by Chris Feil
Save for recognizing our beloved Big Mouth, this year’s Original Music and Lyrics nominees are a bit of an underwhelming assemblage. So rather than examine this lineup, let’s take a look at one of the more egregious omissions: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Now, Emmy already has a lamentable history in overlooking the show - and never more so than voters completely ignoring this third season’s multi-layered and vital look at mental illness. But the original song category has made some curious decisions in regards to the show. Season two’s nominated “We Tapped That Ass” is delightful but soft compared to other options. We can’t really begrudge the season one nomination of swooner “Settle For Me” but where was series-defining genius of “You Stupid Bitch”? The song category is perhaps proof that Emmy voters just don’t get the highwire act that this show pulls off...
Season three was the show at its peak, pairing its genre-spanning musical sharpness with its hilarious micro-observations better than it ever had before. And it wasn’t like songwriters Rachel Bloom, Adam Schlesinger, and Jack Dolgen didn’t create some series’ best songs to nominate.
“Let’s Generalize About Men” kicked off the season with its most viral musical sequence, an electro pop female ode to reducing men to cliches for the ecstatic release of it. The song dives headfirst into its 80s candy while functioning as both satire and empowerment anthem, like a rosé with electrolytes and vitamin C. As ever, the show sneaks in social consciousness with a matter-of-fact bite, elevating a broad sequence such as this past its sketch comedy potential. It also helps that “Generalize..” is a total banger. Slam the repeat button.
But the series musical high belongs to the spectacular Donna Lynn Champlin for “First Penis I Saw”. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s sweetness can’t be underestimated, often contrasting its supposed crassness with palatable pop sensibility. Such approachability helps break down taboos of our unspoken obsessions without losing its edge. Here it’s the awkward yet sacred first glimpse of naughty bits, but the show has done this equally as well with issues of self-loathing and poor social skills. Most of all, the shows fascinations surprise in the commonality of their specificity, and this the show’s universal peak example of that.
Yes, you should also consider this a continued stumping for the criminally unnominated Champlin.
Genre is also a tool to deliver certain subtextual messages in the show. Here in “Maybe She’s Not Such a Heinous Bitch After All” 60s girl-group sunshine evokes sanitized domesticity, the kind of music where we would never hear any person, let alone our mothers reduced to profanity. These subtle subversions of both musical genre and acceptable social behavior underline everything Rebecca internalizes about the tension between her and her mother. Not to mention how it accelerates the emotional high she is on, right before a low that became a game-changer for the series...
This season has sparked a number of brilliant pieces on the show’s depiction of mental illness and Rebecca’s suicide attempt, and this turn remains one of the bravest moves the show has taken. True to form, it musicalized it brilliantly in a way that further revealed the raw nerve of Rebecca’s psyche and need to be loved with “A Diagnosis”. The show is often at its bravest when it just lets her sing her heart out, singing about things we’ve never heard put to music but in a musical theatre sound that is familiar.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend continues to take big storytelling risks and break rules, especially musically. If the show’s silliness makes you consider it as anything other than deeply personal, this past season was one to shake you by the shoulders. And then give you a hug.
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