Are you a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fan? You should watch Ingrid Goes West

The CW musical series and the 2017 social media satire are both stories about unhappy young women who move to California on a quest for human connection.

On the most recent episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) sings a reprise of “Face Your Fears” and expresses her doubts about opening herself up to love again. Even if you know the bare minimum about CXG, you’re probably aware that this marks a 180 degree turn from the Rebecca of the series’ pilot. You know, the woman who was willing to give up her entire life in New York because her ex-boyfriend was nice when she bumped into him on the street?

That Rebecca was willing to dive headfirst into any situation that had the vaguest potential of love. Sure, her impulsiveness and overwhelming enthusiasm were a little intense (hence the name of the show), but they were also understandable. After all, who hasn’t read too much into one social interaction or another? Who hasn’t dreamed of recreating themselves? Who hasn’t longed for human connection at least once?

When it comes right down to it, connection is what Rebecca is really chasing when she moves to West Covina, California. It’s also what Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) is after when she relocates to Los Angeles in Ingrid Goes West. Of course, the situation’s a lot more nuanced than that.

She’s so broken inside!

Both Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Ingrid Goes West are about women struggling with mental illness on top of personal problems. Rebecca, as we find out in season 3, has borderline personality disorder, a strained relationship with her mother, a completely broken relationship with her dad and a tendency to become obsessed with her romantic partners.

We never really find out Ingrid’s particular affliction, but she’s impulsive, mercurial and occasionally violent. When Ingrid Goes West begins, her mother has recently died, she’s just left a psychiatric hospital, and she seems to have no one to talk to. Ingrid copes with the help of Instagram: she finds “influencers” who lead seemingly perfect lives, follows them online, and tries to form friendships with them IRL, as she does with Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen).

Rebecca and Ingrid’s behavior can get scary — they both attempt suicide, lie repeatedly, and concoct intricate (one might say underhanded) plans to get what they want — but there’s an underlying vulnerability in both characters. It’s impossible not to empathize with them. Ingrid finds (read: steals and returns) Taylor’s dog in order to get into Taylor’s good graces, but it’s because she needs a friend more than anything. Rebecca orders and then cancels a hit on her current ex’s new girlfriend via the dark web, but it’s obviously a way to distract herself from missing Nathaniel (Scott Michael Foster).

In other words, Rebecca and Ingrid’s mental health issues both humanize and contextualize their actions. The two women do some truly terrible things but are always deserving of the viewer’s compassion.

Crazy love and friendship

Rebecca and Ingrid have clear-cut goals when they make the trek to the Golden Coast. They’d deny it to anyone who’d ask — Rebecca even denies it to herself — but Rebecca is pursuing love with Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III) and Ingrid is seeking out friendship with Taylor. Their plights are doomed, and not just because Josh is in a relationship and Taylor has no idea Ingrid is alive. No, what’s really tragic about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Ingrid Goes West is that their heroines have difficulty recognizing interpersonal bonds other than the ones they crave.

CXG spent an entire episode in season 1 following Rebecca as it dawns on her that she’s made many close, important friendships since she burst on West Covina’s scene. And, while she was hitting rock bottom back in New York, the season 3 ep “I Never Want to See Josh Again” examines the huge loss Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s other characters feel when Rebecca’s not around. It often isn’t enough for her, but Rebecca has tons of platonic love in her life.

In Ingrid’s case, she refuses to see the romantic love that her landlord (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) offers her. In a role that could easily cross into Nice Guy territory but never does, Dan helps Ingrid multiple times, refrains from judging her, and is the one who gets her help when she tries to kill herself. Theirs are the sweetest parts of the movie, but a relationship is just not something Ingrid cares about — she only has eyes for Taylor.

California dreamin’

In addition to the similarities between Rebecca and Ingrid’s arcs, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Ingrid Goes West‘s commentary on California are also alike. Non-Californians often mistakenly believe that California is some sort of glamorous, sun-bathed holy land. CXG and Ingrid Goes West are adamant that it’s not.

Like Lady Bird, Crazy Ex presents a working class version of California. The characters hang out at  a family oriented sports bar chain called Home Base. References are made to strip malls and most of the community’s businesses are on one street, East Cameron. A running joke is that the technically-part-of-LA West Covina is only two hours from the beach (four in traffic!). Plus, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s entire flagship song is a loving joke about just how unspectacular West Covina is.

Ingrid Goes West, on the other hand, does present California in all its stereotypical splendor — the catch is that the splendor is shallow. As Ingrid points out herself, Taylor is a phony, too. Taylor, her husband, and her friends all appear to be #blessed free spirits, but they work really hard to appear that way. Taylor doesn’t actually read Joan Didion or care about buying local; she just wants her social media followers to think she does. What’s more, she spends exorbitant amounts of money to maintain the illusion of a down-to-earth bohemian lifestyle. (There’s a paradox for you.)

Next: Liked Hang the DJ? Check out the sci-fi rom-com TiMER

As Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s third season winds down, you may be looking for something to fill the Rebecca Bunch-shaped hole in your viewing schedule. Between the depictions of mental health struggles, the powerful personal infatuations, and the critiques of California, Ingrid Goes West shares plenty of DNA with CXG. More than anything else though, the two are united by their heroines’ simple, heartbreaking desire to be happy. Under all the “crazy,” they’re both just lonely souls looking for connection and trying to lead fulfilling lives.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend airs Fridays on The CW. You can stream Ingrid Goes West on Hulu.