Let’s Talk About Glee: Jesus Christ This Show Has Two Years Left!

I have no idea how they’re going to manage it, but yes, Glee has two more guaranteed years thanks to FOX. Maybe after another year of this shit, FOX and/or Ryan Murphy will be open to the idea of a mercy killing, or maybe the actors will realize they probably can’t help themselves with another 22 episodes. But like the final couple of seasons of Heroes, I just can’t imagine how the writers can dig themselves out of their current hole.

In case you’re like most of the world, and not hatewatching Glee like I am at this point, some notes for you to catch-up on:

x Brittany is now a god damn genius. For some reason, she is an idiot savant at math and will be going to MIT. (I wonder if the school consented to the show using its name; I can’t imagine that they’re happy that the scientists from their school are intently studying the crayon mathematical scribblings of Britt.) This didn’t really add anything to existing storylines, except to take away from and make light of the semi-serious issue of Brittany’s 0.0 grade average and complete lack of scholastic aptitude. They might as well have just made Lord Tubbington into the heir of a billionaire’s fortune, because that’s as believable and as much of a storyline crutch as the idea of Brittany as a math savant.

x There was a school shooting, but don’t worry, no one was hurt. Sue took the rap for Becky, who was playing with Sue’s gun, causing it to fire and making everyone panic for about half an episode. This episode pissed everyone off, since it was basically song, song, holyshitwe’reallgoingtodie, song, song.

x Tina, for lack of a more politically correct term, was a fag hag to Blaine for about six episodes. The less said about this, the better.

x Shockingly, there was more drama in the relationships with Will and Emma, and Rachel and Finn. Will got ditched by Emma at the altar, but don’t worry, they got hitched a couple episodes later – the writers just knew that you REALLY wanted to see an extra six episodes of drama, that’s all. Meanwhile, Rachel was dating a male prostitute for a bit, but then she found out and dumped him, but not before Finn beat the crap out of him.

This is a high school sophomore.

x All of the new people are basically replacements of the departing / college-aged New Directions members. The most egregious offenders would be Kitty, a blonde cheerleader that’s basically a non-pregnant stand-in for Quinn, and Puck’s half-brother, who’s so non-descript that you can only remember him as being Puck’s half-brother. Rachel’s replacement is Marley, and while it’s understandable that she doesn’t have the pipes of Broadway actress Lea Michele, she also in no way looks like a high school sophomore. Melissa Benoist is only two years younger than Lea Michele; it’s hard to believe they couldn’t find some 18-year-old who could sing well and to look like an actual high schooler.

x Singling out two of the new people for a tab, because it was so god damn stupid. There was a multi-episode arc where New Finn was getting catfished by someone in the glee club, with feints that it was New Rachel or New Quinn doing it. It turns out the culprit was actually Unique, the show’s teenage version of RuPaul. It was an awkward reveal that made New Finn pissed off, and didn’t really serve a purpose from a narrative standpoint except to… question mark. Make the audience feel awkward for all the parties involved?

x Santana is still wonderful, and delightfully evil at times. As a result, the show has no idea what to do with her. She was finally added to the apartment in New York, to add some depth and testosterone to the Rachel and Kurt living arrangement. That pair was so lame and sad by themselves that even Elliot Smith thought they were overdoing it.

The biggest overall problem with Glee at this point though is the lack of any consequences. Quinn didn’t stay crippled after her texting while driving accident, and her life hasn’t really been adversely affected by her basically flipping between nice gal and supreme bitch mode for two years. Kurt’s harasser didn’t manage to actually kill himself. No one was hurt in the gun incident with Sue and Becky. Will has put up with all of Emma’s various shit, which is nice of him, but also severely strains credibility at a certain point. Rachel was sleeping with a male prostitute and nothing really came of it. Brittany looked like she was headed for a difficult post-high school life, but don’t worry, she’s actually a genius. New Finn found out he was being catfished and got upset, but meh. New Directions lost an opening round competition, but the team that beat them got disqualified for performance enhancing drugs, in yet another ludicrous twist even by Glee standards.

Individually, how the writers tackled each of this issues is OK. Collectively though, it shows a complete lack of will to do anything new from a story perspective, or to make a decision that would have permanent consequences. For a show like Glee, which is basically a dramedy, you need to actually have consequences at some point. To make a blunt comparison – Nobody dies on Glee, but people died in 90210, and even in Joss Whedon shows from time-to-time.

Let’s close things out on a positive note though – Naya Rivera has taken the crown from Heather Elizabeth Morris when it comes to gorgeousness. Here is a picture of her. You’re welcome.

I didn’t link to either picture site for the actresses because they were basically just link spam and what not. The cast photo is a promotional one put out by FOX before the 2012-13 season, and it’s on a bunch of different websites.

Let’s Talk About Glee: Or, Why Am I Still Watching This ****?

Oh look, Rachel's sad! What a unique and compelling plot point!

So, I’m still watching Glee, although I’m now only hanging in on the show by a thread. It has gotten pretty dire in recent weeks though.

For one, the creators seem to have the same problem that every high school-ish show seems to have – clinging desperately to characters that are horribly eff’ed out and that no longer fit with the rest of the show.

Yes, I understand that the singing of Lea Michele (Rachel) was a big draw for the first couple of seasons, as was her on-again, off-again and finally on-again romance with Finn. However, for the love of God, why do we need a fourth season of this?

It would be more tolerable if Rachel-Finn was the only relationship shown to be in constant danger, but it isn’t. Kurt-Blaine, Emma-Will, BritTana, NewRachel-NewPuck and pretty much everyone else on the show have Serious Drama going on in their relationships. A general rule of thumb for Glee is that nobody is ever legitimately happy.

If anything, that’s the direction I’d take in Glee’s fourth season – Just having the kids be effing happy for once. They won nationals to close season three, but in the very first episode of season four, it deals with the “piss in your Cheerios” storyline of the newest member of the club and her mom, the lunchlady who gets harassed by popular kids.

By the way, this storyline seems ripped from an era that no longer exists. I graduated from high school in 2002, and we weren’t doing shit like picking on lunch ladies, because we didn’t live in a 1970s sitcom. I can stretch belief that jocks might pick up the glee club kids, but not that they shit over every member of the student body, and the tone of the show has drifted from the first season, where it was more of a satire in my opinion.

So yes, Glee is another show I’m mostly hate-watching this year, and I didn’t even comment on the other things I found excruciating, like the new Puck, the ridiculousness of the actor ages and how they manage to make Heather Elizabeth Morris somehow look like crap. The only thing I’ll credit the show with – some of the songs and mash-ups are still really good to me. So, they do have that going for them.

Let’s Talk About Glee: Catching Up

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.

Let's talk about Glee – Part 2

Let's talk about where I'd like to see them take some of the plots on Glee.

- For starters, Santana and Finn should be an item. For one, I think it would be interesting. Santana is the evilest person on the show, next to Sue, so it would be nice to see her actually get into a sort of relationship. Her sass would counteract his dumb sort of aloofness.

Secondly, it's one of the few matchings that they haven't really done on the show. They hooked up briefly in the “Like A Virgin” Madonna show, but didn't actually do anything couple-ish.

And third, it gives plenty of fodder to other characters, such as Rachel and Quinn. Also, if Finn is firmly established in a relationship, it means we can all finally move on from the boring relationship storylines they currently tease with him.

- Speaking of Santana, she needs her own episode. Her and Brittney are the best “kids” on the show now, and pretty much everyone else has been explored, with maybe the exception of Mike Chang and Mercedes. Specifically, I'd like a look at her home life, since I think it'd be interesting.

- We need to stop with the Rachel-centric storylines. A little bit of Rachel goes a long way. Yes, Lea Michele has some killer pipes. However, her character doesn't have much depth at all, since she swings from boy-based neurotic fits to talent-based neurotic fits. If you can't find something else for her to do in an episode besides obsessing over a boy or who else is getting a solo, leave her on the sidelines for an episode.

- I'm OK with the “Kurt falling in love” stories for now, but honestly, his dad is a much more interesting character. Mike O'Malley is awesome. Find some way to get him involved with Kurt and his dreamy boyfriend, like having him give awkward advice to Kurt about impressing a boy.

- I'm not sure how I feel about Puck chasing after his new girl. To be honest, the whole thing feels a bit forced and over-the-top, even by Glee standards. I know some guys who like a thicker woman, but most of them were not sleeping with essentially models beforehand (Dianna Argon) and even then, it was more bubbly personality thick girls, not horrible wenches. I'm hoping the payoff with the whole angle is good, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's yet another “will they won't they?” storyline.

- And finally, Sue. Sigh. How far you've fallen! You've gone from being the show's most compelling villain to, as I allude in my previous post, the show's Wile E. Coyote. Hopefully her new role as a consultant for another glee squad lets her flaunt her villainous nature again, properly.

To me, the bigger problem is that the show hasn't properly softened her character. They take baby steps, such as having her vote for the home team glee squad, and having her have sweet relationships with her sister and Becky, and having her confront her over-aggressive mom. However, it's as if the show has amnesia about these moments, and the very next episode, she's trying to rip apart the club from the inside or faking a suicide attempt.

Let’s talk about Glee – Part 1

So, after catching Tuesday night’s episode of Glee this morning, I have some thoughts. And seeing as how my Glee posts are always my most popular, I thought I’d share them. If you don’t like it, well, go spit.

(By the way, pictures for this entry will come later, since I’m away from my desktop laptop computer, and typing this on my work one. For the record, I’m a huge, huge fan of the non-Cheerios look for Quinn, Brittney and Santana.)

- I’m now officially sick of any romance angle involving Finn, Quinn, Sam or Rachel. Seriously, I hope they all end up alone and crying. All of the possible combinations of these characters just bore me to tears. We’ve had so many “will they won’t they?” moments between them that nothing they air now can possibly live up to all the false starts.

Although people knock Jim and Pam from The Office for getting boring once they actually ended up together, I think it needed to happen from a narrative standpoint. Otherwise, you get what Glee is getting – Something lacking in interest because it has been teased to death.

- Brittney remains my favorite character. It’s not even close at this point. I’m not sure how they do it, but she remains fresh and surprising from episode to episode. I especially liked how she turned the arm-warmers into a fashion thing. Way to go, gurl.

I’m also a big fan of Santana. She is so evil that she is interesting. And easy on the eyes! That certainly doesn’t hurt either. Like they did with the Brittney-Brittney Spears episode, I imagine they’ll have to do an entire plot on her background at some point, which would be awesome.

- Sue’s character has gone from one of my favorites to just one of the ensemble cast. I’m not sure why they felt the need to essentially strip the character of its power; getting the Cheerios budget slashed should have been a season finale thing, not something in the middle of a season. It would have setup season three pretty well. (The interview with “Diane Sawyer” was pretty god damn hilarious though.)

Anyway, for this entire season, she has essentially been the Wile E. Coyote of the cast. Every plan she has goes awry, including the one last night, where Mercedes and Rachel embraced after the “diva” contest. While I didn’t want her plan to succeed, I kind of wish Sue wasn’t in the position of being the spoiler.

Instead of that, why not have her do her own storylines each week? She’s one of the few people in the cast with real acting chops, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of her relationship with her mom or sister or someone else each week instead of her constantly trying to sabotage the glee club.

… Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. Coming Friday: Some plots I’d like to see the show pursue.

No, I haven't watched Glee yet.

My love of Glee is now widely-known, which is somewhat concerning because I am a 26-year-old man. It's sad enough that I love the show, but it's worse when everyone knows and one of two things happens:

1) They razz you about liking it. Typically, my defense is that it is so different from everything else on television that it appeals to me. I am also a sucker for harmony and (some) pop songs, and I especially like when they do covers. I love listening to covers, whether they're by Richard Cheese, The Dan Band or Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

2) They keep asking if I've seen the latest episode, since they're a fan of the show too. This normally isn't TOO much of a problem, but this week, I've been ridiculously busy with work stuff and other stuff. As a result, I've barely had time to sleep, never mind watching Glee. I might try to sneak it in tonight, but I have to lay out a 12-page high school newspaper and then I have a meeting for coffee tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., followed by police coverage and another meeting at 2 p.m.

Soooo... things are pretty tight for me. And I really want to see them do the time warp again - it's just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right, after all.

p.s. Drew Carey totally did it first.

Dear FOX, stop letting monkeys plan your television schedule.

Generally, I like FOX. Well, not their news product, or their tendency to cancel great shows even if their ratings haven't caught up to where they should be. (I did think that Alyssa Rosenberg brought up a good point on her blog when she noted that FOX gives chances to a ton of weird shows that the networks don't want to touch, so they are going to have a higher cancel rate as well. I'm not sure when she said this, so instead, let me just plug her blog in general here.) But in general, I like several of their programs.

I do not like their scheduling habits though. I'm not sure why, but they consider it a good idea to air a couple episodes, then take three weeks off. I imagine that this practice started because, back in the day, FOX aired a lot more live sports in the middle of the week, when they had less live programming. They still don't run a full programming slate, since they aren't active in the 10 p.m. hour, or late night.

Also, this practice was more defensible in the past because it allowed people to catch up on shows if they missed some episodes. For example, if you did miss the wonderful first four episodes of Glee this year, they are being replayed in repeats now. However, you could have just watched them on Hulu or downloaded them from iTunes or... uh... other sources. In this wonderful digital age, you don't really have to wait for shows to be re-broadcast.

With that in mind, FOX, here is what I suggest - Just run shows in order from start to finish. The only exception should be if there is a holiday, in which case, sure, run a repeat or a holiday special. Let me actually see new episodes of Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and Glee in proper order instead of breaking them up with repeats. Thanks!

Note: I included random pictures from Robot Chicken because I like Robot Chicken. Deal with it!

This week on Glee: Kurt, Sam, Artie, Brittany and scissoring

Oh, Glee. Glee, Glee, Glee. First off, there was an utterly ridiculous scene in the first 10 minutes, as Santana and Brittany were making out and talking about scissoring. Second, Rachel looks great with bangs. Third, it was cool to see Mike Chang actually get involved in an episode besides dancing. (Even if he really can't sing at all.) And finally, Quinn (and especially her eyes) looked great as she was cleaning slushie off the new quarterback, and I loved how tense her scenes were.

Regarding the actual plot itself, I like that they addressed one of my biggest issues with the first season - that everybody but Kurt's dad realize he was way too aggressive with Finn. Kurt's dad nailed him on it, which I thought was an awesome bit of follow-up.

I also like how Sam and Finn were bantering about Rachel and Quinn. "She's a couple inches shorter and she talks a lot more, but I love her." Well said, Finn, well said. I enjoy all the subtle touches like that; they really help to round out the entire episode. Santana is awesome as well, and I like how evil and aggressive she is. And also, why did Quinn wear her cheerleading outfit on her date to Breadsticks with Sam? Why was Brittany wearing hers too? And was it just me, or was Breadsticks an obvious spoof of The Olive Garden?

One thing that is annoying, and that I'm sure they'll address eventually, is Artie portraying himself as a victim at every opportunity. Since Brittany is my favorite character, I'm annoyed that he hurt her. How DARE you, Artie! And speaking of, here are the awesome Brittany quotes from last night:

On Puck getting sent to juvenile hall: "He might be the dumbest person on the planet and that's coming from me."

Will: What's a duet? Brittany: A blanket.

About Artie: "I know, for a while I thought you were a robot."

To Artie: "I just want to get you in a stroller."

To Santana: "I'm mad at you... but you're still so hot."

Artie: I thought I was over somebody, but I still think I have feelings for them...
Brittany: The Clintons?

While about to have sex with Artie: "You're on the football team now anyway, so we would have gotten around to this at some point."

"I was going to order one really, really long piece of spaghetti like Lady and the Tramp... I've been practicing nudging a meatball across the table with my nose."

-----

Danielle: Heyyy, hope you don't read this e-mail before you see the episode!

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. It brought back all the perfect hilarity and awesomeness while only putting in a few serious moments - Kurt dealing with being lonely, Artie and sex.

I thought Mercedes and Santana's duet was great. And when they were talking beforehand about doing the duet and Santana keeps calling her Weezy.

The other duets were great too - I like that they didn't just do a bunch of typical duets. Kurt's self-duet was very... Kurtish, haha, and I thought Tina and Mike's duet was unique. Rachel and Finn's determination to throw the competition was great too, like when they were getting all fake indignant.

This episode also made me love Rachel again. She was starting to be super annoying the first two episodes, but I just loved her in this episode. That was the Rachel I like.

And of course we can't forget Brittany and Santana making out and bringing up scissoring! Not that I'm completely surprised. I'm glad Artie told Brittany off for treating him the way she did. But the fact that she felt bad was good to see. It was cute in the end when she was moving the meatball with her nose all by herself. I guess also kind of sad, lol.

And Sam! The fact that they made his character a football player but this wicked awkward nerdy guy was great. I hang out with a lot of nerdy guys, so I've been around the cringe-worthy moments when they're trying to be cool and then say the weirdest things. Him and Quinn could be really cute together. When Puck comes back, the confrontation with Sam should be interesting.

Glee: Finding salvation through Grilled Chees-us

Last night's Glee was a bit of a rarity for the show, in that almost the entire episode was super-serious. The only funny parts of the episode, excluding Brittany quotes, involved Finn. He used his George Foreman grill to make a grilled cheese, and when he finished it, he noted that he had created... Grilled Chees-us. As in, a grilled cheese with the face of Jesus [right].

Throughout the episode, Finn prayed to Grilled Chees-us, and each time, it seemed to grant his prayer. The funniest of these was when he prayed to get to second base (boobs!) with Rachel, and it worked swimmingly [above].

However, he then felt remorse when he prayed to be the starting quarterback again - Much like the curse of the monkey's paw, his prayer was granted when the new starter got his shoulder separated. He confessed all of this to Ms. Pillsbury, and in a rarity for her, she got a funny line: "God works in a lot of mysterious ways. But I'm pretty sure he doesn't spend a lot of time talking to us through sandwiches."

Likewise, let me share the funny Brittany lines before moving on to the serious parts of the episode: "Whenever I pray I fall asleep." "I did a book report on heart attacks. You can give it to the doctor. It got marked down a grade because it was in crayon."

Both were regarding the main plot of the episode, which saw Kurt's dad have a heart attack at work and slip into a coma. This was stark, life-and-death drama, which Glee doesn't really concern itself with often. Their usual subject matter is more social life-and-death, like the melodrama of hierarchy and castes in a high school.

While it was very heady stuff for Glee, I think it was handled well. First, it helps that it was Kurt's dad (Mike O'Malley) who was affected. I say this every time he's on the show, but given that he's mostly known for GUTS and a string of unsuccessful sitcoms, it's shocking how good of an actor he is. He gives the part just the right touch of emotional understanding with its gruff gravitas. I don't think the heart attack would work on any other character on the show - He's one of the few that you really care about and respect.

Second, while there was plenty of melodrama in the episode, it's entirely appropriate considering the stakes. Kurt's dad being on his deathbed is something appropriate for the rest of the Glee club to bond about. This obviously wouldn't be the case if they were involved in their usual shenanigans.

I will caution though, I REALLY hope they don't do this sort of episode more than twice a season. I'm fine with an occasional curveball episode like this; I think it helps balance out the sheer fun of things like the Brittany episode. But in a show that's already overdramatic and full of emotion in practically every scene, episodes like this should be kept in the back pocket for special occasions.

-----
Danielle says: I wasn't sure if this would be an episode I would love because I knew it was about religion, but I actually liked it a whole lot. It was a lower-key episode, which drew me more into it. There were a couple cliche moments - Kurt and his dad fighting right before he has the heart attack and when Kurt tells his unconscious dad, "I don't believe in God. But I believe in you." I knew that second line was coming. But considering entertainment has been around since the Greek tragedies, cliches happen.

This episode actually hit the right spot for me because last month my dad got hospitalized - it ended up being his defibrillator had a faulty wire, so it wasn't him luckily - and it is scary in the beginning when you know nothing and people are trying to tell you and you're just like I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU. So I actually cried a couple times this episode. Kurt's rendition of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was really good. Rachel's song was almost haunting and I liked it.

Like most subjects it touches upon, the show portrayed tolerance. There were struggles between the people who aren't religious and ones who are, but in the end they got to the right point - "to each his own."

Finn was too funny with his whole Grilled Chees-us thing. I always love how like into being Jewish Puck can be, and when they show him he's not always a jerk, like when he said he went to temple with his nana and prayed for Kurt's dad.

I also like when they give Sue some humanity - her whole lack of faith because of her older sister was touching. But she also kept to her usual abrasive self - "I know you're only part orangutan, but I'm still highly allergic to your ginger mane."

Brittany as usual was the perfect comedy relief. "I gave him a card that says heart attacks are just from loving too much." Santana's also focusing her bitchiness toward someone besides Rachel, finally - taking it out on Quinn. That makes sense, since Quinn took back her head cheerleader spot, but serves Santana right for getting a boob job.

I guess my only grievance with the episode would be that the only people they portrayed not following a faith were adamantly against religion and had these big reasons for not being - Kurt because of the lack of tolerance towards gays / women / science and Sue because of her sister. I know it's only an hour episode so they can't get every angle, but not everyone who doesn't believe in God is so against religion like Kurt was in the beginning, or they don't always have some tragic reason behind it. Some people just choose not to and they just didn't really show that.

They were fair in showing extremes on both sides - Finn thinking he had a direct line to God and Kurt comparing God to Santa Claus - and they showed calmer religious people - Mercedes - but they didn't show anyone who was just like no, sorry, don't believe. I mean, Kurt did say believe what you want, I don't, but then he went off about the dwarf in teacup on the other side of the moon and getting angry at people for praying.

In the end it was all fine though because both Kurt and Sue showed more tolerance toward the expression of faith and it was Mercedes in church who said, "It's okay if you don't believe, to each his own." So to end this, I'll just say that I'm excited for next week's episode after seeing the preview and to see that Sam is back. :)

Pickin' Pigskin: Week 4 (and thoughts on television and Maxim)

First things first, the standings from last week. It was a good week to be a man. Overall standings are in parenths.

Bob: 9-7 (23-22)
Steve: 9-7 (22-23)
Matt: 9-7 (21-24)
Kristin: 4-12 (18-27)

And now, the commentary and picks for this week…


-----

Bob: What a bizarre season this has been. Jay “Diabetes” Cutler is 3-0. The Vikings and Saints look very mortal. The Patriots would be better off putting URI’s defensive squad on the field. The Colts got beat by the Texans, who got beat by the Cowboys, who had previously gotten beaten by the Redskins, who got beat by the Rams. Parity at work.

Really, though, I didn’t come here to talk about football. I came to talk about Warehouse 13, which is strangely one of the better shows on television (and unfortunately, on hiatus right now). I finally caught up with this season on my Tivo. If you are unfamiliar with the show, it is basically about a warehouse much like the one seen at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is on the SyFy channel and is clearly done with a low- to medium-range budget.

The show is camp at its best. They do a great job of spoofing a lot of things that are popular in science fiction/fantasy/Internet culture. For example, in a recent episode they characters went to an archaeological site in Egypt. One of the characters (H.G. Wells, who is a hot woman and was frozen for 70ish years) looked on the Internet to find what “modern British archaeologists” wore. Of course, when we saw her dressed she was dressed exactly like Lara Croft.

Another episode focused on the super-volcano under Yellowstone Park, which is a favorite obsession of Internet nerds worried about the end of the world (along with the possibility of a Canary Island Mega Tsunami and black holes from the Large Hadron Collider).

So if you’re looking for something to do now that the Red Sox are officially eliminated from the playoffs, consider catching up on Warehouse 13.

-----

Kristin: I feel guilty about not writing anything the past few weeks. So, here it goes!

Tennessee is my enemy. No matter what I pick, I always pick their games wrong. Frankly, I hate them, but I’ve heard Denver is weak right now soooo I’m picking them anyway.

Now, I think that I could be just as good a quarterback as Rapey McRaper if I was also enormous and good at not getting squished, so I don’t see any problem with replacing him with random nobody quarterbacks. However, I don’t see how they win four straight without him, so I’m picking this to finally be their loss.

I love Cincinnati like I love trashy television, so go Cinci!

I really enjoy rooting for Detroit, and while they never win, they often come fairly close so I like this spread.

The Saints game was close last week I think, so I’m betting on the spread on this one as well.

San Francisco and Atlanta, who cares?

No way St. Louis wins two in a row.

I’m hoping that Buffalo can pace the Jets like they kept pace with us for three quarters of last week, or win and shove it in QB Hepatitis’s face.

Ugh, Indy I’m so over you.

Alright, now I know that Houston looked like the Boys’ bitch last week, but I love this team. I love how young they are, I love how they beat Indy, and I would love to see a different team making it far in the playoffs.

San Diego, I still have a grudge against due to LT being a bitchy little woman. p.s. I don’t care that he plays for the Jets now. The Chargers can still suck it.

Uggggggh, so I really really really want the Skins to roll into Philly and make them eat the shit they’ve been talking, but I’m not an idiot.

I keep picking against Chicago because I think they suck, especially after being forced to watch some of their blowouts last season. However, against all odds they keep winning so I might as well start picking them. Also, eff the Giants.

I love when the schedule works out this way, playing Miami in Miami early in the season so we can play them at home in the snow. Oh, and the Brady haircut is growing on me, it’s sexy all tousled and sweaty.

Now for the good stuff, since your blog is also about TV, and since the fall shows have started, I figured I would give you a girl update. Vampire Diaries has become my favorite show (yes, I was willing to put that in writing). See, I’m not even embarrassed about it. I spend all day focusing intently, reading heavy material, and trying to keep my patients alive. When I get home, I want something slutty and foolish and requiring no effort, a.k.a. Vampire Diaries.

My other favorite at the moment is House. I love seeing him happy, I love that sly sexy little smile he gets when he’s happy, and I am so nervous for what happens next.

For new shows, I hated My Generation. I hated the narrator’s voice and how transparent the whole setup was. I think this show would have been great if it was a real documentary, they could have followed my high school class or a million others. I feel like this fake-ass story was almost insulting to us.

Another disappointing new show is Top Chef: Just Desserts. While I love Top Chef, I feel like it is more difficult to tell based on looking at the food and listening to how it is described to tell if you would like it or not. Further, watching Just Desserts, I don’t become ridiculously hungry and want to eat every piece of chocolate in the house.

We finally watched an episode of Glee, and while I thought the singing/dancing was phenomenal, the interaction between characters is tiresome- they shouldn’t speak.

Lastly, I regret to admit, Bob has been successful in converting me to a Fringe fan. However, I am mighty pissed off at what they have shown in previews of FAKE Olivia making out with Peter. I hate hate hate this idea that men are so bloody stupid they can’t tell the difference between the woman they love and a fake. It isn’t just Fringe, this is something you see repeatedly. I mean, Swan Lake, hello!? DON’T KISS FAKE OLIVIA, SHE IS EVIL!!!

This is one thing I love about Vampire Diaries, the brother dating the main character was able to tell the difference between her and her identical across time and space evil-vampire twin, whereas his brother could not. In this case, at least one man was smart enough to know who they were kissing. Is it really that hard? Thank god I’m tall and difficult to mistake, otherwise who knows who Bob would accidentally be kissing.

-----
Matt: If we're going to talk about television guilty pleasures, there's one show that is far superior to all others - Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory on MTV. It's wonderful. Rob does all of the little things, pranks, and time-wasting adventures we liked to do in college when we had free time and few responsibilities.

Except for one thing: He has the money to do them properly. So he's converted a giant warehouse into some office space for his family members, put in a giant skate park and ball pit, complete with basketball hoops 30 feet into the air. Mishaps and hilarity ensue, ranging from getting his receptionist a spread in Maxim to destroying his cousin's car and replacing it with a car with a furry cat covering. Good good stuff. I'd like to think I'd display this creativity in use of several million dollars if I had it.

-----
Steve: Speaking of Maxim, since Matt brought it up briefly… I somehow ended up with a subscription two years ago. I don’t know how it happened; I blame Electronics Boutique Gamestop. They sometimes ask me some blah blah blah about if I like magazines when I buy something.

I would cancel my subscription, except that I’m not being charged for it. I don’t know how this is happening. However, looking at my credit card bills, I haven’t ever paid money for it. This makes me worry that if I try to cancel it, they’ll notice and then bill me a couple hundred for the two-plus years I’ve gotten for free.

I don’t even like the magazine, by the way. Yes, there are very, VERY attractive women on the cover. However, I have the Internet, so I can literally see attractive women whenever the urge strikes me. I don’t need them delivered to me in the mail, so that my roommate and other attractive women think I’m some pig who reads Maxim. It’s a Catch-22 in my head, between my twin desires to be cheap (and just let them keep delivering) and to be not creepy (and canceling the subscription).

... This whole paragraph does give me an excuse to include a Maxim cover photo though, which isn’t the worst thing in the world. Go me!

The Warehouse 13 picture comes from this awesome recap site. The Vampire Diaries picture is from here. Chanel the receptionist is from this site. And Avril, who I will admit I have a small crush on, is from this site about her German Maxim spread. And finally, the actual picks are below:

	Steve	Bob	Kristin	Matt
DEN at TEN (-6.5)	TEN	DEN	TEN	TEN
BAL at PIT (-2.5)	PIT	PIT	BAL	BAL
CIN (-3) at CLE	CIN	CIN	CIN	CIN
DET at GB (-14)	GB	GB	DET	DET
CAR at NO (-13.5)	NO	NO	CAR	NO
SF at ATL (-7)	ATL	ATL	ATL	ATL
SEA (-1.5) at STL	SEA	STL	SEA	SEA
NYJ (-5.5) at BUF	NYJ	NYJ	NYJ	NYJ
IND (-7) at JAC	IND	IND	IND	IND
HOU (-3) at OAK	HOU	HOU	HOU	HOU
ARI at SD (-8.5)	SD	SD	ARI	ARI
WAS at PHI (-5.5)	PHI	PHI	WAS	PHI
CHI at NYG (-3.5)	CHI	NYG	CHI	NYG
NE (-1) at MIA	NE	MIA	NE	NE

Brittany squared makes Glee awesome

Please don't pull out all my teeth - When I smile, I'll look like an adult baby with boobs.

I've been waiting for a Brittany-centric episode for almost a year now, and wow, it didn't disappoint. She had lines in practically every scene she was in, and all of them were great, like the one above. She's hilarious! She needs more air time!

"... Are you a cat?" "I would just like to say that from now on, I demand every solo in Glee club." "I'm more talented that all of you, I can see that clearly now. It's Brittany... bitch." "I fed the snake."

And obviously, from the photos, beyond being funny she is also... uh... a tremendous dancer. Obviously. Unlike some of the other past "theme" episodes Glee has done, I felt that they integrated the music in better, thanks to the dentist dream sequences. Spears also took part in the episode, but only two scenes, so it helped to establish that the episode had her "blessing," if you will.

One other random thought I had while watching about Brittany / Britney: She sure is tall. However, according to this site of celebrity heights, she's "only" 5'8". Maybe it's just that other people on the show are shorter? She's frequently seen next to Santana, who according to IMDB is three inches shorter, and Lea Michele (Rachel) is 5'2", and Dianna Agron (Quinn) is at 5'6".

However, on the negative side, I'll say that I am officially effed out on Will and Emma's thing. Whatever chance that had died to me when he showed up in that fancy car to impress her, and then his ex-wife got into a fight with him. (By the way, wtf? Where the heck did she come from?) Emma and Will getting back together just seems too implausible at this point, even for Glee. Please just give him a new girlfriend, creators.

Likewise, I don't care much for even more Rachel and Finn drama (even if she was incredibly hot in this episode), or Artie trying to win back Tina, because hey, Artie WAS a huge jerk to her. And by all accounts on the show, Mike Chang is a good guy (who just happens to have perfect abs).

He's also another character that could use his own episode, as opposed to obsessing so much over the Will-Emma, Tina-Artie and Rachel-Finn pairings. I need to see more about Mike Chang, Puck, Kurt's awesome dad Mike O'Malley, Principal Figgins and a baby-less Quinn. Let's give the mainstays of the show a bit of a rest.

Glee returns with a splendid episode.

People thought I went on vacation, but actually,

I spent the summer lost in the sewers.
Ah - Loony quotes from Brittney signify the restart of Glee. I was worried that the show might jump the shark and go the way of Heroes, but the second season premiere brought the funny in all of the aspects involving the New Horizons kids.

The odd thing to me was where the episode fell flat - Will and Sue torturing the new football coach, and the adults in general. First off, it looks like the new football coach is just the old one in drag, which would be humorous to me, but I don't know if this is actually the case. Second, Sue just came off as mean-mean, as opposed to funny-mean, like she normally is with Will. She still had some great lines at least. And third, where the heck was Jayma Mays??? She was the most surprising absence, and I hope she hasn't been downgraded to just a guest star for the season.

However, every scene with the kids was great. (Although, I did question the "Santana has breast implants" thing, for the simple fact that her breasts did not look any bigger.) I loved that Quinn and Sue cut a deal for her to regain her status as the top cheerleader, and the scene with Brittney, Sue, the football coach and the doll were hilarious. (Also, Quinn once again looks stunning, which can't be underestimated in terms of keeping my attention on the television set. I am a boy, after all.)

I do kind of wonder where they go from here, of course. Are we going to have another season of Rachel desperately trying to protect her grasp as the top singer on the club? I realize she's the closest thing the show has to a "star" after Jane Lynch, but I feel her character is dangerously overexposed already. I'm still hopeful for some Britt and Santana-centric episodes, since that would really help break up the focus on the four "mains" of the cast - Rachel, Finn, Sue and Will.

Following up on Glee

My entry the other night on Glee brought up some questions and remarks from Danielle and Amber, so I thought I'd elaborate some more. (And as a note, I totally mix up the names of the teams all the time. I just know them as Will's Glee Club and Vocal Adrenaline, who I compare to the Russians in the Miracle on Ice, or in Rocky IV.)

Regarding Sue, I find her outburst of support for the kids out-of-character because it wasn't hinted at more throughout the season. There could have been a more gradual softening than her voting for Will's Club, and granting them the practice space for another year. I think the only times they hinted that she had a heart this season were 1) her relationships with the mentally-challenged sister and Cheerio and 2) when she was rejected by Will and the newscaster.

I find Rachel and Finn a bit boring and implausible, just because of how much they've gone through during the season. I don't think there is a ton of chemistry between Monteith and Michele in their scenes together, so ideally, I think it would be better if they got new beaus.

As far as Journey goes, heck, I love Journey. However, they definitely feel a bit effed out now, between The Sopranos ending, the beginning of the Glee season, and their constant presence at every college party I ever went to. I was looking forward to a funkified finale, but instead I got Journey. boooooo.

Glee can be cheesy, yes. But typically, it skews toward cheesy when it comes to the numbers and format, and not so much the interpersonal relationships. I just felt like it all resolved itself a bit too neatly in the final episode. The birth scenes were awesome, but having Rachel's mom adopt Beth seemed like a convoluted way to keep her involved with the show.

As far as Mercedes and Quinn go... meh. Yeah, I guess you can say their feelings for one another crested with the pregnancy song and dance the previous episode, but even then, it felt more like a meeting of the minds as opposed to a lasting friendship. Like Rachel's mom, it felt like a convenient bow so that people wouldn't be asking, "Hey where the heck is Quinn going to live?" If anything, I'd prefer for her to strike it out on her own, except that I can't remember how old she is on the show.

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.

Keeping it in the family with Glee

Although both main story arcs on Tuesday night's Glee dealt with irregular family situations, only two of the characters - Rachel and her mom - came across as likable considering the circumstances.

While I'm not generally a fan of Rachel because of her smugness and cockiness, I do enjoy when she is portrayed as an actual human being and not a stereotype. Tuesday was my favorite "Rachel" episode of the season, since she is so vulnerable and therefore accessible throughout the episode. Her initial Lady Gaga costume - pictured above - is one of the best sight gags of the second half of the season. And I also think the slow, gradual development of the relationship with her mom is the right decision for the show to take. There is enough camp in a typical episode of Glee to resist making them best-friends-forever right after their initial meeting.

However, the other main arc of the episode - friction between Finn, Kurt and Kurt's dad - felt completely flat to me. I think it's unrealistic to portray Kurt's dad as the only person on the show who doesn't realize that Kurt is in love with Finn. I also don't think Finn would have allowed things to proceed as far as sharing a room with Kurt without mentioning this fact to either his mom or Kurt's dad. As a result, I found everything about this plot arc, including the horrible Gaga-dressing by Finn, to be unrealistically out of character.

The little odds and ends of the episode helped to make up for this though. The other mini-issues of the episode - Quinn and Puck squabbling over the name of their child, and Tina trying to deal with her new dress code - were both interesting. There were also some quirky, winking at the camera moments on the show, mostly between Rachel and her mom.

And, I've got to give props to Iqbal Theba, who plays Principal Figgins with the perfect mixture of ignorance and authority. In Tuesday's episode, he insisted that Tina stop dressing like a goth because of his worries about Twilight and vampire problems, only to be harassed by Tina into reverting the dress code because of his irrational fear of vampires. While this served as the catalyst for the show's Gaga theme, it was unfortunately kept in the background and used mostly as a bookend.

Also, unlike last week's episode, Brittany was back to her ditzy, quotable self. (She suggests that Tina dress up as a cross country skier, a Happy Meal with no onions or a chicken. When Rachel comes in with her sadly pathetic Gaga outfit, Britt says, "You look horrible. I look awesome.") I've found that on the Internetz, the Brittney and Santana combination is known as Brittana, which is awesome.

There are two episodes of the season left, and I imagine we're going to see a bit more focus on singing and dancing, since the sectionals are coming up to end the season. At least, that's what I'm hoping for - While the drama of the first season has been high, I do think it would be more appropriate if they focused on the actual Glee club with the final two episodes as opposed to leaving us with drama-filled cliffhangers at the end of the season.

Tag Team: Danielle and Steve get very Glee-ful and Glee-ky

To rip-off the disclaimer for Bill Simmons' BS Report, Tag Team is a free flowing discussion between two adults that sometimes touches on mature subjects. due to popular demand, and by that I mean web page hits, my friend Danielle Membrino is back for a third Tag Team entry! She is currently employed as a photographer and nanny in Boston.

Want to do your own Tag Team with me? Send me an e-mail (sgre6768@gmail.com) or leave a comment. You can find the past Tag Team entries I did with Danielle here and here.

-----
Steve said at 1:43 a.m. on Monday, May 10:

Dear Danielle,

How are things? I hope you are doing well. Hey, did you realize that YOUR name is Danielle, like Danielle Steele? Have you ever read any of her books? If so, then how was it? If not, then why not?

But, pressing on to more important things - Glee is back with new episodes! Yay! Although I am a bit annoyed that they essentially rebooted all of the story lines in the very first episode back, the show is just so cheesy and different from everything else on television that I can't help but smile when I'm watching it.

I think the minor characters are what make me enjoy it so much, similar to some of my other favorite shows, Community and Modern Family. Every episode, I can count on a silly little contribution from Brittany, or a slutty and funny throwaway line from Santana, or a snide remark from Quinn. Sure, Sue Sylvester is always good, but outside of her, the minor characters are the most consistent
of the cast.

Speaking of the cast, I must say that Rachel and Mr. Schuester are getting on my nerves slightly. Rachel's character has shown pretty much no development in the course of the series - she is still incredibly neurotic and goody goody, excluding the "knife in the back" moment of this week's final song. And I thought that Emma rightly called Will out for all of his horrible behavior, even if she was doing it based on the evil intentions of Sue.

-----

Danielle said at 11:30 p.m. on Monday, May 10:

So I thought her last name was spelled Steele too, but apparently it's Steel. I had no idea my name was Danielle, so I'm glad you've brought this to my attention. It explains why I didn't get those 200 points on the SATs. And no, I have never read Danielle Steel's books. I have better things to read than over dramatic love stories.

Speaking of over dramatic stories, how awesome is Glee? I'm glad they've continued so strong with the second half of their first season. I do wish there would be some growth with Rachel, but it's also only the first season. If they do too much at once they'll burn out too quickly. My roommate, who finally got into Glee recently, brought up the point that Will ALWAYS seems annoyed by Rachel. He never seems happy with her and always has a grimace on his face when she's doing anything. He should be nicer to her. I'm sure she's obnoxious, but I still like her. That's something I really like about Lea Michele, she makes an annoying character likable.

I love how in the world of Glee they've made it such their own thing they even have their own slang like "lime-a-loser" and "Cheerios." It's things like that, that always draw me in. The cheesiness factor is awesome too. Sometimes I think it can get too cheesy in some serious moments and i roll my eyes, but I love the funny cheesy stuff. It's what really makes this show work. Like you know they aren't taking themselves too seriously.

I don't really mind that they haven't come up with many new plot lines, like I said, I don't want them to burn out too quickly. Teen drama shows that have too many different plot lines threading through one season often don't last past a third of fourth season. Buffy the Vampire Slayer lasted for seven seasons because it was so good at pacing itself out. While there were few subplots and different small monsters/demons in each season, there was generally one big bad guy that had to be defeated in the end. So I am hoping things do move forward more with Jesse being at the school, Kurt & Mercedes joining Cheerios and Will & Emma working out their relationship, but I hope nothing happens too fast. If that makes any sense.

I don't trust Jesse St. James at all. He is definitely up to something. I have a feeling he's going to switch back to Vocal Adrenaline soon, his plan being to leave Rachel heartbroken and not wanting to go on with Glee Club. But I could also see that backfiring because she'd be so upset with him she'd want to get on stage and defeat him at regionals. I also want her and Finn to get together, so Jesse can just leave. Although I do love his singing voice. I listen to his and Rachel's version of "Hello" a lot on my iTunes.

On the topic of songs, I personally love this show and what its been doing with music. It has taken A LOT of billboard hit songs and brought them to a new generation. I'll even admit I don't always know all the songs in an episode, but I'm not a huge music person, so it's not that surprising. On the opposing side though, I listen to this one podcast and they happened to be talking about Glee in their latest episode and one of the guys on it HATES it. He considers it an abomination to music. He hates that they're taking all these classic songs and just making them pop-y. And then all these 15 year old girls only download the Glee versions of them and don't even know the originals.

But a couple of other people on the podcast stood up for Glee and made good points that I agreed with. Like yes, they have changed a lot of good songs into these bubblegum pop-y songs, but there's still some really amazing ones like when Rachel sings "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. Also, yes a lot of teen girls will only listen to the Glee versions of these songs, but at least it's giving them the chance to learn about these past musicians. It's not like Glee ever claims that they're their own songs. They often mention the artist in the show. After the Madonna show, her record sales went way up like they haven't been in a long time.

So I'll leave it at that for now since this is getting pretty long.

-----
Steve said at 10:17 p.m. on Thursday, May 13:

Dear Danielle,

Please don't pretend like you have more important things to do than to read Danielle Steel novels! I mean, after all, you now have a league-leading THIRD Tag Team blog, so obviously, you must either prioritize me, or you do have lots of free time. A-ha! I have backed you into a corner, like Inigo Montoya did to Count Rugen! (Or, if you prefer the funny, like how Vizzini "outwits" the man in black.)

And wait, by "roommate" do you mean Maggie Sullivan? It is hard for me to picture her being into Glee - it just doesn't seem like her kind of show! I mean, there is barely any inappropriate humor, and no vomiting, so it's not like Family Guy at all. Man... she's changed, man... Maybe I'm just staying the same in my country bumpkin world while you both mature in the Big City.

I definitely agree with Maggie - I think Will reluctantly accepts Rachel's help. Tapping into my limited experience as a substitute and college teaching assistant, an overenthusiastic student who constantly tries to "help" generally just gets in the way and detracts from your authority. While they're never as disruptive as class clowns or outright criminals, they aren't as easy to have in class as the kids who just do their own thing, or who work quietly.

I understand your concerns about the show moving too fast. I think the first half of the first season was on fast forward a bit, simply because the creators probably wanted to show off a big wallop to ensure the show's survival. I think the rest of the first season, and the subsequent seasons, will feature more gradual storylines and plot twists. For example, it wouldn't surprise me to see more made out of the relationship between the parents of Finn and Kurt. (And thus, more plots involving Mike O'Malley! Do do do you have it? GUTS!)

Jesse is definitely up to no good. He is just TOO slick for the show's general tone - There has to be something shady going on with him. Like, it wouldn't surprise me if he is some mid-20s ringer, like that Kristen Chenawumba lady was supposed to be for Will.

As far as the effect of Glee on popular music, I mostly say meh. For the most part, they stick to pop music - How are they killing songs like freakin' Madonna with their commercialism when the originals have sold about 50 million copies? I have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to people who automatically criticize something just because it is a remake of an original. Then again, I love cover songs and cheesy music, so Glee is right up my alley in the first place.

-----
Danielle said at 4:19 p.m. on Friday, May 14:

haha Well, Maggie doesn't love it like I do. She thinks it's funny and likes it well enough. She mocks it a quite a bit for being so cheesy, but that's understandable, cause it is. That is what makes the show so awesome though. I just watched a sneak peak clip on the Glee Facebook page about Joss Whedon and how much of a Gleek he is. He talks about how much he loves the show and he was so excited to direct an episode. Brittany is his favorite character. I am SO excited for next week's episode since he's directing it AND it also has Neil Patrick Harris in it. I love Joss Whedon so much, so this should be epic.

I do hope they build more with the relationship between Finn's mom and Kurt's dad. I think it could be really good for both the families. I also really liked the scene at the end of last weeks episode between Kurt & his dad after Kurt finished singing "Rose's Song." I felt that it was a pretty genuine scene without being cheesy. How a lot of parents would feel when they first find out their kid is gay. He doesn't hate him, isn't disgusted by it, his dad just needs time to come to terms with things that won't be happening that he thought would be happening with his kid. I was actually at my friend Kris' apartment watching it with his girlfriend and when that scene happened, Kris made fun of us because we both at the same time sat forward on the couch.

I wonder when the Vocal Adrenaline coach is going to come back into play. That actress has starred in Wicked before, so I'm sure she'll be singing at some point. Wasn't she also the girlfriend of Patrick Dempsey's character in Enchanted? I think she was. I could IMDB it but I'm too lazy.

I'd also like to take back what I said in the first e-mail about how I don't think Rachel's changed at all. She is definitely more of a team player, though still considers herself better and more important than anyone else. She's also more caring. But she is still insane and over dramatic. I can't wait to see what more songs they use for the 5 remaining episodes. My iTunes is so full of Glee. I think the only thing I have more of is Christmas music, haha.

Well I'm about to go see Iron Man 2, so I must be off for now.

-----
Steve said at 11:21 a.m. on Wednesday, May 19:

(Note: I'll let you have the last word, so do a reply to this, and then I'll post it. Thanks!)

Well, the Whedon episode has aired now, and I must say - I was a little disappointed. Especially if he said Brittany is his favorite character, since she had no speaking lines and only a minor part in the episode, during the group dance numbers. Don't get me wrong, the episode was still good, but outside of the always-excellent Neil Patrick Harris, this could have been any other episode of the season.

At first, when they teased that Artie had regained the use of his legs, I honestly thought the show was jumping the shark right there. I was watching and thinking, "Seriously, Glee, this is how you're going out? Like a punk in your first season? You're doing this Heroes-style?" Luckily though, it was just a daydream. I thought it was then a little bit harsh to then have Emma Pillsbury shatter his dreams a bit more; I think the scene in the mall was enough to hammer down the point that Artie's life sucks a bit.

I did like the payoff with Rachel's mom being the coach of Vocal Adrenaline though. Even if the reveal was a bit telegraphed with how freakishly similar they look, I thought it was a really effective bit of casting there. I still don't like Jesse though, and I bet their end game is to eventually recruit Rachel to the Vocal Adrenaline team. I still don't think Rachel has changed that much - She has become more a team player, true, but that's damning with faint praise.

Regarding the actress herself, I haven't seen Wicked or Enchanted. While I watch Glee and loved Serenity and Firefly, I was never into Buffy or Angel, so there is a limit to my cheese factor.

How was Iron Man 2? I still haven't seen it, just because the reviews and response from my friends has been pretty lukewarm. Almost everyone I've asked about it has had the, "Eh, it's okay" reaction. It sounds like it is more like a conventional sequel as opposed to something that really expands the series, like The Dark Knight or Spiderman 2.

-----
Danielle said at 9:27 a.m. on Thursday, May 20:

I too was at first a little underwhelmed by the episode. I watched it a second time last night though and really liked it. I've noticed when I'm kind of indifferent toward a Glee episode, once I watch it again I like it more. I also don't hold the episode against Joss Whedon though, you have to remember he didn't write it, he only directed it. So I'm sure he gets to change some things on the script, he can't do whatever he wants. I was a little disappointed to not even hear Brittany say anything, but I guess it's good that they're not relying on her to be the humor for every episode.

If Jesse & the coach do try to bring Rachel over to Vocal Adrenaline, I'm sure it won't work. I'm sure she'll think about it though. I'm glad Jesse actually likes her though. The coach being her mom was something I didn't expect. Should be interesting.

I laughed so hard when I realized Artie was going to sing Safety Dance. I knew it wasn't real once he did more than stand up. I was like, therapy doesn't work in a day. I feel bad for him though and hope he starts feeling better about himself soon. I didn't think they were going to jump the shark, not in the first season before it's even over.

HOW EXCITED are you for the Lady Gaga epiosde next week??? I think it'll be awesome.
As for Iron MAN 2, I liked it. I thought it was just a fun super hero movie. It wasn't as deep or amazing as The Dark Knight, but I didn't expect it to be. I think they built it up for possibly a third one, but definitely to lead into The Avengers [two Easter eggs for Captain America and Thor]. Which by the way, is ALSO supposed to be directed by Joss Whedon :D

-----
Want to do your own Tag Team? Feel free to e-mail me at sgre6768@gmail.com. Danielle's picture comes from her Facebook photos. The picture of Finn and Rachel is from this site. The picture of Inigo is from this site. The picture of Joss Whedon is from here. The picture of Neil Patrick Harris is from this site that has several scantily clad pictures of him, which I could have done without seeing. And the picture of Rachel and her new mom is from this site, which is actually pretty entertaining to me.