Let's face it: Glee has become the Justin Bieber of television, long before they made the tragic mistake of doing an actual Justin Bieber episode. What this means is they know they have the ratings, so they've just been doing whatever they can to appeal to their fan base, incorrectly assuming that their fan base is all gay men and teenage girls. What they've lost among their plebian popularity is actual awesomeness and style. More and more each song every week is close enough to the original to be the original (see "Tik Tok" in this week's episode for just one of many, many examples). I'm not sure why this is - I know I'm much more inclined to buy a song if it doesn't sound like the version I already have, or if there's enough of a character's emotion invested in it to make it meaningful. My favorite song from this season is hands-down Kurt and Rachel's rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy" because it fulfills both of those criteria. The problem is that Glee is pandering to the lowest common denominator, and when the LCD is 8th graders, quality suffers.
The other real problem that finally became clear for me this week is the unevenness of every episode. "Blame It On The Alcohol" has some parts that I loved (all of the party scene; Schue and Bieste at the bar where I really wanted him to sing "Honky Tonk Women") and some parts I thought were irredeemably awful and offensive. With such glaring inconsistencies it's difficult to judge even just one episode on its own. Critics loved the Valentine's episode, whereas I thought it was weak with some bright spots (namely Santana) and that the whole thing was ruined by stupid Blaine and his terrible rendition of "Silly Love Songs". Random side-note: wouldn't it be funny if they were to do a Moulin Rouge episode with covers of covers? I mean, it'd be hella meta, but could be done well if they really tried.
Speaking of Blaine, let's go back to "Blame It On The Alcohol" and the blatant biphobia therein. To sum up: Blaine and Rachel drunkenly kiss during spin the bottle, and there's a spark there for both of them. They sing a Human League song and I think, "Hmm, maybe I don't hate Blaine after all!" Kurt is depressed and horrified, even more so when Rachel asks Blaine out and he says yes. Blaine admits that he's still questioning and figuring himself out and that it's possible he could be bi. Kurt flippantly says something so offensive I'm reluctant to put it here: "Bisexual is a term that gay guys in high school use when they want to hold hands with girls and feel normal." After that I was ready to head over to Twitter, all up in arms about it, but Blaine's response of telling Kurt that he shouldn't judge him for being who he is was a good one. However, Kurt's characterization of being bi equating a return to the closet was one that I think a lot of gay guys fall back on - that to be bi is to abandon your identity for one that is somehow safer or more normal.
What there was not was any addressing of the issue of how difficult it is to be bi, especially a bi man, because of the rejection and biphobia just like Kurt's that comes from both sides. I was really, really hoping they were going to make Blaine bisexual - it would be such a great development for the character, and Lea Michelle and Darren Criss have amazing chemistry. But no, of course not, it's just another one-off, like Puck dating Mercedes. They kiss sober and the spark isn't there and Blaine says no, I'm gay. There was no addressing the fact that a lot of bisexuals prefer one gender, but that the right person can change their mind. I'm not saying that a good woman can make a man not gay, but that for a lot of people, sexual attraction isn't limited by gender and instead depends on the specifics of a particular person. It's why I love the term queer - it's not so much a box as an umbrella. Anyway, if there's a lack of gay people on TV there is an utter dearth of bisexuals, especially now that Olivia Wilde has left House (even if she wasn't the best representation), and I thought that Glee could have been the best place to break that barrier. I guess I shouldn't have expected so much from a show who has turned Kurt from one of my favorite characters into a one-dimensional gay who only seems to talk about being gay and whose sometimes grating self-righteousness is held up as a paragon of gayness (WTF was up with him yelling at his dad? That was weird.). Seriously, how interesting would it have been for Glee if Blaine and Rachel started dating? Talk about shaking things up. Alas, it will never be, and instead we'll get the same boring storylines and love triangles over and over again and eventually Kurt and Blaine will get together and hopefully we will get some goddamn nuance instead of Ryan Murphy's "all gays are awesome and perfect" shite. Have you ever seen gay Next? Just being gay does not automatically make you awesome.
Moving on, the other completely awful and off-putting part of the episode was Sue's attempted murder of the Aural Intensity coach. It is one thing to have a character who is clearly defined as amoral and who is so committed to winning that she wants to blast a cheerleader out of a cannon. It is quite another to show that character viciously committing a violent crime that could have come straight out of a CSI reenactment. Sue seriously almost killed a guy, ON PURPOSE, and the whole thing was played off as a joke. Now, Glee can be dark, but that is some seriously dark Nip/Tuck shit that is bleeding in to this show. How am I supposed to feel any empathy for the character now that I know she's willing to literally crack innocent people's skulls in order to...what? Beat the glee club? WTF? After last week's offensive and relatively un-funny Sue-icide stunt, they had her singing to kids with cancer (a whole other brand of WTF) and now she's someone I'd expect to see popping up in the next episode of SVU. And she admits it to Will - shouldn't he, I don't know...call the motherfucking cops? A terrible move, and one that may prove to be unforgivable for me in the coming weeks. We're supposed to be afraid of Sue because she's ruthless, not because she is physically and maliciously violent.
The one possible bright spot in all of this is the Puck/Lauren Zizies storyline. I am still waiting to pass judgment because I don't trust these (mostly male, mostly gay) writers to really tell a good, fat-positive story, but I like what's happened so far. And to have the most traditionally hot guy on the show in an arc where he's wooing the fat girl is awesome - but only if they see it through all the way to a satisfactory conclusion. That means: no shaming, no losing weight, no stupid hijinx. It means Lauren and Puck being the best couple ever, possibly into next year. It means Lauren singing more awesome songs like, "I Know What Boys Like", easily the best performance from last week. And it means a break-up that will have more to do with their personalities than their physical appearance. We'll see how they fare, but in the meantime I'm really enjoying their tete-a-tete.
See what I mean about unevenness? The show is so all over the board. One thing's for certain: this season is merely a shadow of what the first season was, and I fear that as time goes on and the iTunes singles keep racking up, that shadow is going to grow smaller and smaller. My love for the show is fading fast, and they're going to have to do something amazing to keep me interested. That something does not include extreme, violent villainization of Sue or writing shitty original songs, so they better step it up, and fast. When it comes down to it, you can compare Glee and Community all you want for their pop culture references and surrealist universe, but Community is the better show without the slightest doubt. If Glee is Justin Bieber, than Community is Mika. They both make pop music, but Mika's is better written, original, and musically interesting. Mika does not need no stinkin' autotune. He is also able to appeal to people older than 16. Community has a big cult fan base because it's hilarious and universally touching; Glee has a huge fan base because it used to be those things and is now a money machine. Glee may have bigger ratings, but I can tell you right now that only one of these shows is going to stand the test of time and it's not going to be the show that took the teeth out of Rocky Horror or managed to make a boring Lady Gaga episode. It'll be the one that makes you think and laugh and fall in love and look at the world in a new way. It'll be the one that has Abed.
/endgripe
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