Making the world a better place, one show at a time.

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Washington, DC, United States
I guess you would like to know a little bit about the person making all these proclamations upon good taste and horrid characters. I'm Andrea and when I was 15 I fell in love. An hour after meeting "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" I was forever altered in the way only love can, and I never questioned for one minute afterwards that television offered me an amazing chance to experience lives and moments that I could never imagine. So now, when I'm not getting distracted by my real life, I write about TV. I also read, am finishing a Master's degree in English Literature, travel, am attempting to learn vegan cooking, am the 5th of 6 children, and drive my roommate nuts by constantly cleaning our already clean apartment. Now that we're old friends, time for you to take my opinions as the be all and end all.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Glee: What I Will NOT Be Watching This Fall

I have to admit a dirty little secret.

The afterglow of my Gleegasm has worn off.

Glee is not a total train wreck: without a doubt Jane Lynch is one of the most brilliant actors working today, (But didn't we all already know that? 40 Year Old Virgin, The L Word, Party Down anyone?); the Hummell family tugs on my heartstrings; and man those musical numbers are (for the most part) magical.  But the exceptional parts of this show do not add up to a cohesive whole.

While I was watching the finale I kept thinking "this doesn't make any sense."  If the penultimate episode was about how New Directions could beat Vocal Adrenaline with a funk number, then why on earth did every single group member (and the faculty advisor!) have a nervous breakdown and then not perform a funk song?  Why is New Directions the underdog when they can pull fully formed professional performances out of thin air with absolutely no rehearsal?  Why, why, oh why would you give a baby to a woman who lied and manipulated her way into the life of the teenage daughter she gave up at birth only to decide that she has no maternal feeling for said daughter?  I think Quinn and Puck might have committed an act of child abuse by handing over their child to such a horrible person.  Why couldn't someone have come up with a better send of for Jonathon Groff than a horribly boring set piece that reduced the "unstoppable competition" to a labored solo?  Why are we beating this dead-horse of Kurt-Finn-Rachel?  (Give Kurt something to do!)  Why is this show so freaking didactic?

I appreciate the over-the-top quality of Glee; there is nothing wrong with abruptly shifting from character to character, using songs instead of dialogue is a bit tiresome but usually executed well, and the intense sincerity of all the characters contrasts nicely with their complete lack of definable principles.  But there is no excuse for a show with continuous storylines where one episode has nothing to do with the one that came before and has no effect on the one that will come next.  I should not come to the end of a season and say "what was the point of that?"

If someone can tell me what the point is, please do.  I plan on hitting up You-Tube for the song performances next season, and skipping the irrelavent plot (or lack thereof) and "character development."

The TV Girl

4 comments:

Nat said...

I'm exactly the same. I keep wondering if it's just because the initial thrill of the show has worn off, or if the quality had declined- I think it's a little of both.

For all the baby maddness of the first 13 episodes, there was at least a plot running through the episodes keeping them going- no such luck in the last 9.

And sadly for me, even the songs are getting a little tiring.

The TV Girl said...

Nat
I think they would have been well served to keep up the baby madness, since as you say, it was plot.

KayPea said...

agree with you tv girl although i have to say the term glee-gasm makes me want to poke out my eyes.

The TV Girl said...

As long as it doesn't make you want to cut off your legs KP!