We have the CW to thank for some of TV's biggest cult classics, from "Gossip Girl" and "The Vampire Diaries" to "90210" and "Riverdale." But one I don't see getting its flowers nearly enough is Rachel Bloom's "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," a show I have not shut up about in the 10 years since it premiered. If musical numbers, women-led comedies, and dark humor are your jam, it needs to be on your watchlist — especially now that all four seasons are streaming for free on Pluto TV.
"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" joined Pluto TV’s U.S. catalog on August 1 after spending nearly two years in streaming purgatory since Netflix gave it the boot in 2024. You could still find most of the musical numbers on YouTube (and there are a lot, at least a couple each episode), but the show itself became a much harder sell without a platform to watch it on.
Now that it's streaming on one of the best free streaming platforms, I'm once again shouting from the rooftops about how great "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" is. Other fan-favorite shows like "Jane the Virgin" and "iZombie" also made the jump to Pluto TV this month.
Blending comedy, drama, satire and elaborate musical numbers, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" was unlike just about anything else on network television at the time, and there really hasn't been a show like it since. All my grown-up theater majors, mentally ill girlies, and Tumblr users out there should definitely add it to their watchlist. Still unconvinced? Here's everything you need to know about "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."
What is 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' about?
Created, written, and directed by Rachel Bloom, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" follows a type A lawyer named Rebecca (Bloom) who abandons her promising career in the big city for the small town of West Covina, California, to reinvent herself...and hopefully capture the heart of her high school ex: Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriquez). The fact that he has a smoking hot girlfriend (Gabrielle Ruiz) who's really good at yoga is no match for true love. Or at least that's what she tells herself as she pines and daydreams about a boy band made up of four Joshes.
As part of her fresh start, she lands a job at a local firm, makes some new friends like her coworker Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin) and April Ludgate-esque neighbor Heather (Vella Lovell), gets dragged into workplace drama, and begins an on-again, off-again romance with one of Josh’s friends (Santino Fontana of "Frozen" fame) — all while trying desperately to make Josh fall for her.
Rebecca is deeply delusional, bouncing from love interest to the next — then back to her first love, her second love interest’s dad, and, well, you get the idea. Each season builds out the colorful cast of characters and offers a deeper look into Rebecca's inner world, often through hilarious and endlessly quotable musical numbers. (Sexy French Depression, Love Kernels, and Let's Generalize About Men are some of my favs.)
Stream 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' on Pluto TV now
Despite rave reviews, two Emmys and enough fans to pack the cast's live shows across the U.S. in the show's heyday, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's" ratings were so persistently low that by season four it became a joke in the show itself. You'd never know from the review, though, with critics giving each season near perfect scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
Beyond the deeply relatable earworms in each episode, what impressed me the most was how Bloom turns the "crazy ex-girlfriend" trope on its head. Rebecca's schemes to win Josh over are played for laughs in the early seasons but eventually catch up to her as her mental health spirals out of control. It becomes clear to everyone except Rebecca that no relationship can give her what she needs until she learns to accept and understand herself. In many ways, she's an amped-up version of something most of us can relate to: going to ridiculous lengths to score attention from someone we desperately want to impress.
Watch all four seasons of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" on Pluto TV now
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