A Gleeful Rant

I am a fan of the show Glee. I am not ashamed of this. I am in fact thrilled that there is finally a show about people like me, the high school weirdos who sang in choir and performed in the annual musicals (we didn't have "show choirs" back then), who were marginal outcasts but thoroughly enjoyed the company of other like-talented weirdos and the production of major performances. It doesn't hurt that they've used a significant amount of music from my own high school years to secure my attention.

It's really a well-done show - most of the time. The first season got off to a rocky start in the sense that it felt like they were trying to find a groove; they knew they had a good thing on their hands, but they were a little too hyperactive and needed to focus. In one early episode, I counted something like 12 separate storylines, which is just too many for viewers to follow and too hard to sustain, even with a solid ensemble cast. They settled down soon enough, and the rest of Season 1 quickly became Can't Miss TV.

Season 2 has been a little rockier. Having outperformed expectations so spectacularly, they really found themselves in a battle to top The Last Episode every week, which quickly became exhausting for everyone, and more than a little disingenuous. It's one thing to have some over-the-top characters and situations that, were they to occur in real life, would result in lawsuits, firings, and criminal charges rather than just a wacky, slapstick few hours (think Season 1's distribution of pseudephedrine to the entire Glee Club - less the pregnant Quinn). It's quite another though to be so outlandish, so ridiculous that believability goes out the window, with watchability right on its heels. Still, their biggest challenge this season - in my humble opinion - hasn't been the carried away-ness (although it is one factor). It's their inability to figure out what to do with the supremely talented and ever-growing cast, both regular and guest, and it's starting to get painful to watch.

Let's start with new characters. I understand the need to add new characters, especially in a setting like high school where clearly, eventually somebody's going to have to graduate, and you need some kind of succession plan. And with an ensemble this big, it's not quite as sore thumb-ish as on, say, Friends. That said, new characters still need to have both a context and a purpose, one that goes beyond just making sure you don't exhaust your core cast or that keeps them in check by reminding them how easy it is to replace them. I applaud Glee for adding early and often, rather than waiting until the cousin Oliver stage of the show, but I'm starting to get a little dizzy at the revolving door, and I'm starting to wonder about some of the choices. I was so excited to see Charice - but then she turned out to just be a guest start. They added Chord Overstreet, presumably to give Cory Monteith a hand with the lead male vocals, but they've barely explored his character beyond being someone else to whom to pass Quinn. They brought in the Wrestler Girl, but other than a few on-the-border moments of comic relief, she seems to just be a moving piece of scenery. Darren Criss, by far the most exciting new addition, is given plenty of singing time, but he's been stuck over in this Dalton Academy sideshow and is basically just trotted out for a little musical beefcake effect once in awhile. Which leads me to my next two complaints:

What to do with the primary cast. True, the show needed to move past the early iteration of the Lea Michele & Matthew Morrison show it was becoming. Two fantastic Broadway stars, both eminently watchable, but it was clear that even they were becoming tired of carrying the whole load, even with Cory Monteith (adorable but not nearly as strong) chipping in as a romantic interest/co-vocal for Lea. So, great, let's open the show up to some other characters and voices - turns out Kevin McHale (Archie), Dianna Agron (Quinn), Amber Riley (Mercedes), Chris Colfer (Kurt), Mark Salling (Puck), and Naya Rivera (Santana) are all pretty talented singers, and their characters each got a turn at developing a little depth, as did Jenna Ushkowitz's Tina, and Heather Morris' sleeper hit Brittany. But this season...um...nobody seems to be getting any storylines. Oh, I'm sorry, there is one storyline so far this season: Kurt and the Korofsky monster. And a gem of a storyline that has been too, except...

(Point 3): IT'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE. I was so proud of how they were handling the Korofsky plot. Here's an extreme homophobe who is literally terrorizing Kurt, one of the few openly gay teenage characters in TV history, and there is a real chance here, in the context of all the bullying and suicides that have been going on nationwide, to make a big impact. They took a great turn at the "did NOT see that one coming!" moment where Korofsky kisses Kurt, clearly demonstrating that his hate comes from his own fear and confusion, and opening a huge Pandora's box of possibility. So what did the show do? SENT KURT AWAY TO PRIVATE SCHOOL. ??? Um... what?? Don't get me wrong: this is a perfectly valid alternative for someone actually in the situation who is, in fact, fearing for his safety and well-being under the circumstances. But let's face it: MOST kids facing this problem cannot just up and go to private school. Their parents can't afford it, they'd have to abandon everything in their current world to do it, and frankly, they might not find a better situation there either. Worse though, as a plot turn on the show, it's a total chicken-out, where they could have used the opportunity to illustrate just how bad it can be for kids, and then demonstrate what they might do to handle it. Running off to private school isn't feasible for kids, so what other options might there be? And how could New Directions have banded together to help? They had just begun to touch on that when Dalton Academy reared its pretty little head, and off Kurt went. In terms of pure talent, the crime lies not only in the missed opportunity to help gay (and other "outcast") kids everywhere, but in the placing of Kurt squarely in a corner, trotted out for a token appearance each episode, but now behind not only Lea, Amber, and Cory in the solo queue, but now also Darren Criss. What a total waste of the Golden Globe-nominated talent that is Chris Colfer.

Just felt the need to rant today. I'll save my "what in the world are they doing to Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester?" for another day. The post Super Bowl episode was so "meh" that I just couldn't stand it anymore though, so I had to say something. Let's hope they straighten out the rest of Season 2 the way they did Season 1. It's fixable, but only if the show gets over itself, settles back down, and gets back to what it was supposed to be: the STORY of a Glee Club. Find the story, Glee.