I only had one problem with last night's Glee.

[apocalypsos]

They're taking Quinn to the point where she can be viewed as entirely and irredeemably unsympathetic, and I don't think that's where the writers really want to go with her, so they might want to fix that.

Here's the thing. She has these moments where she's a wonderful character to watch. Her and Puck throwing cupcake ingredients at each other? Her face lit up. She's never been prettier or happier or more appealing than she was in that scene. It was a wonderful glimpse at her as a happy carefree person, and it makes me want to like her. Except currently there aren't too many other things that make me want to like her, which is depressing on a show with Sue Sylvester, who's evil but bunches of fun to watch even when she's not showing glimpses of humanity. (Her glimpses of humanity are the best, though -- they're part of what made last night's episode the best yet.)

But Quinn ... I mean, seriously?

-- She still hasn't told her parents she's pregnant yet. Come ON. What does she think is going to happen, she'll just balloon an extra thirty pounds in the belly and they won't notice? I know she's afraid to tell them, but she'll just make it worse by waiting.

-- She's berating Finn for not finding a job. What planet is she living on precisely? She lives in Ohio. I find it hard to believe that she lives in a state with one of the worst unemployment rates right now and hasn't noticed. Even Quinn's not that oblivious.

-- And why can't SHE find a job? That's the main problem I have with that storyline. Has she never seen 16 And Pregnant, even as a warning from the chastity club or whatever? I know Finn is sweet but dim, and that he means well, but she can't depend on him any more than she can depend on Puck. She needs to learn how to depend on herself, and it bugs me to see her jumping down his throat about getting a job when she appears to be perfectly able-bodied enough to get one herself. (Especially considering Finn got one by faking being in a wheelchair, which is ridiculously skeevy but honey, if he can get a job he has to do in a wheelchair, you can suck it up and get one your damn self.)

-- And if she doesn't intend on keeping the baby, then why does it matter if the father's a Lima Loser or not? At least Puck has a history of earning money and having a legitimate job. Finn doesn't even have that. If she's not going to keep the baby and she's not going to stay with the father, then what does it matter, other than the humiliation that'll come when it comes out she's cheated on Finn? Puck might be a jerk most of the time, but there's a decent person somewhere underneath there.

The thing is, this isn't the Terri storyline, although I think both storylines are the weakest points of the entire series by a longshot. I'm not supposed to like Terri. We don't get scenes where Terri's not being a manipulative witch in some way or another. She's supposed to be a villain, even more so than Sue. I get the impression we're supposed to feel sympathy for Quinn on occasion, or see where she's coming from, or come to her side in the end, and with the way she treats Finn she's not going to come out on the side of good at this rate.

(God help me, but I have this scenario built into my head where we'll find out that the reason that we'll find out she's hiding the pregnancy from her parents is not just because they're conservative Christian types but also because there's abuse in the home. Not that I think she's exhibited any behaviors like that, but I feel like if the show had her mention next week that there's something not right in that house I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.)

So, yeah. I wish they'd just trash the pregnancy storylines already. They're on my list of things that are bringing the show down along with too much autotune and Finn singing too much, or possibly at all.

Comments

[suaine.livejournal.com]

Yes, this.

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

The scene with Puck in the home ec room is basically why Quinn's not down at the bottom of my metaphorical elevator shaft with the others... I think the problem may be that the writers don't actually HAVE a plan. They have all these neat ideas for episodes and a couple of thru-lines with the pregnancies and the Schue/Sue friction, but aside from that? It's mostly just throwing musical interludes at the wall.

[eisoj5]

That scene with Puck was when I turned to my husband and told him Dianna is really, really pretty.

ITA; the unrealistic expectations she has for making Finn behave like he's actually going to be a part of the baby's life later on are just going to make him more confused down the line when/if she gives the baby to Terri.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

I figured they were (maybe, sort of) going in a direction where Quinn isn't sure *what* she wants to do, so she's keeping her options open -- if she cannot get Finn on board in the next few months, she'll give the baby away, but if she can get her little plans together, she won't give the baby away. But they haven't made that clear at all, it's all conjecture on my part.

My first and biggest problem with this scenario is that they showed Terri cheerily informing Quinn that she's on the hook for all the medical costs and then skipping off, still under the impression that the baby will be hers, and Quinn let her get away with it. I would have loved a scene where Quinn explained the facts of life to a squirming, unhappy Terri, and then we'd get Terri maybe taking a job and working hard for something for the first time in her self-absorbed life. It would be incredibly easy for Quinn to find potential parents who will not only pay all her bills, but buy her things like clothing and iPods and anything else she wants, for a chance at a white baby with an attractive, blond mother who is also gets good grades. Quinn is literally the mother-lode for upscale would-be moms and dads. It's an idiot plot for her to have agreed to give Terri the baby for nothing. The way the law stands today, Quinn could get these potential parents to pay for everything, and then decide to keep the kid once it's born, and the would-be adoptive parents don't get a penny back. What little law we have on the books with regard to this sort of thing sides with the mother entirely.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

I think the thing is that it's not supposed to in any way be realistic. So you have this wildly illogical plot with the pregnancies and the planned baby swap, but suspension of disbelief is supposed to allow for all the real world questions to not be asked. The actual problem with that is that the show creator is a gay man and a lot of the viewership are women, so what is probably in his head a HAHA plotline of sheer zaniness is, in fact, to the viewers too visceral a topic to just laugh at.

I think the entire reason Quinn hasn't told her parents is that they're fundies. It's Ohio. I think that says it all.

[kerri]

Hm, I think the only thing I have to say here is that she's supposed to be what, sixteen? (Judging from Arty's conversation where he said he'd had 8 years of practice, and the accident happened when he was 8.)

Having had friends who were pregnant when they were sixteen, I'd say that at least a couple of them wanted the father to support them and the baby. So that's not so far off, and of course Glee exaggerates everything as part of the comedy.

From an adult perspective it doesn't seem right, of course - but these are teenagers. That makes a lot of it make more sense to me, even if I'd have no patience at all if it was adults. Now, the Terri story? That's just ridiculous. -g-

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

Oh, now you've got me going to a Meg Manning place where Finn ends up taking the baby to Mexico or something to save it from the elder Febrays. DO NOT WANT.