Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A sweet and sour Glee finale


So, we've reached the end of the Glee journey for this year. The final episode was a mixture of good and bad, or sweet and sour, to me. Imma break out the good ole bullet list for this, just like a good ole weekend newspaper columnist...

- I liked that New Horizons didn't win, or even place, at regionals. The cheap cop-out to the season would have been to have them win, so I was glad the show didn't take that step. It definitely would have neutered future seasons, giving them one less overall goal to go after, and necessitating more "omg drama!" storylines.

- That being said, I thought Sue Sylvester voting for them to win, and getting them another year, was a bit against character. However, the show pulled it off the best they could, by having the other three judges go even more pompous than her. Nice cameo usage of Olivia Newton-John, Josh Groban and the other dude, too. Also, unlike some on the Internet, I do think that Sue read the right winners off the card.

- I found Vocal Adrenaline's performance kind of lame. And also, wasn't the plan for New Horizons to do a funk number in regionals? That just happened last episode! I don't even think it was acknowledged that they were dropping it, just that Will's love for Journey would mean that they'd be doing that instead. Ultimately, it was probably a good choice, but still.

- Regarding the whole Quinn pregnancy angle, a lot of it was pretty unrealistic. So, Rachel's mom is adopting the baby? That's convenient. As was Quinn's mom dumping the dad and showing up just in time for regionals. As was, heck, the whole sudden BFF relationship between Quinn and Mercedes. Was I just not paying attention throughout the season, or were all of these sudden developments? However, a lot of the delivery room scenes were pretty humorous.

- I did like that Quinn and Puck seemed to bond a bit with the birth, and that Quinn still had the courage to go through with the adoption anyway. Again, the "cheap happy" route would have been for Quinn to keep the baby.

-----


- Finally, Will and Emma. I've gone from being a big fan of them getting together to being quite "meh" on the whole thing. I think Will came off more as Psycho Ex in the finale than actually a good dude. I don't really think that they match up particularly well in terms of actual personality, even if it does seem like it should work on paper. I contrast the whole thing to Community, where the writers saw that the leads didn't actually have much romantic chemistry, so they decided to audible the whole thing in the finale. Glee needs this sort of audible too, with Will either hooking up with Rachel's mom or a yet-to-be-introduced character that he connects better with. (Rachel and Finn have the same problem, but to a lesser extent.)

Anyway. Despite my nitpicking, I thought this was a solid but unspectacular finish, which is perfectly reasonable for an ending. It was still miles better than the finale of Modern Family, which is appreciated.

2 comments:

  1. gahhhhhh it's NEW DIRECTIONS. Not New Horizons. Weirdo.

    Also, probably the only part I agree about with you is Sue Sylvester's part. It was slightly out of character, but like she's pointed out before quite a few times throughout the season she IS a teacher and does in her own twisted way, care about the kids. And the other judges were being complete assholes and tearing the kids up, though she's certainly done her fair share of that to the Glee kids.

    I didn't think New Directions would win the contest, but I thought they would at least place. That would have been more plausible than Sue forcing the principal to give them another chance. They were better than "not at all studpidly named" Oral Intensity.

    I liked their Journey songs. It made sense because they started the season with Journey - it was the first good performance Rachel and Finn sang together in the first episode. And by the way, I happen to love Rachel & Finn. I was very happy when he just simply told her "I love you" before they performed.

    And omg Vocal Adrenaline's performance of Bohemian Rhapsody was AWESOME. I loved it. And hated them for it haha.

    I don't know why you're judging Glee for being cheesy and going for obvious things like having Rachel's mom adopt Quinn's baby. Or that Quinn's mom showed up. I don't think you've watched enough teen dramas! It's just the type of show that would do that. I like knowing that Rachel's mom took Beth than thinking she's just been put into the adoption system and who knows who she'd end up with. The Birth scenes were really good, I liked that a lot.

    As for Quinn & Mercedes, while they didn't give it a lot of time to grow, I still find it believable. It really started during the episode where Mercedes is told she has to lose weight to stay on the Cheerios. They begin to understand each other. I accept it as a growing friendship that continues when we can't always see what's going on. ya know? Something like that.

    So all in all, I thought it was one of the best episodes and I really can't wait for next season to start.

    "If you don't let go, I'm going to puke in your mouth."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I totally bought the Sue thing. I guess it might seem a little against character but I think she's a more complex person than people give her credit for. Like, clearly she doesn't really hate the Glee kids and wants to be accepted just as much as they do. I think the episodes in this second half of season one were building up to her choosing them. The Olivia Newton John episode, the Madonna episode...both of these showed her vulnerability and that underneath that track suit is a (kind of) nice person.

    ReplyDelete

Try not to be too much of an ass, unless completely necessary. You are subject to tyrannical moderation.