Tuesday, May 08, 2018

7 Posts: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Change is hard

It's not like we needed a TV show to tell us change is hard, but I still enjoy how "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" explored that this year.  Many shows look at characters failing to change for an episode or two.  But this season we watched Rebecca try to change her whole life, only to discover she'd fallen into bad patterns with Nathan.  Watching the episode titles switch over from Josh to Nathan was another nice touch.  Paula found that she felt like a teen again she ran into Jeff Channing, (a name that is, ahem, very similar to Josh Chan) and ultimately realized that she liked the life and husband she had.  It wasn't a second choice, it was the right choice.  
Heather had to graduate and figure out who she was if she wasn't a student.  It turns out she's really good at managing things, so she ended up creating a new on site managerial program where she could watch the implementation of the changes she made at several regional stores.  Valencia after spending some time documenting Rebecca's recovery, ultimately parlayed her skills into party planning and also discovered love with a new lady, who reminded her that being from a small town wasn't a bad thing, small towns had made a lot of people.  
And Nathan tried to change and be a less hurtful person, but also tried to have his cake and eat it too, dating Mona and continuing to sleep with Rebecca.  Rebecca after breaking things off with Nathan, only to continue to sleep with him, finally decided that maybe they should try it for real, but was unable to stand in front of his door long enough to try to have a real conversation.  And her therapist expressed optimism that now that Rebecca had a diagnosis, they could make real progress, only to discover that Rebecca was still standing in her own way.  Josh found the loss of his dream job hard and struggled to find a purpose, finding bartending not for him, and trying out dancer at a gay bar, and then DJing for Valencia.  When he expressed concern to his mom after she demanded he clean out the last closet of his stuff at his parents' house and get out, she finally broke it down for him, it was time to move on and also his parents wanted to have sex in the house again.  
So everyone made changes to differing levels of success, and many characters reverted to bad behaviors.  And Nathan, White Josh, and Josh reminded us that guys with abs have problems too.