Can Showtime Do A Musical T.V. Show Right?

Sorry, Glee, but it looks like Showtime is working on its own version of a musical television series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Showtime has ordered a pilot for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , a musical comedy from writer-actress Rachel Bloom. Bloom, a YouTube star who posts funny parody videos (such as this "Santa Baby" parody "Chanukah Honey") has co-penned the pilot with executive producer Aline Brosh McKenna. Marc Webb, director of The Amazing Spiderman and (500) Days of Summer, is set to direct the pilot. Let's hope that Showtime is the place to make the musical comedy work for television — because it wasn't exactly smooth sailing for Fox's Glee and NBC's Smash.

As a premium cable network, Showtime has a lot more storytelling freedom. They have the ability to go raunchier and edgier than the network shows, and that in itself could help the show find its way faster. Glee lost its edge — and audience — when it decided to embrace the saccharine and become a full-fledged teen drama, as opposed to the darkly comedic satire of a teen drama that it started out as. Smash, the Broadway-set musical drama, had a consistent tone but no edge — unless you count characters wistfully comparing their lives to that of Marilyn Monroe's as edge. Showtime can rough up the musical premise with edgier content that would work well with Bloom's already funny and edgy material. (Just check out this song on her YouTube page and you'll see what I mean.)

I'm excited to see what Showtime does with this format, mainly because, while I still want all of Glee's songs on my iPod, the story lines from last season were just a little too dull to care about. If Showtime can give us a funny, edgy, and overall fun show with awesome music, I'll stick around to watch it.

Image: YouTube