Glee

[Downward Spiral]

I have to say that episode was absolutely amazing, and FINALLY got the show back on form after a fairly haphazard set of episodes to start the season off. The music was brilliant, classic Glee fodder with Teenage Dream obviously being the real highlight.

Surely Chris Colfer has an Emmy coming his way in the near future. He's always been incredible at getting this character across but with the stuff with his dad and now last night's episode, he's just knocking it out of the park.

Amazing.

[GoGo Yubari]

I actually really didn't care for this episode aside from the Kurt subplot (which was great). Darren Criss was great, Teenage Dream was great, Sue's scenes were great, remembering that Tina was originally vaguely implied to be either a lesbian or bi in the pilot was amusing, but I felt like I was having "THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE" bashed into my skull repeatedly. Had the Kurt stuff been the main story instead of oddly pushed to the side in order to continually go back to a middling joke turned into really really forced drama it would have been much better. Best episode this season remains "Duets" which was fantastic and the only episode that I feel really stands up to the high points of season one.

I mean. I know I don't like an episode when not even "Free Your Mind" by En Vogue can turn me around on it. I'm looking forward to Blaine returning and I'm looking forward to the Warblers being a real challenge for New Directions as opposed to the two punchlines that were their Sectionals opponents last year. But I can safely say that this isn't an episode I have any interest in rewatching.

[naiwf]

Knowing how Ryan Murphy rolls, my guess is that the boyfriend ends up being Karovski (sp?), the fat jock that's always busting Finn's balls for being in the glee club.

It was a fairly easy guess that he would end up being gay for Kurt, but I still feel good about calling it.

[naiwf]

This week's episode was probably my favorite one of the season, and more than likely had the least amount of Will in it. Coincidence?

[GoGo Yubari]

I think "Duets" had the least Will. I also think this was a pretty solid second-best episode of the season behind that one. None of the numbers really worked for me in a big way but whatever, when Glee's humor is actually on the level it's supposed to be I can overlook musical numbers I don't care about and Will being a really inconsistent character.

[Katsuya]

I thought last night was a really sweet episode, even if it did turn in to the Kurt Hummel power hour. I love Kurt though so I didn't mind it that much, and now that he's joined the Warblers things will get interesting. Do Glee need to recruit a new twelfth member now or will they conveniently forget that rule?

[naiwf]

Santana needs more solos. That is all.

[apsham]

I thought that I was going to get myself into Glee after seeing some rather funny internet shorts/commercials where some teacher in a blue jumpsuit trashes the Glee kids constantly - but I just couldn't do it in the end.

[thatblindgeye]

I have to say, if it wasn't for the dancing number during Santana's solo, I really would have said The Warblers should have come in first place. Wasn't that wowed by New Directions' performance at all. The first number sounded a lot better once the entire group got into it, but Quinn and Sam alone I just didn't think was that good at all. Also hoping the big chick gets booted out of the club ASAP. I dont see her being of much interest other than the "lol shes fat and wrestles" stuff.

Tina and Mercedes, however, need more songs together. That final song in the episode was great.

Edited December 1, 2010 by Vitamin E

[GoGo Yubari]

I like Lauren for a couple of reasons. First of all, she's an actual outcast joining the Glee club. Like, an honest-to-goodness example of the kind of person the club is supposed to be for, as opposed to Pretty Football Player/Cheerleader Who Likes to Sing. The fact that she doesn't actually take it seriously at present makes it even better. Alternatively if they just use her like they did in the green room scene where she detachedly commented on the teen drama ("Best. Green room. Ever.") that would work too. I mean, they also have Santana and Quinn for that but they veer between commenting on it or being the catalyst for it. Or she can just rock Puck's world some more. Why not.

I was actually mostly bored by the episode, though. Having a tie between New Directions and the Warblers was a cop out but I can live with that cop out because there's clearly more to be done with Kurt at Dalton and I love the Warblers' numbers. Brittany/Artie is starting to wear out its welcome a little bit mostly because holy fuck, let's not do the Magic Placebo storyline ever again, but since Artie comes off likable and not like a douche or a wigger whilst in the relationship (at least when Brad Falchuk is writing it) I guess it's acceptable.

Best part of the episode, though, was the DMV guy as the celebrity judge, but thinking about it now there were some quality scenes here and there. The Kurt/Rachel stuff felt well-earned, and Santana singing whilst Brittany and Mike dance in the foreground is like a trifecta of my three favorite supporting cast members (as far as the actual glee club goes, anyway) getting to shine. Really not sure if I have any measure of excitement for the Christmas episode, though.

[AnnIQ Edison]

I loved that Christmas episode. It was exactly what it needed to be and more. Sweet and nice. The Grinch sub plot was awesome as well as Beaste truly showing her vulnerability. She is slowly becoming my favourite side character.

The ending was great as well. From the moment they enter the choir room.

[GoGo Yubari]

I hated it except for a couple of throwaway gags and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" even if I generally hate that song as well. Brittany getting the plot spotlight has basically turned out like what I feared it would; it was amplified here a lot presumably because the episode's a big How the Grinch Stole Christmas thing and really only Brittany could play the Cindy Lou Who role, but it was present in "Special Education" as well. Also apparently coaching high school football for a crappy school with perennial budgetary concerns pays you a metric fuckton since those leg things were implied to be super-expensive.

I'm sort of having to come to grips with the fact that whatever it was that I really, really loved about Glee just isn't there anymore. I've only genuinely liked two, maybe three episodes this season start-to-finish and I'm starting to feel like I'm watching it out of a sense of obligation rather than really liking it.

[buck...]

This is something I been wondering lately after hearing alot of bad things about the second season. Could the massive hype that people had coming into this season be why its seen as dreadful? I mean this season isn't as good as the first, so far anyway it hasn't been, but I have thought that it was good at worst. I could just be easy to entertain. My opinion is quite short and simple, but I've wondered what others thought. What I think hurt it was the massive hype coming in after the great first season in many peoples eyes.

sorry for the distorted setences, I didn't know quite how to ask the question.

[Olive the other Jiberdeer]

GoGo, you're quickly becoming simultaneously my favourite and least favourite poster, based on the fact that you post what I believe/am thinking before I believe/think it.

Glee has the rest of the season to become interesting again, or I leave it forever. It's rapidly becoming this year's Heroes in my books.

[GoGo Yubari]

Seriously, does anyone on this show actually know how football works?

It was a promising first half of the episode before the football stuff turned it into teen drama stagnation.

[zero]

Do they have any idea how any school activity works... or people for that matter? This show has become a complete train wreck with the occasional cool musical performance. The Thriller/Heads Will Roll mash-up was cool, but the rest of tonight's episode was a disaster.

[GoGo Yubari]

There was some redeeming stuff early on; I actually loved that they carried the "Sue destroys school property to ominous Latin chanting" gag over to a second consecutive scene, probably the best intentional comedy moment the show's done in a while (best unintentional comedy moment was Tina getting killed), "I will not sing no showtunes, that is the music of my oppressors," and the Asshole Jock Hockey Team lurking in the wings was weird enough to work. But god did this episode fall apart and hard. Musically the mashup worked better than I was expecting it too, though.

[naiwf]

This is something I been wondering lately after hearing alot of bad things about the second season. Could the massive hype that people had coming into this season be why its seen as dreadful? I mean this season isn't as good as the first, so far anyway it hasn't been, but I have thought that it was good at worst. I could just be easy to entertain. My opinion is quite short and simple, but I've wondered what others thought. What I think hurt it was the massive hype coming in after the great first season in many peoples eyes.

sorry for the distorted setences, I didn't know quite how to ask the question.

Ryan Murphy's ADD is to blame for the super fast pacing of the show as they've done about 4+ seasons worth of material already. The larger problem is that Glee is now trying too hard to be this pop culture phenomenon that's in on itself if that makes sense. This wasn't an issue when the initial order of episodes was finished because they didn't even know if they would be successful. You can see that they've ruined most of what was good about Brittany by making her a caricature of what she was at first. It's the same thing they did to Phoebe on Friends. Some of the things that some fans have wanted have been shoehorned into the plots (Santana and Brittany's relationship) for no real reason. The whole first season was about Will and Emma and they basically spent a whole season ruining Will's marriage with the retarded fake pregnancy and then decided to essentially write Emma out of the show. Look at how they just got rid of Tanaka and Shaft for no real reason, then played musical chairs with the 12th member of the club bringing in Bieber 2.0 and then sending Puck to juvie, then bringing in that fat chick etc. In short, there is no long term planning and the desire to either appease the fans or give a hearty F.U. to the critics has ruined the show in my book.

[GoGo Yubari]

Some of the things that some fans have wanted have been shoehorned into the plots (Santana and Brittany's relationship) for no real reason.

Wait, what? They've all but abandoned that this season for the Brittany/Artie stuff, which is borderline unwatchable. Also no clue who "Shaft" is supposed to be but if you mean Matt (Black Football Player Guy With No Character), supposedly his actor didn't actually like being on the show much and chose to leave.

I agree with your general points, though.

[buck...]

This is something I been wondering lately after hearing alot of bad things about the second season. Could the massive hype that people had coming into this season be why its seen as dreadful? I mean this season isn't as good as the first, so far anyway it hasn't been, but I have thought that it was good at worst. I could just be easy to entertain. My opinion is quite short and simple, but I've wondered what others thought. What I think hurt it was the massive hype coming in after the great first season in many peoples eyes.

sorry for the distorted setences, I didn't know quite how to ask the question.

Ryan Murphy's ADD is to blame for the super fast pacing of the show as they've done about 4+ seasons worth of material already. The larger problem is that Glee is now trying too hard to be this pop culture phenomenon that's in on itself if that makes sense. This wasn't an issue when the initial order of episodes was finished because they didn't even know if they would be successful. You can see that they've ruined most of what was good about Brittany by making her a caricature of what she was at first. It's the same thing they did to Phoebe on Friends. Some of the things that some fans have wanted have been shoehorned into the plots (Santana and Brittany's relationship) for no real reason. The whole first season was about Will and Emma and they basically spent a whole season ruining Will's marriage with the retarded fake pregnancy and then decided to essentially write Emma out of the show. Look at how they just got rid of Tanaka and Shaft for no real reason, then played musical chairs with the 12th member of the club bringing in Bieber 2.0 and then sending Puck to juvie, then bringing in that fat chick etc. In short, there is no long term planning and the desire to either appease the fans or give a hearty F.U. to the critics has ruined the show in my book.

I see some of the problems but others I think is bitching to bitch. Actually alot of it is to me. They got rid of tanaka to get beiste. Is it a good trade off? Depends who you asked, I have really enjoyed her this season but to each their own. The complaints about realism i don't get. When I watch glee I don't look for realism. In real life Sue would have never lasted as long as she has in a school. They are started out as caricature of stereotypes. I get the bitching about Brittany to a point, but when it's all said and done, to me it's a dumb blond caricature more than anything. The Santana and Brittany thing was hinted at for a while. Granted I was reading anything between the mid season break last year so maybe there was a lot of clamoring for that before the last episode of season one. Either way, I saw hints of it through the first thirteen, granted since Murphy has been an ass lately, no one wants to give him and the other writers' credit for anything that could be thought of as good writing but eh that's a different subject. The storyline didn't bother me before, and if they pick it up again later on, it won't then either.

I don't know why the pacing doesn't bother me but it really doesn't. I enjoy the soap opera like drama, the stupid comedy and the smart comedy. Even with the musical chairs, now they got 14, and if Kurt comes back, it be 15…..saying that there's hard to find story's for all those people is a fair thing to bitch about, but none of what you had said has distracted from my entertainment. Maybe I just shut my brain off when I go watch glee. I do that when I watch a lot of show, but of the people I know that liked the show hasn't spoken ill about it, and before I looked online, I was surprise that fans were receiving season 2 so badly….I n the end I don't get it, I can't defend it because most of the problems brought up I just really don't see. I feel I'm coming off like an ass here but I have enjoyed glee more than anything else on TV except Community, and probably the same level of Sons of Anarchy. I think the pop culture thing is natural for a show like Glee, and that hasn't taking away from the show for me. Thats a lackluster defense of what you said but I guess what it came down to is different strokes for different folks, or however the phase goes.

Edited February 7, 2011 by buck44