#sheesh this took way too long to write aksljdfd

[brilliantfantasticgeronimo]

re: cxg (s1-s4)

shows up four years late holding hot takes!!! what up!!! ☕ ☕☕☕aw yeah

@upslapmeal @fauxkaren @bisexualfelicity​, lemme know what you guys think?

(this show practically asks you to go on many fake deep rants about it so proceed with caution lol)

oops, it’s 3 days later 🎶

I had always been on the target demo for this show. Musical theatre fan? chronic shipper? neuro-divergent tendencies? check, check, triple check.  The question was never if I’d enjoy it, but how much.

First, I’m glad I held on to watching it until it was complete. When you vaguely know where things are headed that’s easier than learning to trust new writers week by week. And since this is a series that makes it necessary that you become hyper-invested..., it means every misstep is compounded by x1000 if you have a whole week to dwell on it. And I can picture myself being a lot more pissed at the (perceived) small mistakes if I hadn’t know the bigger picture via the episode titles before.

However, the filler aspect of some episodes did become more glaring on binge watch. At various points in the storyline I thought: “this would be stronger as a stage show than a tv show/without this much fluff” In fact, that’s what I thought ,from skimming the episode guide, that the concert special was going to be. An experimental, meta finale or meta retelling of the show with ‘screenplay and lyrics by Bunch R.’~ that played like an episode ON the stage. Like the two live show episodes on 30 rock- those breaking the 4 wall AND kept a foot inside it by keeping the characters IC.....

(god. just imagine: the last scene with Rebecca’s “and this is a song I wrote…” THEN it smoothly transitions to a live stage with Rachel Bloom on the same costume, the same piano, ready to rock it out?? ALL THE LAYERS THAT WOULD HAVE I weep for the wasted potential.).

this whole journey’s been... a crock🎶

s3 > s4 > s1 > s2

Reprise Effect™ is definitely in full effect here. S1/S2 were less hype than S3 but S3 couldn’t exist without the grunt work done in early episodes like “Josh and I are going to the beach!”. Like how the reprises themselves of those seasons were extra special just on the basis of being reprises... though, as mentioned above, s4 can’t be the top one despite the reprises because it had too many pointless filler episodes. Meanwhile, s1 is objectively very tight. Though maybe doesn’t “fit” as well with the rest of the story? Rebecca gets what she wants but not what she needs, because it’s too early in syndication... not many banger here either, for me. And s2 was the least enjoyable because of its reliance on...

the math of love quadrangles🎶

I found the main romantic story-line to be exhausting at points, instead preferring either the main friendship ones (Paula and Rebecca stuff, etc) or the side character stuff (Karen!! Father Brah!! TRENT!!!) I mean...  it’s justified in that it was intentional, I guess. I probably sliiiightly leaned on #teamjosh the most because their relationship felt the most refreshing- Nathaniel and Greg were treated too much as archetypes, while I was crying from the emotional sincerity and earnestness of Dear Joshua Felix Chan🎶

(this also makes me glad to have missed the weekly discourse/ship wars because this seems to be an unpopular opinion lol)

(seriously Nathaniel tho was the worst for so long oh my god. “omg what if we pair the super feminist character with the machista privileged guy!! it will be SO ORIGINAL!!!” no. no it’s not pls stop.)(WHY SHOULD I ROOT FOR SOMEONE male,straight,and white in the one percent????) (no disrespect to Scott Michael Foster tho he’s truly a star) (salvaged the character)

And while we’re on the topic of ships... woah nelly I did NOT expect the high quotient of wlw vibes. honestly, the casual-bisexuality from like everyone in #thegirlgroup4evah was more powerful than the introduction of beth/valencia in s4, imo (my respects to fans who manage to write fic for that ship when Beth is barely even a character).

-heck, it got to the point that I was weirded out with that final pan-out across the room, and it shows people like Father Brah but not a single lady as a potential post-series romantic partner? wtf show, Rebecca might have started as “a 1.8 in the kinsey scale” but by the end she was AT LEAST a 2.1.  Aprox. (then again, that might just be me (λ▀ˇ▀) ∫ ~**projecting*~**)

he’s suspiciously good-looking in ways that normal people are not🎶

Speaking of projecting....

The experience of watching this show really made me start to question the device of identification in stories. Specially rn with the whole ~identity politics / representation #matters campaigns~ stuff.

Yes, it is great to see yourself represented-. it’s healing, it’s cathartic to see Rebecca and co going through stuff that other series had never touched upon. That high from expecting A DIAGNOOOSIIIS is really spot on to the real life experience of going through that situation. It physically chips away some internalized stigma just watching it. yet like. at some point stories that aren't relatable become less engaging…I know, intellectually, that so much of the Jewish stuff was funny, but a lot of it just flew by my head? So like, how does that apply to other “representation” things? is our subjectivity so skewed-ed by identity that stories, that we can’t then care about worlds apart from ours? idk.  I guess that’s kinda all being fake-deep sounding, but for those that plan to write stories for others I think it’s worth thinking about.

(oh, good! an abstract theatrical space. Now I can actually think)

The other meta point I wanted to make was about how I noticed that lot of the discourse and fanwank surrounding the character, was always reeling over whatever terrible mroal things they had done. Like Rebecca’s stalking, arson, manipulation, manslaughter, And I’m like dude... it’s... a comedy? it’s not real....? ofc if you were to look at what happened in himym/friends/whatever  you would commit that those people should be in jail. But the whole thing is a fantasy! it’s an artifice! it doesn’t matter how much vicious brutality tom inflicts upon jerry, he’s never gonna actually hurt him!

So it was a real weird feeling whenever I saw  discussions of old episodes and people being #scandalized by john treating rebecca like crap, or paula being an enabler,... like, I’m not trying to justify those things. the point is that it was all represented in a zanzy whacky comedy frame (with musical numbers!!!) AND specifically iyy created such a weird tonal dissonance when the show itself began treating those things as existing in the framework of our real world and under the rules of real world decency.

I mean, imagine this show without the music? it would be a totally different beast. And maybe  works better towards the point they wanted to make with the story in the first place (”crazy” isn’t crazy, life doesn’t make narrative sense, etc) it’s like when they took off the claymotion filter off for  the scenes that happened in Abed’s Christmas Special on Community. the darkness of rebecca’s life would have been much more palpable, and the points they were making, clearer.

(It would have been a lot darker tho)

(and I probably wouldn’t have watched lol after all I was mostly here fore those-)

(beat)

GRATUITOUS🎶KA-REOKE🎶 MO-MENTS🎶

in general, whenever i recognized the parody, it tended to lower my enjoyment of the number. Specially for some parody songs that aren’t connected to the story, and were more like recycled youtube-phase!bloom material.the buzzing from the bathroom, floods of justice being the biggest offenders,,, and another grip it’s that many songs could be stronger, but they for some reasons needed to have jokes always??? the end of the movie specially it’s so good and wise, and then the punchline is so much less powerful and takes away the universality of it that... :/ ://... whyyy

anyway, enough whining. The obligatory top 10 ahead.

(but what’s a top 10? it’s just a fabrication of what songs people project the most to. it’s not like any top 10 could make a difference in people’s tastes... of course, I guess it could if you cared to make it so- but it COULD but i doesn’tbutitcouldbut idoesn’tb tu.)

_

10. What’s Your Story?: the third anectode almost made me fall out of my chair. The ratatas....and the way Rebecca goes all out with the cell-block choreography... /shook. Just an expertly done parody all around tbh.

10. Slow Motion: I missed the hype train for Let’s Generalize About Men so this is the song that takes its spot.

9. No One Else Is Singing My Song: surprisingly really comforting? asdfg. I legit feel less alone whenever I sing alogn to it. And, unlike “Nothing is Ever Anyone’s Fault”- it makes fun of this sentiment without totally invalidating it (”I am super unique!”). If they had gone all out and truly included the “entire company” it would be much higher in my ranking. But that’s impossible... logistically impossible (or IS IT. -says n*2)

8. The Darkness:  crying, laughing, and also moved on an unspeakable level.

7. Anti-Depressants Are So Not A Big Deal: went a bit down after I read someone say “it’s just a glorified pharma-ad, isn’t it?” and that it was based on La La Land (I thought it was an original style of showtune not done in recent years). Still... damn. It’s a goddamn banger, man.

6. Without Love You Can Save The World: an anthem for frigid bitches like me :)

5. I’m Just A Girl In Love: the whole show’s thesis is one succinct glam package!! (gajillion extra points for Trent’s reprise) (#teamtrent).

4. I go to the Zoo: I showed a couple of cxg to my 15 year old cousin musical-hater cousin and it passed. Enough for me.

3. After everything you made me so (that you didn’t ask for): tbh up until this one most song had been great but nothing had really wow’d me. Of course, as a song, Paula’s original is great too. I just prefer this one for the huge pay-off it represents story-wise. This was the first song that really made me go zomgREPLAY!°1”. When the inevitable stage show comes out, this for has got to be the closing song of Act 1.

2. Love’s Not a Game: do u ever like obsess over those tiny bits in showtunes that just throw the f**** down S O hard compared to the rest of the song? which is usually great but not as much as THOSE glorious three seconds? ex: this happens to me with the “Then why choose fear?/I’m a New Yorker, / fear’s my life” during “Life Support” in the stage version of Rent......this song was like that, it was already epic and fitting for the best (imo) episode in terms of comedy. AND THEN!! it does that  fucking GLORIOUS dark reprise of ‘The Group Mind Has Decided You’re In Love’- it took what was already a flabbergast group number .

1. I Could If I Wanted To: cleared my skin and cured my NPD.

memorable mentions:it’s nice to meet you (original and reprise), tell me i’m OK patrick, i feel like this isn’t about me, all the raps from give good parent to jap battle and omg i cant believe i watched a good “rap parody by white people”, love kernels, trapped in a car with someone you don't wanna be trapped in a care with.

aight that’s all props if you read all that. thanks @mutuals for the peer pressure for four years on this. i deserved that shame. #humble#blessed#teamtrent