It's Your Last Chance to Give Rachel Bloom Her Much-Deserved Emmy Nomination for _Crazy Ex-Girlfriend_

Rachel Bloom has done it all. She made Ray Bradbury sound sexy with "F--- Me, Ray Bradbury." She balanced practically every object as big as my head under her bare boobs at Radio City Music Hall. She can imitate Katharine Hepburn auditioning for Space Jam like no other. But there is one thing left for her to do: earn a damn Emmy nomination for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!

Now that the acclaimed CW show has ended and the Emmys are coming up, the sense of urgency is stronger because it's Bloom's last shot at getting the recognition she deserves for the show's brilliance, both as its c0-creator and star. The show hasn't been nominated for an Emmy since 2017, so it's a bit of a long shot, but I can't think of anyone who deserves this more than Bloom. It's no secret Crazy Ex-Girlfriend never quite received the love it deserved. At one of her recent Radio City Music Hall shows, Bloom half-jokingly said that the show was the lowest-rated show in recent CW history. And sure, it doesn't have sexified Archie Comics characters or Jensen Ackles' dimples, but it has something better than that: a flawed antihero viewers can actually identify with.

Rebecca isn't meant to be perfect, or even likable all the time, but she feels real. Besides its brutally honest, horny songs about heavy boobs, UTIs, and period sex, what stood out about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend were the depths it would go to show what it was like to deal with mental health issues in a realistic way. In the fourth and final season, we saw Rebecca at one of her lowest moments with her depression, having just left her short stint in prison after almost accidentally killing her stalker, Trent (Paul Welsh). She was dealing with strangers coming at her on the internet and potentially losing everything she'd worked so hard for in her career. Even attempting to leave the house felt like a chore.

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But instead of putting Rebecca through the ringer, Bloom turned things around for her, putting the character on the route to stability and happiness. When she had to face potentially being disbarred, Rebecca came to the realization that she hadn't been true to following her dreams. She's a damn good lawyer, and it's one thing that she's very confident in, but it was not enough. She attempted to find her calling, including a short stint as a pretzel shop owner. But much like Bloom, her true passion was musical theater.

Towards the end of the series, we saw Rebecca finally realize that theater could be more than a passion once she landed a role in a musical. When she attended an audition for a musical in the 14th episode of the season, it was the happiest we'd seen her throughout the four seasons combined. Valencia (Gabrielle Ruiz) warned her to be realistic, saying it could end up crushing her dreams, but as Rebecca said, it finally felt like where she belonged.

After getting a good role, she faced the dilemma of choosing to follow her dreams while also being in a musical that had outdated, misogynistic tropes, or giving it up to stick to her principles. She decided she'd do the latter, being promptly fired. But even when she was so close to having her on-stage dreams ruined, she decided later on that she'd write her own musical instead, mirroring Bloom's journey to writing the show. We see it all come full circle in the finale with her final, poignant words: "This is a song I wrote."

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There have been so many moments that have made Bloom's writing and acting throughout the show Emmy-worthy, but it all boils down to the brilliance in making sure viewers still root for Rebecca after all the highs and lows of her journey of self-acceptance. We've seen Rebecca self-sabotage and even plot to ruin the lives of others, but even at her absolute worst, she manages to make fans see bits of themselves in her. Bloom has given Rebecca so much depth and heart that it's impossible to not want the best for her by the end.

Now that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is over, Bloom has admitted she's still figuring it out in the announcement of her upcoming, aptly-titled "What Am I Going to Do With My Life?" tour. But before speculating on what she can do next, let's celebrate her incredible achievements with a well-earned Emmy nomination.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is streaming on Netflix. Emmy nominations will be announced Tuesday, July 16. The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on Fox.

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