Okay, so I watched the season finale of Glee the other night, and it really was quite splendid. There were several things I liked about it, beyond how attractive Ms. Emma Pillsbury (the previously blogged about Jayma Mays) looked. MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON!!! In no particular order:
- I like that the writers actually tied up some of the storylines, such as with Will (Mr. Schuester) dumping his wife and staying dumped, as opposed to reconciling, and with him also kissing Emma at the end of the episode. The "natural" storyline in most dramas or comedies is to drag out something like this for multiple seasons - See Pam and Jim on The Office, every season of Cheers, Firefly, etc.
Commenting on the storyline itself, I'm curious to see where they go from here. Logically, I imagine we'll see some friction between the two dating, as that aspect of Emma's personality got put on the backburner as the season progressed in lieu of her thing with the gym teacher. In case the hyper-matching outfits didn't tip you off, she is massively OCD, so it'll be interesting to see how that manifests itself in the second season. (Or the second half of the season; I forget the weirdo schedule that the show is following.)
- Likewise, I liked that the Finn, Quinn and Puck storyline is advancing, with Rachel (predictably) spilling that Quinn's baby isn't Finn's. (Also, I never noticed before that the names rhymed so easily... Odd.)I think the immediate gratification of seeing Emma and Will hook-up will be balanced by the slow burn of the eventual Rachel and Finn get-together. I believe I read on the Internet that Rachel will have a love interest on a rival school's glee club for the next season, at least according to rumor, but I imagine she will eventually end up with Finn in a future season.
As far as Puck and Quinn, they seem likely candidates to "graduate" off the show after this current season, with them trying to get jobs and taking care of the baby. At least, that would be my preferred outcome, since I really, really don't want to see a lot of "we're taking care of a baby!" scenes. A baby is almost always a sign that a show's writers are getting lazy, which is why Mad About You got really crappy (as opposed to formerly being watchable) once the baby was introduced. As David Cross has said, babies aren't funny, unless you have a baby, or unless it talks like in those investing commercials. (Although, I think I'm the only person who likes these...)
- Speaking of my "graduate" idea, I am a bit curious about how they'll keep some of the people on the show. I imagine you can keep Finn in the picture by having him be the "assistant coach" of the glee club, or some nonsense like that, but I don't think that'll work for each character.
The show is helped by keeping most of the character years ambiguous. If I recall correctly, Rachel has been revealed to be a sophomore, and Quinn, Finn and Puck are seniors, judging from their thoughts about the future. I don't think the years of the other cast members, such as Kurt, Artie and Mercedes, have been revealed. Or the year of my favorite character...
- ... Brittany, who is so amazingly awesome in what little screen time she gets every episode. Seriously, she only has about one line per show, but it's always great. Although her ditzy funniness might be hard to maintain for an entire episode, I'm really hoping she does get an episode devoted to her at some point. It could be a good "take a break" breather episode from the main plots in the second season, which Heroes used to do before it started to suck and which Lost does regularly.
- Outside of Brittany, I think more on her Cheerios friend Santana would be good as well, since I personally find some of the main cast - Mercedes and Kurt - boring stereotypes. More on Tina, the Asian girl with the lisp, and her potential thing with Artie, the wheelchair kid, would be good, since that would be pretty unconventional.And, I think the pacing with Sue Sylvester has been perfect so far. She's not a major enemy in every episode, which is good, and they have shown some sweet aspects of her personality - the scenes with her sister in the nursing home - that have balanced how horrible of a person she is otherwise. I think they did a good, similar job with Terri, a.k.a. Will's soon-to-be ex-wife, where she was in just enough scenes to avoid being overexposed. However, I imagine she fades to a supporting character as the series goes on, since her and Will definitely seem to be split up for good.
The picture of the cheerleaders is from Heather Elizabeth Morris' Tumblr feed. The picture of Dianna Agron is from this site. And Heather Lynch's picture comes from this site, which also has a good interview with her.
it's a fall finale, not season! they signed on for a full 22 episode first season. It seems fox is doing this with most of their shows. a "fall finale" because stupid annoying american idol will be taking over in january. ugh I get so irritated that that stupid show is on like every night once is starts!
ReplyDeleteBut I also liked to see Emma & Will finally kiss! I don't think we'll see Quinn and Puck taking care of the baby. She told Puck she's doing this on her own and she was going to give the baby to terri, but that probably won't happen, so I imagine she'll just put it up for adoption. But who knows.
How awesomme were the songs they sang for sectionals?! I loved Rachel's ballad performance. I'm looking forward to seeing that other really good Glee club that sang Rehab in one of the first few episodes, I forget their name now.
Yeah, I thought they had some weird thing with a fall / season finale, but I just went with it. I'm a wildcard like that! And I also hate American Idol, ugh. So I take it Family Guy and The Cleveland Show will be going away for a bit then?
ReplyDeleteThey haven't really broached the subject yet on the show, but I doubt Terri will be keeping the baby since Will found out that the pregnancy was a fake. Adoption seemed like too easy of a plot to pursue to me, so I thought they'd go somewhere else with it.
I also thought the song selection was really good for sectionals, although showing off my un-hipness here, I didn't recognize most of them. (My life would suck without you, and the song from Chicago, right?)
Yes, about that baby! I also assume Terri no longer wants this baby now that she doesn't have a marriage, so that will be interesting. I'm not sure if you're 100% on some of their years... I know Rachel is younger but I don't think Finn is graduating. ALSO, presumably if this show comes back in the spring at some point, they could still be in the same school year.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Greek has done this very well in its four seasons, where each season is roughly one semester at college, which makes sense since it breaks for Christmas and the summer, just like college.
And am I the ONLY one upset that the storyline between Artie and the Asian girl (blanking on her name) got dropped? She needs more screen time- I like her.
lol what sectionals were you watching? They did rain on my parade from the play Funny Girl and You Don't Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones.
ReplyDeleteand I don't know if family guy and cleveland show will be going off. Idol mostly takes over the weekdays.
@Amanda: I think part of the consternation between Quinn and Finn was about how Finn was going to be able to afford college and the baby and what not. Also, to originally get him on glee club, I think Will plants a bag of pot in his locker, and threatens to keep him back another year, or something. From that, and just other things - how big he is compared to the other students - I thought he was a senior.
ReplyDeleteI think they could milk it so that each season is a year, possibly two, at the school. But I don't think it should be like 90210 or Saved by the Bell, where the characters never age or anything.
I also like the Asian girl. That one episode she got was good. One advantage of having the characters "graduate" off the show is that it frees up storylines for her characters and others.
@Danielle: Yeah, I have no idea what Funny Girl is. A play? A musical? A movie? I did recognize the Rolling Stones song, but not some of the others they used for that episode, excluding the stolen songs.
ReplyDeleteI hope they don't take Family Guy off TV. We still haven't gotten to their Empire Strikes Back episode, "Something something something darkside."
I agree. Do you watch Degrassi? Probably not, because you're American and it's a very Canadian show, but they do a wonderful job of graduating cast members. Each season 5-6 major characters leave and another 5-6 new kids are entered, so we are still in high school with some random cameos by our old favorites from time to time. 5-6 may sound like a lot but the show has a good 20-25 main characters, I think Glee could do this on a small scale while keeping the teachers/faculty consistent.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't watch Degrassi because I'm a boy :) My sister watched it when she was growing up; she's closer in age to you than I am, so I'm assuming I missed it by two or three years.
ReplyDeleteHowever, yeah, I agree with you that a sort of cast rotation like that would work for Glee. I think its concept is so strong that people are more attracted to that as opposed to individual characters.
Funny Girl is a musical from Broadway haha. It was also made into a movie. I've never seen it, I just know rain on my parade is from it.
ReplyDeleteand I'm pretty sure Finn is a senior. Cause his biggest concern was college football & he started looking at getting glee scholarships for college once he found out about the baby.
I'm also pretty positive each season will be one school year, cause pretty much every show involving school kids that isn't a half hour sitcome does that.