apple pie All American Barbie doll as the script says she is, and I think she has too much edge to be the one you'd automatically route for. That said, she brings a level of complication to the anger between Ruth and Debbie. What Ruth did was unforgivable, but there's something in Gilpin's performance that suggests Ruth's betrayal provided a channel for Debbie to express EVERYTHING that pissed her off about her marriage. I get the idea that she wasn't incredibly happy in her marriage to begin with. Still not sure why Ruth slept with Debbie's husband. He's not especially hot, and the friendship between Debbie and Ruth was portrayed as so close, it's really hard to figure out how Ruth did that, not just once, but a second time. Still, I always find Brie someone to root for, no matter what, so there's a nice balance. Brie's character is in the wrong, Gilpin's is in the right, but I like Brie better, so there's a balance.