Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

One of many delights about the pilot for Crazy Ex Girlfriend is that it resonates with her [Rachel Bloom's] distinctive voice.

Bloom is so perfect for the part, emerging as a fully formed character. She grounds Rebecca, but is also fearless when Rebecca needs to live up to the title of the show.

Crazy is an out-of-the-blue surprise and an out-of-the-box treasure. It shows what the networks can do when they're willing to throw caution to the wind and turn to something and someone new--in this case, star and writer Rachel Bloom and the show's creator, Aline Brosh McKenna.

The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend premiere also was full of surprises, taking oddball twists and turns with, not only Rebecca, but the supporting characters as well. All in all, an impressive prime-time debut for Bloom as star, co-creator and executive producer of the slyly crafted show. That's the good news. The great news is that, from what the CW has revealed of future episodes, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend appears to be staying on the wild and unpredictable track.

The pilot episode is pretty much a non-stop pleasure, packed with funny scenes and big, billowy musical numbers.

When you're in the midst of it, you feel sort of crazy. When you're watching Rachel go through it, it's engaging. It's fresh. It's fun.

Establishing that she is a competent professional helps ground the comic surrealism in reality and make Crazy Ex-Girlfriend one of the most promising shows of the season.

It's an intoxicating if precarious concoction, capable of exploding or imploding at any moment, which only adds to the fun.... She is able to keep words like "pathetic" and "deranged" at bay for the first hour through sheer force of will, but now that the concept has been established, the scripts will need to give her firmer footing and a little more room to move.

Everything about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is balls-out nutbaggery, including its origin: It started out as a half-hour comedy for premium-cable channel Showtime and somehow wound up on a network devoted mostly to high-school bitchery and boy-band vampires, where it's not always clear if the demographic target of 13 to 34 refers to age or IQ.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has a very difficult to-do list in terms of maintaining its tone while finding a little more character clarity than the pilot managed--plus the musical numbers. Rebecca's self-absorption is almost thrilling, but the show itself falls prey to it, so we don't quite get a clear read on the supporting characters in the first episode.... The craziest thing about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is how boldly itself it is when so many other shows are attempting to be each other.

[The] fall’s most unusual series concept and easily the new season’s most promising pilot.

Bloom is both hilarious and kind of scary as she cavorts in lavishly absurd imaginary production numbers--like Smash on acid.... Recklessly enjoyable. [12-25 Oct 2015, p.17]

A charming, ambitious, utterly singular show about a slightly nuts, but loveable woman who regularly breaks into song has made it onto TV.

The series almost immediately establishes a distinctive voice, and sets up Bloom as a talent to be reckoned with.

The good news: the songs remain both sharp and diverse in style, including riffs on Bollywood and boy bands to go with the more showtune-y numbers. And the show's starting to sketch in the supporting characters.

Take away the song and dance, you’re left with an engaging series about a young woman who’s too smart to be as obsessed as she is supposed to be.

Though the title lamentably plays into the stereotype that all women are just a breakup away from psychosis, there’s plenty else to like about this exuberant and slightly strange dramedy.

Beyond its off-putting title, this is the freshest, wackiest romantic comedy/musical fantasy hybrid of this or any recent season.

The effervescent Ms. Bloom plays her with intelligence; if she’s deluded, it’s because she’s smart enough to fool herself. The script is less consistent, though, and some of the digs at the exurban setting feel condescending. But the early hits outweigh the misses.

All of that balancing might collapse over the course of an entire season, but in its first episode, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is clever, winning and unique, making it the most promising new show of a fairly dismal fall TV season.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a mess, albeit a charming and admirable mess.