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As one ofthe best shows on television,Crazy Ex-Girlfrienddefies small-screen narrative standards in just about every way possible.
From penises and zoo animals to borderline personality disorder, lets dive in.
Lets Generalize About Men
Aline Brosh McKenna:That was written very early on.
We do a week-long story-breaking songwriting camp before the season starts.
Rachel, what was the first version of that?
Like a 1930s tune.I love ham, and you love bacon, but we both haaaate meeeeen!
What if we did it as an empowering 80s song instead?
ABM:I dont think the men were thrilled with the I hate men thing.
RB:Its an adorable song!
So they pitched this to me and I had the document on my phone.
I took a walk around our lot and I brainstormed lyrics.
I have a two-minute-long audio file of me going through the motions of the song.
This person will cover these jokes; this bridge will be about how gay men are actually great.
When I heard it, I thought it was one of the best songs wed done.
ABM:This is the perfect example of our process.
So its the perfect example of brainstorming, coming back with ideas, and the guys synthesizing it.
Its how Ive always worked and written.
I prefer to write in coffee shops or restaurants.
I like to have other stimuli.
ABM:Sonically, for the song, Rachel sang a Pointer Sisters song on a boat once.
RB:[Laughs.]
I was a singing waiter on a boat that went around Manhattan.
That was my last job before I got hired on my first writing staff.
Those videos, especially the Weather Girls ones, are almost little parodies of themselves.
Theres a kind of campiness to a lot of things in the 80s.
It was janky on purpose.
Some of the choreography was definitely not precise.
It was a combination of things that we hadnt realized before rewatching those videos.
I was tinkering and working for a couple of months, which was a luxury.
What does she want?
What is this big moment?
By the time we had to record the song, I had a rough melody and chords.
I gave it to Adam and he really fleshed it out.
When we shot it, we ran out of money at that point in the season.
It was naturalistic and internal.
By doing it this way, it was more doing the genre and less making fun of the genre.
But after looking at a bunch of options, we built those hallways on our set.
Our choreographers helped us make sense of the space.
I think this really expresses Rachel as an artist perfectly.
The scary part was that this was the most sincere song weve ever done.
It wouldnt be out of place in a normal musical.
But I think we pulled it off.
RB:I liked the small space, to be honest!
It mightve gone more into pastiche if it wasnt.
We had to do the song incredibly earnestly, and not mockingly.
I like that I was forced to play it very real.
ABM:Things often end up being a blessing.
The End of the Movie (feat.
Rebecca believes so strongly in stories.
If she knows what story shes in, then she can know what part she can play.
Shes tried so many different stories, but theyve all turned out to not be the right one.
She doesnt know what story to tell herself anymore and she doesnt know what narrative shes in.
We break convention and have someone come outside of the show and tell her the meaning of this.
Theres something sad about that, but really hopeful.
RB:I was going through old song demos of mine when I was writing this.
But we realized it was more of a comment on the story that is melting away.
Life is a gradual series of revelations that occur over a period of time.
And that became the first lyric!
It was us trying to songwrite with what Alines gut had been.
ABM:The songwriters are able to translate these musings into a magical language I cant understand.
Thats whats so funny about this its so theoretical.
Its a mini class on philosophy.
In her moments of despair, Rebeccas still trying to find narrative organization.
RB:I met Josh Groban at the Tony Awards.
Thats how getting a guest star happens these days.
We will find something for you!
I Go to the Zoo
RB:This song is an Aline Brosh McKenna original!
ABM:This was another song that was birthed in that prewriting-camp process.
My idea was that he goes somewhere offbeat to get solace.
It was in our outline forever, but Rachel, how did you get to that exact genre?
RB:You blurted out, I go to the zoo!And I said, Thats iconic.
I have no notes.
The melody was sprung forth from your brain.
But whats a way to heighten it?
We know were going back to the zoo, but how?
It continues to surprise the listener with the specifics.
ABK:Our videos usually take four or six hours to shoot.
This video took 16 hours.
We may have spent more time on that than any other song in the season except Wheres Rebecca Bunch?
ABK:Our line producer thought we were going to kill her.
ABM:We wanted to try a ballad at first.
Like a lost-love song.
I expected them to come in with a ballad.
I remember being in the writers room and thinking, Oh, were going to have this big ballad.
And then Rachel burst in through the door and she was like, I got it!
She pitched it and she was totally anti-ballad.
I love that certainty.
Whenever we hear that certainty in another persons voice, its great.
RB:I was thinking about love.
Its Paulas high-school love.
The most emotional thing I think of about love is … the first penis I saw.
I get emotional about that.
That experience really bonded us.
It was the first penis I saw and the first vagina he saw and willeversee.
Sex is often very jokey, but sex is very emotional.
Those moments are so, so important.
And then the ideas started pouring out.
ABM:Our challenge in shooting this song was that you cant shoot in a market.
Itsveryhard to shoot in that setting.
Because you cant show all of those products without proper licensing.
Our line producer came in and was despondent.
We couldnt figure out a way to do it.
Some are actual products, and some are cardboard renderings.
Thematically it works great because shes surrounding by his name.
And I love the juxtaposition of her singing this fanciful song in this drab grocery store.
So its always great when we give her songs juxtaposition and drudgery.
The dancers are so perfect, as well, in terms of seeming like ordinary market workers.
We came up with some specularity dirty choreography, actually.
It was so dirty that the standards-and-practices lady took a lot of blow job-y things out of it.
So we had to tame it down a bit.
We quickly hooked onto this jubilance of becoming a cat lady.
Adam and I wrote the bulk of the song in a few hours with the melody.
I really wanted it to be with puppets.
Its very much about the interaction between me and the cat store.
Adams experience with owning cats informed the lyrics many have torn up his couch and peed on hisAtlanticmagazines.
ABM:It was a magical day on set.
And up comes a 40s musical with puppets.
Everybody drifted in to watch by the video monitors.
But not this time.
Everyone was so happy and forgot about the 50 million things we had to do.
RB:We never attempted to get real cats.
I had been wanting to do something with puppets since season one.
I love working with puppets, and Ive done a few things with puppets in the past.
The characters on their arms were extensions of themselves.
I love not only working with puppets, but also with puppeteers.
Theres such life and artistry to it.
Let me tell you, sometimes those puppets have more expressions than real-life acting partners.
It was never a question about real cats.
Fuck cats, I want puppets.
