Terrible TV Shows: Glee

[fools_game]

So I watch some TV sometimes. And for some reason I seem to find myself watching - and loving - things that are terrible and awful and occasionally actively offensive.

Like Glee! Glee is a dreadful show. I do not have words for just how dreadful it is. It is epic levels of awful. It fails on every level. The plots are banal, the writing is weak,

Comments

[poutytrout]

I can't comment on anything about this rant/praise journal actually regarding stuff that happened in Glee because I couldn't, for the life of me, ever bring myself to watch that show. But I'm glad to see someone finally taking an analytical critique of it rather than just frothing at the mouth because they think its the most wonderful thing since Kanye glasses and wearing your hair in your eyes. I have my reasons for not liking the show, which can easily be labeled as unfounded since I haven't seen a single episode, but I applaud you for taking the time to watch the show for its content, not its obsessive reputation.

[fools_game]

I think it's so important to critique pop culture, especially something as huge as Glee. Which has its good points! The music is fun and the people are pretty and it's all very lovely and wish-fulfilly! But it's inconsistent and badly written and offensive, if not actively, then at least by omission. Like, why even have a mixed-race mixed-ability ensemble cast if you're just going to focus on the conventionally attractive white kids and their romantic woes?

[gillianinoz]

I like the musical numbers, and Darren Criss.

Yeah, that's just about it.

Oh, some of the cheerlaeader coach ladies lines are hilarious, but she's just so over-the-top I can't really enjoy them.

[fools_game]

Sue is great in the comedic episodes as an over-the-topp plotting villain type, and her one-liners are hysterical. But in the more serious "very special episodes" it just doesn't work, because if a kid can get expelled for threatening another student, why would the school keep on a teacher who has temper tantrum and throws weights at students and pushes people down stairs?

[20thcenturyvole]

I think Glee has a very hard time deciding whether it is a wacky black comedy or a show that has a Special Duty to use its powers as the most-watched thing on TV to send Important Messages to its youth audience; as such, I don't think it's ever quite lived up to the promise of its first episode. And it keeps telling me to root for the most insanely irritating and self-absorbed characters (yes, it acknowledges how hilariously self-centered teenagers are, but then it turns around and tries to make me care about the eternal romantic revolving door of Rachel/Finn and Will/anyone and NO! NO! BAD GLEE! NO BISCUIT!), when I care somewhat more about the weirder characters who have problems that are not entirely of their own making.

But. But. I am weak. And the songs are so shiny. And I ship Kurt/Blaine and Santana/Brittany and Puck/Lauren so hard. So I forgive it, and wait for some sunny day when they acknowledge what a pompous, myopic, over-privileged ass Will Schuester is (and that is not even getting into what a terrible choir director he

[fools_game]

YES. All of those things. Its inconsistency is the show's greatest weakness, and I think that's a fault of having three different writers who all have very different ideas about what the show is and who the main characters are. Also they don't actually have season arcs plotted in advance - Darren Criss's role was hugely expanded because of his popularity, and they very obviously had no idea what to do with Chord Overstreet once they figured out he wouldn't work as Kurt's love itnerest.

[almosee]

Every time Rachel comes on screen now I'm like, "oh yay, Rachel's just been another solo because for some reason she's the teams secret weapon when in reality she's probably the weakest singer in the group"
But no matter how many times I roll my eyes and go "this show is stupid" I still come back and watch it every week and good god, so help me, but I love the stupid thing. I think you've pretty much summed up my thoughts with this post though.

[fools_game]

She is a strong singer! But she is a very generic singer. And her stage persona makes me want to bite things, the stupid faces she pulls etc.

And yes, I still watch it every week. And I have *~feelings~* about it.

[coolgrin]

Yep you nailed it. Except I hate Blaine. But that is my issue. LOL.

[fools_game]

I adore Blaine. Or possibly I adore Darren Criss. No, I think Blaine is groovy cool. He jumps on tables, the little weirdo.