Last night's season one finale was good. It had a lot of good performances, my favorite being Vocal Adrenaline's Bohemian Rhapsody, and it featured the right people. Whenever Sue Sylvester gets to showcase both her unadulterated cruelty towards Mr. Shue as well as her sincerity towards the kids of Glee, it's a win-win. Mercedes, Kurt, Tina and Artie took a back seat, while Rachel, Finn, Puck and especially Quinn were the students of focus in this finale. We should keep it that way from this point forward. No more eps featuring Artie or Kurt please.
Speaking of Jesse's Bohemian Rhapsody, every Lost fan should have loved it that much more because of how much it resembled the final scene of the series with the screen flashing between Jack in the church and on the Island. In this case we were seeing sideways flashes of Quinn getting rushed to the hospital and then having her baby.
So where do they go from here? The students have the summer off so this is obviously the end of a school year. What grade are most of these kids in? If they're going to do a year per season they will quickly run into the problem Friday Night Lights did where they had to start changing characters grades ridiculously. You know how Tim Riggins was best friends with Jason Street and was obviously in the same grade as him in season one? Well he was still in high school come season three, so that means he was a sophomore during the first season? The same grade as Matt Saracen, who was an outcast because he was a young gun? Lot of plot holes in the continuity of that show.
Haven't they already been given a third season? Are they going to say that all these kids are sophomores? How likely is that? Will they get rid of some of these actors to make room for new students? I doubt it. It should be interesting to say the least.
As long as Sue Sylvester is the coach of the Cheerios I'm on board for another season, even though I get angry at the screen any time Mr. Shue, Artie, Kurt, Mercedes, Tina, Emma or even Finn says anything. How bout focusing more on Santana? She seems pretty awesome.
Interesting stance wanting Kurt and Artie to stay in the background. It's very different from what I usually read online, and I like it for being novel.
ReplyDeleteGlee has been about underdogs pursuing a dream, which is why Kurt and Artie have episodes of their own. The inclusion of Artie and Kurt in the initial five members of the Glee club is crucial - one's handicapped and the other's gay. Tina's a goth, and Mercedes is black, female, and fat. I think the Glee promotional posters made it clear that this show is about "winners" and "losers," hence the "L" sign Glee likes so much. Glee is about overcoming "loser" status by, as the show says, "opening yourself up to joy." Rachel, Finn, Quinn, and Puck don't really have a loser-ish quality among them. Quinn only had her underdog quality when she became pregnant with Puck. Rachel's obnoxious, but that's just when you get to know her, meaning, you wouldn't necessarily dislike her when you first see her.
I said all that just to say that, if the show cuts all of those characters that you hate (you said: "...I get angry at the screen any time Mr. Shue, Artie, Kurt, Mercedes, Tina, Emma or even Finn says anything.") then the show will lose one of its important main themes. Sure, Glee is a show about singing, but it is also a show about underdogs.
You said: "Speaking of Jesse's Bohemian Rhapsody, every Lost fan should have loved it that much more because of how much it resembled the final scene of the series with the screen flashing between Jack in the church and on the Island. In this case we were seeing sideways flashes of Quinn getting rushed to the hospital and then having her baby."
ReplyDeleteA lot of shows do it. A lot of films do it. It's an editing technique. Just because Glee did it doesn't mean it's already similar to Lost. The Wire did it in its penultimate episode for season 2, but it still doesn't mean it's similar to Lost. Even Desperate Housewives used it - the one I most remember now is in Season 2 when Bree is praying the Serenity Prayer, and that scene is intercut with another scene.
It would have been more similar to Lost if there were two Quinns. In Lost, there was dying Jack in the "real" world, and there was sideways-Jack sitting in a Church, in a timeline, or lack thereof, when "real" world Jack already died. In Glee, there was Quinn giving birth to some of the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody, and Vocal Adrenaline singing Bohemian Rhapsody. Unless Quinn was actually the one singing Bohemian Rhapsody with Vocal Adrenaline in a sideways-glee competition full of undead consciousness, the finale of Glee is not the same as the finale of Lost.
Anonymous #1,
ReplyDeleteIsn't Mr. Shue a white male that some people would regard as good looking and talented? Well as I said, I can't stand him either. I'm all for an underdog story, and if that means you have a handicapped person getting it done in the glee club then that's okay by me. But have it be someone with an ounce of a redeeming characteristic. How 'bout Walter Jr. from Breaking Bad? He's handicapped and flat out hilarious at times. Artie is just completely lame and brings nothing to the show.
Anonymous #2,
ReplyDeleteYou know I understand that cutting between two separate scenes has been done before. I didn't claim that Lost originated the technique for their series finale. I did use it as an example because most of the readers of this blog are Lost fans, and that specific sequence was similar (if not exact).
Thanks for the tip.
As Anonymous 1, I'd like to point out your December 11, 2009 blog post about the "Three Aspects of Quality." You said that Glee has become a good show over the first half of its season because it is good at three things: Comedy, Drama, and Music.
ReplyDeleteYou said in your first reply that Artie brings nothing to the show. But doesn't Artie have more dramatic plotlines? Artie is handicapped, but he has a weird language tick - sometimes he uses "Preach!" or "We're planning on smacking them down like the hand of God" or whatever, which were clearly meant by the writers to be humorous. Sure, he's not hilarious, but he's tonally consistent with the show.
How about Kurt? For me, I've always disliked Kurt's predatory plans on Finn. That, and how his clothes are sometimes too ridiculous. But it's tonally consistent with the show. (This is the show with the planned baby swapping storyline, after all.) What Kurt brings to the show is drama. (The coming out part was so overused, though. Why can't gay and lesbian teens just be in shows and not have to come out? Like, Ricky Vasquez in My So-Called Life. Everyone in the show knew Ricky was gay. He didn't have to come out. The best thing about Kurt was when he was envious of the father-son relationship Finn and Kurt's dad Burt have. That was refreshing.)
When the show started, he wasn't much of an underdog in the surface. His circumstance of being married to a pampered, controlling, and neurotic wife is what made him an underdog. (I admit: I dislike Will. He's such a sleaze with the Emma-April-Shelby thing. In the first half of the season, he found ways to derail the Glee club.
I've never watched Breaking Bad. Is it that good a show that it made a Walter Jr. immediately hilarious in its first season?
I think I should stop commenting this long for now. this is your blog after all. But it's nice that you reply. :)
ReplyDeleteAll good points.
ReplyDeleteBreaking Bad is a fantastic show. Nothing at all like Glee, but renowned as one of the best shows currently on tv.
Check it out.
I'd very much like to have intercourse with Santana.
ReplyDelete