Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Remember when Glee was good?

God, Glee sucks so much this year.

Am I the only one who thinks so? I can't be the only one who thinks so.

As I was watching what I expected to be last night's triumphant return after the World Series, I found myself thinking "Clearly Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk are just putting every good thought they have into American Horror Story and Glee is getting whatever's left at the end of the day."

I love Glee. I have since the beginning. My husband and I own about 90 percent of the songs from season one and two and I listen to them on my 45-minute commute probably 4 out of 5 days of the week. Lea and I danced to a song from the Glee Rocky Horror Show at least once a day for all of November 2010. She loves the Time Warp, FYI.

But this season, we've downloaded maybe three songs total. The shows have been okay. A few have even been good. But overall, it's all falling flat for me.

Unfortunately, it's all part of a problem Glee has struggled with since it's inception: An inability to balance. They are always too heavy-handed in one direction: particular story themes, certain characters, certain types of music, etc. Luckily for me over the last couple of seasons it's been characters I like or themes I'm interested in, so I didn't mind too much. Sure, there were a couple plot lines I just couldn't buy into, like, say, Finn being able to forgive Quinn for lying to him about being the teenage father of her baby when she cheated with his best friend but he can't forgive Rachel for making out with same best friend. But, the music was fun so I could overlook it.

But now it's not. Now it seems like it's all show tunes and while I like show tunes, I want a little more variety. The story lines are "Eh." Not really believable - why would Rachel run for student body president against Kurt and Brittany when she knows no one likes her after all? How can Mercedes possibly feel that she is actually entitled to solos and lead parts when she never puts any effort in to it? And why for the love of God is Quinn insane and Shelby so stupid?

But that's Glee. The things they do well, they do very well and when it's your thing they're doing, it's great. But when it's not your thing... well, it's like a weekly slushy to the face.

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