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Recap / Crazy Ex-Girlfriend S1E1: "Josh Just Happens to Live Here!"

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West Covina! California!
In my soul I feel a fire
Cause I'm headed for the pride of the Inland Empire.
My life's about to change, oh my gosh!
Cause I'm hopefully, desperately in love with
West Covina!

Written by Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna (#101) and directed by Marc Webb. Original airdate 10/12/2015.

SERIES PREMIERE

"Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) is a successful, driven, and possibly crazy young woman who impulsively gives up everything — her partnership at a prestigious law firm and her upscale apartment in Manhattan — in a desperate attempt to find love and happiness in that exotic hotbed of romance and adventure: suburban West Covina, Calif. (it's only two hours from the beach! Four in traffic)."


Songs:

Season One Opening (sung by the cast)

  • Roger Rabbit Effect: Rebecca interacts with animated versions of Paula, Darryl, Greg, and Heather.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Discussed; Rebecca considers the term "crazy ex-girlfriend" sexist and declares that the situation's a lot more nuanced than that.

"West Covina" (sung by Rachel Bloom)

"The Sexy Getting Ready Song (Explicit)" (sung by Rachel Bloom and Nipsey Hussle)

  • Affectionate Parody: Of Contemporary R&B.
  • Blatant Lies: At the end of the song:
    [Rebecca emerges from her house in full make-up and tight dress]
    Greg: [stunned] Wow, you...you look amazing.
    Rebecca: [self-deprecating smile] Oh, I totally just woke up from a nap.
  • Double Standard: On full display when they cut over to see how a man gets ready: Greg is fast asleep in jeans and a t-shirt.
  • Fan Disservice: All of the women are scantily clad, but they are doing things that aren't really sexy in order to get ready. Including waxing their butt hole.
  • Funny Background Event: Rebecca's increasingly half-hearted dancing while the rapper loses confidence in himself.
  • Heel Realization: The wild rapper has this on seeing the amount of work Rebecca has to do to get ready:
    Rapper: Hey, look, hop on my [censored] with that tight little dress there, / Turn that ass around like you're tryin' to impress them... [looks down at Rebecca's bathroom counter literally covered with beauty products, stops rapping] God, what, this is how you get ready? [Rebecca nods happily] This is some...this horrifying, like some scary movie or somethin', like some nasty-ass, patriarchal b[censored]. You know what? I got to go apologize to some bitches. I'm forever changed after what I just seen.
  • Refuge in Audacity: The show really set out its stall here, with the very first episode containing a song that featured a blood splash from anal waxing.note 
  • Three Minutes of Writhing: Parodied; the women are scantily clad and writhing due to attempting to get ready.
  • A Wild Rapper Appears!: And then becomes shocked due to all the stuff Rebecca does to get ready and leaves, saying that he has to "apologize to some bitches."

"West Covina (Reprise)" (sung by Rachel Bloom and Donna Lynn Champlin)

Tropes in this episode:

  • Innocent Bigot: Darryl is intimidated by his wife having hired a "smart Jew" for a divorce attorney and wants Rebecca to represent him. Rebecca points out that she's Jewish, but that just makes Darryl even more eager to have her, because it would mean that "his Jew" would be even smarter than "her Jew." After Rebecca leaves, he does seem to feel mortified about having said it, though.

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