Glee 2x06 - Never Been Kissed

When I snagged this (very idiotic, in retrospect) domain name about two-odd years ago, the intention was to just talk about TV. Because, hey, I watch a lot of it and have plenty of opinions about it.

Except I never have terribly reliable access to it (we don't even own a TV set at my place), I usually never watch things until a week after I have access to them anyway, and I haven't seen plenty of shows that any TV connoisseur would punch me in the face for. (Seriously. I've been threatened.)

So this leaves any TV blog I try to write in an awkward place. I'm writing about stuff a few days/weeks after it airs, a few years after it airs, or seconds after consumption. In any case, it seems sort of silly to even bother, given TV blogging culture and how, by it's very nature, it needs to be immediate, relevant, and, you know. Smart.

But, then I realized, hell. It's my blog. Forget convention. Let's be bold!

Let's talk about "Glee."



"If everyone would put out, we'd have a winning football team."

"Glee" continues to be a show I both adore beyond measure and that I'm a little bit embarrassed about liking so much.

Cause, honestly? I don't really think "Glee" is all that good. Behind all of the good-natured mockery and musical numbers, the show is a high school drama. You have the stereotypes that are worked to an inch of their lives and (occasionally) defied, the time-honored story of the young misfits, and epic emotional turns that are as riveting as they are senseless.

That's all great. But what I find lacking in "Glee" nine times out of ten, and what really makes me love high school dramas in spite of myself, is the 'coming of age' aspect that is both cheesy and essential to making a ridiculous/melodramatic turn of events endearing. It's a small thing, but believable emotional progression is what separates shows like "My So Called Life" from shows like "One Tree Hill." One is a dramatic testament to youth, the other is a testament to how dramatic I thought my youth was. (Peyton spoke to my soul, okay?!?)

My initial instinct is to dismiss "Glee" as the latter, but with awesome musical numbers that make me smile. It doesn't make for a great show, but it definitely is an entertaining one that I can enjoy the crap out of. I mean, "Glee" may go through 16 dramatic twists per episode, but very rarely are there any long-lasting results of the drama, and as such I usually don't find it all that satisfying because none of it really matters. It's entertainment for entertainment's sake, and if you can swallow the insanity for long enough to get to the humor at the bottom of it all, it's fantastic.

But then, we have the melodramatic moments that, for whatever reason, work.

The Teenage Dream sequence combined everything that I love about "Glee". (And A Very Potter Musical - namely, Mr. Darren Criss, which made it way better. Check it out, my geeky cohort.) First of all, it was unabashedly cheesy. I don't care how liberal your all-boys high school is - no group of guys will be as excited as the by-standers were to that number. Yes, Katty Perry may be awesome, but most of those boys would deny their love of her when asked, and even if they didn't, that sort of enthusiasm only comes about in teenage guys due to a strip-tease. As such, it was unintentionally far more hilarious than the director/writers intended, which is just an added bonus. Plus, those dance moves were awesome.

Secondly, there was singing and dancing. I wish I had more self-respect, but I don't. I freaking love musicals. Judge me as you see fit, but you know you love them too.

Third, it was just a wee bit challenging to social norms. It was best put by TLo, so I won't even try to parrot what they've already said, but just as an added bonus - this is on Fox. No, it's not a giant leap forward for queer youth or anything like that (and might be simply transferring unhealthy hetero-normative expectations into a gay arena), but it is a start, and it's starting on a network that would normally be one of the largest proponents of keeping kids in the closet. And honestly, after a slue of highly publicized queer youth suicides, seeing the joy on a boy's face as he's being serenaded by his prince charming is something that I dearly needed to see, and that I suspect a great many young people could use with seeing as well.

All that being established, little else in the episode worked for me. I found the other major story-line involving Coach Beast and her inner vulnerable nature to be highly condescending. Kids do cruel things all the time, and I have no trouble imagining those gleekers mocking Beast in such a way. But, being in as many high schools as I have been as of late, I sincerely doubt that an educator in the Coach's position would be unprepared for such things. Not to mention to irritation I continue to feel toward Will trying to ineffectually make things better by being 'the good guy'. (The character I loved the most at the start of the show has quickly fallen in my graces, in case you couldn't tell.) And let's not get started on the feminist commentary. Like the fact that the show now has two 'spinster' characters, along with a crazy ex, with no male counterparts.

It drives me nuts, because for a show that can be very insightful about the touchy topic of queer youth (not to mention different types of gay youth, including the deeply closeted), they sure are stupid about most other progressive topics. (Though, to be fair, I was pretty happy about the fact that the writers had Tina trying to 'cool down' while making out with Mike. Yay for acknowledging the existence of young female desire!)

So I guess that's my biggest thing about "Glee." Even if the writing is patchy at best, the social messages are mixed, and the cheese factor is higher than most can stand, occasionally it manages to be relevant despite itself. And that's what TV is best at, in my opinion. There are so many mediums that are full of artistic integrity but that aren't accessible. Whether that's due to the time it takes to get published, lack of exposure, or a simple inability to creatively reflect on the times in a universally understood manner, having a truly mass medium that has almost immediate turnover is a great thing. And for a show aimed at high school kids to have the opportunity to speak to them in a language they not only understand, but actively help to create (music, pop culture, etc.)? It has the potential to be a truly powerful agent of social reflection and change, given the right circumstances.

Not to mention the enthralling magic of jive-like dance moves when paired with appropriate pop songs.