(no subject)
I have been pretty down on Glee all season, and nothing has really changed: the inconsistent characterization drives me batty - WHY is Rachel in the celibacy club? Isn't she the character that famously declared to the celibacy club in an early episode that girls want sex just as much as guys do? - and why does Gwyneth Paltrow get three freaking songs in one episode, and who thought this Emma plot was a good idea? Because it's not. It's really, really not. However, even in the mess that is S2 of Glee, the show managed to pull off two really touching scenes this week. First there was the discussion between Kurt and his dad, which is not surprising since many of the most emotionally true moments of the series are between those two characters. Chris Colfer and Mike O'Malley have such a fantastic rapport that a scene that walked the line of being preachy and didactic instead felt like a realistic conversation between a father and son who aren't always comfortable with each other, but who always love each other.
More unexpected was the scene between Santana and Brittany, with Santana admitting that she's in love with Brittany, and Brit letting her down by saying that while she loves Santana, she also loves Artie. Never mind that Brittney is written as being almost pure comic relief, a character so simple-minded that she thinks the stork delivers babies; the scene played out with a realistic sense of sweetness and sadness, and Santana's heartbreak felt real. I'm so pleased that the show took what had been presented to begin with as a shallow piece of titillation - hot girl/girl action! - and turned it into a believable (at least for Glee) story of unrequited love. It's moments like this that keep me from giving up on the series entirely.
I'm going to write less about Justified than I did about Glee, but that's because it's easier to write about a show that often doesn't work than it is to write about a show that is so consistently good that there's nothing left to say except Ohmigod, that was soooo good!
Oh, Boyd. You can't go around blowing people up just because they deserve it! I'm shocked at how invested I am in the redemption of a character who was introduced as a neo-Nazi, but the acting and writing for him are so strong that it's possible to believe in both the ways he's changed since the beginning of the series, and the ways he hasn't changed at all.
I was not exactly surprised by Mags's version of punishing her son, but it did make me feel temporarily sorry for a character who up until now I've only had contempt for.
I loved Raylan going to Loretta and promising her that he'll be there if she ever needs him, and Loretta's wary acceptance of his offer. I don't think she's fooled by the story that her father is away on business, but she WANTS to believe it's true. I worry about what's going to happen to her when she gets tired of the pretense and starts asking questions about what happened to him.