Monsters of Television

You’re benefiting from my motivation failing me (and a desire to generate traffic to the blog, even if it’s just to be told I’m wrong and a hater).

Glee came back last night, and since there was nothing else on, I watched it. When the show went on its hiatus, I had cooled on it considerably. I thought the pilot was great, but as the episodes wore on I found myself starting to dislike the show. My issues were (are) many of the same issues that others had. The wildly inconsistent characterization, even within episodes (not to mention unclear motivation for many characters). Narratively unmotivated, sometimes superfluous, musical numbers. Really idiotic plot lines. Overproduced musical numbers. Engaging in stereotypes without deconstructing them as they think they are. Failing to find a good balance for their ensemble (poor Other Asian).

After having four months to stew on these things (the relentless promoting of the show by Fox certainly didn’t help), I had decided not to watch the return because I knew I would just end up railing against it. And I’m pretty much ready to rail, even if I thought the episode, overall, worked okay.

One of the issues coming back from the the big feel good fest that was “Sectionals” (New Directions won despite sabotage! Will swept Emma off her feet! Terri left! Sue got suspended! Rachel and Finn kind of sort of get together! All the baby stuff goes away!) was how to basically undo all of that so the episodes still had drama. So what happens is a essentially a bit of a reset. Will and Emma aren’t clicking exactly like they thought they would. Sue drugged Higgins, making him think they had slept together, so she blackmails him to get her old job back. Higgins mandates that New Directions must win regionals to continue to exist. Barely a mention of a baby. Terri, thankfully, was still pretty much gone.

So let’s talk about the good and weave in the bad. I did feel that the numbers felt narratively and emotionally motivated in this episode. Finn’s rendition of “Hello I Love You” worked well for Finn, and as an musical number it was a case where the heavier production values made sense. As Myles and I discussed on Twitter, if they’re doing a number where locations shift or with a character’s subjectivity at play, as is the case with Finn’s number, it makes sense, and it ultimately works because it’s essentially a mini-music video and a representation of exterior thoughts.

Additionally, numbers like “Gives You Hell” and “Hello” work on various levels to express Rachel’s state emotional state (and perhaps Jesse’s sinister intentions in the case of the latter), so I don’t have complaints about their appearances within the narrative. What I do object to is that both of these numbers fall victim to being overproduced, though more the former than the latter. “Gives You Hell” has the sound and vocals mixed the hell out of them more than they have any real right to be so it doesn’t sound like a rehearsal, but like an album. “Hello” is less production ladened, but calls attention to a weird thing that the show did in this episode: odd instances of diegetic music coming into play.

Before Finn starts singing “Hello I Love You,” he notices the band and once Will explains his intentions, Finn says, “Oh, so that’s why the band’s here.” Yes, the band has nothing better to do than hang around, waiting for a confused teenager to sing through his issues. But it’s more striking during “Hello.” Occurring in a conservatory or music shop of some sort (I’m not entirely sure), the ballad would’ve been just fine with just a piano. Instead, accompanists with instruments magically appear to add some additional, but unnecessary, depth to the arrangement.

Ultimately Glee represents, at least with its music (and the music is the core of the show) the intersection of creativity and commerce. These songs carry higher production sound so the songs only have to be recorded once for the album and call it a day. My biggest issue with Glee is that it essentially seems to exist to exploit News Corp.’s music library. Decent and consistent characterization and stories seem secondary (though I’m sure many would disagree) to selling albums and live concert tours. Next week’s Madonna theme week episode would only seem to reinforce this idea.

The pacing of the episode felt better than in previous cases, a better balance between the plots of Will and Emma and Finn-Rachel-Jesse so the episode didn’t feel stuffed or uneven (but the background characters are very background-y here). The issue is that everyone behaves dumbly, and the narrative, for the sake of parallels, allows it happen. Both Will and Finn are dealing with transitioning from major stages in their lives to the next one. Will identifies it within Finn, but Will needs not one but two women to tell him that he needs to be alone for while in light of his separation from Terri. That Will even makes out with Shelby to make this clear shows how willing Glee is to abandoned character motivation for the sake of making parallels very obvious.

And then there’s Rachel. The Rachel-Finn dynamic never worked for me, and to have Rachel whiplash between boys so much feels incongruent with her character. Rachel’s a driven girl who has placed her intended career above everything, and that she would compromise it for Jesse is inconsistent with her previous characterization. Sadly, this isn’t motivated character growth; it’s actually character realignment for the sake of a story that doesn’t have time to indulge in actual growth because they do pointless numbers like “Highway to Hell” and “Hello, Goodbye” that contribute little to the narrative, but everything to the album’s back cover.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Santana and Brittany are the reasons to watch this show. “Sometimes I forget my middle name.” Priceless. Can the actresses be jointly nominated for something?
• The Sue Sylvester rendition of “Vogue” was nice but a bit lifeless. The little asides they do make to try and make it their own aren’t really enough to bring it to anything but a very well made copy.
• I had other quibbles, like Higgins complaining about power consumption but not New Directions having new outfits for rehearsals or Sue’s continued unclear motivations, but those are other entries.