Since I haven’t blogged about Glee in a while, well, let’s.Frankly, I’ve been left cold by much of this season. There has been a decent storyline or two, but for everything I like, I find myself annoyed by other things they’re doing on the show. Let’s start with the bad first, since it’s more on my mind. And a note: Major spoilers on the season-so-far of Glee to follow, obviously, but also a surprisingly amount of swearing.
[Right] To my female readers, this is your one "shirtless male photo" for the year, unless Nathan Fillon is cast in a sequel for Firefly, or something else equally awesome.- The whole storyline between Puck, Rachel’s mom and Quinn just feels so ick and forced. First off, after showing the emotional maturity of Rachel’s mom at the end of previous seasons, it seems bizarre to have her falling for a high school kid. You basically wiped out all the work you did redeeming her character.
Secondly, they squelched a somewhat promising “Quinn is goth” storyline for a rehash of the same old shit, namely, “Quinn is evil and conniving.” Hey, for once, can’t Quinn just be a decent human being? Glee writers, you’ve already made her stop-and-start with Finn like five times, and give birth to a baby and become the school pariah. It would be nice to have a season where we don’t shit on Quinn.
It’s not like I really craved seeing Quinn as a goth for a half-season. However, it would have been preferable to the current storyline, where she had to be talked out of being a psychopath (framing the mother who adopted her baby) in the final episode.
- All of the political storylines feel forced. No, I don’t believe that Sue Sylvester could win a political campaign on the idea of eliminating arts funding. Yes, I do think people actually in the heartland should be pissed that the show is constantly portraying McKinely as the home of ignorant brutes just one step above fascists in terms of understanding.
Even worse, the whole thing lessened my liking of one of the show’s best characters, Kurt’s dad. He’s awesome as the seemingly-dull mechanic who’s way more clever and cunning than his son and stepson give him credit for. Now that he’s been elected to office, I’m cringing in anticipation of those storylines.
- Speaking of Sue Sylvester, Jane Lynch is awesome, but they need to find something for her to do. Like Quinn, I think it’s time they finally retired her over-the-top evil persona. You can stop having her be openly hostile of the Glee club, and find other things for her to rail about in the school. Find some new villains for the show, please.
- Anything involving Rachel and Finn makes me fast forward. Thanks to all the previous seasons of dicking around, I frankly don’t care that much about either one. The same goes for anything with Mr. Shue and Emma, who’s romance has morphed from “Will they or won’t they?” to “Start humping, or get the fuck off my television already!”
(And a warning to all you fans of Blaine and Kurt: They’re next. Brace yourself for plenty of episodes where Kurt suspects that Blaine is cheating on him with that new guy, and he’s not, but Kurt’s suspicions finally force Blaine into the arms of another man.)
So, what did I like? A rough list:
- Brittany continues to be a delight. And while I didn’t completely love how they handled Santana’s coming out, it went better than I expected it would when I first heard that’s what they were doing this half-season. She is the one straight-up “evil” character on the show that I haven’t gotten completely sick of yet.
- The plot involving Mike Chang and the acceptance of his father was nicely done. Sure, it ended predictably, but predictable is nice every once in a while. I also like that he and Tina are actually still together, a rarity for Glee.
- The songs and dance numbers are still very good to me. There is at least one song per episode that makes its way on to my iTunes list for repeated listening.
So, that’s that for now. I’ll be back to providing reviews of the show, once we’re back to live episodes. (Maybe I’ll let Dante review an episode or two, as well.)
The Glee photo at the top is from here. The photo of Puck is from here. And the photo of Britt and Santana is from here, where it tells you where to buy her shirt.
They need to let some of these characters graduate and add new blood (as opposed to keeping the same core and have random new people every year). The thought of them having them graduate, but somehow figuring out some stupid way to keep following them, makes me sick. Really, I'm just about done with everything not related to Brittany.
ReplyDeleteI haven't commented on your blog in quite a while.
ReplyDeleteI got into Glee last season when a coworker told me about it. They covered a lot of Top40 tunes which you know I really like, but also I felt exposed me to new music that I might have never listened to before (for example the Fleetwood Mac - Rumors episode--quality episode). I thought a lot of the episodes were really clever and focused on a lot of coming of age issues that were very relatable to a broad range of people. I think my favorite might have been the grilled cheesus episode. (although I never actually made a grilled cheese like that)
I have been very disappointed with this season so far, so much so that I think I might stop watching it. I've about had enough with how hard it is to be gay. I get it. Kurt's gay and it sucks for him at McKinley. Do we need to hash this over every single episode? Also, somehow all the students there consume is slushies. Where are they even getting them???? Every single one of them is a social outcast for being in the glee club? seriously? They might as well wear a poncho to school because they get slushied so much.
Another major beef of mine is rather than developing the characters more, they have made many of them even more one-dimensional. You touched on this with a few of the characters--Sue in particular. She is much less funny this season as much as I like Jane Lynch. I'm just over it. Its too over the top. A senate campaign based on defunding the arts? Seriously??? Santana--same thing. However you're right, they did do a nice job of her "coming out" Quinn, again she dresses like the girl next door total sweetheart but somehow she's always psycho bitch. You want to like her because she looks like a girl you could take home to mom but she acts like one you might not even want to take home at all.
Also agreed on Finchel. Definitely don't care about them. Mr Shue and Emma--agreed as well. Agree about Mike and Tina and that story line. They really have not done much with Artie this season. I was hoping that he would get back together with Brittany but it looks like it is not going to happen. Also whats with Sam dropping off the face of Ohio before the first episode, then come to find out he's working as an exotic dancer halfway through the season, only to have him move back? Honestly are they out of good ideas? They might as well have killed him off and then brought him back as a "twin" we never knew about. I think Sam was one of the better characters they could have developed with his Dad losing his job and all.
Lastly, the music for this season I'm really not happy with. Very little top40 tunes. WAY too many show tunes. I was almost embarrassed to watch it. I didn't know any of those songs and I didn't like them. I'm like you and I DVR it every week and I actually fast-fowarded through most of the musical numbers so far this season. And for the record, I own two Glee CDs. I don't plan on buying another one again unless they do another episode that doesn't suck.
This show is ready to jump the shark.
Mike Smith
@ Bob - I think the way they've been staggering it, two seasons of the show equal one year of high school, or something close to that. So, after this season, we should be done with Finn (except that he's going to be hanging around Rachel presumably), Kurt, Puck, Santana, Brittney and Quinn. However, I'm kind of just assuming that they're all seniors, based on their placement on the show.
ReplyDelete@ Mike Smith - I agree with pretty much all of your points, good buddy. The grilled cheesus and Fleetwood Mac episodes were highlights to me as well, and yeah, I do think they go over the top with the gay-bashing and slushie attacks. I get that high school sucks, but again, if I actually lived in Ohio, I'd be annoyed at how negatively the show portrays the heartland. (At least, I think McKinely is in Ohio, IIRC.)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the showtunes as well, although I have more of a stomach for them than you. I realize they're somewhat running out of people to cover, since they've hit most of the big numbers (Journey, Madonna, Gaga) and the cult status stuff (Rebecca Black, Rocky Horror). But they could go off the beaten path a bit more - I'd love a Bowie episode, or them doing nothing but 1990s gangsta rap.