Glee

The Quinn stuff was just ridiculous. Christopher Reeve should have joined a Show Choir, I guess.

This show has made me regret recommending it to people. Like, literally, when I see the people I recommended it to in Season 1, I'm privately embarrassed.

 

I guess I'm the only one who realized it wasn't a documentary early on.

 

If this is about the Quinn stuff, it's kind of an unfair criticism. Within every fictional universe, there are still standards of realism. Would it be okay if magic cured Quinn's paralysis? Would it be okay if she rode a dragon to Yale? The line is what it is for every viewer, and treating paralysis like a minor irritation that disappears in a POOF! is intentionally manipulative, to a degree that's obnoxious.

I honestly think one of Glee's biggest flaws is Murphy, Falchuck and Brennan really started to believe the fawning stuff about how Glee changed peoples' lives! How many episodes this year could have been categorized as a very special Glee? It became message television, and it was frequently maudlin crap. Yes, gay teens have it awful. Yes, bullying is an epidemic. Yes, suicide is awful. Yes, partner abuse is a serious issue. Yes, texting while driving is dumb. Yes, transsexuals can't feel free to be themselves.

All those issues, separately, can be powerful storytelling. Put them together, week after week, and it's just manipulative message television. As RickStain pointed out, there have to be actual consequences to action in storytelling or the next action is no longer as powerful. There are diminishing returns each time. Blaine gets hit in the eye with rock salt? He's fine. Karovsky tries to kill himself? He's fine. Quinn gets paralyzed in a car accident? She's fine. Even lesser stuff like people leaving the Glee club never sticks. The predictability of it all is pretty boring, to be honest.

I'm sorry I ever gave the program the benefit of the doubt, frankly. I enjoyed the Meatloaf -- Lea Michelle killed it -- but that wasn't enough to save a really, really bad season.

 

You don't know how badly I want to disagree with that assessment ... and I can't. It's absolutely right.

And yet, I enjoyed it. I guess it's a matter of being able to turn the brain off.

 

Indeed.

The evolution of this thread, as the show went from absolutely amazing in Fall 2009 to now, is a really fun read.

I did think this season was better than last year. More consistently funny. The plots haven't rang true in a long time, though. The actress playing Coach Beist was doing what she could with poor, predictable material.

 

I've always taken the show to be an after-school special on acid. I do think the show has tried to have it both ways, goofy enough not to be faulted for falling short of realism, serious enough to be considered somewhat more important than the latest teen show.
I think that scene early on between Kurt and his dad set a bar that the show hasn't come close to reaching since.

 

When Mike O'Malley is the best actor on a show, that can be a warning sign. "Do you have it? GUTS!"

Joking aside, Glee to me is following in the path of Heroes - Incredibly first season, diminishing returns in following seasons, with the end (probably) coming with desperate grabs for attention, like the lesbian kiss on Heroes.

 

The plotting is awful, the dialogue is inconsistent, the acting is not good.

All that leaves is good-looking young people pretending to be teenagers dancing around in sexy clothing singing pop songs. Which is still enough to make me watch, I guess, because I caught up through Promasaurus on Hulu last night.

 

Reading the reviews of last week's episodes, I'm not sure I want to finish the season. I will, though. I think I've transitioned into hatewatching (thanks ijag).

I know that we're averse to long-term consequences for anything, ever, on this show, but sheesh did they lay it on thick with the happy endings. I'm surprised Kurt's mom and Finn's Dad didn't come back to life to see their nationals win. Maybe next week.

 

Thank Go Fug Yourself and the New Yorker.

 

I've been trying to decide if it's gotten worse from last season or not, as season 2 was also problematic. The conclusion I've come to is, for me, the second season was more consistent, and less bad when it was at its worst. There have been better individual episodes than last season managed (I really enjoyed all the West Side Story eps, and the one where Rachel blew her drama school audition), but it's been really all over the place in terms of quality from week to week, and the tendency to go for the after school special nonsense has only gotten worse.

 

I have to admit, as much as I am in the Hate Watching camp, I'd forgotten how much I like the part in "It's All Coming Back To Me" where it gets all quiet again. Meatloaf had some game. Teenage flashback there.