A quirky, funny, and sometimes downright cringy half-sitcom, half-musical about dating and the important journey to finding happiness through self-love.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend follows the story of Rebecca Bunch, played by the talented Rachel Bloom, as she takes a huge leap to try and find love. The show begins with Rebecca living a successful life as a lawyer in New York City, though clearly unhappy, when she runs into her old crush, Josh Chan, from summer camp as a teen. The positive feelings and nostalgia he brings up within her amongst the hustle and bustle of New York reminds Rebecca of a simpler time. As their conversation comes to a close, Josh tells Rebecca that he’s moving back home to West Covina, California because New York is too intense for him.  

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Believing this is somehow a sign that Josh is the key to Rebecca’s happiness, she quickly quits her job at her law firm, packs her bags, and moves to West Covina too in the hopes of running into him again and finding her bliss. The drama and hilarious mishaps that follow are filled with comedic songs in a musical parody style throughout the episodes to showcase how idealistic Rebecca’s views on “true” love and happiness really are, while sparking an important conversation about mental health.

While I’ve never moved across the country to follow a crush that I had no relationship with, I have made some pretty bad choices when it comes to relationships in my past. In the same way that Rebecca felt warm feelings of nostalgia upon running into her summer camp crush, I found myself feeling the same way watching Rebecca’s journey to finding herself. At one point in my life, I viewed relationships as the only way to truly be happy. But this only led to more feelings of unhappiness, loneliness, and dissatisfaction for me! It was fun to see Rebecca make the same journey onscreen.

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While the show starts out with Rebecca making an endless series of bad choices, she begins realizing throughout the show that happiness must come from within. The topics of mental health and childhood trauma are consistent themes, which simultaneously act as explanations for a lot of Rebecca’s impulsive behaviors and overly idealistic views on love and relationships. The character development the audience sees throughout the four seasons in all the characters, but mostly in Rebecca, is bound to fill you with warm, fuzzy feelings as well.  

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is one of those shows that truly sticks with you. While some of the situations Rebecca ends up in due to her own choices are so incredibly un-relatable at times and cause so much secondhand embarrassment, the underlying theme is one that I feel many women have struggled with and deeply relate to. Most of us are implicitly taught from a very early age that in order to be happy, we must be in a relationship. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend sends a powerful message and reminder that before we can find happiness and true love with another person, we must first find it within ourselves.

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Find Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on Netflix!