“CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND has a mid-season finale?” I ask myself before this weeks 2016 swansong. Apparently, yes and I’m not that sure it serves the show well. Whereas shows like THE WALKING DEAD can get away with it because they build up to some big cliffhanger, others don’t know what to do with the unnecessary hiatus.
Maybe CEG falls into the latter category because this episode really felt like it was spinning its wheels. I really want to be into this show as I raved about the first season so hard when I discovered it earlier this year. But damn, it’s just not clicking for me as much in the second half of the first half of season two.
I guess it must be down to the fond farewell we said to Greg and Santino Fontana earlier this season. The jettisoning of the love travel was always going to be a bold move as it was the basis of the show when it began and as much as I respect the shifted focus onto the Paula/Rebecca story, it just doesn’t hold its own.
As much as I want this show to not be about Rebecca looking for love and be more about overcoming her mental health issues and starting a girl group, I feel like by sending Greg off and treating Josh like a bad-guy have been to the shows detriment.
I like how the show’s biggest love story is between two best friends but after this week I feel like there’s nowhere they can really take it and make it feel fresh and not forced. Maybe it’s the mid-season finale making it feel like they wasted their time but so far I’m not convinced the show has evolved at all.
Particularly because this episode shifted back into Rebecca stalking Josh’s new girlfriend (with help from Valencia), making it feel even more like it hasn’t gone anywhere new. It just lost its handsome lead male (ahem).
There’s also a sense that the side stories and characters are being short changed.
Despite Rebecca, Valencia and Heather rather conveniently becoming a group of friends, none of them besides Rebecca have gotten anything to do but exchange witty asides. Then there’s Daryl and White Josh, a great couple for sure, yet apart from that one B storyline a couple of weeks ago, they have had barely anything to contribute.
As for Josh, I like him, despite his bad decisions but I don’t like how he’s simply been tossed aside for some mean spirited barbs. His stories since the end of the triangle have had no momentum and his separation from the rest of the core cast has only helped to isolate him more.
He’s a less douchey Ross from FRIENDS and I want more of him.
I think the first few episodes of the seasons were great, with the feel of season one and some wonderful songs. Since Greg left there’s been a hole left in the show that I can’t describe.
I respect that Greg chose to leave a bad relationship and pursue his dreams and I like that Paula is going to law school and all of those things. I just can’t help but feel that without a love story there’s none of the fun Hollywood rom-com spoofing that made the first season a joy.
I’m not saying I don’t want the show to stretch itself and focus on the female friendship aspect, I just think the writers are struggling to keep the farce and the romance going. I can’t see where they’re going and I feel bad for saying it.
They should’ve at least kept it going until the end of the season and not rushed it to a conclusion.
However, this mid-season finale wasn’t bad it just ambled along with a story that just went back to an old well of Josh relationship jealousy and only touched upon the Paula/Rebecca story when it should’ve been the big drive of the episode.
Everyone was great, the humour was there “I knew you guys didn’t miss Coolio” and the songs were good (though not as good as they were three episodes ago) but it just wasn’t the show I fell in love with.
It seemed to contradict itself continuously and padded the running time with strange uneven trips to coffee shops. Brittany Snow was charming as Anna but there was no focus. Rebecca fell back into old patterns, dragging Valencia with her and no-one attempted to stop her.
After the love triangle finished I expected to see some forward momentum in the show’s overarching story but it only seems like the Paula/Rebecca story is just a temporary stop-over to make things dramatic for the first half of the season.
I guess I just really miss Greg and yeah, I miss Josh. I wish he would get some redemption so he could come back and be charming and naive.
I dunno. Those first 3/4 episodes were season one great but these last couple have lacked the structure and charm of the others and I’m having trouble finding why. It’s still perfectly good just not as good as I want it to be.
Perhaps thats just the effect of a mid-season finale. It creates the need for big drama when there’s none to be had.
Verdict
