Glee

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Re: Glee

Post by takenoko »

I guess one of the main driving forces behind Glee's plot is the idea that there are certain couples that are obviously better suited for each other, but these same couples are already with people that are obviously wrong for them. I guess the concept isn't any different from any other shoujo storyline, except the series starts with the relationships already convoluted

Episode 7 Throwdown

Spoiler
So a lot of major things happen in this story. We learn Quinn is having a girl, and we get to see the lengths that Terri and her repulsive sister will go to in order to perpetuate their lie. Seriously, is there anyone who doesn't hate the sister? I also really like the gynecologist (are both of them being Asian supposed to mean something?) and his "oh, whatever" kind of attitude with Terri.

"Asian1, Asian2, you're with me!"

Didn't really go with the minorities versus the whitey white people thing. I can really see how Puck and the other blonde Cheerio who's bad at Spanish would jump ship over Quinn's one comment. You're pushing my suspension of disbelief! Especially when this comes after the boys versus girls setup, which they knew was a deliberate setup to set themselves upon each other. What's wrong with the principal? He threw a shark in the fish tank and got an exaggerated result of the thing he put her in there to avoid!

No secret here that Quinn is my favorite character. I really don't think she's a villain in this series so much as she's Rachel's rival. Like you care about the fact that she's going through her problems, but at the same time you're always aware that she's largely the one responsible for it

Like the pregnancy. Fooling around with Puck while being the head of the virgin club (what happened to that anyway?) While it sucks that she's in a lot of trouble over it, she's also using it to be really terrible to Finn by using him and just being outright hypocritical (Like the line where she talks about guys who cheat on their pregnant girlfriends. Who's the one who's guilty of cheating here?)

Or her betrayal of Glee club, only for Sue to just turn around and destroy the secret she was protecting (Which is great since Rachel warns Quinn of this before the awesome cheerleader song). You feel like she deserves it, yet she's a likable enough character that you don't exactly want to see her get it

Finally, her reaction to Finn and Rachel seems like an understandable one. It's no secret that Rachel and Finn are trying to hook up, which goes back to my first point about there being couples that just kind of belong together. She's really hostile towards Rachel, but I don't really feel like it's misplaced when she's not just imagining Rachel's intentions toward Finn. Like sooner or later I think she's going to lose Finn, which is a pity since she's losing everything else in her life at the same time
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High school politics

Post by takenoko »

The latest episode really struck me with how this show really works great as a representation of human relationship. It's all about the power. We've got the Glee Club, the Cheerios, and the football team, all competing with each other for not only power, but survival. We have our commanders in this war, represented by the teachers, and the characters of different factions and cross loyalties. Fascinating stuff.

Rachel captures it with her line "I want everything", which is true about everyone. In a sense, this show is really appealing because it's the Rachel/lowest class experience.

Everyone in Glee is the leper class in the high school power structure. It's fun to watch them deal with their conflicts and try to achieve something better for themselves. Like Rachel says, she's not a cheerleader or popular, Glee is her one chance at standing out.

Then take Quinn and Finn. These guys were the top rung in the school, the quatrerback and the head cheerleader, they're dating, she's president of the chastity club, their lives are all roses. They join Glee reluctantly, of course, Finn with the blackmail and Quinn out of jealousy. Of course, as top echelon folk, they have some leeway. They lose a few points for Glee, but it appears at first as if they can ride it out with their built up reputation.

Then comes the pregnancy, the fallout, and here comes the slushee metaphor of bullying. Quinn, Finn, even Puck are all experiencing what stuff that Rachel already knows about. Episode 8 really shows why Rachel makes a great main character, because she easily sympathizes with the situations the members of Glee who aren't used to this treatment are going through. These characters are no longer powerful, untouchable people, but they become more interesting and more human with this experience of conflict.

Episode 8 thoughts
Spoiler
I thought this was a real great story for Finn, Puck, and Rachel. At first I didn't believe Finn would quit Glee since he was the one who saved it at the end of episode one, but thinking back about all the hardships and slushees that he's gone through, it makes sense to see his faith wander.

Puck finally seems like a character in this episode, instead of the insufferable jerk that he always seems to be. Also, it's kind of funny how the teenage guys in this show are all "huh huh, bewbs" when they're not asked to do anything dramatic.

It was also great to see Ken play the antagonist of the episode instead of Sue. I really love his dialogue about hating the part of being the "consolation prize". Unlike Sue, his motives are a lot more personal and understandable, so even as an antagonist one can relate to his actions.

The entire Sue sub story felt surreal. The swing dancing scene was great, but are we really supposed to believe that someone as cold and self-involved as Sue would leave herself exposed to being hurt by a relationship? This is the same character that someone on the "Those F***ing Teenagers" podcast had suspected might actually be a man. Her character is just sexless to me.

Which leads to the downfall of Quinn. While it was funny to see them scramble to regain points with sunglasses, it would have been more fun if Sue had taken Quinn out as part of another cold-cut tactical strike at Glee. Being knocked out just because Sue is in a bad mood seems super hollow to me.


Also, happy birthday to Arigomi if he's reading this thread
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Re: Glee

Post by Gunzy »

I've caught up with all of the Glee episodes up to "Mash-Up" and this is what I have to say about em.

I liked how in the "Vitamin D" episode that Terri let her true colors come out when she had a face to face with Emma about being around Will. It was kinda funny how some of the actors when doing their mash-ups were overexaggerating their expressions on themselevse since they were under the influence of the pseudophedrene. I liked the carpet store guy who was kinda like her lackey. I hope to see him more.

The "Throwdown" episode was pretty good for me. I liked how Will kinda "stood up" to Sue when they were argueing about Sue's personality. I liked the secret jam session between both teams in the middle of the show with "Ride With Me", it's cool to see that they kids are actually starting to knock down the stereotypical walls that their environment has presented. It's crazy to see how far that Terri & her sister are willing to fake this pregnancy.


In the "Mash-Up" episode, I was not feeling the whole chummy business between Sue & Will felt a little forced and cheesy to me in this episode seeing as the type of person Sue is that one little date would change her whole outlook on life, but in a way it was funny how she still was up to her dirty ways after letting Will know about Tanaka's plan about making the football players choose Glee over football. I didn't like the black football player in this episode, for some reason he made me like his character was a stereotypical big mean black guy but that's just me. I give kudos to Kurt for taking the slushie to the face "for the team".

For my favorite character in Glee, it has to be either Rachel or Mercedes.
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Re: Glee

Post by takenoko »

Oh yeah, Kurt was great in that one moment.
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Re: Glee

Post by takenoko »

The fall finale was pretty great. I'm surprised they went with such a big reward so soon. Maybe it's just in case they get canceled?
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Re: Glee

Post by Arigomi »

I'm a little shocked at how Kurt eventually developed. Alongside his endearing moments, he can be a real weasel.
Spoiler
When Will split the club up for the mash-ups, Kurt had no problem with betraying the boys' team.
Even if his argument was sound, setting up Rachel's makeover for failure was mean.


I'm curious what is going to happen with Tina. Her storyline with Artie was left very open-ended.

A nice detail in the season finale was the use of songs traditionally used by glee clubs.

I'm surprised about the lecture Mercedes gave to Puck.
Spoiler
I could almost agree with her except Quinn is still lying to Finn. Does she really think that Quinn can make a relationship based on a lie work? It certainly didn't work with Will and Terri (of course Mercedes doesn't know that).
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The Madonna Episode

Post by takenoko »

Man, what a good episode. Take a watch:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/141737/glee-t ... of-madonna

As glad as I was to have Glee return last week, I have to admit the return episode pretty much undid all the great stuff that happened when the show ended last winter. But that's alright, this episode had so many things going on that it's hard to consider it all

Spoiler
There was definitely a theme of empowerment. It's like the writers went "Hmm, who do we underuse in this series? Let's focus on them on this episode

The Jessie twist at the end was a shocker for me, didn't see that coming

The virgin thing was very fitting, but also kind of hilariously absurd with the three couples. I kind of like the way Santana decides to sleep with Finn, but seems to forget that she needs him as a boyfriend. I know lasting consistency is one criticism of the show

That said, there were a lot of callbacks to earlier episodes. Stuff that seemed situated in a single episode earlier are noted and expanded on in this episode.

The only thing I didn't really like was the fact that they released the Sue Sylvester "Vogue" music video last week. So it was like "oh... I already saw this... Umm... guess I'll watch it again". By the way, did anyone notice Kurt's uneasy look when Sue did some adlibbing to the lyrics?


You can always count on Glee to appear really simplistic in one way and then to turn it on its head and do something unexpected. Great episode

Edit: Oh yeah, someone on Overthinkingit.com already wrote an article about it:
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2010/04/2 ... x-montage/
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Re: Glee

Post by Arigomi »

I've come to realize why I've stopped watching the show. The show has become very formulaic despite having a very short history.

There are a few good moments here and there but the writers always seem to back away from digging into really complex issues. For example, Will Schuster kisses the new football coach out of pity after discovering she has never been kissed. Lots of meaningful plots are crudely wrapped up like this time and again. My biggest concern is the idea that the glee club is an ostracized group despite their heavy involvement in nearly every single school sponsored activity. It feels like a very insincere PSA that targets the allure fame has for high school kids these days.

Overall, the show isn't bad. It's just extremely frustrating.

The MAD cartoon made some interesting points.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LdshlJBgrw
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Re: Glee

Post by takenoko »

I still like it. The second season did a real job bringing in the secondary characters so that it became a real ensemble cast instead of just focusing on two or three characters.

A lot of the relationship swapping is pretty formulaic, but hey, it's a show about high school. And story and characters and how they relate to each other is really important. Plus I really liked the way they handled the stories about bullying and about gay relationships. There are certainly certain stories that are quickly brought up and wrapped up within the course of an episode or two, but that's just the frenetic nature of being in high school. I think the mix of long and short term episodes really worked this time around.

I don't know if I'll still follow it when the main cast members leave after they graduate though. I think I saw an article just yesterday saying that if there's a fourth series, the ones who graduate won't be in it. Which I'm overall ambivalent about. I like stories that have a definite end, but I'm not sure if things should continue if your main characters leave either. It'll definitely be all about how the creators handle it.
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Re: Glee

Post by Arigomi »

It's been confirmed that 3 of the main characters (Finn, Rachel, and Kurt) won't be returning as regulars after season 3. The shocking part is that two of the actors learned about it through public channels before being told by the show's creator, Ryan Murphy.

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/glee-star-cory ... rter--3329
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