Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

Media: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Makes The News!


Recommended Posts

A few reports from the show's TCA panel:

 

The Hollywood Reporter:

When executive producer and star Rachel Bloom and fellow EP Aline Brosh McKenna followed Pedowitz on stage at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, they talked about tweaks that were made to the original half-hour presentation and emphasized that it is, in fact, a musical. "It took us two days to film that number," Bloom said of the pilot's big Broadway-style number, one of three songs in the episode. "We can definitely keep it up every week."

That will include between two and three musical numbers an episode. McKenna emphasized that they would be spanning all genres and that many of the planned songs for the first 13 episodes have already been written. The entire cast — Donna Lynne Champlin, Santino Fontana, Vincent Rodriguez and Vella Lovell, among them — was also eager to tell the crowd that they're all experienced tap dancers... and that their skills will be put to good use on the show.

 

Deadline:

“I wanted to explore the ‘crazy ex-girlfriend’ and what people mean when they talk about that,” EP/creator Aline Brosh McKenna explained today at the TCA Summer Press Tour. She said what Bloom’s Rebecca Bunch character needs most in the series is a mom. She finds that maternal figure in West Covina, in the character played by Donna Lynne Champlin, who “is crazier than she is,”  McKenna said, calling it “the magic of that relationship.” She also mentioned having written the screenplay for The Devil Wears Prada, in which, she said, she explored what it meant to call a woman a “devil” or “bitch.”

 

TV Line:

Originally developed as a half-hour comedy for Showtime, Girlfriend will make some edits as it heads to The CW (as an hour-long), including more broadcast-friendly language.

“People assume it’s going to be radically different,” EP Aline Brosh McKenna said. “It really isn’t.” One of the key changes is the shift to the one-hour format, which has provided “a great opportunity for us to expand the show” and “enrich” the supporting characters, the EP added.

 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Short Vulture article:

“People started to call the show ‘My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,’ and I was like, No, no, no. This is not a man saying, Oh, my crazy-bitch ex. It was that little addition of ‘my’ that made me consider that there’s this whole other world where men label women crazy when they’re not being crazy. That’s not what this show is about. This show is about the idea that love and infatuation take the power of your own mind away from you.

Edited by Trini
Link to comment

Strong reviews so far; it stands at a 77 on Metacritic, easily the best-rated new network show (though perhaps Supergirl could rival it). The only new network series last season with a higher score is...its lead-in program Jane the Virgin at 80.

 

The CW winning the broadcast quality game with quirky dramedies starring young women. 

Link to comment

Well, Wonderfalls is still one of my favorite shows ever despite Fox only airing 4 episodes (with the rest of the 13 being released on DVD, thankfully).

And Firefly has one of the most rabidly passionate fanbases despite having only 1 season...on Fox.

 

So the show could be one of those delightful treats that ends perfectly without ever taking a dive in quality as the writers run out of good ideas, like with most shows.

  • Love 5
Link to comment

Good comparison, jjjmoss. I occasionally (not on this site) see online comments to the effect of "I think I'd like it, but I won't watch until I'm sure the pilot's quality is maintained throughout the run, and I can be certain it won't get cancelled." And I understand that we all have different preferences, but I'm genuinely bewildered by that. Why not enjoy something good while we have it, without spoiling our present pleasure by anticipating something that hasn't happened yet (and may not)?

  • Love 2
Link to comment

No, few people thought it was ever in danger, esp given the points it got for serving an underrepresented audience and how it was part of an overall resurgence in critical reception for The CW. But now the network has Jane, Flash, and iZombie all well-received.

 

And the pilot of this did worse than ever episode of Jane S1, when the vast majority of shows fall after the pilot.

Edited by jjjmoss
Link to comment

No, few people thought it was ever in danger, esp given the points it got for serving an underrepresented audience and how it was part of an overall resurgence in critical reception for The CW. But now the network has Jane, Flash, and iZombie all well-received.

And the pilot of this did worse than ever episode of Jane S1, when the vast majority of shows fall after the pilot.

Thanks for the clarification. I hope CW gives it a chance.

Link to comment

Jane the Virgin came out of the gate as a critical darling. It was on most critics' "best new shows" lists. And then the awards started rolling in.

For some reason this show hasn't received similar notice from critics. And this year's crop of pilots was hideous.

Link to comment

Most people are probably turned off by the terrible title and worse previews. All of the promoting commercials made this show look terrible and I only gave it a try since everyone on here liked it (same thing happened with Jane the Virgin and iZombie). The CW needs to learn how to promote the good shows.

Link to comment

I think you nailed it, nosleepforme. I don't think the title is really a crucial factor in terms of actively turning people away (though it may not help)... it just apparently doesn't sound to many people like something they have to check out. And the fact that it's a musical (which the previews, to their credit, never tried to hide as a lot of movie trailers do) is sadly an instant turnoff to lots of viewers, the ones who reflexively say "I hate musicals."

 

The fact that it's a premise unlike any other this year (or most years) may be a plus for the show, but apparently a minus in terms of promotion: they can't push it in terms that people already know ("It's Criminal Minds meets How I Met Your Mother"). Other series have had that same problem (prime example: Pushing Daisies).

 

As far as I'm concerned, I saw the five-minute preview made available early last summer on YouTube (and promoted in several pop culture sites I frequent, like Alan Sepinwall), so it's the one out of all this fall's new series that I was most aware of. As I like Donna Lynne Champlin, love musicals, and adore Santino Fontana, I knew it was for me. But I acknowledge that it's not for everybody.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Vincent Rodriguez III: CW star paves the way for Asian Americans onscreen and onstage

At the 2014 PaleyFest Fall TV Preview, main actress Rachel Bloom said she wanted the location of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" to be in Southern California, based off her own childhood experience living inland.

 

"We knew we wanted it to be a fish-out-of-water story, but most of those happen in the Midwest or on the East Coast," Bloom said this month in an interview with Vulture, adding that she and McKenna were drawn to the number of chain businesses and cultural diversity that San Gabriel Valley is known for. "We also liked how multicultural Southern California was, which is...what new suburbia is, and will continue to grow and be--people from all different cultures going to the same Applebee's."


Since the show is set in a suburb notorious for Asian American (and especially Filipino) families, the writers were careful to make sure actors accurately represented the culture and diversity of West Covina.

"We always wanted the male lead to be Asian," Bloom shared, "because I grew up with Asian bros, and I hadn't seen that represented on TV."

Edited by arc
  • Love 3
Link to comment

As someone from that area (not West Covina thank god, that place is crap) this makes me very happy. Asian men are so rarely seen as anything desirable or sexy. I mean the most prominent Asian roles (other than the short lived Selfie RIP as FOB) on tv I can think of Chang on community and Raj from BBT. Both we're supposed to laugh at not actually see as attractive. Well Raj has his moments. But an asian gets to be the slightly douchey heartthrob for once! Yay!

Edited by JustaPerson
  • Love 2
Link to comment

"Butt stuff" and "I orgasm instantly"? This is on at 8 on The CW, hmm. I wonder if one of those lines will be censored from the broadcast like "Whisper your dick hard" and the cursing in Sexy Getting Ready Song.

Link to comment

He's Filipino -- a former Spanish colony, so there are a lot of Spanish names. 

 

Assuming that's what you're referring to?

 

 

Thanks.  Yes I was assuming he was half hispanic.  

Link to comment

Ep 2 down a decent amount to .79 million viewers. Given how Jane was down to .84 million, and how both are under Friday show Reign's .95 million, I see basically no chance that both Monday shows come back. One increases diversity for the network, is more acclaimed, and has several accolades including a Golden Globe, so...

Link to comment

Ep 2 down a decent amount to .79 million viewers. Given how Jane was down to .84 million, and how both are under Friday show Reign's .95 million, I see basically no chance that both Monday shows come back. One increases diversity for the network, is more acclaimed, and has several accolades including a Golden Globe, so...

One thing to keep in mind is that both shows were preempted in NY, a major market. I would be curious to see how they do next week.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

The repeat of the premiere seems to have put up the exact same numbers of the premiere (at least that's what I've read somewhere, don't have a source right now), which is obviously not the norm. Plus it held it's numbers despite the preemption. That could be a sign that word of mouth is already spreading, so that necessary uptick might indeed be coming. We'll know more in a couple of weeks.

 

But I agree that, while I really liked the first two episodes, the long-term potential of the premise doesn't seem to be that great, anyway. Seems like a classic case of "we'll gladly deal with it should we somehow get more than two seasons". Anyway, it already served its purpose of putting Rachel Bloom on the radar, whom I probably never would've heard about if not for this show.

Link to comment

This was originally pitched as a half-hour Showtime series. And their orders are typically from 8 to 12 episodes a season, right? So if they just produce a half season of 13 episodes (I can't find a clarification anywhere of what the "5 additional episodes" order brings the total to), that's equivalent screen time to 2 or 3 cable seasons. And honestly, though I adore the series, I feel like its ideal length story-wise may be one CW season. We'll see.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Is A Bad Feminist, Just Like Us

 

 

Rebecca is a bad feminist, in the Roxane Gay sense; she holds feminist beliefs, and can easily articulate them, but her entire social self is at war with her ideals. She wants things she knows a feminist "shouldn't," and she admires qualities she knows define traditional femininity.

[...]

Already, it's held up a dark mirror to the empowered image feminists present the world, and the suppressed, internalized sexism we can't all banish, at least not as easily as we can skewer misogynistic representations of women in lady mags.

 

Link to comment
Link to comment

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/how-crazy-ex-girlfriend-became-tvs-best-stalker-musical-comedy-20151123

 

"We were interested in exploring the issue of: What are the biological things that love does to you, when it takes over the most intellectual parts of your brain?" Bloom says. "And I think the more intelligent you are, the more it drives you quote-unquote crazy, because you know you shouldn't be feeling this way or doing these things."

  • Love 1
Link to comment
×
×
  • Create New...