‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Stalked By Critics’ Ongoing Bafflement – TCA
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend cocreator Aline Brosh McKenna once again explained (or tried to) her quirky CW comedy. At a TCA panel today, when McKenna was asked what was up with that “Sexy French Depression” song in a recent episode, she noted, patiently, that it was inspired by music videos featuring depressed women in tangles of sheets with their hair “just so,” or despondent women careening off cliffs, or models who are “really bummed out.”
“I can’t think of a lot of tropes where a man’s bummed-out, depressed, blowing his nose, and it’s sexy – they’re usually angry. With women, it’s like having the vapors.” Series cocreator and star Rachel Bloom emphasized (with tongue in cheek) the French-ness of the song, “because it’s particularly sexy when French women are depressed.”
Not for the first time, McKenna got a metaphorical spanking by the press over early online charges that her show was anti-feminist (based mostly on the title), and was asked if she thinks women have a “responsibility to be feminist.” (And, yes, that question was asked by a guy).
McKenna, maybe sensing that TCA sessions are going to be her ticket to heaven, calmly reminded journalists that women dominate the show’s writing and producing staffs, and insisted the staffers are “super-duper outspoken feminists.” But she acknowledged, “it didn’t occur to us at all that it wouldn’t come across, because it’s so where we live. It never occurred to us the irony of the title might not transmit to people – which makes us seem very naive.”
“We would never do a show that wasn’t a send-up of it,” she said. “When you see the show, it’s outspokenly feminist, in terms of depicting women in a 360 way, and talking about women’s lives in a frank, outspoken way.”
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