Television!

I have mixed feelings about last night's episode. In fact, I find I have mixed feelings about the show - some moments I love it, and some it's cringeworthy, and right now I'm not feeling so much of the love. I'm willing to put this down to them having to "restart" the drama after resolving a lot in the first half of the season, but it's feeling a little less, well... gleeful, right now.

The good:

Kurt's expressions in the whole damn episode. I am firmly in the camp of revelling in his stereotypes, primarily because he owns them so darn well. His loving glances at Kurt, his wide-eyed adoration of Maddona, and I was so completely thrilled to see him and Mercedes singing it out at the end of the episode. I am really pleased the show is addressing some of the weirdness about Rachel and Finn always having the solos.
Anytime Rachel sings. I'm just flat out a fan of her voice, and she brings it every time. That said, I far prefer the numbers where the whole group goes at it, than the dramatic love duets.
The initial dissonance of Rachel lying about not having sex, and Finn lying about having sex. It was a gender reversal that threw me momentarily, in a good way, because I wasn't expecting Finn to lie about it that way. That said, for the bad...

The bad:

I was pretty weirded out by the whole theme of "guys don't get girls emooootions so we're so meaaaan". It just... ugh, I don't know. I'm the first to talk about issues involving female safety and empowerment and male ignorance, but something about that theme just rubbed me the wrong way. I get that the plot line of Rachel and Emma being empowered by having sex was supposed to show that that isn't true empowerment, but the whole "boys are hurting the girls self-esteem" schtick did not work well for me. I think this is primarily because it was Mr. Shu leading it all of, which leads me to the ugly
Gah, Will! Not enjoying him right now, at all. He's an arrogant asshole who thinks he can solve everyone's problems, and just, blech. No thank-you, Mister, I do not need you waltzing in and telling me I don't respect myself enough or something-or-other.

So, help! Can you articulate better why that episode felt so off? Some of it was definitely the MADONNA PROMOTION feel of it all, but the underlying themes bugged me far more than that. This feels a bit like Wheels, to me - the writers trying to address a serious issue, but falling down not because of the jokes but because of the serious bits.

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tigana

You say you like "Rachel's" voice. Have heard of "Spring Awakening?" The Itunes download is the original broadway cast that has Lea Michele (Rachel) and Jon Groff (Jesse St. James) as the two main characters. It's awesome.... especially "Totally FuckeD"

tea

I've heard that she was on it, but I've never heard it or even know what it's about - but I will definitely have to check it out! Especially since some of her more "broadway" pieces are my favourites - how many times have I listened to "Don't rain on my parade?" Not enough!

ninasis

Don't Rain on My Parade is my favorite song from my favorite singer, so when I heard rumors that they were putting a Barbra song in the show I was praying it would be this. And when the music started up I almost died from the, well, glee! *g* I think dogs in a five mile radius were freaking out from how high I was squealing!

And I second the recommendation for the Spring Awakening soundtrack. I've not seen the play, but the soundtrack is awesome!

I think part of the problem is they had to try and cram as much story/plot as they could around all the musical numbers. 7 songs in one episode is way too much to try and get anything else done, IMO. So the whole pacing of the episode felt very choppy and rushed in places, as if you could hear the editor mumbling in the background about needing to free up 10 more seconds to fit in more of the Like a Prayer number.

The one thing that I kind of hate that this show does, and it does it all the time, is when the characters address issues inside the show and then nothing is ever done ABOUT those issues. Like Mercedes bitching about always batting clean up on the songs but not getting solos. Or Finn complaining about having to lead the guys (even though he has the weakest voice out of all of them, but that's another rant). It's like, yeah, we get it, har har har...but they won't ever actually FIX those things. They did the same thing with the episode where Sue pulled all the minority characters to a separate group and it was pointed out how those people never got any of the spotlight. And nothing's changed. So why keep on with the whole wink and nod business? I don't like that, so it irritated me a bit.

Yeah, I think you make a good point - I read your post and I think that's spot on as to why the new episodes aren't working as well as the old ones. There's just too little content for too much drama, really - the characters are being washed away! Maybe they think now that they've introduced everybody (they want to), they don't have to deal with them anymore? Gah. I hope the third episode is better or I might start getting rather jaded.

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