 Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch in the pilot of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” (Eddy Chen/The CW) Every week, I answer a column from Monday’s Act Four Live chat in the Wednesday edition of this column. You can read the transcript of the March 27 chat here, and submit questions for the April 3 chat here. This week, a reader wants to know if burning out on a television show has political implications. Am I a Bad Feminist (TM) for feeling exhausted by “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”? I love the songs and the way they take on taboo themes, but the “what crazy antics will Rebecca and the gang get up to this week!” plots feel increasingly tiring. I’m not even halfway through season 2 and having the urge to quit. Worth it to keep going? Maybe the problem is not the show itself, but binge-watching too many episodes at once? First, an official Act Four ruling: there is no aesthetic reaction you can have that will disqualify you from being a Good Feminist, or a Good Conservative, or a Good Libertarian, or whatever thing you are concerned with being. Art derives its political power not from blind adherence to political dogma, but from its ability to get us to think about ideas outside the confines of normal partisan debates, and its capacity to make us feel things we wouldn’t expect to feel. Sometimes that can be uncomfortable, sometimes it can be liberating, but it’s never, never neatly compliant. So, never fear. For the purposes of our conversation to follow, you’re a Dandy Feminist. That said, I personally have enjoyed “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” when I’ve watched it in an episodic fashion. There is definitely a lot of heightened emotion in each episode, and I tend to find that exchanges on the show linger with me longer when I have more time and space to think about the developments in my mind, rather than hastening along to my next fix. In particular, the plots involving Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin) have benefited from that approach; her character may be less dramatic and prone to misadventure, but I sometimes think the emotional insights in those stories are a bit deeper. Bingeing is a delightful thing; I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon coasting through a stretch of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” But I don’t always know that it’s the best way to watch television. And as the television release model evolves, and as we watch shows at very different points in their runs, it’s worth discussing how they’re built to be watched, and the benefits of consuming them in different ways. |
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