Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's final season shows us how to build a better TV show

This musical comedy sharply deconstructs decades of storytelling tropes

Rachel Bloom.
(Image credit: Crazy Ex Girlfriend/Twitter)

The first episode of the final season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which premiered over the weekend, is reminiscent of how Seinfeld ended: with its protagonist, Rebecca Bunch, going to prison for all the antics we've watched her commit over the past few years.

Of course, the context is wildly different — unlike Seinfeld locking its characters up as a grand metafictional joke, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend imprisons Rebecca as the payoff for its most surprising narrative thread, a dark and weighty look at the mental health of its lead after a suicide attempt. That it managed to handle this sensitively and humanely while still being funny is a testament to how deft a show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is. That it manages to do it while sharply deconstructing decades of storytelling tropes makes it transcendent.

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Joshua Rivera is a freelance entertainment journalist and critic who has written for GQ, Vulture, and Entertainment Weekly.