Television!

[demotu]

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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