This was an episode of contradictions. It had a good theme to latch onto, despite a lot of narratively unrelated elements. At the same time, none of the plot elements were really developed very well. Kurt and Isabelle’s relationship moved way too fast. Rachel’s fashion problems felt like they came out of nowhere, only inserted for the benefit of the episode. I liked her relationship with Brody, but he remains a very undeveloped character. The presidential election bit actually had a lot of funny elements to it, but when they tried to tie it to Blaine’s ailing relationship with Kurt, I didn’t quite feel the connection, since we were moving from utter silliness to seriousness.
I will say that I’m glad the presidential election was confined to one episode this time around.
I still think there’s hope for the fourth season, but looking at their track record so far, my hope is fading.
For the last year or so I’ve been at the point with Glee that I kinda want to know what happens, but not enough to actually watch an episode. These threads are perfect for me.
I thought it was nice that the writers came right out and admitted, with Will as their mouthpiece, that they don’t have any ideas for the McKinley setting anymore. I don’t think any of the new student characters even had any lines this week, and the older characters were basically just re-enacting a storyline from last season. There were some funny bits, but it wasn’t that interesting and I kept feeling like we were watching a show made up entirely of supporting characters.
While it’s nothing new for Glee to leave its teen characters’ domestic situations mysterious, it did bother me that there were a number of references to Sam’s past this week without any explanation of where he’s living now. Last season there was one line about how he was staying at Kurt and Finn’s house, but with Kurt and Finn both gone and Burt in DC much of the time is Sam living mostly alone with Finn’s mom? Because that’s kind of weird.
I found the New York stuff more engaging, but as **Loopus **said in the OP these storylines weren’t developed properly and I don’t think they have time to develop properly if half the show is going to be spent back in Ohio. Glee has always tended to rush through certain storylines, but this week I felt like huge chunks had been hacked out of the Kurt and Rachel stories. Mostly this just seemed weird and confusing, but when it comes to the Brody character it’s actually creeping me out. This guy has apparently been obsessed with Rachel from the moment they met, and we’ve been given no hint as to why he’s even interested. This isn’t romantic, it’s disturbing. When he and Rachel were running around I wanted to tell Rachel “Stop looking back at him flirtatiously. Just run, and keep on running.”
The musical numbers weren’t very good either.
I really wish they had spun Kurt and Rachel off into their own show, because I think there’s a chance this could have led to another year or two of entertaining television. As things are, I feel like the series should have ended last season at the latest and probably will end with this season. This week’s episode attracted the smallest number of viewers this show has ever had.
I didn’t even think of that parallel, but it’s obvious now that you mention it. In many ways, everything since “Pilot” has been leading up to their victory in “Nationals.” So what now? For Glee to survive, it’s going to have to forge new characters with new relationships that are interesting enough to keep us engaged… and they’re not off to a good start with Jake, who is exactly like Puck; Kitty, who is exactly like Quinn; or Marley, who is reminiscent of Rachel (though she is the best character out of the three). Nor am I at all excited about the Jake-Kitty-Marley love triangle hinted at at the end of “Britney 2.0,” which bears a striking resemblance to another love triangle that you may remember from seasons one and two.
I do like Wade, but she hasn’t had much of a serious (emphasis on serious) presence in the season so far. In stark contrast to the respect she was given as a transgender character by the writers last season, this season she’s been treated more-or-less as a gag character.
“Makeover” also brings us the possibility that Will will take a leave of absence for a few months, leaving us to see how the kids deal with things without him. That could be interesting, but it will only be temporary, and it is a subject that we’ve seen explored in season one’s “Acafellas” and, to a lesser extent, in season two’s “New York.”
So… what now? We’ll see what else they can come up with as the season goes on, but it’s going to have to be something better than what they’ve offered so far.
Add to that the question of what the hell they could possibly do with the show after Blaine, Brittany, Artie, Sam (?), and Tina graduate, and I think it’s pretty obvious that Glee is going out after this season almost no matter what.
If it weren’t for the NYC storyline, I would stop watching.
A prime example of how the writers have given up this season is the entire concept of the characters actually saying, “oh…you’re the new Rachel!” or “Who’s going to be the new Finn?”
And then they have to throw in a guy in drag trying to be the new Mercedes, and bring in Puck’s step brother?
Seriously, you can’t create a few entirely new characters, in a high school?!
Geez…move on already!
Horrible, lazy writing - trying to recapture lightning in a bottle by recycling the exact same formula, plots and even song themes (see last week’s Spear’s episode).
In this most recent episode, Kurt gets a job at Vogue and it was sort of clever to get Sarah Jessica Parker to be his new boss - but then they turned her into an idiot. On the first day, without having drunk 15 Cosmos at a bar, she spills all of her fears and insecurities to a new intern? And he saves the day in about 12 hours?!
I think the writers have just given up, and I won’t be surprised if the viewing audience gives up just as fast. I think we might be watching the last season of Glee - and at this rate, maybe that is a good thing - put this show out of its misery.
This has really been a problem since last season, but what with Blaine being named New Directions’ new lead vocalist and him being the most obvious connection between the Ohio and NYC storylines the writers could maybe try a little harder to develop this character without making him seem so whiny and unsympathetic. He’s still upset about the hair gel ban at prom nearly five months later? He’s sad because he can’t get his boyfriend on the phone while his boyfriend is at work? Even for a teenager these are stupid problems.
Oddly enough, during season two (before Blaine was replaced with his younger, whinier clone) what little we knew of this character’s backstory indicated that he’d actually had some real hardships. He’d been the victim of a gaybashing shortly after coming out, his father remained uncomfortable with his sexual orientation, and he had lingering guilt/shame over not being able to stand up for himself at his old school. Since he transferred to McKinley his problems have been things like “my much older brother is kind of self-absorbed”, “everyone is mad at me because I gave away our setlist to a rival choir captain who’s also a violent sociopath who’s openly trying to seduce me away from my boyfriend”, and “I can’t wear my preferred hair styling product to the prom”.
I hate how they replaced the graduating seniors with characters who are just exactly like them. I fully expect an Asian dancer to come into the choir room next.
Brit is just not interesting anymore. The airhead jokes don’t play well when she is a central character doing central things. They go better as background.
It seems like next week’s episode will have the end of Blurt and Finchel. And I suspect Finn will go home to Ohio and take over Glee while Shu is off doing something I don’t care about.
I’ve always felt that Glee replaced Ugly Betty in the culture, so it was kind of fun to see elements of the two shows collide here (Wish America Fererra had made an appearance!).
Character creation has never been Glee’s strong suit, and that’s going to become increasingly obvious as they are forced to replace departing characters.
I think it’s pretty telling that two of their best characters, Kurt and Santana, were more or less created by accident. Kurt was not part of the original concept, but was created based on Chris Colfer’s audition. Santana was originally a glorified extra, but grew naturally out of that into a real character (and her relationship with Brittany was originally nothing more than a one-off joke).
Then there are characters like, say, Tina, who were part of the original concept, but have never done anything remotely interesting.
And that’s not entirely fair. Plenty of the originally-conceived characters, especially Rachel, Quinn, and Mercedes, have been great at least from time to time. But their conceptions were full of cliches from the beginning, and it’s looking more and more like cliches are all the producers have in their toolbox.
The writers have the chance to pursue completely new storylines, with completely new characters. And they aren’t doing ANYTHING with it.
Will can’t think of what to do? Dude, come on. Pick songs, rehearse them, go back to nationals and win. Its called being a teacher, dumbass.
New storylines? How about a well-adjusted teenager coming in, and talking with these people about how to make their lives better.
How about someone who sings for fun, and not because of a tragic backstory?
How about a popular, well-adjusted gay kid, who doesn’t have tragedy all around him.
How about have someone get addicted to porn? Someone addicted to World of Warcraft? How about going with the standard teenage story of anxiously wanting a car?
Jeez. What the hell is wrong with these writers? They’ve got a million possibilities, and they keep acting like they’re all done.
What the hell happened to Sam? I remember him being the poor kid, not a Brittany-level retard the way they’re writing him now. He can’t even spell “here” properly?
So glad they kept 90% of the old cast on the payroll as regulars so we can get the occasional 30 second cameo from Puck or Santana… Maybe instead of wasting a bunch of money on regulars who aren’t, they could hire some competent writers? I know, silly idea, good thing I’ll never work in Hollywood. But come on, they moved Emma back from regular cast to recurring guest, why couldn’t they do the same for most of them?
Anyone who didn’t see Finn showing up at the loft like that in the last 10 seconds must have been living under a rock and never seen any tv or movies before in their life. I think I called that right as soon as new guy showed up in the shower while Rachel was getting ready in the middle of the night.
I was hoping it would turn out to be Santana, right off the bus from Kentucky.
Oddly, this makes two years in a row where a female character indicated that she had some plan involving New York only to have this never (so far at least) mentioned again. Back in season two Quinn said she wanted to go to Nationals in NYC because she had some big plan, but this was dropped entirely. Last season Santana told her mother that she wanted to go to New York, and although her mother wanted her to finish college first she did actually agree to let Santana take her college money and move to the city.
Glee is well-known for playing fast and loose with characterization whenever it fits their current plot needs, but the dumbing down of Sam for this episode was extreme even by their standards. It was especially egregious since just one episode ago, Sam was the only person in the club who was able to figure out that Brittany was only pretending (for the most part) to spiral out of control. So is he clever or stupid? Depends on what they want him to be at the moment.
It was strongly implied that her “big plan” was to sabotage the glee club’s performance somehow, but Quinn’s plot arc in season two was such a huge mess that it’s hard to say almost anything coherent about it.
I remember hearing a rumor that her plan was going to be to track down Shelby and baby Beth, although I don’t know of any evidence for this and it almost makes too much sense to be true.