Tuesday night television

[apocalypsos]

A few comments, really:

-- I know Adam coming back was looked on as a bit gimmicky, but I thought he gave really great on-the-point advice.
-- The best of the night were Crystal, Lee, and Mike for me. Casey's usually better than that so I give him a bit of leeway. Everybody else? Meh. (Tim did do well, but ... well, it's Tim. Tim's really good job is, like, Crystal's bad day, you know what I mean?)
-- Did Ryan seriously call Tim "Turban"? at some point? Sheesh.

*

The good:

-- Hey, did you hear Jane Lynch is getting married to her girlfriend? It has nothing to do with the episode other than Jane Lynch is FUCKING AWESOME. :D

-- Speaking of ... SUE! Sue, who is always amazing and horrible and mean and fantastic.

-- Ah, everybody is still as annoying as ever. I would never EVER hang out with any character on this show but they're awfully fun to watch in a trainwreck sort of way.

-- "We were seduced by their glitz and glamour." Brittany needs to MARRY ME.

-- Actually, Brittany and Santana need to marry me. Ahem.

-- "There was a mouse in mine." "Did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks?" I don't even know what to do with her, honestly.

-- "I once taught a cheerleading seminar to a young Sarah Palin." Cheap shot, but I LOL'ed.

-- IDINA MENZEL.

-- I almost like Terri when the show just lets her be mean.

-- STRIKE A POSE.

The bad:

-- "I have a slushy-stained training bra to prove it." Oh, there is no way in hell Rachel's still wearing a training bra.

-- "That guy who made all the wrong choices?" Projecting much, Will? Also, considering what many of those "bad choices" the writers put on Quinn and Terri ... yuck.

-- I will bet you any amount of money that Sue somehow got skeevy Jesse to come and hit on Rachel specifically to toy with Rachel and destroy the glee club. Let's see if I'm right. Seriously, he makes my skin crawl, pretty impressive considering how many characters on this show can be real assholes. (Oh, hey, turns out Idina Menzel sicced skeevy Jesse on Rachel. Eh, close enough.)

-- Aw, come on, Brittany and Santana, don't be display lesbians.

-- Oh, God, Emma's a virgin. This could go so very, VERY wrong.

-- I hate My Big Fat Gleek Chorus. (Otherwise known as, "Today on Glee, the four characters we can point to when we slap ourselves on the back for being diverse will have one scene in which they get a chance to really speak, they'll all share that scene, and they'll all be talking sense into a white lead. Yay, diversity!")

-- Gee, thanks for the Old Maids Club, show. Really.

-- I really hate how they continue to refer to Emma's OCD as "crazy." It's like, well, we can't fail our characters of color, our GLBT characters, or our disabled characters enough, let's fail with the one with mental problems, too.



In summation: Ah, the thrill of Vogue, the agony of "No, I'm sorry, did you just make Brittany and Santana display lesbians?" Also, have I mentioned how much I hate Madonna? I should have so much fun next week. Ugh.

Comments

[naodrith.livejournal.com]

Personally, I never really got past the "let's play date rape for comedy!" scene. That really ruined the episode for me. Not to mention that everything that was wrong with this show before the hiatus (focus on the straight white leads, beating the audience over the head with the episode theme until they pass out...) is still wrong. I was really, really hoping for better, because I want so badly to like this show, but for me, it's fast becoming less of a guilty pleasure and more just guilt.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, my God, I completely forgot to mention the date-rape-for-comedy scene under the bad stuff. Because, yeah, just because it's Sue's level of appalling doesn't mean they have to do it. Yuck.

[rosykate.livejournal.com]

Every time Brittany and Santana linked their fingers together, my heart grew three sizes. TRUEST OF FACTS. But there were definite moments of OH SHOW NO, and I think you hit on all of them. Oh Glee, you are so problematic when I resist the glitz and glamour.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Being a Brittany/Santana fan was a roller coaster tonight.

"They're linking pinkies! Whee!"
"They're offering to make out to amuse a guy? AHHHHHH!"
"I'm just going to focus on the fact that it's canon they've had sex! Whee!"
"But Brittany and Santana never did say if they were alone when they were having it. AHHHHH!"

Urgh, show.

[rosykate.livejournal.com]

I mean, I love the show as long as I don't think too much about it, but then I get angry that I can't think critically about it without FLAMES OF RAGE. I may have to change my journal name to "dolphins are just gay sharks", though.

[loony-moony.livejournal.com]

Brittany is probably too stupid to understand what being a lesbian means, and Santana just doesn't care enough.

[writerrising.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the episode yet, but honestly high school and college are places I have seen girls make out in front of guys when prompted by guys to do so. Usually it's just the girls that are "experimenting" though that I've seen do it. Not making a good/bad judgment on it, just saying I've seen it. Actually having sex in front of other people though...that's one I haven't seen.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I'm not saying that it's not true that it happens. God knows it's true. It's also skeevy and anti-feminist and weak tea diversity-wise when they left us last episode with the indication that Brittany and Santana have had sex and are now amending it with "... but it's entirely possible they were just pretending to be lesbians to get boys off."

[writerrising.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* Maybe it would have been better off if they'd left it at the first comment Brittany and Santana made in...I don't remember what ep it was, and let us draw our own conclusions. I'll have to watch the episode to see for myself just how bad it is.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

I think if there was someone else involved when they had sex another character (Puck) would have said so by now.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

True, but they did only throw out the comment about them having sex one episode ago. I got the impression the writers threw that line in the fall finale for a laugh, and when it got a positive reaction they touched on it again in this episode, albeit in a Katy Perry sort of way.

Not that I don't doubt Puck would be telling everybody and their mother if they did make out in front of him, but ... well, aside from the fact that that would be reason enough NOT to make out in front of Puck, I just can't picture this writing team thinking that far ahead over that one line in the fall finale.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, this is one of the shows that I think is actually very much planned out, so I doubt that was a throw away line. The creator is also gay, so I think he at least is attempting to be sex positive with the lesbian theme--and also, I hardly think Jane Lynch would put up with that shit if she thought it was in bad faith and she's the backbone of the show.

I think the show has it's own inner compass that has little to do with fandom and our aesthetic. I think that's why so many people get rubbed the wrong way--they are making a fairytale musical about high school and a lot of that is playing with stereotype. Idk, maybe eventually I will write something real about these feelings.

I hope you don't think I'm trolling you. I just feel comfortable enough with you to be honest with you in your space in that I think you know I respect a difference of opinion.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know you well enough to know you're not trolling. ;)

My thing is that if you're doing parody and you're playing with stereotypes the way Glee does, you tread a really fine line between being deft and being offensive, if that even makes sense. I mean, they may have a plan and they may know what every line is leading to, but the writing just isn't making me buy it.

You know those games where you have to trace a symbol with your mouse pointer in a set amount of time, and you lose points every time you go outside the lines? That's the way the writing on Glee feels to me. It just doesn't feel tight enough for the sharp, insightful parody it's supposed to be.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

hahaha I understand your analogy but I don't play games (those kind).

I agree with you, actually. I guess I just have more tolerance.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

LOL, I don't know why I can't put up with more of this show's BS when I've been in SPN fandom for five years now. ;D

[telaryn.livejournal.com]

Oh that's an easy one - you mentioned it a couple posts ago. Pretty angsty boys and the Apocalypse. *g*

With regards to Glee - ethrosdemon, apologies for sticking my two cents in univited, but part of the problem with the show for me is that I *don't* see them playing with stereotypes. I see them putting on some kickass musical numbers and sprinkling stereotypes throughout the rest of the episode to hold the storyline together.

I'm actually glad my teenager has made noises about starting to watch, because my biggest problem during the fall half of the season was that I had to keep reminding myself that the show wasn't set in the 50's.

[loony-moony.livejournal.com]

I actually thought it was a REALLY close call with the chick in the Old Maids Club, when she said "Ghost Whisperer", when it could've been SPN and then all hell would've broken loose. I actually thought she was about to say it. o_O

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

Supernatural is on Thursdays, so the gag would have had to be longer w/ a dvr shoutie or something.

[loony-moony.livejournal.com]

Well duh, but still.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

You know what else is really funny? Drugging a guy's drink to strip him and take blackmail photos! Teehee!

It's really getting hard to watch this show, pretty much for all the reasons you stated.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

I know I am in the tiny sliver of a minority here, but I still think the show is a parody and doing it all on purpose. I don't think they'd have a character like Sue if not--her entire purpose is to hang a lantern off how ludicrous it all it.

I respect other people's right to feel differently, of course.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

See, I think they're doing it on purpose, but I just feel like they're fumbling a lot of it. Personally, I always come out of the show feeling as though they've just spent a good chunk of each show buying into whatever BS they're trying to parody, rather than taking a bite out of it. I mean, Sue's the best character on the show mostly because Jane Lynch is taking the one character on there who's doing that lantern-hanging and taking Sue Sylvester to the logical shockingly offensive yet amusing conclusion, whereas I feel like a lot of the cast and the writing staff still haven't gotten that memo.

Again, YMMV. :)

[telaryn.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen last night's episode yet, but I find it lame if they are running with the whole Brittany/Santana thing. My teen is heavily into the anime' culture at school, and the sort of behavior they're hinting at (if they really are going the display lesbian route) really does happen...only its *guys* willing to make out with each other for the benefit of *girls*.

And being the Hollywood cynic that I am, I immediately go to: "well, of course they couldn't show that". American culture would end...or something... *hands*

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

Daaaaamn... I wish I had guy friends willing to make out in front of me.

I mean - I'm totally a mature adult and would never exploit others in that way. *COUGH*