• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, April 4, 2019

No show-stopping song-and-dance number caps the series finale of TV's only scripted musical-comedy series, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”

This might run counter to what this show’s fans might be expecting. Or maybe not. The TV Blog cannot really know what goes on inside the minds of fans of this show or any other show.

Whether other TV critics would agree with this or not, TV critics are often champions at watching only one or two episodes of any given TV series. Most often, it is only one -- the premiere or pilot -- particularly if the critic does not care for the show, and/or it proves to be short-lived.

If a show sticks around for a couple of seasons, then a critic might try to watch the series finale, especially if he needs to find a column topic near the finale airdate and little else is presenting itself. Such is the case with “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” which received a mostly thumbs-up review here on October 9, 2015.

Four seasons later, the TV Blog cannot honestly claim to have paid any attention to “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” until this week, when the series finale became available on the CW press site. It airs Friday night at 8 p.m. Eastern.

This should come as no slight to anyone involved in the making of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” The truth is, we TV critics cannot watch everything that is out there in the TV universe. This has long been the case, and even more so today.

Having said all that, and even without a show-stopping final number, this week's final episode of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” ought to satisfy fans who seek closure in their series finales.

When the episode concludes, and without spoiling anything, the crazy ex of the title, Rebecca (Rachel Bloom), comes to conclusions about herself and how she got to West Covina, California, when the show began four seasons ago that point to an optimistic future for her.

And while we are on the subject of futures, a similarly rosy future no doubt awaits Rachel Bloom. While “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” never found a mass audience (CW shows rarely do), she proved herself to be one of the most talented single performers in all of television.

She was a delight to behold in both the pilot and the finale, and the TV Blog assumes she was just as entertaining through all the song-and-dance numbers that came in-between -- a number estimated at around 150.

Perhaps the CW is saving the real musical finale for an all-musical special following the final episode, starting at 9 p.m. and starring the show's entire cast.

Taped just last month in Los Angeles, “the concert special will be the exclamation point at the end of the fourth and final season, a special treat for the fans, and a celebration of the over 150 original songs that make up the ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ songbook,” said a CW press release.

It seems highly appropriate that this musical and theatrical TV series will get a chance to take an authentic final bow.