IT'S A STRAIGHT FLUSH--IT'S LIKE, UNBEATABLE: By Todd VanDerWerff's estimate, Glee did something unusual last night--achieving "rummy" for the season--meaning that by his grading scale, it's had an episode hitting every letter grade from A to F during the course of the season. I do think VanDerWerff was overly generous in giving an "A" to the second half of last night's double episode for the block (and overly punishing in giving an "F" to "Choke," which had problems in half the story, but also featured Chris Colfer's dynamite "Not The Boy Next Door"), but I think he nails the joy and the central problem with the show right there--it's so wildly inconsistent in tone and quality that you never know what you're going to get.
Indeed, in the span of two hours last night, we got wacky (and surprisingly well-performed all around) body swap hijinks, a bizarrely meta set of "previouslies," random celebrity cameos, and authentic personal and emotional milestones for a bunch of characters. That's what makes Glee hard to stop watching--even as it hits nadirs, which it does with a fair degree of regularity, it can, when it works, work in a way no other show does. I'll almost certainly be giving it up next season (the timeslot against Office/Parks and Rec, Grey's, Person of Interest, and whatever the CW wants to give a Vampire Diaries leadin to is murderous, and the streaming delay problematic), but I'll do so with a bit of regret.
I will find a way to make Glee fit into my schedule, despite the crowded Thursday timeslot. Glee is so often a mess. But the joy on Rachel's face during the performances, the Brittany/Santana kiss, and all of the hokey choreography...I can't give that up.
ReplyDeleteI always say, "Nobody hates Glee more than Glee fans," but last night, I really did love it.
It wasn't hard to give up at all. Just, one day, I realized that I hadn't watched it in a month, and then Spacewoman realized a few weeks later that she hadn't either. It was gone, and we didn't even know it was leaving. All we had left was to delete the season pass. And I miss it like I miss those shingles I had in the aughts.
ReplyDeleteYes, this. I don't begrudge the remaining fans the pleasure they still get from it, but for me leaving it behind was pretty easy. My wife still watches, but only intermittently.
ReplyDeleteYeah, one day my TiVo stopped recording, and I didn't even notice for a few weeks. It's picked up the last few, and I fast forwarded through them, but meh. I had such a love in the beginning, but it's too much of a scattershot mess now. And not enough songs with which I'm familiar. (I don't much listen to the music of the young people.)
ReplyDeleteI'll always regret not figuring out who that vaguely Latin girl who wore a lot of hats and never had any lines was.
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