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Glee-Tarded:
A Glee Episode Review

November 24, 2010

You knew it was coming. A new female TV writer on Dork Shelf? Obviously I’m going to talk about Glee! TEEHEE ZOMG IT’S SOOOOO AMAZING!!!!

Glee - Carol Burnett and Jane Lynch

No show on TV can make me feel such an array of emotions with a single episode… Anger, embarrassment, disbelief, and nausea to name a few. Let me start off by saying, I get why people enjoy this show. It’s light and it’s fun, the characters are endearing, the musical numbers are interesting, and the guest stars are huge. That being said, this show makes me want to punch a baby.

Not long ago I found myself in the unfortunate position of conversing with a gushing Gleek who claimed that Glee was ‘robbed’ at the Emmys. Nothing annoys me more than Glee fans who refuse to admit that this is one of the most poorly written shows on TV. For a writer, this show is a nightmare. As I watch it, I rock back and forth, alternating between burying my head in my hands and shaking my fists at the TV gods screaming ‘Why, why?!’ The plots, the character motivations and the seasonal arcs are completely convoluted and absurd. On top of that, they keep recycling the same terrible plot devices over and over. How many more times can they threaten to shut down the club? How many more times can Rachel and Finn almost have sex? Apparently that number is infinite.

This week’s wedding episode was no different. First of all, who the hell can plan a wedding in a week? Kurt Hummel, aka ‘Super Gay’ that’s who. Is Ryan Murphy trying to break down gay stereotypes, or enforce them? I can’t keep track anymore. Since the show ended with Finn dedicating the song ‘Just the Way You Are’ to Kurt, (which features the lyrics ‘She’s so beautiful… Girl you’re amazing’) I’m going with the latter. Also, if I were Kurt’s stepmom, I’d be pissed. If my kid tried to hijack my wedding and turn it into a showcase for his lame Glee club, he’d get written out of the will. But that’s just me.

One bright-ish spot in this episode was a guest appearance by comic genius Carol Burnett. When I heard that she’d be playing Sue’s mom I thought, ‘Come on Murphy, give her something good to work with.’ Instead he provided her with his idea of a B-plot, which was basically series of one-note scenes that kept beating you over the head with the same thing idea, (‘Sue – You abandoned us! Sue’s Mom- But I was killing Nazis!’), followed by a lacklustre ending. No plot progression and hardly any good one-liners. Her talents probably would have been wasted on the Glee crowd anyway. Most of the viewers probably saw her and thought: ‘Like, that’s totally the grandma from Post Grad!’

Now, the award for the most ‘Glee-tarded’ moment of the week: Usually this award goes to Mr. Shue for once again NOT banging a chick when he had the chance (so what if she’s married/a virgin/only 15? COME ON!), but this week it goes to the new big-mouthed Nordic looking kid:

“These galactic moguls aren’t the stars of McKinley. We are. At least I want us to be.”

Sweet Jesus, someone please bring me a baby!

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  • Natalie

    I could not agree with you more!!! Every time I watch Glee I wonder, (nervously), what random plot twist will happen next. These twists are totally unbelievable and I find myself forgetting who is dating who, where the principal has gone to, or whether or not Sue still hates Mr. Shue. The musical numbers are great, but the show is giving musicals in general a bad rep! Real musicals have decent plots that you enjoy almost as much as the songs.

  • http://www.lazyreviewzzz.com Naythin

    I could not agree more!

    The story arches in Glee are so mundane and insipid, that when I used to watch the show, I’d fast forward (I downloaded the show) until a musical number came on.
    But then I realized something, I don’t care for many of their renditions. And worse off, I don’t know how I feel that people only know these, sometimes classic and/or awesome, songs sung by Glee characters. It irks me when I go to a karaoke bar and someone gets up to sing “Don’t Stop Believing” and they request, “the Glee version”. I bet you most of these people don’t know who the song is originally by! On the other hand, I guess it’s nice that they are at least listening to Glee versions of great songs instead of listening to Justin Bieber and/or Miley Cyrus and/or all the other crap that kids today call music.

  • Tara

    Whaaa? I LOVE Glee.
    It is great for so many reasons:
    1. Musical numbers (soooo fun!)
    2. Dreamy, dancing boys to look at (except for the big-mouthed one)
    3. Sue Sylvester

    …just to name a few!
    The show is just so fun that it makes up for the awkward plot twists.

    At the same time – I get how people would find it annoying. Get over it!

  • dad

    Don’t forget to bring home my lunch container. And don’t go punching any babies ’cause I won’t bail you out.

  • Maria

    Glee’s fine. It’s intended to be brain fodder. I love the show and probably wouldn’t watch if they dared to attempt to be an actual drama. And really, anything that isn’t a so-far-from-reality show is an improvement over the vast majority of network programming. Try watching it the way one watches Saturday Night Live, knowing full that there is no contiguous well-crafted plot, that some things will be hits and some major misses, and all in all, it’s better than that Lopez late night or effin’ Dances with the not Stars.

  • Joe

    Chimpanzees. All these comments are written by chimps.