The goodbye episode for Finn Hudson/Cory Monteith is airing tonight; who else is watching? I am even though I gave up last season and only made if halfway through the season 5 première. From what I’ve read a lot of characters who don’t otherwise appear much (like Burt & Carol) are back for this episode. If nothing else it’ll be interesting.
I expected them to do this in the premiere. It’s pretty much the only reason I came back.
There was a review in the New York Times today: ‘Glee’ Addresses the Loss of Cory Monteith - The New York Times
The broadcast ended a few minutes ago, and I’m not sure how to rate it. When any of the characters started crying – which happened a lot – it was difficult to watch because I kept thinking that at least some of that probably wasn’t even acting. It might have been harder for the actors not to cry at some points. There were a few moments where the actual acting seemed overdone/forced, but I’m willing to give the performers a pass because I’m sure it was difficult for them to get through this episode at all.
I think the strongest scene in terms of both content and performance was the one with Finn’s family, and I did start crying during his mother’s speech about having to keep going without her child.
In general I felt the writers did a good job of dealing with Finn/Cory Monteith’s death while still keeping this recognizably an episode of Glee. That’s both a strength and a weakness. At the beginning of the episode Mr. Schuester basically said “We’re going to sing about this, because this is an episode of Glee and that’s what we do.” And I’m okay with that, and with letting slide some things that didn’t make a lot of sense*, but I’m less okay with the “comic relief” being yet another scene about what a terrible person Tina has become or with the stolen jacket subplot ending with the all-too-predictable revelation that Mr. Schuester took it. I think we were supposed to feel for him, but instead I was thinking “So your relationship with this student remains creepy even after his death.”
That said, I felt the episode was good considering. The big question is where they’ll go from here.
*It seemed weird that they kept saying it had been three weeks since Finn’s funeral in an episode airing just before the show goes on a three week hiatus. I’m guessing that at the time they wrote/filmed the episode they weren’t sure they’d be able to get it on the air before baseball took over the time slot.
Was it me or did Lea Michelle look terrible in this episode? And I’d swear she was wearing a wig.
Agree on Finn’s mom being the dramatic highlight and Tina’s Goth comic scene falling flat. Sue’s scene didn’t really work for me, for which I blame the writing because the acting was good.
I still think that with the right career guidance and roles that Naya Rivera could be huge. In my opinion, she is the most talented member of the cast.
I watched…just because I wanted to see what they did with it.
I guess Brittany is still at MIT (or having a baby IRL) and Quinn is where-ever she is.
Glad Coach Beiste got a couple scenes.
I am not Rachel fan, but I can’t imagine how difficult this episode was for her.
They never did say how Finn died, did they?
Santana was gorgeous tonight.
The actress was full-term pregnant (i.e. too noticeable not to address it) when the episode was filmed, which is why she didn’t participate.
Puck in the Air Force could almost make a good spinoff. (Considering how many millions of active duty and vets there are, it’s amazing how underrepresented they are in pop culture.)
She has been looking very thin since the show returned, but it seemed more obvious in this episode. I could believe she had in hair extensions, which in addition to the weight loss makes me worry about her health/nutrition.
No, and while I can understand why I think this actually makes his cause of death into a bigger deal than if they’d just said he was hit by a car or something. The closest thing we got to an explanation was Kurt’s inner monologue about how people kept wanting to talk about how Finn died but that he preferred to focus on Finn’s life than that “one moment”. This perhaps unintentionally suggests there was something about the way Finn died that would inspire gossip.
Watching the episode I couldn’t shake the feeling that Glee will soon sweep all of this under the carpet. Not just Finn’s cause of death, but Finn as a character and the way his death affected the others. Over the past few seasons this show has introduced one tragic situation after another only to either undo or forget about them soon afterward. Since Finn’s death cannot be taken back, that leaves forgetting about him. I wish I could trust the show to take something like this seriously for more than just the one episode, but I’m not confident that it will rise to the challenge.
[QUOTE=Lamia]
Watching the episode I couldn’t shake the feeling that Glee will soon sweep all of this under the carpet. Not just Finn’s cause of death, but Finn as a character and the way his death affected the others. Over the past few seasons this show has introduced one tragic situation after another only to either undo or forget about them soon afterward. Since Finn’s death cannot be taken back, that leaves forgetting about him. I wish I could trust the show to take something like this seriously for more than just the one episode, but I’m not confident that it will rise to the challenge.
[/QUOTE]
They should give it at least as many episodes as they gave to catfishing of Finn 2.0, which would be about 23.
While you grow close to other cast members on a show, I’m sure there are cliques and clacks. I wonder which cast members Monteith was closest to (besides Lea, obviously) and which ones ‘not so much’ and if this had anything to do with who sang tributes to him.
Being old enough to remember The Land Before Cable and all, I was reminded of the episode of Chico and the Man that dealt with the death of Chico (Freddie Prinze). Like this one, it was not the first episode after his death and his cause of death was never given.
I watched, despite having given up on the show the middle of last season.
Meh.
I actually did think the scene with Tina was kind of funny.
And had wondered about Britney’s absence – thanks for the explanation – and Quinn’s.
Nice to see Mike back, though.
Agreed. 100% (except for I gave up on it more or less before last season).
Meh about covers it.
The one thing that had me somewhat troubled is what Lamia was getting at - I was feeling like a lot of it wasn’t acting - there was real grief being shown and it hurt.
It was decent. I thought not explaining the cause of Finn’s death was a good idea, Burt & Carol’s scene was very good, and Puck’s stuff was very not good. It doesn’t really feel like something that needs in-depth reviewing, though.
I think this will act as a kind of series finale for a lot of people. I haven’t watched much for the past 2 or 3 seasons (apparently I’m not alone) and I doubt I’ll watch any more.
According to this article in the Daily News, many of the scenes shown were first takes, because if they tried to do additional takes, the cast & crew were breaking down. I can understand that. There are pieces I wish had been done better, but overall I appreciated the episode (I can’t say I ‘enjoyed’ it). I always knew the actor playing Finn’s mom was a good actor, but that scene brought me to tears more than anything else.
I thought the episode was incredibly powerful, because you knew there was real grief. When the actors where crying while sitting in the chairs in the glee room, you knew those were real tears. I thought it was a very good way to say goodbye.
By “the actress,” I assume you mean Heather Morris (Brittany).
Dianna Agron’s (Quinn) absence from the episode has been talked about quite a bit on the main Glee fan forum. Here are the four explanations I have heard so far:
[ul]
[li]Agron claims that she was never asked[/li][li]Murphy claims that it was up to her to tell him that she wanted to be in it (Prinicpal-turned-Janitor Figgins wasn’t going to be in it until Iqbal Theba asked)[/li][li]One source says that Murphy and Lea Michele left her out intentionally[/li][li]Another says that Agron had a scheduling conflict with a movie[/li][/ul]
The scene that really got me was Puck breaking down with the beast in the locker room. I know how he feels.
Liked that they had the “faggy lamp” show up in the cleaning out of Finn’s room. Liked that everyone wanted Finn’s coat. Liked that Shu wound up with it (even if predictable).
Hate hate HATED that they pussed out on giving a cause of death. Almost as much as I hate that damn “minutes” song they opened the show with. Nothing to do with the performance, I just really loathe that song.
Rachel really did look frail, but given her real life situation, I totally get that. In general, you could tell a lot of the emotion going on was from the actors as much as the characters.
It probably would have seemed funnier to me had I (sensibly) quit when you did. Part of what you’ve missed is the bizarre downward spiral of that character.
Good gravy, she all but raped Blaine Warbler last season. Downward spiral doesn’t begin to cover that girl.
I haven’t watched the show since season two or so but I tuned in (with the sound turned down while I listened to something else)…Santana looked insanely hot! Better than ever. Wow.
Lea Michelle looked much thinner than I remember. Maybe due to stress?
The two blonde girls are gone? Brittaney and the one that had a baby with Puck?
I like the song okay but
1- It’s way overplayed
2- I absolutely KNEW they were going to incorporate it
3- it’s from RENT and while I like some of the music from that show I H-A-T-E the characters/plot/cult of RENT like they were made out of fat free mayonnaise
However, I was irked that they didn’t change the gender on one of the lyrics (bolding mine):
Why didn’t they change this to “way that he died”? Did Finn take some girl with him into Val Halla as well?
It irked me at Burt’s wedding when Finn sang a Bruno Mars song to Kurt but kept the female lyrics (“girl you’re amazing just the way you are!”).
Is it in the licensing that they can’t make any changes to the lyrics, even a minor one like gender?
In other news, Blake Jenner, who plays Ryder, is so Finn 2.0 that, like Monteith’s relationship with Michele, he’s engaged to the actress who plays his on-again/off-again love interest on the show (Melissa Benoist/Marley) in real life.