Entertainment

What To Expect From 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Season 2

by Laura Rosenfeld

Monday night is going to be bittersweet for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fans. That's because it's the Season 1 finale, which means, on the one hand, we'll get to see if Rebecca and Greg finally end up together or if she really still has feelings for Josh, but on the other, that'll be the end of new episodes of The CW musical dramedy for quite some time. The only thing that's going to make me feel a little bit better is finding out when Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returns for Season 2.

Well cheer up, friends. At least we know that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is definitely going to have a Season 2 during The CW's 2016-2017 season. The network announced in March 2016 that it has renewed 11 of its primetime series, with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend being one of them. That wasn't necessarily guaranteed, given Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 's small but steady ratings this season, so we should all really just be thankful that it's coming back.

But knowing when Season 2 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is going to premiere is a little trickier to figure out. No specific premiere dates have been announced for any of the returning series, and they probably won't be for some time. What makes this even more complicated is the fact that some of these series will return in Fall 2016, but some may also have midseason premieres or come back in Summer 2017, according to the press release announcing the renewals.

So Season 2 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend could premiere in October again, as its inaugural season did, or The CW could shake things up and bring it back in a different time of the year entirely. Nothing about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is conventional, after all.

In fact, that's probably something we'll continue to see in Season 2 of the show. We may not yet know when Crazy Ex-Girlfriend will return with its sophomore effort, but from the info that has already been teased about the show's Season 2, it sounds like it's going to continue to push the limits of network TV.

Rebecca Is Not Going To Live Happily Ever After Just Yet

No matter what happens to Rebecca in Monday night's Season 1 finale, just know that things are probably going to continue to not work out for her in Season 2 — and that's actually a good thing. "Let's just say when Rebecca's fully happy, the show's over," Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's co-creator and star Rachel Bloom said of Season 2 on the Soul Sisters Podcast earlier this month. As much as I want Rebecca to be happy, I have to say that I'd much prefer Crazy Ex-Girlfriend remaining on the air.

Will There Be A New Theme Song?

The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend theme song is pretty darn near perfect. It's an upbeat, hilarious, edifying, earworm of a tune that perfectly describes what the show is all about. But could we see a different opening for Season 2 and any subsequent seasons? That's what one Twitter user asked Bloom earlier this month, to which she replied, "hard to say but I feel like if we're gonna change it we should do it for every season." So it's unclear whether or not the theme song for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend will be getting an update in Season 2, but if it does happen, you now shouldn't be surprised.

We Might See More Broadway Stars

Bloom and her Crazy Ex-Girlfriend co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna didn't rule out the possibility of casting more Broadway stars in Season 2 during a For Your Consideration panel for Television Academy members in March, as reported by Indiewire. That actually seems like a pretty safe bet for this series, considering the fact that it's A, a musical, and B, plenty of Broadway vets have already appeared on the show during Season 1, including Santino Fontana (Greg Serrano), Gabrielle Ruiz (Valencia Perez), Tovah Feldshuh (Naomi Bunch), and Lea Salonga, who will be guest starring as Josh Chan's aunt in Monday night's season finale.

There Might Be A Live Episode

Also during that For Your Consideration event, Bloom revealed that she "would love to do a live episode. Great idea. I will get on that," as reported by USA Today. According to the report, that also seemed to be something McKenna was interested in pursuing, and she added that the Broadway actors "could do it in their sleep." Again, with the musical nature of this show and its talent, a live episode does seem like a no-brainer for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, especially when live musicals are all the rage these days.

It'll Continue To Explore What It Means To Be A "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend provides brilliant commentary on what it's like to be a woman in today's world and on living with mental illness, and the title of the show has a lot to do with that. The series both satirically plays into and points out the "crazy ex-girlfriend" stereotype with Rebecca even saying "that's a sexist term" in the show's opening.

In an interview with Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik earlier this month, Bloom revealed that we'll see more of what Bialik called "turning the word '[crazy]' on its head" next season:

Yes; that’s one of the things we were really interested in exploring especially in season 2 is, you know, the idea of “gaslighting” [manipulating someone by psychological means into questioning their own sanity] – when you say, “Oh I have a crazy ex,” chances are it’s not like they’re acting in a vacuum. Chances are, you did something to make them react in this way. So it’s a two-way street that people who use that label don’t often acknowledge because they don’t want to take responsibility for their actions.

And now all I want to know is which character she's talking about.

It'll Stay True To Itself, No Matter What The Future Holds

It doesn't sound like working toward a future renewal, the show's critical acclaim, or the fact that Bloom has won a Golden Globe and Critics' Choice Award for her performance as Rebecca will change the kind of series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is in the future. "We're hoping for good news, but, you know, it's something that's so out of our control — the same thing with ratings, the same thing with awards," Bloom said during an interview with NPR's All Things Considered before Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was renewed in March. "All we can do is make the show we want and make it until someone tells us to stop."

I hope it's a long time before that happens.

Images: Eddy Chen/The CW; markrenton.co.vu (2); bunchofbloom, roma-ma/Tumblr