i'm not the same, i have no shame

[falulatonks]

OK, Glee.

1. I enjoyed this episode a lot? Things about it still make me want to punch some people in the face, though.


2. The music is so great this week! Like a Prayer is easily one of my favourite songs from this show at this point, somewhere in the top three, and I'm bummed they cut it (but enjoyed the cute Rachel/everyone interactions). Express Yourself was OK, Vogue was OK (but fun to watch), What It Feels Like For a Girl is a little too boyband (but the show made it better!), but I'd still listen to all of them.


3. 4 Minutes was awesome and looked fantastic! Both Kurt and Mercedes can tread on my nerves a little (and I blame that all on the writing, because Mercedes can sang and Chris Colfer's acting is one of my favourites), but they worked in this episode, and I love their little friendship. I'm not a fan of the original song, but this was great.


4. Borderline / Open Your Heart was a better mash-up than any other mash-ups we've gotten so far, easily. It sounds great (and Cory's sounding awesome this season, clearly he's been working on that!), and the visualisation made my heart fluttery and everything, Finn's library-wrecking aside (if you pay attention, after pushing all the books off the shelves, right at the end of the row he pulls a book from his left and puts it on the shelf at the right for NO REASON, GRRR). The random versions of Madonna walking in the background were funny.


5. Like a Virgin - I am extremely in love with the Glee version of this song. I've listened to this almost as much as Like a Prayer (well, not really, but still) - it's not just fun and pop-y, but I loved hearing the female leads (Lea and Naya especially - Naya has a great texture that goes really well with Cory's, I'd like to hear more of that). The problem with this song is that I can't sing it around the house as much as I want to, because "virgin" is a bit iffy for my Indian parents' ears. I've started singing it as "like a bird, yeah" instead, like how I replaced the "fuck" in that Maroon 5 song (if i ever gave a fuck about you) with "thought". heh. The things I do for my family.


6. This deserves a separate point - the choreography/editing for this song was so good. I feel a little uncomfortable watching Emma/Will, but if you put that aside (even if you don't), this show managed to make this song sexy, despite the tone of the song in general. I liked that a lot.


7. I think Cory Monteith is an excellent, excellent actor, and his singing is improving, and I do still enjoy watching him with Lea, and I love his drumming, and his blow-up at everyone coming after him to make him sad made me laugh, and how he absolutely couldn't pay attention to the girls during Express Yourself (he's honestly just fidgeting and glancing around or at the ceiling every time we cut to a shot of him, it's hilarious), but Finn bugs me.


8. I don't really like Santana, and while I like Puck enough and think Mark Salling is a calm person and a decent singer, I don't think Mark can act. Quinn could be an interesting character, but I don't see work being done on that, and while I think Dianna Agron is lovely and sweet and intelligent, none of her bigger scenes or her songs have blown me away. As a result I'm quite OK with them not getting a lot of screen-time. Brittany/Heather Morris, though, has excellent comic timing, and mad dancing skills! Let's see more of her, show!


9. This show needs to stop adding a "human" side to Sue after insisting on her outright villainy. It makes me annoyed that they demand that we see how funny she is when she's mean (which she is, obviously, thank you, Lynch), and then give her a "soft" side that goes against both what they ask us to see and what they've written the character to be. In fact this show should probably be a little more controlled with how they treat its characters, because it tends to get all over the place when they're out to service plot.


10. OK, Jesse quitting VA and joining McKinley and New Directions isn't just ridiculous (like most Glee plots), but dumb. Let's see where they go with this?


11. I have to say, though: Jesse is amazing. I love his male!Rachel-ness, his crazy speeches and wording. I love when he says perfect things like "I picked the Stephen Sondheim biography section for our clandestine meeting place because only he would be able to express my melancholia," (the way he said this made me watch it several times) and "Just come out so we can talk...or sing about it," and at the same time goes with Rachel to Wiggles concerts and is ridiculously concerned about a Care Bear that Rachel won for him.
    
    If you remove the idea of his dishonesty/LIESLIESLIES as a whole, and pay special attention to how hot he is, how well he can sing (his Burning Up is out as a "bonus track" and the verses/bridge sound hot really good), how great the Lea/Jon chemistry is, how well he dances (and putting him next to Cory in the Like a Prayer number is proof of this and also an example of a really terrible idea), how well he lip-syncs (see: Like a Prayer, and him switching lines in the background when he's not even the focus of the shot), and how well JGroff delivers his lines (he's playing him so well, I love it), then I don't see why he can't be on this show forever. It's too bad I'm convinced of his LIESLIESLIES, because I don't want Rachel/Jesse to be doomed, and also because every other aspect of him is working for me so far. I hope he gets a little more three-dimensional and a lot more gooey about Rachel (yes, really), but other than that, seriously. Let's get rid of Vocal Adrenaline, PLEASE?


12. Hey, Rachel, did I see you hugging Mercedes and Jesse during Like a Prayer and looking extra-super happy and adorable and content? If so, GOOD FOR YOU. That poor girl needs some girl friends, though (and someone to tell her that the cape was NOT a good idea - I love you so, so much, Rachel, but you are NUTS); I hope we see her getting closer to Mercedes. I was going to say maybe she should be friends with Quinn, but that girl is still a bitch, and I don't even understand it.


13. Damn it. I like this show, I promise. I enjoy it. I don't think I'll get to a point where I stop watching it, because I still like it that much. Things about it are fun for me, especially because of the acting/singing talent we see glimpses of.
    
    The problem is that we tend to see glimpses of this talent, because the rest of the show is overwhelmed by crazy plots (and played out at hyper-speed) and inconsistent writing. Even when I laugh out loud and love a few characters, I end episodes either feeling annoyed or just indifferent, which sucks. I am saying that this show is fun, but the writing sucks.


14. I don't think this show is doing anything differently from how it was in the first half of the season, though. It's just as all over the place as it's ever been. I can understand that people are disappointed that they didn't get their inconsistencies and mistakes under control in time for this spring season, but I see nothing different, really - most of all the spirit of Glee is still here, and I admire it for that. Maybe I'm just more used to it? In fact there are parts of the last two episodes that I liked more than a few episodes last year!


15. Did I mention how much I adore Like a Prayer? The way that builds up is fantastic, from Lea's beautiful opening lines up to the overlaps of Lea/Amber near the end. I love how they break up the lines, especially the bits in the full version where it's Rachel/Finn/Kurt/Mercedes and then Finn/Rachel/Jesse. It sounds gorgeous and epic and like it means something to everyone, and that kind of sincerity is what makes me love the song even more than I would've otherwise. That kind of sincerity is also something this show could get right if they paid more attention to bringing it out - maybe that's what's missing.
    
    That said, WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT BACKING CHOIR COME FROM. I don't understand you, Glee! I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU AT ALL!!!

So basically, I love-hate this show, and Like a Prayer is amazing.

That is all.

-- rachu