I’m sure the actual episode won’t be anywhere near as suggestive as that description. 
The last two episodes of Glee have been rather disappointing; let’s hope tonight’s is better. I know alot of dopers will disagree with me, but I’m looking forward to another Kurt-centric episode. Especially one that’ll hopefully move away from portraying him as either a creepy stalker, or asexual drama queen. Oh, and Coach Beiste dressed as a Cheerio.
Per the website, songs are to include *Stop in the Name of Love *, *Free Your Mind *, *Start Me Up *, Livin’ On a Prayer, (Katy Perry’s) *Teenage Dream and (Bob Marley’s) * One Love.
What the fuck?!?! :eek:
That sure as hell wasn’t what I was expecting (though it’s not like homophobic closet case is original). Nice.
I had $5 on Puck being in Narnia, but that worked too.
So, Dalton School-perfect, or *too *perfect?
My DVR cut off as they were singing to Coach Bieste. How did it end?
StG
Loved it. This, IMO, is the best type of *Glee *episode in that the story and characters were at the fore and the songs were just background.
I thought the Kurt storyline was done very well. Kurt was actually very sympathetic in this one and not a bitchy diva like he can sometimes be. The kiss took me completely by surprise, but in hindsight it kinda makes sense. The new guy does seem too perfect, though.
The Bieste storyline was pretty out there, but still in line with Glee’s dark sense of humor. I liked the callback to Finn using his memory of hitting the mailman to avoid “arriving” too soon. My favorite bit may have been Sue and the confetti cannons.
The songs were fun. Not great, but I liked the mashups okay. The girls doing Bon Jovi (complete with hairography) was funny and they looked hot. The guys’ songs mashed together better, but their voices sounded overproduced. The Warblers doing *Teenage Dream *sounded great, but was kind of odd for a bunch of dudes. I was thinking, “Are *ALL *these guys gay?” It was hilarious when a few minutes later, Kurt asked them that very question!
Oh yeah! I did really like Puck and Artie singing One Love.
I’ll put it out there. I’m sick of Kurt’s gayngst. It’s no secret. It seems so much of “I’m angry, I’m gay, I’m gonna be a pissed off little bitch.” However, I didn’t mind this episode. It seemed a little more human, less arch. Plus, I felt really bad for him that his “first kiss” was so brutal. Forced, rough and by a man (boy?) who is constantly pushing him around and hurting him. It seemed almost like a virgin being raped. (Disclaimer: No, I’m not saying kissing is rape or glamorizing it or minimizing it or ANYTHING like that. They are not the same, I’m not saying that, don’t yell at me.) But it’s sad for him that his “first kiss” is so tarnished, so painful, so traumatizing.
I want things to turn around for Kurt, if only to minimize the gayngst.
“You’ve been smashing me into lockers for a year and a half? No! No sugar for you!”
Then it wouldn’t be realistic. I’m glad they keep confronting the issue.
My favorite part was Mike telling Beiste to stay away from his girl.
Loved it. And it threw me for several loops. But it did fall a little bit into the trap of the good music or good story dichotomy. The story was good but the music wasn’t great.
First loop: there’d been many rumors of Kurt’s upcoming boyfriend storyline. First major rumor was that he’d be on the football team and in the Glee club. So when Chord Overstreet arrived, everyone thought he’d be Kurt’s bf. But Chord went for Quinn instead. Then we heard about boy’s school guy, so we thought, hey that’s him! And he does seem a viable option, but then wham!! Football bully kisses Kurt! WTF! OK maybe it’s really him! But then at the end, he’s still a bully. So maybe it is boy’s school guy. :eek:
2nd loop: The promos did the sneaky thing they always do with editing, and followed Kurt’s bullying with Shue’s big protest speech. Leading me to think, hey Shue is going to stand up for Kurt and work to stop his bullying.
I’m kind of disappointed that he didn’t. And it’s beyond ridiculous that post-Columbine, their school doesn’t have an aggressive anti-bullying policy. In fact, I think Glee actually, in a small way, encourages bullying by making it seem like something that is normative for high school, without repercussions or help.
Not sure how I feel about the Shue-Bieste kiss. That sort of thing walks a very very tight line between kind and patronizing. I’ve been in a similar situation and got called out on it.
I liked the Artie-Puck team up, although I think a juvenile defender is better off helping a cripple than helping gang members, in terms of associating with bad influence.
If the producers really decide to piss people off (& I mean really piss people off) they can always put Kurt in a fantasy musical number involving him pulling off a school massacre. Honestly I can’t say the thought never crossed my mind in high school (& Kurt’s been getting it way worse than me). Now, what song would go with that?
He does. The entire Dalton Academy seems like a fucking utopia for gay teenagers. I half-expect there to be some unspeakable secret involved like the students are all vampires or the headmaster is using mind control to build a private army of athletic young men for some dark & twisted purpose.
And the subtle reminding that it’s just out of reach for Kurt (though the Hummels seem to be rolling in dough whenever it’s convenient to the plot :dubious:). Granted the writers do need a very good reason to keep Kurt at McKinley High now that he’s seen how much gayer the grass is on the other side. Otherwise Kurt would transfer in a hearbeat and no amount of pleading from Shue or the rest of the Glee club would get him to reconsider.
BTW, was anyone else bothered by the fact that Will apparently has an office?:dubious: Since when do HS teachers have actual offices instead of classrooms? I’ve never head of that, but maybe it’s another weird thing were the writers seem to be forgetting the difference between school & college. Like having an open campus, everyone having way to much free time during the school day, and being able to skip class and visit other schools with nobody noticing. Or is it all just some weird California thing like having outside lockers?
Departments have offices, and if Will is the only Spanish teacher at McKinley, he is the de facto chairman of the Spanish department. I can get that he has an office.
I would like to see a ban on Autotuner in this show, though. Thousands of actual Glee Clubs get along just fine without one. The Wiffenpoofs did just fine on The West Wing without an Autotuner. Who’s with me on this?
She told them the song was really good and she liked it. Then there was a group hug.
This may be off topic (sorry), but I have to tell somebody. I watched this episode with my mum and it cured her of homophobia! She got kind of teary over what Kurt was going through and thought he and Blaine were completely adorable. And she started talking about how sweet he was and how most of the gay people she encounters are really nice, and saying she wished the Bible wasn’t against it. So I paused the TV and we had a heartfelt conversation about how I reconcile my faith with accepting homosexuality. (The only mention in the New Testament comes from Paul, an imperfect human being who also said women can’t speak in church and men can’t have long hair, the “a man leaves his parents and takes a wife” thing doesn’t mean every man has to take a wife or the Bible wouldn’t encourage some people to remain single, etc.) She agreed with me! She said she’d always felt that homophobia couldn’t be right, that a loving God wouldn’t make people that way then condemn them for it, but she’d tried to push those feelings aside because she thought the Bible had a lot more to say against it than it actually does. She hugged me and thanked me for taking a huge weight off her mind. I’m so happy right now. :D:D:D If Glee was hoping to change people’s attitudes with this storyline, mission freaking accomplished!
That’s lovely, thanks for sharing that.
Nice story, Rala, thanks for sharing.
I do prefer the eps where there’s story-with-songs instead of songs-shoehorned-into-a-story-created-to-support-the-songs, so I liked last night’s show.
I like that Will and Biest are turning out to be friends, but the kiss thing was just bizarre.
And I thought the girls’ mashup worked better than the boys’, both musically and in terms of fulfilling the assignment – more gender commentary by the girls than the boys.
Will seems to have boundary issues. The kiss wasn’t sweet, which I think the director was going for, it was a pity-kiss (although Bieste knew that). In a way, it was as inappropriate as the football-bully’s kiss with Kurt.
The “handholding running down the room” thing looked uncomfortable. Kurt’s arm corssed over his body like that. Why didn’t they just have the Stepford Boy grab his other hand?
StG
I can’t see Figgins holding firm on an aggressive anti anything policy, and tepid official responses to bullying are sadly common.
I agree the kiss was bizarre, especially with Will’s previous man-whore leanings. I think the reasoning was to contrast it with the boy-boy kiss earlier in the episode. While I’m sure no one here on this board would cringe at the sight of a boy-boy kiss. I think the cringe factor of watching Bieste kissing someone is supposed to speak to the perception that boy-boy kissing is ‘gross.’ In other words, just because you don’t find it sexy doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
Probably too subtle, but that’s what I think.
We noticed this too, but thought it was a nice touch.
Yes, it looks awkward, but it shows just how amazing the act is. This is the first boy doing something overtly physical and romantic to Kurt. There is no way in hell Kurt is letting go, not matter how awkward running down the hall is.
Kurt won’t leave McKinley. Blaine told him that he ran from his bullying, but Kurt doesn’t have to do that and Kurt needs to stand up for himself in the way that Blaine didn’t.
I’m glad that Bieste is staying, she needs to have a smack-down with Sue.
IMHO, the reality is that bullying is still happening and it is happening on a large scale to homosexual teens like Kurt, regardless of anti-bullying policies. If anything maybe Kurt can be a role model to those kids who are going through what his character is experiencing. I also think that is why they seriously backed down from his gaystalker vibe.