Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Can Josh Take A Leap Of Faith?

-Wow. Just wow.

-One of the best jokes in the first season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a scene where Paula finally explains to Scott exactly what's going on with Rebecca and the two do a line-for-line spoken rendition of the season 1 theme song. It's a great joke that comes out of nowhere and brings the song into the world of the show. All of season 2 I wondered if something similar might be attempted with season 2 theme "I'm Just A Girl in Love" and sure enough, lines of "I'm Just A Girl In Love" did turn up in the show tonight but in a darker and more surprising context than anyone could have expected. It turns out that Josh isn't the first time Rebecca has put our hopes for happiness onto a man who wasn't right for her and the emotional thesis statement Rebecca has been following all season that's worded to sound like a legal argument has roots in the actual legal argument made in the fallout of the last time Rebecca was just a "girl in love".

-From that moment in the pilot where Rebecca cheerfully throws away all of her medication, it's been clear that she has some serious mental health issues that she isn't properly dealing with but tonight is the first time we're shown the full extent of those issues and how dangerous this really is. It turns out that back in Harvard, Rebecca had an affair with a married professor named Robert who was going to leave his wife and marry her until he suddenly decided he couldn't. As a result Rebecca set fire to his house and was committed to a mental hospital to avoid conviction, despite her protestations that she "has no underlying issues to address". It's a brilliant, brutal twist that comes out of nowhere but makes total sense. Suddenly everything about Rebecca starts to add up from the fact that she went to Harvard and Yale Law to her aversion to therapy and medication to why her mother pushed Josh to marry her to those musical numbers she escapes into whenever reality becomes too much to bear (The one flash we get to her time in the mental hospital has a nurse commenting that a heavily medicated Rebecca is always singing to herself) has a fresh context. Rebecca is caught in a destructive cycle of seeking love and validation from men who always wind up abandoning her because she doesn't believe she's worthy of love. It's a cycle that goes back to the moment her well-meaning but emotionally unavailable father walked out the door and now the latest cycle is over and rather than burn down Josh's house (Or rather, his parents house), Rebecca tries to throw herself off of a cliff.

-Rebecca's daddy issues were introduced to us in a throwaway line from "I'm So Good At Yoga", way back in the second episode of the show. Rebecca envisions Valencia as everything Rebecca isn't, rubbing her perfection in Rebecca's face with a series of taunts culminating in "My father didn't lea-ve me". The next episode went further into this showing us the moment Silas Bunch walked out on his wife and young daughter as the basis for Rebecca's fear of throwing a party. After that the daddy stuff was mostly backgrounded before becoming a key part of Rebecca's dream ghost journey and then going back to the background until last week but it's always been there informing who Rebecca is and what she wanted. Now everything wrong with Rebecca can't completely be attributed to her father issues, particularly her need to throw herself into fantasy and narrative whenever she has to confront real life, but they do affect a large amount of her behaviour whether she knows it or not. The episode begins with her composing a text to her father that's almost exactly like the text she sent to Josh in the pilot but whereas Josh's eventual reply is a request to grab dinner sometime, her father's is a rejection, a delay until the rehearsal dinner he's obligated to attend and it crushes her. Rebecca knows her father is bad news but she can't help but feel that if he were to accept her, then everything would be OK.

-Silas Bunch is a complicated figure and he's perfectly played by John Allen Nelson. Lesser hands might make Silas into a purely despicable figure, unworthy of Rebecca's love but Nelson brings a lot of charm and affection to the guy. He's mostly there to hit his daughter up for money but he doesn't leave after he gets what he wants. He tries to give Rebecca what she wants and you understand why Rebecca wants him to love her so much. He's a toxic parent and he's not emotionally available enough to understand Rebecca or give her what she needs but he doesn't want to hurt his daughter and you can't help but feel for the guy a little (until the end at least). He's pretty similar to Josh and it makes sense that they'd hit it off.

-Josh spends much of the episode trying to get to the bottom of the "Robert" mystery set up when Rebecca accidentally says "I'm sorry Robert" in front of him and passes it off with an easily debunked lie. Josh should confront Rebecca once he figures out it's a lie and have an honest conversation with her where they get to the bottom of this, but instead he keeps looking for reasons he doesn't understand, inching closer and closer to a valid reason to back out of this marriage he doesn't really want. Then Trent shows up with an envelope containing all of the answers he needs and he becomes even more conflicted.

-This season of the show has made it clear that the problem with Josh is that he runs to a pretty girl to validate him every time he has to confront himself. Father Brah basically tells Josh as much tonight. When Sarah was introduced last week, I became wary that Josh was going to leave Rebecca for her and this episode definitely began seriously heading that direction before Josh suddenly stops and realizes that's his problem. So he decides to do the right thing and go talk to Rebecca about this envelope and her past. Until he doesn't. Josh's inability to be by himself has been in the foreground of his character, but quietly humming along in the background is his strong faith. There's a reason he runs to Father Brah whenever he's facing a moral crisis. So instead of running towards a new pretty girl, he replaces the girl with church and decides to suddenly become a priest. It's a stunning bait-and-switch that completely tracks with Josh's character. He's not fixing his destructive patterns, he's just replacing what he escapes with.

-Josh does get a crucial moment of character growth though when he chooses to not read the envelope on Rebecca's past. He knows if he reads it then he'll have some kind of a justification for leaving but he chooses not to. He's making a cowardly choice but he's owning that choice and it's kind of admirable. It's also dangerous because he has no idea what he's actually unleashing by leaving Rebecca but again, kind of admirable.

-Before everything goes to hell and she tries to throw herself off a cliff, Rebecca stands over that same cliff singing a song officially called "Rebecca's Reprise". It's a medley that combines "You Stupid Bitch", "I'm The Villain In My Own Story", "I Love My Daughter" and "We'll Never Have Problems Again" into a triumphant number about how Rebecca is on the precipice of having everything she's ever said she's wanted. It's a sad number because we know this won't be that simple and things are going to collapse, even if we don't know how they'll collapse yet. Rebecca doesn't know this though. She's at the height of her delusion, the climax of the narrative she's been building for herself the moment she moved to West Covina.

-Love and hate are almost exactly the same thing. They're both strong emotions driven by a focus/obsession with another human being and caring about their well-being. The only difference is intent. Do you want this person to be happy or do you want them to suffer? Rebecca spent two seasons trying to get Josh to love her and it's brought her to the edge of a cliff. Paula rushes in to support her because that's what Paula does but just like she's done throughout the show so far by encouraging Rebecca to chase Josh, she makes the wrong call in the advice she gives because she doesn't know the whole story. She doesn't know the kind of help Rebecca actually needs or that Rebecca has been institutionalized because of something just like this. She just knows to enable so she tells Rebecca not to blame herself (good call) but to blame Josh and her father. And just like that, love turns to hate and Rebecca has a new mission. Her father turns to leave and she finally, definitively rejects him. He calls her crazy and she replies "little bit" with a smirk, owning the label for the first time. Then with Paula, Heather, and Valencia all by her side she makes a vow to destroy Josh Chan. It's a strong, powerful moment to end the season on that opens up a lot of narrative possibilities for next season.

-Rebecca is just like Josh. She thinks that by rejecting her father, and by extension Josh, she's breaking the pattern that's causing her to be miserable but she's not breaking the pattern at all, she's merely replacing the focus of the pattern. Trying to ruin Josh's life won't make her happy just like becoming a priest won't make Josh happy. It's something they're both going to have to learn the hard way though.

-Rebecca focusing on destroying Josh also Chan brings us to the most traditional meaning of the phrase "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" so that'll be fun to explore.

-White Josh and Daryl are set up for trouble this episode when White Josh admits he's not someone who's interested in marriage. He gets why people have kids but he doesn't get why people get married. Daryl is able to come to terms with this but he also decides that he and White Josh should have a child and from the look on White Josh's face, that is definitely not something he's ready for. We'll see how this plays out next year but it doesn't look great for the longevity of that relationship.

-The other song in this episode is "What A Rush To Be A Bride", a heavy metal head-banger number that contrasts the beauty of marriage with a manic beat and screaming voices. It's a bit of a filler number, but it's a lot of fun and it shows that Paula and Rebecca are once again totally on the same page.

-So after weeks of focus, Nathaniel turned out to be mostly a non-factor in his finale, but him telling Silas to "Have fun flying coach, dick" after Silas assumes he can get a private plane back to Alaska was perfect. Nathaniel has really grown on me so I'm excited to see more Scott Michael Foster next season.

-Heather and Valencia is a really fun dynamic that gets a lot of play as Heather assists with Valencia's wedding planning, mostly by sardonically pointing out when things get ridiculous and apologizing for Valencia.

-As I said at the top, wow. I had high expectations for this finale and writer/director/show co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna exceeded every one. This has been a terrific season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and I'm incredibly thankful it's not the last one. The wait for season 3 is going to be hard.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Is Josh Free In Two Weeks?

-All Rebecca Bunch wants is to be "normal". The kind of girl who doesn't have underlying issues to address, who falls in love with her dream man and single-handedly plans the perfect wedding where her father is there to walk her down the aisle and doesn't get bored or depressed or kiss her boss in an elevator. She's chasing a fantasy, something that doesn't exist because the only people who are truly "normal" are characters in movies. If she stops chasing it though, she has to confront what a broken "super wheeeee-ird" person she is (Thanks, Santa Ana Winds) and she doesn't want to do that, so she keeps chasing it until she finds herself closer to the breaking point than she's ever been and a blow-up seems inevitable. Until suddenly it isn't.

-It turns out impulsively moving your wedding from two years away to two weeks away is not the best idea if you have not done any planning for it. Wedding planners won't help her because it's impossible, her mom won't help her because even though she kicked this whole thing into motion Naomi Bunch is a selfish woman, and Paula can't help her because she's studying for law school finals with Sunil (Hi, Sunil! I've missed you.). Rebecca should give up but people have already RSVP'd and calling it off would give the impression that this isn't normal. So she decides to do almost all of it herself, which naturally leads her to suspect that a DIY wedding will be easier to pull off than a regular wedding, which only makes things worse.

-Rebecca attempting to copy the wedding of Dustin and Sasha from Halifax, Nova Scotia (Yay, Canada shout-out!) works on both a comedy level and a story level. Rebecca wants to be normal and a DIY wedding is normal so she springs for it. There's no time to actually come up with her own ideas though so she picks one at random and tries desperately to copy it. She takes something that is the vision of love, co-operation, and planning intended for two specific people and tries to weld her and Josh to that vision because she wants to be normal. She winds up lost and alone trying to bring dreams that aren't her own to life because she's scared of what her own dreams might be.

-When Seth Green first shows up as Patrick the delivery guy, it's a fun surprise, albeit a bit confusing. Why cast Green in what is essentially a bit part? As the episode goes on though and Patrick keeps returning, it becomes apparent that Seth Green is perfect for the role. Channeling his work as Oz from when he was on Buffy, Green makes Patrick the epitome of "normal", a laid-back regular guy who is genuinely concerned about this woman he barely knows, but also can't off the help or validation she needs because he doesn't know her. Green goes from feeling like a fun distraction to a vital part of the episode and he does it without really doing that much. Green is a master of the understatement when he needs to be.

-The stoic pleasantness of Green also makes him perfect as the focal point for (Tell Me I'm OK) Patrick, an honest aching plea to a person who has no preformed opinion of her asking him to tell her that she's normal and OK. It's a sad, moving song but it's also funny because Green is there staring blankly and trying to process what's going on as a near-stranger bears her soul to him until she starts yelling at him because she's convinced he has the manual to being normal in his truck. When it ends with her finally collapsing from exhaustion and him gently wrapping her with one of the wedding dresses she keeps ordering to try on before sneaking off, it's earnestly sweet.

-As (Tell Me I'm OK) Patrick played, I realized that this is the most vulnerable Rebecca has been in a song since Oh My God I Think I Like You back in season 1. There's been a fair amount of vulnerability in the music this season but none of it has come from her (Except possibly her part of You Go First, but that song is shared with Paula). As she's thrown herself into the delusion of a romance with Josh and then the distraction of female friendship and then back into the delusion of romance but on a grander scale, Rebecca has been guarding her true feelings from her fantasy life more and more this year. Tell Me I'm OK is the first time she lets it all out in a long while and it's all the more powerful because of how long it's been.

-Valencia has been out of focus for weeks now, save for one great scene a couple weeks back. That ends tonight as she returns just when Rebecca needs it the most. Initially though, she seems off and it looks like the episode is setting up the return of a jealous season 1-Valencia. But thankfully the writers avoid going this route, instead focusing on the idea that although she has moved past Josh, she had planned her whole life around him and is rudderless now that that plan is out the window. Her weirdness around Rebecca and Josh isn't really about Rebecca and Josh, it's about how Rebecca is stepping into the life she almost had, reminding her that she needs a new one. Once she confronts this though, she's able to help Rebecca and herself at the same time when she decides to plan Rebecca's wedding using the binder she had spent years building and it turns out she has a real knack for it. Of course she does. Valencia is confident, assertive, and stylish and her becoming a wedding planner makes so much sense for the character that it becomes blindingly obvious that's what she's meant to do the moment it comes up.

-Patrick was never going to be the person to give Rebecca the help she needs, but he manages to deliver it to her by informing Paula of what's really going on with her best friend. Following the reestablishment of their friendship, Rebecca has been making an effort not to make her friendship with Paula all about her and to give Paula a healthy amount of space. It's a nice thought, but it doesn't mean Rebecca should hide her feelings when she's in a place where she genuinely needs the help of her mother/friend. The scene where Paula watches Rebecca in awe of the dress her mother sent her before a flashback shows Paula ripping Naomi a new one to ensure that she would help her daughter is a nice culmination of everything the Rebecca/Paula friendship has been through this season. Watching Paula scream everything at Naomi that we as an audience have wanted to scream is also incredibly cathartic.

-There's a moment towards the end of the episode when Rebecca tries on the dress her mother got her and Heather remarks that she looks "surprisingly normal". The line and Rebecca's very touched reaction to it is played as a joke, but it's also very touching after the ordeal Rebecca went through. The only thing is there's a big difference between looking normal and being normal, which is something Rebecca is probably going to have to come to terms with sooner rather than later.

-Nathaniel starts the episode off demanding that the rest of the office be more normal, but this is the episode where everyone finally sees that he's just as weird and damaged as the rest of them. Also he poops his pants. Nathaniel's vision of normal is also skewed thanks to years of conditioning by his father to view being human as a weakness. That kiss with Rebecca meant something to him but he can't ever admit that because that would betray vulnerability. So in his efforts to exude strength and normality, he gets sick and gassy, but he keeps clinging to the kale smoothies he refuses to stop drinking and refuses to let his guard down. even as the rest of the office tries to help him. Just like Rebecca he reaches a breaking point, but where Rebecca's breaking point was the moment she tried to get a stranger to tell her she's OK, Nathaniel's is pooping his pants. It's a cheap joke, but a funny one and the sight of him in one of Daryl's spare, terrible suits later is a great image.

-Man Nap, Daryl's heavy rocker number about napping like a man isn't a particularly deep song. You could remove it from the episode without losing anything. It is however a terrific song and a lot of fun and the wigs alone justify it's existence.

-Of course the moment Nathaniel finally shows honest vulnerability and takes the nap his body so desperately needs, his father finally shows up and all the issues the show has been hinting at for weeks finally snaps into focus. Nathaniel just wanted to be normal for his father and he's come off as weak instead because his father is unreasonable. Confronted with his worst fear though, Nathaniel doesn't regress to the man he was when he first arrived. Instead, having realized that his father is never going to return his love, he emphasizes with Rebecca when she reveals her father won't be able to make it for her wedding and arranges for her father to be able to come after all. I'll never be sold on Nathaniel as a romantic match for Rebecca, but he has turned out to be much more of a kindred spirit than he originally seemed. What would be perfect is if the two of them connected on a personal level and helped support each other as they dealt with their separate lifetimes of baggage. Unfortunately neither of them are ready to realize how much they might need that.

-Bringing Rebecca's father back is huge. We've seen him in flashbacks but never have seen the actual man before. Rebecca's problems may not have started the night he walked out on their family, but they have been informed by that abandonment ever since. There is a huge amount of stuff to unpack with that part of her life and though it probably won't bring her the normality she wants or even the closure, it could start her on the road to actual recovery. Or it could all explode horribly. We'll find out next week.

-Josh spends this episode feeling like he's being shut out of the wedding process, failing to stay awake for the one DIY thing he wanted that Rebecca agreed with him on, and then making a stand for what he wants only to be shut down by the abrupt return of Valencia into his life. He seems OK by the end of the episode, but he also seemed to be getting awful close to that Sarah girl he was volunteering with. Remember, Josh doesn't want an equal partner, he wants a support system who will validate all of his choices, no matter how ridiculous (He wants a Sugar Ray cover band called Splenda Ray for crying out loud). This does not bode well for him showing up to the wedding next week.

-As promised a couple weeks ago, the full version of Period Sex, sung by Rebecca Bloom in a flowing red dress because of course it is. It's as good a culmination to this joke as you could want, and it loops in clips throughout the series of the various characters saying either "period", "sex", or "period sex", which is fun.

-"Over my dead body". I thought the show had forgotten about Trent. It has not. Oh boy.

-All in all a great episode this week and a strong set-up to what will hopefully be a major finale. Next week: The season ends with the wedding of Rebecca Bunch and Joshua Chan. This is not going to end well guys.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Will Scarsdale Like Josh's Shayna Punim?

-Towards the end of "We'll Never Have Problems Again", Rebecca and Josh's disco anthem to the delusional idea of love solving everything, Rebecca mentions that "for once, this situation's a lot less nuanced than that". It's a clear callback to the season 1 theme song and Rebecca's insistence to the animated chorus calling her the "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" that there was more to moving to West Covina than Josh Chan. The thing is the situation is a lot more nuanced than that but not for the reasons Rebecca believed. She moved to West Covina because she was miserable and figured that if she could get back together with Josh, she'd be happy like she was all those years ago. It was never about Josh, it was about the feelings she associated with him and the hopes she's pinned on him. Now she's gotten Josh but her misery hasn't gone away because surprise: love doesn't solve everything. The problems are still there and they can't be solved by disco-ing the night away. That's not going to stop Rebecca and Josh from trying though.

-There's a running joke this episode about Rebecca and Josh broadcasting their relationship to every single social media platform in existence (Including Waze and Words With Friends) so everyone knows how happy they are together. It's a funny joke but it's also strong insight into the central problem with this relationship. Social Media is an escape from the realities of life. You control what you put on there so you control the narrative. You might be miserable but you can trick the world into thinking otherwise. Rebecca needs this to work because she's pinned her happiness on it and Josh needs this to work because he has nothing else going for him in his life outside of his relationships. They're both in denial and as long as they keep posting cute couple selfies and letting everyone online know how happy they are, they can continue to perpetuate that denial.

-There was a cavalcade of returning guest stars this week as Tovah Feldshuh, Rachel Grate, and Michael Hyatt all returned and enriched the narrative in various ways. Patti LuPone also showed up this week as Rebecca's old rabbi and was as terrific as expected.

-Valencia also got to return this week for the first time since Josh and Rebecca officially got together. I was worried she might regret into her bitchy season 1 self but she seems to be taking it pretty well. She even warns Rebecca to be careful, despite feeling lukewarm about her right now. Aw.

-Naomi Bunch continues to be a fascinating character. She loves her daughter and wants the best for her, but she's also kind of toxic for Rebecca's well-being and the best thing she could do for her would be to leave her alone for a while until Rebecca's in a position to have an honest conversation about their dynamic. Tovah Feldshuh is always a delight to have on a show and she's a lot of fun here. Her hitting it off with Josh was unexpected considering her attitude towards him last season, but it was an interesting dynamic and the last scene between them sets up the ending beautifully.

-Rebecca's trip back east is enlightening for how much it hammers down that Rebecca's problems were always her own. She's been projecting all her misery and pain onto the people she left behind, convincing herself that she was being drawn into it. Josh having a great time and pointing out how great everything seems to be punches a hole from that. She figured having Josh there was going to illuminate how sad the east coast was, but the only sadness that was illuminated was her own. Rachel Bloom is terrific every week, but she really sold Rebecca's subtle misery this week and confusion about why Josh wasn't making her happy.

-Will Scarsdale Like Josh's Shayna Punim? features the most devastating ending of the show to date. Rebecca has finally gotten to what feels like an actual breakthrough. She's realized that her problems are with her and she can't depend on another person to fix them. Dr. Akopian becomes an audience surrogate, looking on in amazement and disbelief before coaxing Rebecca to the next part of the revelation: the part where she takes some time for herself and actually confronts her real problems. It seems too good to be true though and the "Remember That We Suffered" musical refrain keeps popping in like an ominous warning, jauntily signaling that the disguising of misery under a happy exterior is coming and can't be stopped. Sure enough, just as Rebecca is mid-breakthrough, in bursts Josh with the Garfinkel ring he bought back from the pawn shop it was sold to last season so he could propose (Under advice from Naomi). She says yes. Dr. Akopian speaks for all of us as she screams "No!" and all that progress is gone. The misery is pushed away for the cover of false happiness and you know this is going to end horribly. It's incredibly frustrating to watch, but it makes for brilliant television.

-I assumed the 3rd act of this season was going to be about Rebecca realizing Josh wasn't right for her. After this episode though, I'm now thinking it's about Rebecca continuing to ignore her problems and throw herself deeper into denial until it blows up spectacularly (My guess? Someone's getting left at the altar. Probably Josh but Rebecca also seems plausible.).

-Oh, other stuff happened too this week as we explored Daryl's feelings of inadequacy at work now that Nathaniel was there making him feel like an "emasculated sock puppet" and Nathaniel lost his antagonist status along with a tooth and gained a lot more depth along with a friend.

-It was obvious from the get-go that Nathaniel had issues with his father so when Paula mentions he's waiting for his father to give him a major account we know where this story is going. The journey is still a lot of fun though, particularly Daryl's candy rebellion and the way the office rallies around Daryl Spartacus style when Nathaniel confronts him about it. Watching Nathaniel fall hard off the treadmill desk (making it's triumphant return) was pretty cathartic but it also led to a genuinely sweet bonding moment between him and Daryl, as Daryl acted like the father figure he needed.

-Only one scene between Rebecca and Nathaniel this week but the chemistry between Bloom and Scott Michael Foster is obvious. It looks like we'll be exploring that more next week.

-"We'll Never Have Problems Again" is my favourite new CXGF song in a good while. It uses the fun and the gleam of disco music to showcase just how far into their denial Rebecca and Josh have sunk. Heather trying to burst their bubble before soul train-ing out of there was also terrific.

-"Remember That We Suffered" was also a lot of fun. Patti LuPone and Tovah Feldshuh are clearly having a blast cheerfully singing about Barbra Streisand and Hitler and Steven Spielberg and Hitler and Hitler (Hitler comes up a lot during the song). It also does what all the great CXGF songs do by illustrating Rebecca's mental state. Everyone is celebrating and having a good time but she can only focus on the misery and darkness.

-Period Sex 3: Tovah Feldshuh edition! Rachel Bloom has promised we'll see a full version of the song by the end of a season, albeit an online-only version for obvious reasons. I'm excited but apprehensive, if only because the full song is going to have a ridiculously high bar to clear.

-We finally meet Audra Levine's husband who Rebecca once slept with and it turns out he's basically East Coast Jewish Josh. How delightful.

-George was rehired! No one remembers his name still but we'll never forget you George.

-Mia's old college roommate was Zosia Mamet. This better be set-up for a Zosia Mamet guest appearance at some point down the road.

-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend got renewed for a 3rd season this week, guys! Considering how atrocious the ratings were and how quickly the writers were burning through story, I figured it was a goner but I'm very happy to be wrong.

-"We'll Never have Problems Again"  mentions that obsession tends to last for about four years. Rachel Bloom has mentioned the ideal length of the show would be 4 seasons. Hmm.

I Got Thoughts on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Why Is Josh's Ex-Girlfriend Eating Carbs

-After an emotionally fraught couple of episodes, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend goes a bit lighter this week as it sets up the next phase of the season.

-If there's a benefit to Santino Fontana leaving the show beyond not having to worry about Rebecca driving Greg to relapse, it's that the show can increase it's focus on other members of the ensemble who are typically pushed off to the side. Case in point: after sitting out the first three episodes of the season and almost all of the fourth one, Valencia made her triumphant return this week as Gabrielle Ruiz finally got to make use of the Series Regular status given to her before the start of this season.

-Valencia was a tricky character in season 1. Although she was granted some depth and nuance from time to time, especially in the later parts of the season, her (justified) hostility towards Rebecca and her abrasive, superior, and controlling personality made her come off as a one-dimensional shrew a lot of the time. She became one of those significant others who you couldn't understand why the love interest was dating them. Now that she and Rebecca are both broken up with Josh however, we have a chance to actually get to know Valencia as a person and finally get the Rebecca/Valencia friendship the show feinted towards doing towards the end of last season, which if the end of this episode is any indication will bring some fresh energy into the show.

-Of course Valencia started off the episode basically the same as she was in season 1 though it became quickly apparent that she was just putting up a front to avoid confronting her feelings about Josh even before the drug-induced dream ballet brought that to the forefront. So Rebecca kidnapping Valencia and bringing her to Electric Mesa (San Gabriel Valley's version of Burning Man) was the only logical way to get both of them to that location.

-The Triceratops-fueled Dream Ballet sequence was definitely the musical highlight of the episode this week (Though Thought Bubbles was a strong number). From the spot on musical choices for the two performances (I'm The Villain In My Own Story and One Indescribable Instant for Valencia, and I'm Just A Girl In Love and I'm A Good Person for Rebecca) to the clear differences in Rebecca and Valencia's Ballet abilities (Valencia is characteristically graceful. Rebecca not so much) and how both told the emotional journeys of the two and their relationships with Josh in clear fashion even before they explained what those journeys were afterwards.

-The joke about Rebecca's keys being kept in her underwear was all right but the strong implication that they were actually in, um, a slightly different place was hysterical.

-It was incredibly satisfying and cathartic to see Rebecca finally pissed at Josh for all the ways he's taken advantage of her this season.

-Also satisfying and cathartic? Rebecca and Valencia standing up for each other when confronting Josh and having that turning into the two finally bonding and building each other up. Was it totally earned? Probably not, but it was so satisfying I don't mind. Rebecca and Valencia becoming friends is much more interesting than them being at each others throats, even if it probably isn't going to last forever (Josh will probably get between the two eventually),

-Also satisfying and cathartic but in a weird way? Rebecca and Valencia peeing all over Josh's sound equipment. Honestly did not see that one coming.

-Having Valencia start off ever-so-slightly heavier in this episode and slowly get back to where she was as she got over Josh and regained her confidence was such a subtle neat visual touch that I almost wish the show hadn't kept commenting on it, but then we wouldn't have had Valencia being so confident that she stopped fixating on her appearance and that was the best part of that small story thread.

-Valencia and Heather make for a great combination. Having them both around to play off of Rebecca should be fun.

-Paula makes a new friend too this week! Parvesh Cheena makes a strong first impression as Sunil, a fellow older student at law school who quickly bonds with Paula in a way that feels natural and believable. When he responds to Paula accidentally blurting out that she had an abortion by casually admitting that his wife recently killed herself, it instantly endears you to the guy.

-What Sunil's introduction does is really highlight the imbalance of Paula and Rebecca's friendship (He sees Rebecca's selfcenteredness ever so briefly and assumes she's Paula's daughter because his much younger daughters are the same way). Watching the two interact and team up to steal a jerk student's note-taking app, it really feels like a friendship of equals where the pair is helping and enabling each other. That's something that Paula and Rebecca's friendship has barely ever felt like, even in the best of times, which the show kindly doesn't spell out for us.

-The divide between Rebecca and Paula is widening and you don't even realize it until the end where they're both at the same place with different people and worlds apart. Their friendship is still formally going but from the way they both interact and look at each other afterwards, it seems like it's ended and it's devastating.

-We get some insight into Josh this week as we learn something that explains a lot about him: he can't bare to be alone. Thought Bubbles, our only real song this week, captures this perfectly. Josh is someone who doesn't want to have to confront anything real or unpleasant so he runs from it by throwing himself into relationships or things to keep busy. When he's alone though he can't keep those dark thoughts out of his head but rather than deal with them like an adult, he keeps pushing them away. Until Josh can finally handle being alone, he's never going to be able to grow up and be the mature, responsible adult he wants to be.

-Josh's manager Alex was a delight this week. As I've said a couple times before, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is really good at making the smallest characters have something vital to contribute to the scene. Sherpa Alan also qualifies.

-The good thing about Josh being unable to be alone? Guest star Brittany Snow as Josh's new love interest! Brittany Snow is terrific and needs to be in more things so I hope she's around for a while.

-Daryl got his first significant storyline of the season as he goes with White Josh to Electric Mesa and realizes that White Josh has a certain type: older men. This allows for an excellent exploration of Daryl and White Josh's relationship as Daryl starts to feel insecure and replaceable. It turns out White Josh has similar insecurities though and when they're finally open with each other, they exchange "I Love Yous" for the first time.

-Rebecca actually gave Daryl good relationship advice! Rebecca isn't always the best friend to the people in her life but she definitely has her moments.

-The real sweet thing about the story though is how Daryl finally introduces Josh to his daughter Madison and the three wind up all holding hands as they leave to get Madison a stuffed Pegasus in addition to her new stuffed snail. I definitely choked up there. Daryl and White Josh forever!

-Season 1 would often segue to the theme song by having someone wonder why Rebecca was there which made the expositional theme song sort of a stealth punchline. Season 2's theme is different and can't be cued up as easily so when it got set up tonight with Rebecca remarking she must be crazy, I cheered a little.

-Rebecca apparently has a fetish about being choked by red liquorice. I expect this to pay off at some point.

-I'm hoping Rebecca having to give Heather and Valencia five dollars every time she mentions Josh becomes a recurring joke throughout the season.

-Solid episode this week. Next week: Girl power and more Rebecca/Paul drama! My heart is aching already.

I Got Thoughts On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: When Will Josh and His Friend Leave Me Alone?

I Got Thoughts is a point-form collection of my thoughts on episodes of television, when a normal recap just won't do.

-Just when you think Rebecca can't sink any lower than she has, she sets her house on fire and a 911 call of her freaking out about Greg and Josh while pooping in her backyard gets put online, quickly going viral. Ouch.

-So apparently Santino Fontana is leaving Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, though they're not ruling out a possible return guest appearance some day. That's a bit disappointing as he was always terrific on the show, bringing all kinds of depth to what could have been a one-note character. It's also the right decision. The end of Greg's arc was always him finally getting out of West Covina and pursuing his own happiness. It was also clear that prolonged exposure to Rebecca would be detrimental to his recovery. Keeping him around, especially after last week's episode would've felt disingenuous. So it's sad to see him go, but it feels right. Greg was never meant to be a big part of Rebecca's story, even if she wound up being a big part of his.

-If this is the last we ever see of Greg, at least he got to go out on a (figurative) high note with the Frank Sinatra-esque "It Was A Shitshow" (or BLEEPshow if you're trying to be network friendly.). It's a brutal but perfect summation of Rebecca and Greg's relationship. As much as Greg loves Rebecca and he does love her, this thing between them was never healthy for either of them and pursuing it was never going to end well. He doesn't regret it and he would never change that it happened but that doesn't mean he should stay in West Covina. It's a beautiful, tragic number and one of the best the show's ever done.

-The other striking thing about "Shitshow" is that it's one of the few musical numbers on this show that isn't presented as heightened or in a fantasy. There's no dancing or elaborate change of scenery, just Greg and Rebecca in the airport as they share one last moment before Greg ascends to the next part of his life. It's incredibly effective.

-Real Greg makes his exit early but a "memory spirit" ( Definitely not to be confused with a dream ghost.) of him pops up a couple times to remind Becca of Greg and what she's lost before she's finally able to say goodbye to Greg at the episode's end and move on. A memory spirit of Josh also appears so the two can do a merry, hilarious tap number called "We Tapped That Ass" about all the times they had sex with Rebecca all over her house. It's a strong number about how hard it can be to get over a break-up when you have constant reminders of what you had in your face all the time. It also provides a good impetus for Rebecca accidentally setting her house on fire when she decides to burn all the reminders of Greg and Josh that she has.

-Sometimes being brought to your lowest low is what it takes to make you snap out of denial, take a good hard look at yourself, who you are, and to figure out the first step to being OK again. Other times, it sends you spinning even deeper into denial and causes you to do something drastic to try and project the idea that you're doing OK. Guess which one of those things Rebecca does?

-Yael Grobglas popped over from Jane The Virgin tonight as Trina, the CEO of Miss Douche, a feminine hygiene product company that's trying to take back the word "douche" as an empowering thing and reinvent themselves. Trina also clearly has some issues that need working out which Grobglas plays subtly and beautifully. It's a good parallel for what Rebecca's going through and the contest serves as a catalyst for her big makeover.

-The thing is there's a huge difference between reinventing your image as a company and reinventing your image as a person. Rebecca's post make-over blonde hair and extensions is horrifying and hilarious, but it also takes one run-in with Josh to expose it how desperate and fake the whole thing really is. Even Rebecca's making it to the finals of the contest is only because she spent $5000 on bots to buy the likes she needed. You can put a fresh coat of paint on a house with a rotten foundation, but it doesn't fix the fact that the foundation is rotten. Rebecca spends the whole episode trying to convince people that she's OK, but the one person she can't convince is herself and when she's finally confronted with the question of "Who Are You?" at the contest after an episode of running away from it, she has the breakthrough she needs to get past her denial.

-Trying to figure out who you are outside of other people is tough and scary but it looks like Rebecca will have some great help with that. After being in the far corners of Rebecca's world for much of the show's run, it looks like Heather is being brought right into it's centre. That's great news because Vella Lowell has always been great on the show and her detached cynicism and common sense is a much needed counterbalance to Rebecca's desperate optimism. The show also makes fun of how little we actually know about Heather after all this time by revealing that she still lives with her parents and that her last name is Davis, but Rebecca has apparently never noticed, despite having met her parents plenty of times before.

-Mr. and Mrs. Heather (As Rebecca calls them) are a delight and it's fun watching them be hyper-supportive of Rebecca as she spirals. The episode is also smart to point out why this hyper-supportiveness isn't actually good for Rebecca or Heather (Who just might be the support system Rebecca actually needs). Mr. and Mrs. Heather provide unconditional support but they don't push back or encourage follow-through or improvement. They enable Rebecca on her quest to become Miss Douche, but when she wants to give up, they accept it. They've let Heather quit everything she's ever tried which is why she still lives at home. They're good, loving people, but Heather and Rebecca need more than that in their lives if they're ever going to succeed.

-That being said, I do want to see more of Heather's parents. Hopefully they'll be popping over to Rebecca and Heather's new place often.

-Rebecca never found out about Paula's pregnancy, but she wound up playing a big part in Paula's ultimate decision by forcing Paula to essentially handled a whole case by herself, revealing that it will be impossible for her to both have a baby and do law school by showing how much her and Scott struggle with what they already have, but also by showing how good at legal work Paula is.

-Smart decision: We don't actually see Paula change her mind about going through with the pregnancy. We simply see her recovering from the procedure, before her blunt son explicitly states what's happening (Also the first time someone actually says the word "abortion"), which feels like a network note from someone worried viewers wouldn't piece it together but was funny enough to work.

-I thought the show was signalling trouble for Paula's marriage when she turned out to be pregnant, but Scott turned out to be loving and supportive of her dreams and the first one to bring up that Paula had "options". It was a very welcome turn of events. Far too many shows would make this about how Paula getting an abortion would affect Scott, but this isn't about Scott and he knows it. He just wants Paula to be happy.

-What does look to be in trouble though is Rebecca and Paula's friendship. That Paula couldn't bring herself to tell Rebecca about what she was going through, even after Rebecca was ready to open and pushing her to open up exposes how one-sided this friendship is in places. Becca can trust Paula with everything in her life, but Paula can't do the same because she doesn't trust Becca to be able to handle it. The show has collapsed Rebecca's relationships with Josh and Greg. How long until it collapses her relationship with Paula as well?

-Mrs. Heather trying her own version of a makeover song before "Makey Make-Over" was adorable though. And as for the actual song, I'm going to have "It's a Make-Over. Makey make-over" in my head for days so thanks show.

-This show is on such a roll right now and moving so much faster than I thought it would.

-Next week: Valencia is back after being kept offstage for the first few episodes. And she's eating doughnuts. That should be fun.

I Got Thoughts On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?

I Got Thoughts is a new-ish style of recap I'll be doing for some shows where I'll post a point-form list of thoughts I have on episodes of television. It's pretty new (This is the third one) so I'm still playing around with it a bit.

-I didn't write about Where Is Josh's Friend? last week (Actually another reason I started this I Got Thoughts format) but I thought it was a strong start to the season and taken with this week, I'm very excited to see where this all goes.

-I wasn't sure about the new theme song at first but it's quickly grown on me. It does a good job of summing up Rebecca's mindset for the season now that she's no longer in denial for her feelings and is all in on being in love. Also the "Blam!" ending that lasts just long enough to be awkward is hilarious.

-Very good week for the music this week. The three new songs were all great in their own way for reasons I'll outline below and I'm a sucker for a good reprise so as worried as I was for Greg's new-found sobriety, him returning to But I Could If I Wanted To right before punching a wall was great.

-Where Is Josh's Friend? made it clear that Josh and Rebecca clearly have different levels of investment in their relationship. Luckily, by the end of When Will Josh See How Cool I Am? Rebecca has also realized that and is making a push against Josh's "staying in our own lanes" attitude towards her.

-Before she learned that though we had the adventure of her trying to become a master ping pong player in a short amount of time, which had a guest appearance from national treasure Albert Tsai as her child mentor and helped offset the heavier material of the Greg story with some welcome silliness.

-I've been very impressed with how Greg's newly discovered alcoholism is being handled this season. Santino Fontana is doing great work making Greg feel like the same guy we met last season, albeit less angry and trying to improve himself in a meaningful way. The varied reactions of Greg's friends trying to figure out how to best support him was also nice (With Hector's constant forgetting that Greg can't drink being a very Hector touch). The road to recovery is long and complicated the CXGF writers seem interested in fully exploring it, which is nice.

-Heather is still pretty much on the fringe of the show's world ever since breaking up with Greg but she was good here as a friend and a support for Greg. Vella Lovell is always great on the show so more of her this season would definitely be welcome.

-Very glad they didn't drag out Rebecca and Josh hiding the truth from Greg for very long. Having it come out now while Greg is still early into recovery and could possibly spiral back was smart. Even though I figured Greg wouldn't actually be out drinking, I was genuinely worried when he was suddenly missing.

-Interesting that Josh and Rebecca had essentially the same reaction to Greg's alcoholism. They both didn't see it coming and then both used it as an excuse not to tell Greg about them sleeping together (Though Josh was not able to keep the cat in the bag for very long).

-Greg got a DUI because he was going to tell Rebecca he loved her! Aw, that hurts. He seems to have processed what Josh and Rebecca did pretty healthily in the end though. Of course if the ending with Rebecca smelling his sweatshirt is any indication, she might be interested in Greg again, which might not be the best thing for Greg. Agh, the relationships on this show are so messy and well-drawn.

-At the least, it's good that Rebecca's conversation with Greg has opened her eyes a bit to the reality of her situation with Josh. It was a relief to hear her tell him "I deserve to be with someone who treats me well".

-Josh's self-centered personality and emotional immaturity have always been part of his character, but now that he's no longer with Valencia, it's really becoming obvious. It's good. Josh's flaws only serve to make him more interesting as a character.

-Paula trying to quit her addiction to Rebecca's drama and applying to law school was a very smart move on the writers part that opens up a lot more stories for her and gives us a good example for how Rebecca's single-minded pursuit is affecting and hurting her relationships with others.

-Having Paula's big concern in this episode be "Does Rebecca support me doing this?" rather than "Will Rebecca write the letter on time?" was a smart choice. It lets the fact that Rebecca does write the letter in the end be more important than her not doing it on time (which we all knew was going to happen). It helps that Daryl had actually written Paula a recommendation letter so Rebecca screwing up didn't actually hurt Paula.

-That being said, it seems we're eventually going to reach a point where Rebecca and Paula hit an impasse over Rebecca's behaviour.

-Daryl being under the very mistaken impression that he and Paula are best friends was a great beat when he mentioned it during Paula Needs To Get Over Josh! and I was thrilled to see it return here. Oh Daryl. Paula will realize you're the friend she needs one day. At least she used your letter (when she had no other choice).

-Paula's marriage seems to be in a more stable, supportive place this year which is nice. Also the "After everything you've done for her-" "That she didn't ask for" exchange was a nice echo to both After Everything I've Done For You and the pairs spoken word exchange of the theme song last season.

-White Josh DOES look kind of resemble a giant, buff chipmunk (A Chiphunk to use Rebecca's phrasing.). I'm not sure I'll ever look at him the same again.

-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is very good at making distinct characters like Greg's ridiculously supportive boss Kevin (who's getting a lot of play so far this season.) or his Motorcycle gang AA Sponsor Guardrail. Hopefully there's more Guardrail in the episodes to come because he seems to be the kind of gruff but supportive presence Greg needs right now.

-I was looking forward to Ping Pong Girl the moment it showed up in the promos for this weeks episode and it did not disappoint. Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne fame wrote a terrific send-up of late 90's/early 00's pop punk that manged to skewer the idea of the "effortlessly cool without trying girl" and bro culture as filtered through Rebecca's fantasy of what that is and how she can twist it to lead Josh to make a meaningful commitment. The song's also full of great lines like "Ping-Pong shows that she has control over her body, but it doesn't threaten my masculinity like basketball or hockey". The cuts from the fantasy music video back to Actual Rebecca trying and failing to learn Ping Pong before getting too caught up in the fake music video playing out in her head were also great and made it clear how well Rebecca's plan would actually work (which is to say not at all).

-Although Ping Pong Girl is probably my favourite song of the episode (I have a real soft spot for pop punk), Maybe This Dream and Greg's Drinking Song were equally terrific, character driven songs that were funny but also had a certain kind of sadness to them. Behind Paula singing a Disney Princess song about the disappointments of life and "Dump Cramps" is a poignant mix of hope and fear about her applying to law school and her worries that it won't work out. And Greg's Irish drinking song about all the things that happen when he drinks is funny, but also paints a bleak portrait of how serious his problem actually is.

-All in all, another strong and inventive episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Next week appears to tackle the Josh/Greg/Rebecca triangle head-on with a Marilyn Monroe-inspired number. That sounds promising.

You Should Really Watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Yo!

Some shows are easy to describe. A tight-knit group of friends go through life together. A mock documentary captures day-to-day life of workers in an office and their immature boss. Law enforcement of some kind stops criminals of some kind. A group of people crash on a mysterious island where they wind up in the ultimate battle of good and evil (Ok, Lost is a bit more complicated than that). Other shows defy that kind of simple description and make it harder to pin down why they're so appealing. Like The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a musical comedy in the middle of it's first (and hopefully not last) season which is one of my favourite shows currently airing. It's possible to sum up the premise in a sentence but there's so much more to it than that.

So What Is It About? And That Title's Supposed To Be Ironic, Right?

Yes, the title's ironic. Even the theme song points out it's a "sexist term". That theme song (embedded above) probably does the best job of summing up the premise, while also showing off a bit of the show's tongue-in-cheek tone, female perspective, and musical ambitions, but I'll give it a shot. Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom, who also co-created the show) is a hardworking New York lawyer who is very accomplished, but very miserable and depressed. One day she runs into Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III), her one-time boyfriend from summer camp 10 years ago, which was maybe the last time she was truly happy. She learns he's about to move back from New York to his hometown of West Covina, California but he tells her to hit him up if she's ever in SoCal. Following this encounter, she impulsively quits her job, moves to West Covina, and gets a new job at a small, local law firm. But she didn't move there for Josh, as she repeatedly attests in West Covina, the first of many musical numbers on the show.

From this starting point, a lot of things happen. Rebecca befriends Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin), a paralegal at her firm who becomes Rebecca's confidante, champion, and enabler in her pursuit of Josh (not that Rebecca will admit a pursuit), living vicariously through Rebecca to avoid confronting how dissatisfying her home life has become. She connects with Josh and they become friends, despite the disapproval of Josh's long time girlfriend Valencia (Gabrielle Ruiz). Inserting herself into Josh's life also leads her to meet and bond with Josh's best friend Greg (Santino Fontana), an embittered bartender who can't help but fall for Rebecca, even as he becomes increasingly wary of her and her intentions. Also pulled into Rebecca's orbit are Darryl (Pete Gardner), her affable boss who is going through a divorce, and Heather (Vella Lovell), her cool, young, apathetic neighbour who can't help but be fascinated by Rebecca and her erratic behaviour.

So Why Do You Like This Show So Much?

Well for starters, it's surprisingly deep and complex. A musical comedy about a woman who follows her old ex-boyfriend across the country in an attempt to be happy doesn't seem like a sustainable premise for a ongoing TV show beyond a few episodes but the show makes it work by not being afraid to explore the full implications of that premise. What Rebecca's doing isn't healthy human behaviour and the show knows it, and isn't afraid to have people (including Dr. Phil at one point in a surprisingly great guest spot) call her on it, but it also doesn't judge her and has total empathy for why she's the way she is and why she does the things she does. Rebecca isn't just some wacky one-dimensional cartoon person. She has real issues in her past thanks to her overbearing, overcritical mother and her father walking out on her when she was young. She struggles with depression (continuing a nice trend right now of interesting and nuanced portrayals of depression on television)  and self-hatred, among other things and you can see why a remembrance from a time when she was happy might cause her to take such drastic action.

The supporting characters also aren't just props solely around to bolster Rebecca's story. They all have real depth (even Valencia eventually) and lives of their own. Greg wants to go back to school but feels obliged to take care of his sick father. Paula has her marriage problems and is tempted by one of the firm's clients. Darryl starts to discover new things about himself following his divorce. Heather dates Greg for a bit, opening herself up. Even Josh, who initially seems like just a nice guy who's not too bright or ambitious and not right for Rebecca, starts to gain more depth and shading as we start to realize why he actually might be what Rebecca needs right now.

The music is super great too. Every episode feature around 2-3 songs, of a full variety of musical styles, Broadway and otherwise (I'll share some of my faves in a separate section.). The songs, depicted as taking place in the heads of the characters (usually Rebecca, but also the other characters from time to time) rarely advance the plot, but will usually either provide great insight into the characters or provide great satirical commentary on society, the style of song getting spoofed, or both. "The Sexy Getting Ready Song", for instance is a club song that depicts the great lengths women go to to get ready in full, unglamorous detail. "I Love My Daughter (But Not In A Creepy Way)" looks at those Country songs about fathers and daughters and how weird they can get. "Put Yourself First" is a Pussycat Dolls or Fifth Harmony style number about the mixed messaging those groups can have about being empowered, while still trying to get the guys attention. On the character and plot side of things though, "Settle For Me", is an old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-style musical number where Rebecca envisions Greg imploring her to settle. "Cold Showers" is a Music Man-style number where Rebecca manipulates people and sensationalizes a small issue as part of a scheme to spend time with Josh. And "You Stupid Bitch" is a heart-wrenching ballad as Rebecca sings about the depths of her self-hatred to an imaginary audience, who happily cheers it on and sings along. In true musical style, songs will also reprise themselves too, some in the episode they first appeared, but some several episodes later when you least expect it.

Lastly, the show is incredibly well-written and super funny in all aspects. Even at it's most heart-breaking (You Stupid Bitch), there's a clever line that'll have you smiling. The world of West Covina is a heightened place and there's a bunch of great minor and one-off characters from White Josh (a friend of Josh and Greg's who becomes more complex than he first appeared), to mute paralegal Mrs. Hernandez, to the rapper from the Sexy Getting Ready Song, who is so traumatized from what he saw, he decides to go "apologize to some bitches". The theme song is often expertly deployed after a character wonders why Rebecca is there or where she came from. The post-episode tags often take some throwaway joke from the episode (wondering what a Vampire Weekend is, a probate judge calling for a wildly inappropriate police escort) into comedy gold. Even the butter slogan that plays a part in Rebecca's move to West Covina (When Was The Last Time You Were Truly Happy?) turns into an incredible joke when you discover what motivated the copywriter to come up with that slogan (that in itself has become a running gag that becomes funnier every time it comes up).

So in the end, all of those elements I've mentioned above (and plenty I probably haven't. I don't think I even mentioned how Rachel Bloom won a Golden Globe for her performance as Rebecca) all add up to create a uniquely delightful television experience that engages and amuses me every week. If any of what I have written above appeals to you at all, you should definitely check it out. And if you need more convincing...

Obligatory Song Section

Sometimes seeing is believing. I was going to seed these songs throughout my post more organically but I decided saving most of them for the end is best. This is a selection of songs I think help capture the show's appeal. So here we go:

First is "Feeling Kinda Naughty", a song from early on when Rebecca is trying to befriend Valencia. It starts as a pop song in the vein of "I Kissed A Girl" or "Cool For The Summer", before taking on a much more sinister turn as Rebecca's obsession takes a dark turn.

Next is the aforementioned Settle For Me, presented in black and white for that authentic touch.

Then there's "I'm A Good Person", which is from a time when Greg calls Rebecca a bad person and she goes to great lengths to prove to him that isn't true.

Then there's "Textmergency", a hair band number from a group of people who get caught up in Rebecca's drama when she sends Josh an incredibly compromising text message in a later episode.

Lastly, there's "You Stupid Bitch", which is definitely one of the most heart-wrenching things I've seen on television this year so far.

So that's just a taste. This show just keeps getting better and better with every episode and with luck, it'll hopefully be around for a while at least. So check it out, yo!