Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 1 Episode 8 Review: My Mom, Greg's Mom and Josh's Sweet Dance Moves!
Christine Laskodi
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It's a California Christmas!
Rebecca gets a holiday visit from her overbearing mother on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 1 Episode 8, and Hanukah with Mrs. Bunch didn't unfold exactly as Rebecca expected it would.
The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend wasn't the only one with a mom problem in "My Mom, Greg's Mom and Josh's Sweet Dance Moves!" Greg also spends some time with his own mother, and the results were unexpected to say the least.
After meeting both moms ,who do we think has it worse? Let's dive into the details!
Paula: I can see right through you. You’re a mom pleaser. A Level-Five mom pleaser. You will say anything to make that woman happy.
Rebecca: That’s not true. That’s not…that’s not true at all.
We already know that Rebecca's mom isn't the friendliest and most supportive mom in the world. She constantly calls and reminds Rebecca she isn't good enough and gives her snarky updates on what Rebecca's "frenemy" Audra Levine is doing with the life Rebecca should have had. She's also a stereotypical overbearing Jewish mother, for all intents and purposes.
We've had some brief insight into Rebecca's relationship with her mother prior to now. A big plot point in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 1 Episode 3 was we discovered that Rebecca's father left her mother when Rebecca was young and that it was a devastating blow to the family.
Since then, Rebecca has spent a great portion of her life trying to please her mother, presumably in an attempt to make up for her father leaving.
Turns out, my real life is garbage but my fake life is AH-MAZING.
Rebecca
Rebecca wants this visit to be different. She decides to embellish the truth about what she does in West Covina in an attempt to impress her mother, and for a brief second, it seems like it's working. Rebecca and her mom are getting along, they're spending quality time together, and it looks like mom is finally going to pass down the family heirloom ring that Rebecca has been waiting to receive since she was 18.
That all goes out the window when Calvin arrives on the scene.
I was so happy to see Calvin returning to the show after his appearance in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 1 Episode 7. I'm glad he isn't a throw-away character, that his almost-tryst with Paula has created some lasting awkwardness, and that we had another chance to bask in his classiness. Any excuse for him to return works, especially in an instance where he, once again, is a ladies' man.
Mrs. Bunch's obvious horniness around Calvin is uncomfortably funny, and Rebecca asking him to sleep with Mrs. Bunch was equally as laugh worthy. I wouldn't mind Calvin's "sex appeal" being a running gag. The guy travels everywhere domestically, let's not forget. He's a catch in West Covina terms.
Mrs. Bunch: Hate you? I don’t hate you.
Rebecca: What?
Mrs. Bunch: Is that what you think Rebecca, that I hate you? I love you. I have always loved you. I love you too much. I wake up every morning sick with worry wondering where you are, how you are…I am consumed by my love for you.
While Rebecca doesn't get the ring or make her mother happy, she DOES get a nice moment of clarity with her. Mrs. Bunch is overbearing because of how much she loves her daughter. It's a fast resolution and one that feels a little clunky from a storytelling perspective, but it is a nice cap on a holiday episode. I'm sure this isn't the last we'll see of Mrs. Bunch.
Greg's visit with his own mother is a nice parallel to Rebecca's visit with Mrs. Bunch. Greg spends the entire hour building up how terrible his mother is, describing her a "real housewife."
However, when we meet Greg's mom, she is the epitome of a kind and loving mother. She opens her home up to Greg, encourages him to go to school and even offers to pay for it. Where we totally relate to why Rebecca and Mrs. Bunch have a strained relationship, it's completely baffling as to why Greg harbors so much hatred toward his own mother.
He's never forgiven her for leaving his dad, an obvious parallel to Rebecca's story with her father leaving her mother. Both Rebecca and Greg are completely, emotionally damaged by their parents. It's no wonder they can't seem to make it work as a couple.
You know, the whole reason that I came here is cause I thought that you were cute and that they were gonna be terrible, but you’re terrible and they’re cute.
Heather
Greg brings Heather along for the ride, because she seems really excited at the prospect of watching a disaster unfold. When she sees what a jerk Greg is to his mom and to his step-family, she immediately calls him out on it and helps him to see that he's got his own mommy-issues to work through. She does so, of course, through her own brand of dry bluntness.
Heather and Greg are an unlikely pair, but they work. I do think the kiss they shared was a bit out of nowhere, and it left me a little confused about where this somewhat predictable story is headed. I'm not against it though, and I look forward to seeing that friendship develop.
Josh Chan's storyline was unnecessary. Yes, he needs to recapture his high school hip-hop dance troop glory days, and that's nice, but the story didn't fit very well in an episode that revolved around mother and child relationships. This was a story that could have been told in an episode all on its own, one where Josh could have taken more of a lead.
Was this a predictable episode? Sure. It didn't leave me laughing as hard as others have, but there were still a lot of notable laugh out loud moments. Many of those moments came during the cast finale song, "California Christmastime," which I urge you to listen to repeatedly in order to catch every sharply written lyric. They are all well worth your time.
High Notes:
- Does anyone else really want a visit from Audra Levine?
- Paula as a British Jew shouldn't have been as humorous as it was. Matzo and Tea anyone?
- That cameo from Michael McMillian, reprising his role as Canadian lawyer, Tim, was perfect. I hope he makes more appearances and saves more people from parking tickets!
Low Notes:
- Josh's story about hip hop dancing in high school...can we expand on that later? I feel like there's more to tell there.
- The story was a little too predictable and conflicts were patched up very quickly toward the end. I'll give it a pass because Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 1 Episode 7 was so stellar.
What did you think of "My Mom, Greg's Mom and Josh's Sweet Dance Moves!"? What do you think of a Greg and Heather romance? Sound off below!
Missed a moment? You can watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend online and get caught up over your own holiday celebrations!
