Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019) was a musical romantic comedy-drama television show that ran for four seasons, originally aired on The CW. The hour-long episodes centered on Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom), a brilliant but troubled lawyer who moves from New York to West Covina to be closer to her high school crush and brief summer camp boyfriend, Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III). Points of emotional stress are usually when the plot moves into Rebecca’s head, where she has full musical numbers of different styles for the character or problem at hand.
The three characters we will be focusing on in this article are:
1) Darryl Whitefeather (Pete Gardner), Rebecca’s new boss at the law firm;
2) Valencia (Gabrielle Ruiz), Josh’s current girlfriend (in season 1), who eventually becomes one of Rebecca’s closest friends;
3) Maya (Esther Povitsky), a young associate at Darryl’s firm who also becomes a friend of Rebecca’s.
Our first impression of Darryl and his relationships is that he is a good-hearted but often goofy guy who, more often than not, gets his foot in his mouth. He is amidst a divorce from his wife in the first season when he realizes he may also be attracted to men in general — and White Josh (David Hull) in particular. This leads to a beautiful first same-sex relationship (for Darryl) blossoming between the two characters — and to the incredible bi anthem, the Huey Lewis and the News-inspired “Gettin’ Bi”.
Darryl is very excited about recognizing his true sexual identity and (as we see) has no problem using the term “bi” to describe himself. He is a rare example of a very happy and secure (albeit daffy) male bi character in modern television, who also has plenty of other character development (with his love for his daughter and his friendship with Rebecca chief amongst them).
Valencia’s bisexuality, on the other hand, does not have a spectacular Broadway-level entrance onto the screen but a bit more of a gentler, reserved appearance. But this is also part of her arc. When we are introduced to her, she presents as a more typical minor villain through Rebecca’s eyes — a cutting girlfriend to Josh that Rebecca expects to dislike simply because she is dating Josh. However, as the series progresses, Valencia goes through a truckload of personal growth — changing careers, lessening black-and-white thinking, and amassing a circle of affirming female friendships. When she starts dating a gay client of hers and is asked about it, she gives a simple shrug — not a big confession or an epiphany of a speech — just a gentle acknowledgment. This is lovely because it shows multiple ways of coming out as valid, especially as Valencia is one of television’s rare bi characters of color. She does not, however, use the term “bi” to label herself.
Finally, we have the tertiary character of Maya. While the character is a bit of a mousy/loveable loser archetype, she does get some growth and progression through the series, eventually becoming another one of Rachel’s friends (though not really in the inner circle). She uses the term bi to identify herself multiple times throughout the seasons.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gardner spoke more in-depth about the importance of his bi character of Darryl and how the CXG went about shaping him:
I found out the very first day on set, when [writers] Aline [Brosh McKenna] and Rachel [Bloom] invited me to the set, and they had a meeting in the writers’ room… They had this enormous wall, and on the wall, they have all the episodes broken down. They start walking down the wall, and they’re like, “Okay, here in episode 5, you’re gonna sing your song,” and I was like, “Oh boy, okay!” And then they go down, and they’re like, “Oh and here, in episode 11, that’s where [you realize] you’re bisexual.” That’s pretty much it. I was like, “Well, all right!” [Laughs]
I just played it like a love story. The great thing is that it didn’t have to be sanitized or made extra special because it’s a love story between two guys. It’s just a love story, and love stories have bumps and mistakes and weird things [happen]… I mean, it’s all very slow and very genuine! And it’s not about sex, it’s not about anything manipulative. It’s all about this relationship. Also, Darryl’s a funny character, so he can still be funny. His sexuality isn’t the butt of the joke, you know what I mean? It’s very subtle and very light. It’s not like, “This is the way you should think”, or anything.
During its brief and well-acclaimed run, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend accomplished an incredible amount of bisexual representation — three affirmed, validated, and celebrated bi characters who all are open about their attractions to multiple characters, all have multiple dimensions to their personalities (I.e. their bisexuality isn’t the only interesting thing about them or the center of their character, but is still important), and they all get a lot of growth and happy endings. It is one of the pinnacles of great bi representation in modern television.