So, Glee

[castalia]

Um...so, yeah. I really like this show for lots of reasons (almost all of them being Sue Sylvester), but oh, the issues I have.

Nerdy white guys rapping hits my embarrassment squick enough as it is, but when a male teacher is dancing around his underage female students saying things like "girls are scantily clad and showin' body" and "wish you could sex her" and then touching them while he's saying it...that's not appropriate in any universe. I was happy to see at least Kurt was having none of that, b/c it wasn't only lame, it was creepy.

*sigh* It probably says a lot about Will that his favorite song of all time is "Bust a Move".

I know the show is built around all these high school and media stereotypes, and I keep waiting for them to subvert that. It feels like it's starting with the popular kids now being outcasts, but still. They're not going far enough for me.

It was awkward enough when they pointed out how much the minority kids were being ignored, made it a plot point and everything, but at the end of the episode they were all back to singing backup to Finn and Rachel, while Will was busy equating a pregnant cheerleader to being black. Mercedes, Tina, and Artie have yet to have episodes devoted to them, and we still barely know the other four in the group.

Still hate the wife and the baby drama plot line, still hate Emma most of the time (though if that really was the actress performing, she's not a bad singer!) and the whole love quandrangle story line. Hate all of that.

On the other hands, I love the kids. I love Sue and the crazy principal. I love (most of) the songs. I love the theme of solidarity and being yourself.

I love love loved Puck singing Sweet Caroline.

Kurt slushy-ing himself was the best thing ever. Especially his "someone get me to a day spa, stat!" retort afterward.

I thought Sue had turned into a pod person there for a while, and I'm glad it was fleeting. Though she totally rocked that zoot suit.

So, yeah, still watching but it seems like the moments of squee barely even out with the moments of squick or just plain disgust. *sigh* Maybe I should follow suit with some of you and just fast forward to the Sue moments and songs.

Comments

[zaftig46.livejournal.com]

Being a lapsed Jew (not easy being so lapsed that even being just ethnically Jewish is hard!), I LOVED the first bit with Puck's mom and her Simchas Torah screening of Schindler's List accompanied by sweet-and-sour pork. So true! I feel like I am going to be like that when I am middle-aged with kids.

I also loved the My Fair Lady tribute moments, but that's because MFL is my favourite movie of all time ever, and I want a wedding dress just like the second one Emma was wearing. Awesome.

But yeah, it's still problematic - they kept pushing Artie around all episode, which was beginning to really annoy me, and I've only just learned to notice that.

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

I hadn't noticed, but now that I look back, you're so right about Artie. I wonder if part of the problem is that they cast an actor who isn't wheelchair-bound (and don't get me wrong, I think he's adorable), so there's no one there to say hey, don't do that, it's annoying and disrespectful.

[zaftig46.livejournal.com]

See troubleinchina on my flist for her take on Artie and Glee's treatment of disability:
http://troubleinchina.livejournal.com/tag/fandom:+glee
She says it much more eloquently than I can, and I learned that this was a problem through her.

I think that Glee's writers sometimes get a little too optimistic in their belief that the cuteness of this show will just overcome all the problematic issues in it and in society in general; the last episode was a great example of that where they glossed over all the potentially excellent morals that could have been drawn from the situation at the end of the episode. They could have done a way better job of dealing with the "minorities" issue, but they didn't. Basically, the era when all that was seen as good, clean, innocent fun is over, and I think a lot of the people in the viewing audience for Glee demand more sophistication in how they deal with dramatic moments. Maybe it's a generational thing? We want the mature content, but we want the all-singing, all-dancing happy ending, as well?

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! Very interesting discussions.

I can see how it might be both. I know I want the shiny musical numbers but less of the other ridiculous drama.

[rosabuddatchery.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I deleted my comment because I didn't realize this was a public post. Well, if anything, it probably came up in your inbox, so you'll see what I said. Basically I agreed with you. :)