Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
| Needs Less Canon: This article includes too much canon information for the amount of fannish content given. Please add fannish context or remove unneeded trivia. Although a brief overview of canon is welcome, the focus of every page should be about the fandom; canon details are important if they can be associated with a particular fannish activity, fanwork, or fannish event. See What Fanlore is not for more information. |
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend |
| Abbreviation(s): | ceg, cxg, cxgf |
| Creator: | Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna |
| Date(s): | 2015 - 2019 |
| Medium: | television |
| Country of Origin: | USA |
| External Links: | Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a musical comedy TV show on the CW. It was developed by and stars Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, who leaves her high-paying job in New York City to follow her summer camp boyfriend to West Covina, California.
The show also stars Vincent Rodriguez III as Josh Chan, Donna Lynne Champlin as Paula Proctor, Pete Gardner as Darryl Whitefeather, Vella Lovell as Heather Davis, and Gabrielle Ruiz as Valencia Maria Perez. Fan favourite Santino Fontana as Greg Serrano left during season 2.
Cast
| Actor | Character | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Rachel Bloom | Rebecca Nora Bunch | Season 1—present |
| Vincent Rodriguez III | Joshua Felix Chan | Season 1—present |
| Donna Lynne Champlin | Paula Proctor | Season 1—present |
| Pete Gardner | Darryl Whitefeather | Season 1—present |
| Vella Lovell | Heather Davis | Season 1—present |
| Santino Fontana | Greg Serrano | Seasons 1, 2 (4 episodes) |
Recurring cast
- David Hull as Josh Wilson
- Josh's friend known as "White Josh" as he and Chan look alike
- Gabrielle Ruiz as Valencia Perez
- A yoga instructor and Josh Chan's ex-girlfriend
- Erick Lopez as Hector
- Another guy in the Josh friend group
- Paul Welsh as Trent Maddock
- A guy Rebecca went to Harvard with
- Stephnie Weir as Karen
- A strange, attention-seeking lady at Whitefeather & Associates
Themes
The story begins with Rebecca making a Felicity-esque decision to move to her one-time camp boyfriend's hometown, framed as a fairy-tale, rom-com narrative, which is actually the foil for everyone within Rebecca's life in West Covina, California. Rebecca's suffering from various mental health disorders, which she does not treat. Although people who meet her also benefit from her presence, it's not a direct result of her actions as Rebecca mostly is concerned with how to fix her life by winning over Josh Chan. Josh, meanwhile, has been in a unhealthy relationship for 15 years, not dealing with his severe self-esteem issues which has him never standing up for himself and being verbally abused by his girlfriend. Overall, the series is a deconstruction of toxic media narratives and the negative impact living in fear and constantly focusing on the concept of material success have on people's happiness.
Self care
- A recurring theme is characters not caring for themselves, both in terms of mental and physical health, in varying degrees. There are the more serious cases such as the above mentioned, as well as Greg, who uses his parental abandonment as a reason to never attempt anything he wants; Paula, who fixates on Rebecca's love life as a way to distract herself from what is lacking in her own life; and Darryl, who has a daughter he loves but a 5-year marriage full of cheating and a self-perception that's lacking. Although the characters are shown to be stuck in ruts, it's never ridiculed for comedic effect, but rather the characters are honest with each other e.g. Greg saying to Paula if she really is unhappy with her life she should do something about it, because people do that, then remarks "Except me," noting the fact that he should take his own advice.
Fandom
The song Getting Bi is often used for AMVs depicting bisexual headcanons of characters.
Shipping
The most popular ships for the show are Rebecca/Greg and Rebecca/Nathaniel. The main slash ship is the canon Darryl/White Josh, and the most popular femmeslash ship is Heather/Valencia. Other common ships are Rebecca/Heather, Rebecca/Josh and Rebecca/Valencia.
Terminology
- Grebecca is the pairing name for Rebecca/Greg
- Rethaniel is the pairing name for Rebecca/Nathaniel
Example Fanworks
Fanart
- a six bar long classic tango dance break by angelandfaith (nowrunalong)
- #gurlgroup as musicals [3/5] chicago, Archived version by notbang
Vids
- Thank U, Next by frayadjacent
- Rebecca & Paula & Valencia & Heather - Dance by Anoel. Prepare to surrender to the power of femslash. Music: POWERS - Dance, made for Festivids 2016
Archives & Fannish Links
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the AO3
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on FFnet
- r/crazyexgirlfriend on Reddit
- crazyexdaily on Tumblr
- crazyexedits on Tumblr
- Tumblr tag: crazy ex-girlfriend, crazyexedit
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Wikia