ravelqueen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ravelqueen) wrote2012-02-22 11:07 am
ravelqueen) wrote2012-02-22 11:07 am
Reaction Glee 3x14 On my way
This is my opinion and I will word it as carefully and sensitive as I know how, but it will still contain possibly triggering material, because of its nature and I really don't want to hurt anyone over what in the end is just entertainment, so if you think it will be too harsh on you, please, please just don't read it.
Okay I will just get the hardest/most triggering part out of the way: teenage suicides. And while my knee-jerk reactions weren't all the most thought out I stand by what I said last night and that is that I am really really conflicted about this.
On the one hand, I don't think it is generally a bad idea for Glee to tackle this issue. I'm always for good intentions with sloppy execution, than no mention at all. I think it's great, that they didn't shy away from this and tried. Because this, a show with such broad appeal, reaches people it otherwise might not have. Bullies and victims alike may see this issue from a different angle than people who are already knowledgable about Trevor et. al. So I think that is good. I think it is very brave and hopefully makes a difference.
My problem is the execution. Not the actual execution of the actual scenes dealing with it. Those were excellent. From "Cough Syrup" intervowen with the Max scenes (all Klaine feelings aside, watching it again, it probably was the most respectful way to treat this sensitive topic) over the teacher discussion and Emma's "Whose responsibility was it?" to the sharing circle, which was excellent and reminded me why I once really liked the Shue character and what they did with it, to the Lima Bean scene, to of course the scene in the hospital where Chris and Max acted my socks of and where just all around excellent.
All those things were handled pretty gracefully by Glee standards. What is my problem then? If that had been the whole episode with more of people reacting it would have been fine. I could have understood the Finchel wedding, even though it again smacked of the writers making it about them and with that hurting their own characters. But suicide AND a wedding AND Regionals? That was too much. There was just too much stuff that happened and with that the actual story they wanted to tell here fell much flater as if they had just filled the places around the excellent scenes I described with some morose, life-finding songs.
This way the episode seemed so much more uneven and with it harder for me to appreciate. Someone said something in a live-discussion that Regionals were normally so much about joy and I'm happy they didn't do it here because it would have been wildly inappropriate, but it also made me sad that these maybe last Regionals with the whole crowd had to be such a somber affair.
So this was my opinion on the general plot-threads now to smaller stuff:
Kurt-David
ok, after the interview David did that finally confirmed what Chris and Max had really been playing - which is a supportive, mentor-like friendship between those characters, I'm actually really happy about this. I think it is really realistic and heartwarming and helps both of them, because Kurt is a nice person and he wants to help. He just wants to be able to make it ok. As I said for heart, while I don't want a (reciprocated) romantic subtext between those characters a friendship is something I will totally support and which I find realistic and good for those characters. Even though I really hope that if Dave turns up again we get Blaine-David interaction, because in some ways I think Blaine can empathize better. I mean Kurt had bullies harrassing him sure, but his friends and family were generally very accepting and a safe place. We don't know much about Blaine, but I don't think it was that way for him before Dalton and ahh the possiblities of character interactions are so, so great there.
Kurt-Blaine
Now that was interesting. Because from the first scene on there was such tension crackling between them and I don't know why. This whole conflict happened entirely off-screen and just urgh, I wanna know! At the beginning Blaine was obviously still in a bad place and Kurt apparently was quietly supportive, but not very close. For whatever reason he had decided he needed space. And apart from the united front at the Lima Bean and sitting together at Regionals their physical distance continued. Kurt went to the God-squad alone. They sat apart in the circle and looked at each other much less. But after Rachels solo-song where they weren't on the balconies you see them walking down the halls hand in hand. And at the wedding, while they are not close, I don't know it feels much more comfortable.
There is no tension there. So some kind of conflict happened between them and got resolved at Regionals me thinks. Maybe because Blaine was already in a bad place at the beginning and the suicide attempt brought back some memories and he just couldn't deal with any pain/issues that weren't his own for a while. So Kurt put some distance between them so they could work through this by themselves first and after regionals they finally had it more or less figured out in their heads so they could come together again.
And because of this (probably entirely) acting decisions I'm actually really ok with those two in the episode. It wasn't about them, but you got enough of an idea how it affected them both.
Sebastian
I'm actually not that miffed about his redemption arc. I liked that we see that for all the snark, he is still human. It makes sense to me that he can reflect on his actions and in this case realize that he had gone too far. While I really don't enjoy him much with the Warblers vocally (his voice doesn't mesh the way Darrens had) I did think that Grant acted the hell out of the Lima Bean scene. Making him so much more vulnerable than before but still in character
I generally liked the Lima Bean scene, because 1) Team Gay!!! Yay! 2) Blaine being really, really pissed 3)Sebastian. I also enjoyed the Berrys a lot this time, I think they are growing on me and the planning session in the hall-way were precious. And what I only noticed at the second watching. Kurt and Blaine apparently belong to the Bridal party *gg*
So yeah in conclusion a typical Glee episode. The Good parts were really good, most of the good stuff was due to the wonderful acting choices of the cast. But it was let down by pacing and story decisions. It seems to me Glee can only do either not enough plot or too much plot.
Okay I will just get the hardest/most triggering part out of the way: teenage suicides. And while my knee-jerk reactions weren't all the most thought out I stand by what I said last night and that is that I am really really conflicted about this.
On the one hand, I don't think it is generally a bad idea for Glee to tackle this issue. I'm always for good intentions with sloppy execution, than no mention at all. I think it's great, that they didn't shy away from this and tried. Because this, a show with such broad appeal, reaches people it otherwise might not have. Bullies and victims alike may see this issue from a different angle than people who are already knowledgable about Trevor et. al. So I think that is good. I think it is very brave and hopefully makes a difference.
My problem is the execution. Not the actual execution of the actual scenes dealing with it. Those were excellent. From "Cough Syrup" intervowen with the Max scenes (all Klaine feelings aside, watching it again, it probably was the most respectful way to treat this sensitive topic) over the teacher discussion and Emma's "Whose responsibility was it?" to the sharing circle, which was excellent and reminded me why I once really liked the Shue character and what they did with it, to the Lima Bean scene, to of course the scene in the hospital where Chris and Max acted my socks of and where just all around excellent.
All those things were handled pretty gracefully by Glee standards. What is my problem then? If that had been the whole episode with more of people reacting it would have been fine. I could have understood the Finchel wedding, even though it again smacked of the writers making it about them and with that hurting their own characters. But suicide AND a wedding AND Regionals? That was too much. There was just too much stuff that happened and with that the actual story they wanted to tell here fell much flater as if they had just filled the places around the excellent scenes I described with some morose, life-finding songs.
This way the episode seemed so much more uneven and with it harder for me to appreciate. Someone said something in a live-discussion that Regionals were normally so much about joy and I'm happy they didn't do it here because it would have been wildly inappropriate, but it also made me sad that these maybe last Regionals with the whole crowd had to be such a somber affair.
So this was my opinion on the general plot-threads now to smaller stuff:
Kurt-David
ok, after the interview David did that finally confirmed what Chris and Max had really been playing - which is a supportive, mentor-like friendship between those characters, I'm actually really happy about this. I think it is really realistic and heartwarming and helps both of them, because Kurt is a nice person and he wants to help. He just wants to be able to make it ok. As I said for heart, while I don't want a (reciprocated) romantic subtext between those characters a friendship is something I will totally support and which I find realistic and good for those characters. Even though I really hope that if Dave turns up again we get Blaine-David interaction, because in some ways I think Blaine can empathize better. I mean Kurt had bullies harrassing him sure, but his friends and family were generally very accepting and a safe place. We don't know much about Blaine, but I don't think it was that way for him before Dalton and ahh the possiblities of character interactions are so, so great there.
Kurt-Blaine
Now that was interesting. Because from the first scene on there was such tension crackling between them and I don't know why. This whole conflict happened entirely off-screen and just urgh, I wanna know! At the beginning Blaine was obviously still in a bad place and Kurt apparently was quietly supportive, but not very close. For whatever reason he had decided he needed space. And apart from the united front at the Lima Bean and sitting together at Regionals their physical distance continued. Kurt went to the God-squad alone. They sat apart in the circle and looked at each other much less. But after Rachels solo-song where they weren't on the balconies you see them walking down the halls hand in hand. And at the wedding, while they are not close, I don't know it feels much more comfortable.
There is no tension there. So some kind of conflict happened between them and got resolved at Regionals me thinks. Maybe because Blaine was already in a bad place at the beginning and the suicide attempt brought back some memories and he just couldn't deal with any pain/issues that weren't his own for a while. So Kurt put some distance between them so they could work through this by themselves first and after regionals they finally had it more or less figured out in their heads so they could come together again.
And because of this (probably entirely) acting decisions I'm actually really ok with those two in the episode. It wasn't about them, but you got enough of an idea how it affected them both.
Sebastian
I'm actually not that miffed about his redemption arc. I liked that we see that for all the snark, he is still human. It makes sense to me that he can reflect on his actions and in this case realize that he had gone too far. While I really don't enjoy him much with the Warblers vocally (his voice doesn't mesh the way Darrens had) I did think that Grant acted the hell out of the Lima Bean scene. Making him so much more vulnerable than before but still in character
I generally liked the Lima Bean scene, because 1) Team Gay!!! Yay! 2) Blaine being really, really pissed 3)Sebastian. I also enjoyed the Berrys a lot this time, I think they are growing on me and the planning session in the hall-way were precious. And what I only noticed at the second watching. Kurt and Blaine apparently belong to the Bridal party *gg*
So yeah in conclusion a typical Glee episode. The Good parts were really good, most of the good stuff was due to the wonderful acting choices of the cast. But it was let down by pacing and story decisions. It seems to me Glee can only do either not enough plot or too much plot.