Friday, 29 May 2009
Viorica is unimpressed by (and a little bitter about) FOX's new musical drama
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I'm sure everyone's seen one of those "inspirational teacher" movies. You know the ones. The one where a young, idealistic teacher arrives at a school and wants to spark enthusiasm into his downtrodden students, but must battle the cruel administration (and frequently an unsupportive spouse) to make it so. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. Apparently not realizing this, Ian Brennan decided to expand the concept into a television series with a twist: the kids in question sing and dance! It's Dead Poets Society: The Musical!
I'd heard the buzz about the show, but never really thought about watching it until I stumbled across the trailer on YouTube. Journey? Lea Michele? However had I managed to miss this glory? I immediately sped off to Sidereel to download the pilot . . . and my enthusiasm for the series crashed faster than a real student's would if faced with the teacher in this one.
The pilot doesn't exactly have what you'd call a plot, focusing more on setting up the characters. Will Schuester (I had to go to IMDB to look up the character's name, which should tell you how memorable and unique he is) is a high school Spanish teacher who wants to kick-start the school's Glee Club back into its glory days. For readers who aren't familiar with the concept (I wasn't until I watched the show) a Glee Club is like a Drama Club, but only for musically apt students, because Shakespeare is boring. (Sorry, bitter ex-drama student speaking.) Unfortunately, Schuester's dream is scoffed at by the high school principal, the girls' athlete coach (the only genuinely funny character in the entire show, played by Jane Lynch), and his nagging, status-obsessed wife, a character who you'll recognize from every other movie ever made in this genre. The members of the Glee Club include the standard diva, (played by Lea Michele, who must be relieved to be in a role that doesn't require Jonathan Groff spraying spit all over her face every night), the standard Fat Sassy Black Girl, the Gay Boy, the Secretly Sensitive Football Player, the Asian Girl and the Wheelchair Kid. You may think I'm being overly stereotypical with these descriptions, but it's about as much characterisation as they get onscreen. They group gets together over the course of the pilot, and while they are certainly a talented bunch (which rather belies their claim that they aren't able to win any competitions) it doesn't make up for the horridly cliched story they're stuck in. For instance, Lea Michele's character is required midway through the episode to go to Schuester and beg him to lead the club, explaining that she wants to be "special." "Being in something special makes you special, right?" She tries, bless her, but there's no way to overcome the crappiness of the lines.
Similarly, the actors (well, some of them) try to inject life into the cardboard cutouts they're playing, but it's impossible. We're meant to dislike Schuester's social-climbing wife, but it's hard not to sympathise with a woman whose husband simultaneously wants to start a family and refuses to exchange his low-paying job for a better one. The show tries to dodge the appearance of reasonability on her part by making her a compulsive shopper, but it doesn't work for me - they're just trying too hard. I don't think it's presumptive at this point to say that he's going to dump her in favour of his OCD co-worker (Jayma Mays) who pressures him into making the Right Choice, which is to keep coaching the Glee Club. It's okay to pressure someone to change their decision if it helps the plot along, I guess. Lea Michele's character, Rachel, is meant to be sympathetic due to the bullying she faces from her fellow students, but her behaviour is just as bad, berating Schuester for making Wheerchair Kid the lead singer due to his disability right in front of him. I've worked with girls like her before, and let me tell you, the dormant urge to punch her in the face far outweighs any sympathy I might feel.
The show also features an array of supporting characters who, if you can believe it, are even more offensive than the main cast. There' Football Guy's girlfriend - the "leader of the chastity club" as Rachel calls her- the most we see of her character is when she breaks off a makeout session with her boyfriend so they can pray together. Hahaha! A cheerleader who isn't slutty! Her boyfriend can’t get laid! Isn't it hilarious? There's also the former Glee Club leader, a flamboyant gay man (he even flaps his wrists and wears a pink cardigan tied around his shoulders for Christ’s sake) who almost molests one of his students and turns to drug dealing after being fired. Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected any better from FOX, but it’s a show about the performing arts for God’s sake; I thought there’s be some attempt at not being homophobic.
Honestly, even without all the problems I listed above, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get into Glee. The concept certainly has potential, but the genre is swamped with cliché, and the show would’ve had a hard time convincing me that it was capable of rising above it. Not only that but, as I’ve said, I’ve taken drama all through school, and there is no way you could a.) Find talent like this in a high school, or b.) Whip up the enthusiasm for it. Maybe I’m bitter, but it’s a rare high school that would rather support the arts than athletics, and an even rarer teacher that would battle an unsupportive administration to keep the arts afloat. The show has a few merits - the people are pretty, as are the songs. If I hadn’t been so thoroughly unimpressed by the bulk of the episode, the finale performance of “Don’t Stop Believing” would have blown me away. Unfortunately, I stopped believing thirty minutes ago.
I'd heard the buzz about the show, but never really thought about watching it until I stumbled across the trailer on YouTube. Journey? Lea Michele? However had I managed to miss this glory? I immediately sped off to Sidereel to download the pilot . . . and my enthusiasm for the series crashed faster than a real student's would if faced with the teacher in this one.
The pilot doesn't exactly have what you'd call a plot, focusing more on setting up the characters. Will Schuester (I had to go to IMDB to look up the character's name, which should tell you how memorable and unique he is) is a high school Spanish teacher who wants to kick-start the school's Glee Club back into its glory days. For readers who aren't familiar with the concept (I wasn't until I watched the show) a Glee Club is like a Drama Club, but only for musically apt students, because Shakespeare is boring. (Sorry, bitter ex-drama student speaking.) Unfortunately, Schuester's dream is scoffed at by the high school principal, the girls' athlete coach (the only genuinely funny character in the entire show, played by Jane Lynch), and his nagging, status-obsessed wife, a character who you'll recognize from every other movie ever made in this genre. The members of the Glee Club include the standard diva, (played by Lea Michele, who must be relieved to be in a role that doesn't require Jonathan Groff spraying spit all over her face every night), the standard Fat Sassy Black Girl, the Gay Boy, the Secretly Sensitive Football Player, the Asian Girl and the Wheelchair Kid. You may think I'm being overly stereotypical with these descriptions, but it's about as much characterisation as they get onscreen. They group gets together over the course of the pilot, and while they are certainly a talented bunch (which rather belies their claim that they aren't able to win any competitions) it doesn't make up for the horridly cliched story they're stuck in. For instance, Lea Michele's character is required midway through the episode to go to Schuester and beg him to lead the club, explaining that she wants to be "special." "Being in something special makes you special, right?" She tries, bless her, but there's no way to overcome the crappiness of the lines.
Similarly, the actors (well, some of them) try to inject life into the cardboard cutouts they're playing, but it's impossible. We're meant to dislike Schuester's social-climbing wife, but it's hard not to sympathise with a woman whose husband simultaneously wants to start a family and refuses to exchange his low-paying job for a better one. The show tries to dodge the appearance of reasonability on her part by making her a compulsive shopper, but it doesn't work for me - they're just trying too hard. I don't think it's presumptive at this point to say that he's going to dump her in favour of his OCD co-worker (Jayma Mays) who pressures him into making the Right Choice, which is to keep coaching the Glee Club. It's okay to pressure someone to change their decision if it helps the plot along, I guess. Lea Michele's character, Rachel, is meant to be sympathetic due to the bullying she faces from her fellow students, but her behaviour is just as bad, berating Schuester for making Wheerchair Kid the lead singer due to his disability right in front of him. I've worked with girls like her before, and let me tell you, the dormant urge to punch her in the face far outweighs any sympathy I might feel.
The show also features an array of supporting characters who, if you can believe it, are even more offensive than the main cast. There' Football Guy's girlfriend - the "leader of the chastity club" as Rachel calls her- the most we see of her character is when she breaks off a makeout session with her boyfriend so they can pray together. Hahaha! A cheerleader who isn't slutty! Her boyfriend can’t get laid! Isn't it hilarious? There's also the former Glee Club leader, a flamboyant gay man (he even flaps his wrists and wears a pink cardigan tied around his shoulders for Christ’s sake) who almost molests one of his students and turns to drug dealing after being fired. Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected any better from FOX, but it’s a show about the performing arts for God’s sake; I thought there’s be some attempt at not being homophobic.
Honestly, even without all the problems I listed above, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get into Glee. The concept certainly has potential, but the genre is swamped with cliché, and the show would’ve had a hard time convincing me that it was capable of rising above it. Not only that but, as I’ve said, I’ve taken drama all through school, and there is no way you could a.) Find talent like this in a high school, or b.) Whip up the enthusiasm for it. Maybe I’m bitter, but it’s a rare high school that would rather support the arts than athletics, and an even rarer teacher that would battle an unsupportive administration to keep the arts afloat. The show has a few merits - the people are pretty, as are the songs. If I hadn’t been so thoroughly unimpressed by the bulk of the episode, the finale performance of “Don’t Stop Believing” would have blown me away. Unfortunately, I stopped believing thirty minutes ago.
Themes: Damage Report, TV & Movies
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It's the same with the wife. She's obviously set up as the bad guy, but it's not fair to act as if her husband's job could really support them. So instead they make her lazy and greedy. In fact, it seems like they almost want to make her both lazy (only works 3 days a week) and too ambitious (about the wrong things--she actually wants to get a promotion at the stupid store where she works!).
Also it didn't even seem to really embrace the hilarity that is show choir/glee club. Partly I think because of what you say at the end, which is what really did it for me: the kids are too damn good. Professional quality singers just undermine the whole thing. And it's one thing for the football guy to be able to sing well, but he can also come up with an arrangement for Don't Stop Believing? I know the creator gets why these groups are funny--he proves that when he chooses Rehab for the other choir to inappropriately sing. But there's a lot of it that he doesn't seem to get.
Which is why I guess they also don't seem to have perspective on the teacher. It turns out this means so much to him because--gasp!--he was in Glee Club in its glory days ten years ago. The greatest moment of his life was winning some competition with them. And he seems to really not get that this is...kind of sad.
I mean, football!kid has a suspiciously insightful speech about how everybody at the school is a loser since only half of them will go to college (which only makes you a loser if you aspire to that, and it's not clear if he does or should).
But that seems to be a bit at odds with the teacher who seems to be presented as admirable and happy despite the fact that he's stuck in high school in all the wrong ways, married to his h.s. girlfriend (why don't they have kids yet, I wonder?) who orders him around and not as happy as he was in show choir.
I mean, without any suggestion that this guy is desperate to get something out of coaching Glee Club, perhaps something that he's fooling himself to ever think he's going to get, it just seems as blandly cheerful as the kids' too-good singing. And likewise, the kids aren't vulnerable at all. Jane Lynch makes her "don't tell them they're special" speech but clearly they are special, unlike real kids in that situation who would be a lot more vulnerable. Even the auditions show only very talented singers auditioning. No ordinary teenagers at all. No wonder the football players and cheerleaders clearly watch them at the end as if they're a threat rather than something to laugh at.
The wife (Terri, I think her name was?) mentioned her diabetes getting in the way of them conceiving. I'm assuming that this was a set-up for something- either she'll be lying about being pregnant (which was what I expected while watching the announcement scene) or she'll miscarry. Given, as you say, the varying tone of the show, it's hard to tell.
Thanks! I missed that. Since they appeared to get married out of high school it seemed like she'd want to start on that right away.
As for why the football players and cheerleaders looked threated--exactly, why would they? And yet I think they did. They cared enough to watch them rehearsing. I assume the idea is that the Glee Club dares to think they're special, and maybe they're on their radar because the one football player is with them, but I just don't think they would care that much.
Really, this was handled just as efficiently on that Brady Bunch episode where Peter's Glee Club practice interferes with his football practice. Celebrity player Rosie Greer shows up and says how he does needlepoint and the boys stop laughing at him. Problem solved.
All the minorities supporting the majority soon to be white couple left me feeling a bit icky. So did the teacher blackmailing the dreamy football player. If this is successful, I hope the football player hooks up with the gay boy and they perform a duet of 'Endless Love' dressed up like Lionel and Diana as a coming out performance that ends in kissing lips and nibbling fingers, shocking the white diva into fits of vomiting.
Interesting Brady Bunch similarity. It ties into something I heard on NPR the other day. The interview was with a writer or two from Disney Channel and/or Nickelodeon. The writer/s were saying that many of the eps they wrote are rehashed versions of classics because today's tween/teen audience isn't familiar with the older shows so therefore the concepts/gags/plots in these eps are fresh and tasty and apparently being gobbled up by their intended audience.
What currently REALLY pisses me off (and there will be more) is why the skinny generic white girl is their lead singer as opposed to the black girl with the AMAZING VOICE.
And the thing is, Glee is billed as a "one hour musical comedy". So, yes, everyone sings really well. Would you watch a musical if the actors couldn't sing? And I think both Rachel and Mercedes have incredible voices, and Mercedes gets quite a few songs throughout the show - including I'm Not Going (the song from Dream Girls). Her solos are freaking amazing, and I always love to hear her sing on the show. And the big thing is that it's a COMEDY not a teen drama. It isn't meant to be taken completely seriously.
So...I think if you can accept that the show is self-aware and is conscious of what it's doing and saying, it can be extremely enjoyable. I always took it as a bit of social/Hollywood commentary. I'm not saying the show doesn't have flaws - it does - but I don't think it's the offensive mess a lot of people are trying to make it out to be.
I don't think anybody questions that it knows what it's doing. But knowing that you're following the usual pattern of sticking the minority characters in for special episodes and background while basing the actual plot on the trials and tribulations of the pretty white kids isn't that much of a feat. So yeah, you're playing the same stereotype but you're a self-aware stereotype. And yes, it's a comment on the practices of the Hollywood industry and teen drama shows when it comes to how they set up characters...but we don't mind if we also benefit from those exact same practices since we're following them...totally ironically!
I still watch the show, but like Nip/Tuck there's always something disturbing about it to me that keeps me from every believing any of these characters are people or that the I really like whatever the author so clearly wants me to know he's trying to say.
It isn't fun or exciting to see profession too-old-to-be-in-high-school singers and dancers doing professionally choreographed routines. It's way more exciting to see youngsters who aren't yet professional reaching to the top of their game.
Of course, I don't know even know how you'd do that in a weekly series. But I've prefer to see these kids working on a few routines throughout the season rather than doing a fully polished one each week. It would be more fun to see them *struggle* and try stuff that doesn't work out.
On a side note, you can find schools where there are kids *that* good at singing and dancing--but that's because they are Performing Arts Schools. My high school had a kick-ass dance program with so many talented dancers that we had to have *two* touring dance teams. But that was because we had a dance teacher who had been obsessively building up the dance program for something like twenty years--with a full support staff behind her, including four or five other dance teachers in various disciplines. And money.
Our sports teams at the time sucked.
My nephew is attending an Arts school and their students are madly talented. So is he. But he wouldn't be anywhere near where he is if the school wasn't abundantly funded for music, dance, and drama. And there weren't *multiple* teachers in every subject.
I can remember when I was in school that there wasn't any movie or television show that reflected what the high school experience was. I felt there should be a *lot* more focus on how difficult it is to find funds for *any* project, whether it's a school show or hiring a bus to the big game or putting on a dance.
That pretty much defines why I don't *love* the show, but I do still enjoy it. And I think it's not quite so horrendous as I've seen people make it out to be. It definitely has a lot of problems and just being self-aware doesn't totally forgive that. There are times when I'm like, "Ooh, really? That's how you decided to end that storyline? Bad call." I do finding myself disagreeing with how the show handles certain things - like Finn using the wheelchair to get a job; I thought that was a bit much.
They do get storylines - albeit in that sort of token episode way. I actually expect them to be more fully developed as the series goes on, and if they aren't, I'll definitely be pissed. Popular took a similar format where it focused on the major (pretty white) characters for the beginning and started to branch off into more storylines for the side characters later. And honestly, when you look at it from a Hollywood stand-point, this makes complete sense. Shows have to follow a formula or they lose an audience. You can't throw five or six long story arcs at an audience, especially not in a comedy series. It isn't something the producers/networks want to see.
I do think it would be nice to see more of their struggle and not have them all just randomly be idiot savants at singing. It is a little odd. I buy Rachel's character because I imagine that her two gay dads have had her in vocal lessons since she could speak, in which case, she *would* be that good. But I do agree that it might be nice to see more of their journey in that, and it would give them an opportunity to focus on the side characters too.
Then again, the musical numbers are what I look forward to every week. I love when they had Rachel and Kurt competing for who got to sing "Defying Gravity" and I am still amazed at how that boy can hit those high notes. And when Mercedes sang the song from Dream Girls, I nearly cried it was so good.
I fully admit that the show could be better and does have flaws. But I still like it. I do understand that it can piss people off to have some white guy using their stereotypes for laughs, but I found the episode about Puck and Rachel dating purely because they were both Jewish hilarious and not at all offensive, but I understand that I'm not as passionate about my religion as other people might be about things like race or disability. I don't think the criticisms in this article or others like it are necessarily wrong; I just think they might be a bit harsh.
Also, I do kind of hate how women get portrayed on that show, as the article you linked mentioned. They do all come off as spiteful, manipulative bitches. I had similar problems with the women of Nip/Tuck who are far worse, in my opinion.
I found the first episode semi-promising ... I kept thinking they were setting up these grotesque stereotypes to turn them into real people. And I actually laughed out loud when they go to see the other school perform and they're AMAZING, expecting there to be a kind of bathetic, yes, we're talented but...we don't have any money or resources or support...inversion of that. But, oh no, wait, they were just *that* talented. Grr.
And I have to say, Nerdy Wheelchair Kid, Sassy Overweight Black Kid, Outrageously Feminine Bullied Gay kid, Generic Asian Kid are *grim*. I was happy for the show to use the stereotypes to, err, do something but they just use the stereotypes.
It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I'm sorry to say.
Just because you know something is a horribly offensive stereotype doesn't mean it's then okay to use it as a horribly offensive stereotype.
Shame...'cos some of the singing is pretty good.
Yes, I'm still waiting for this moment too, but I do think it's coming. But perhaps it could have come earlier. I do think there's some progress made in that direction. Kurt joining the football team and being good at it is definitely a contrast to the typical super feminine gay stereotype. And it's cool to me that Artie plays guitar - just because he's a parapalegic doesn't mean he can't rock out. I guess that I see hints that these people will become more three dimensional as the series goes on. But I definitely see where you and others are taking issue with the show.
Yes, but the cheerleaders are still DEFINED by their sexuality. It doesn't matter whether cheerleader's are sluts or virgins, they're still not *people*.
On the other hand, Jane Lynch is by far the best thing in it. She's genuinely hilarious. And also I want her to take me now :D
Not really. He's good at the one thing of kicking and dances before he does it. That's a pretty old joke of a sport=ballet and a big tough jock having to copy frou frou dance moves to be good. That it's super feminine is part of the joke.
I was particularly curious about the episode with Artie because it starts with him facing the problem of not being able to travel with the rest of the club on the bus because the school won't pay for a wheelchair-accessible ride. The other kids in the club don't even pretend to care. They get taught a lesson by all having to spend a day in a wheelchair. They agree to be a little more enthusiastic about the bake sale to raise money for the special bus they had to have anyway. Artie says thanks for the money, but he'd rather donate it to the school to make the auditorium more wheelchair accessible.
So Artie we actually wind up back at square one: Artie can't go on the bus and nobody cares but Artie. And Rachel and Finn make use of the wheelchair they've apparently been given for good to force some guy into giving Finn a job. Because being disabled means you get all sorts of privileges over the able-bodied. And then Artie goes back to being background again.
It actually reminded me of the other ep where Kurt wants to sing "Defying Gravity" instead of Rachel even though it's allegedly a girl song(even though it's totally gender neutral). His father stands up for him saying it's discrimination. Dad gets an anonymous call calling his son a fag. Kurt and Rachel have a sing-off to see who'll sing the song, which Kurt blows. Kurt reveals that he blew the song on purpose because somehow his not singing Defying Gravity will protect his straight dad from homophobia.
So again, we've got the minority person making a sacrifice of something they want for others, which shows them to be better people, but meanwhile the majority people get to be obnoxous and actually succeed and get what they want. (Rachel gets to sing yet another solo, Finn gets a job, hell, Puck steals bake sale money to offer to Quinn.) And be the leads.
Not to mention that Quinn frequently makes out with Finn and gets pregnant after a bout of drunken sex. (Not that anyone ever brings up the fact that her consent in that situation would be dubious at best.) And they drop hints that two of the cheerleaders are sleeping together- not that their relationship will ever be treated as meaningful or important. Look! Cheerleaders kissing! *sigh* The whole joke of the chastity club is that the cheerleaders really are slutty. It's just more of the faux-deconstruction.
Well, I certainly didn't wish to become the Glee Crusader; I'm more playing devil's advocate a little. And honestly, I enjoy the show a lot; it makes me laugh out loud, and I want to defend my enjoyment otherwise I feel like "laughing at/enjoying Glee" = "laughing at/enjoying racism/sexism/homophobia". I also have definite issues with the way a lot of the story lines resolve themselves - pretty much what Sister Magpie pointed out:
That does really bug me. It makes me wonder "what are you trying to say here?" Though to be fair, Puck ends up giving the money back - it's not like he gets to keep it. I think the more questionable aspect there is that he put drugs in the cupcakes and never gets caught/reprimanded.
Basically the only reason I defended the show in the first place is because no one else did, and I think there *are* things to like about Glee, and it's okay to laugh at it (the show). I'm also willing to give it the chance to get better as well and start playing more with the deconstruction of stereotypes because I genuinely expect it to. If it doesn't, I'll be sorely disappointed.
Did I hear that a certain Mr Whedon was going to be directing an episode of Glee?
I just googled it and yes! Also potentially with Neil Patrick Harris, whom I adore!!!
I do like Jane Lynch though. I've always had a soft spot for nutters who set themselves up as straight-talking centers of moral authority and never get the joke.
It sounds to me like it crosses the line from comedy into the sort of territory US daytime soap operas like Sunset Beach tend to inhabit. Except those soaps at least (in my limited experience) tend to have this brash sense of unreality to them so that whatever happens in them doesn't really offend or affect me very much, because it's so ludicrous it's clearly not meant to make any sort of serious statement about, well, anything.
Oh, definitely agreed - it's a bit too much. And I kind of hate the wife character in general....
I feel like Jane Lynch is about 50% of the reason to watch the show - she's hilarious.
Also, I don't know if this is in Glee's favor or not, but the character of Principal Figgins was supposed to be played by a white guy, but they liked Iqbal Theba so much, they cast him instead - giving them a middle eastern principal. And he too is fabulous!
I'm also willing to give it the chance to get better as well and start playing more with the deconstruction of stereotypes
But it's had that chance. It's had what, thirteen episodes? By this point, they're firmly set in their ways, and I don't think that's going to change.
Since she's not an abused wife, I don't understand what that's supposed mean. Unless they're saying "yeah, I could understand this kind of behavior if she were a battered wife trying to cope/escape violence, but it makes no sense in this woman."
I don't think that enjoying the show implies liking racist stereotypes or anything like that--it's more like Melissa said, there that for me there's always a feeling of "what are you trying to say here...if anything?" because sometimes I'm not sure. Like maybe tehre's times where I think part of the show is very conscious teaching and then there's a joke that isn't supposed to be taken seriously or that they just thought was sentimental and sweet and they didn't think it through or whatever.
That scene really surprised me, actually. Considering what he had just found out, I could understand that he was so angry he wasn't in control of himself, but it was just so jarring to see a character I'd previously really liked and sympathized with acting like that toward his wife. I don't see Will being an abusive husband normally, personally. I can buy the anxiety excuse (if you'll forgive the word) for her behavior more so than spousal abuse.
It's a shame because there are times when I feel like the show says some really nice things (I really liked the moment when they sang with the School for the Deaf kids for example), but it's overshadowed by its failures that leave you with that "What exactly do you mean by that?" feeling.
Yeah, I admit I wondered if that line was referring to that scene and I just hated that reaction to it. It is a shocking scene but I don't see how it changes their marriages into one with a pattern of physical abuse. It is shocking, but so is her revelation from Will's perspective (leaving aside that he's on some level been enabling the lie too). Somebody grabbing someone's risk and pushing them--a violent act that's still basically controlled--at a moment when they're reacting to something that really is huge and would make them angrier than they've ever been, and they still walk away from it, there's no reason to retroactively create a pattern of abuse we've never seen.
It just frustrates me because I know people want to be responsible in pointing out the signs of abuse but they wind up trying to shove things into a pattern they don't really fit that kind of undermines that. It's like if the show showed someone being too upset to eat lunch and that immediately made them an anorexic. It's important to know the difference between "he's scary angry in reaction to a bombshell" and "abusive husband."
Having just watched it again, she said "please" and "don't" in reference to him being about to lift up her shirt and exposing her non-belly. Not in a "please don't hit me again" way. From my perspective. Here are some other people's takes on it.
I had a similar discussion about the Drapers on Mad Men, who also have a screwed up, unhealthy relationship that 3 isolated times included the husband touching the wife. And there too I remember reading some reactions that seemed really eager to rewrite it to fit this pattern that it wasn't about at all. Basically, there's lots of ways to hurt someone without fitting a pattern of pattern spousal abuse.
No problem!
Also, here's an example of why I don't think Glee has shown us all it's capable of yet. Here's hoping for an on-screen kiss!
They make no attempt to make her behaviour anything even remotely like sympathetic or understandable - she's horrible but, if you ask me, not *entirely* unfair, if you ask me. I mean, the thing about the teachery ideals Will indulges is that they're not *the kids* they're ultimately about *yourself* - he signed up to have family responsibilites, so it's not entirely unreasonable that his wife should want him to man up and take them on.
Basically I hate them both.
I agree. I could totally see the motivation behind her behavior and understand it. I also understood that the idea was that they were high school sweethearts who had far outgrown each other but had never come to terms with that and stayed together despite it. But I don't like how the show villified her so entirely.
There is a later episode (I want to say episode 5) where he comes to terms with this whole selfish motivation and realizes that Glee isn't about "him", it's about the "kids". And in the last episode, Rachel gives Mercedes the ballad because she thinks Mercedes deserves it and she tells Finn that it was "good for the team". Unfortunately the show then has them needing to change their set list for sectionals and Rachel had a large part in the ensemble number as well as having the ballad solo, which ticked me off. The singing had been more diversified up until that point with other characters (besides Finn and Rachel) singing a lot - Artie got songs as did Mercedes.
I would encourage you to watch more before judging it as it's possible that the second episode is similar to the pilot b/c the creators couldn't be sure that the pilot would be shown at all.
The characters that people get behind are often the active ones. Jane Lynch makes things happen. Rachel makes things happen. Unfortunately that does often seem to add up to not the best message. Like Melissa says, even when Rachel actually has to step aside for someone else the plot makes sure the other person winds up having to step back for her for the big finale. And that's usually a minority character.
*takes pro-littering stance*
The music was decent, though, and the performers awfully pretty :-)