I also sort of liked Finn’s version of *Girls Just Wanna Have Fun * but not in the show. I think Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors would have been perfect, as a ballad and the lyrics would have been perfect. But, it has been done already.
I thought it was so bizarre that everybody was singing songs performed by lesbian artists (or gay friendly or whatever Cyndi Lauper is) for Santana. I mean, I struggle daily with my weight, but I would not find it helpful if a bunch of people sang me songs performed by famous fat chicks. And the I Kissed a Girl bit was just nuts. Why couldn’t they have sung an empowerment song like Free Your Mind or *Mr Know It All * or something.
I am glad Burt won against Sue, LOVE Coach Bieste, and I am happy that Irish was all but absent this week.
The more I think about it, the more I feel I need to take this back. Or rather, the parts of the Santana plot that were actually about Santana (her scene with her grandmother and a few other bits here and there) were fairly good, but this was less an episode about how Santana felt about coming out than it was an episode about how Finn felt about Santana coming out.
Like Gabing Gaboing I feel that in real life one of the less helpful ways to make a teen girl feel better about coming out would be to make A HUGE DEAL ABOUT HOW SHE’S A LESBIAN and have every guy she’s ever had sex with sing at her…but they did kind of lampshade this, and since it’s Glee every situation is inevitably going to lead to public singing. But there’s no excuse for reducing Santana to a supporting player in her own storyline. Naya Rivera’s performance in the last episode alone showed she has the acting and singing chops to handle being the center of a serious storyline, but this week she didn’t even get a song to herself to express how she felt. They had to go and cram the unrelated Shelby and Kurt* storylines into the closing number as well. Brittany was largely in the background this week, and to the best of my recollection her only dialogue was about the election. She had little or nothing to say/sing about her relationship with Santana or how she felt about her girlfriend being forced out of the closet.
It’s tempting for me to say that Glee is perhaps not as comfortable with queer women as it thinks it is (or thinks it ought to be), but I think the problem is actually bigger than that. I’ve felt for a long time that this show isn’t sure what to do with its female characters when they’re not being psycho, and for all the talk about this week’s theme being “Lady Music” the girls of New Directions were reduced to singing about how sexy it is when straight girls kiss. Meanwhile, Puck gets an entire number to express how he’s Hot for Teacher, something he did just an episode ago. And then there was Finn’s rendition of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”…
I feel like it would have worked better had it been performed by someone else, and not merely because Finn is one of the weaker singers on the show. It would have been a lot more meaningful coming from Brittany, or as a group number by the girls, or even as a solo by any of the female characters. Heck, Tina’s had nothing to do except be Mike Chang’s girlfriend since the end of season one, why not give it to her?
IIRC, Santana herself has been involved in at least two knock-down, drag-out fights in the hallways of McKinley with no serious consequences. If Figgins had said this was a new policy that would have made sense, but didn’t he say it was due to an incident three years ago? That would mean it has been in effect since before Glee’s first season. Oh, and I think Rachel was still being self-absorbed – she said she didn’t want to go to NYC without her “best gay”.
*Obvious missed plot opportunity: Kurt is looking to add another line to his college application, and is interested in doing something political. Santana is worried about coming out to her family. Whatever happened to that PFLAG chapter Kurt was going to form with Karofsky last season? I seriously kept expecting Kurt to approach Brittany/Santana about working with him on that.
Cyndi Lauper’s straight but she has a gay sister and a lot of gay fans, so she’s super gay friendly. I’ve been to only three Gay Pride marches and she appeared at two of them (D.C. and Atlanta).
There was that episode where Puck sang Fat Bottomed Girls and an original composition called Big Ass Love to Lauren, and for some schizo reason she hated one and loved the other.
I wonder if they’ll remember his father’s going to D.C. and will need an aid. (Wait… is he going to D.C. or Columbus? I assumed it was U.S. Congress but it could be state legislature- anyone know offhand?) That would be something for a NYADA transcript.
Since NYADA is fictional and they could as easily have used any number of real performing arts school, I’m convinced they’re at least testing the waters for a spinoff set there. I’m thinking that if they can tear it away from Murphy and make it for a more adult audience it would be the better show.
That was actually two different episodes, and while it didn’t make a lot of sense they were at least already dating by the time Puck wrote “Big Ass Heart”.
I’m also confused about exactly what position Burt was elected to – I feel like when this storyline was introduced Sue was running for the state senate, but later there was talk about DC and Congress. Either way, I’m still hoping this will lead to a performance of CCR’s “Fortunate Son”.
As frustrated as I often am with Glee, I am excited about the possibility of a spin-off and would definitely give it a chance. If it had fewer major characters than Glee (I’d go with Rachel, Kurt, Blaine, and Santana) maybe it could avoid Glee’s frequent problem of having too many storylines going at once with many of them being underdeveloped.
Yeah and did anyone notice the bad editing in the episode. The first scene with Kurt he is wearing outfit #1 and he is worried about the election that afternoon. Then the next scene with him, he and Blaine are singing and he is in Outfit #2 ( half sweater). And they have there first meeting of Glee Club (which I assume they only meet once a day). They next scene with Kurt, he is back in Outfit #1 for the second meeting of Glee Club for the day, to watch Puck sing. Then when the elsction actually happens he is in a different outfit…
Now I know he is a bit of a clothes horse, but seriouslly??? Pay attention when you edit these episodes
I did notice that, and the same with the pink top that Rachel was wearing at the beginning and that reappeared after scenes where she was wearing something else. IIRC the teaser for this week’s episode featured footage that wasn’t in the final episode (like Becky saying she’d made out with another girl), so it may be that the episode ran overtime and had to be chopped up/rearranged to fit the time slot.
Well, I’d be irked if I were a student at McKinley, but I don’t find it implausible that a cheerful, slutty cheerleader who handed out free candy would win more votes than a comatose hockey player or a lachrymose gay kid running on an anti-dodgeball platform.
D.C. - and I am pretty sure the reason for this is because Mike O’Malley needs time off from the show to be in his new Fox sitcom, Family Album (which, ironically, starts in March in Glee’s timeslot while Glee is on its “spring hiatus”).
Fox is notorious for this, especially with The Simpsons - the cut footage is readily available for use in previews.
In real life, you’d have to taze Kurt and chain him in the basement to make him stay in Lima, Ohio, when his dad moves to Washington, D.C… (Hell, I’m not remotely as flaming or fashion obsessed as Kurt and you’d have had to taze and chain me when I was a teenager to keep me from moving to D.C. with you.) I wonder how they’ll work around this.
I actually quite liked Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, but I agree that I Kissed A Girl was completely wrong for that episode and to represent what Santana was going through.
A few weeks ago, I was wondering when Glee was going to do a Dolly Parton episode (preferably with an appearance by Dolly Parton). I was pleasantly surprised to see “Jolene” in this episode. I still think there’s enough in the Dolly catalogue for a complete episode (and they had better include “Travelin’ Thru”).
