i'm marvelous. (and great at wasting my time.)

[falulatonks]

1. OK, I liked this episode a lot. Except for one thing. (You should skip the next point.)


2. Unpopular opinion: the Finn-Kurt-Burt scene did not work for me. I'm more annoyed with both Kurt and his dad than Finn. Throwing around the word 'fag' is terrible (and yes, I'm happy they pointed out that it's terrible to use it), but Finn was hurt/confused and his opinions did not seem to matter to anyone in that household and that kind of pissed me off. Finn has had zero control in pretty much every aspect of his life (Quinn, football, Rachel, his house, his own room), and him losing it made sense.
   
   Kurt did do some creepy things. For Burt to come in and get all righteous (though Mike O'Malley is wonderful, is he not?) made me angry. I like what he said, I like the way he said it, and I like the reasons behind his saying it. Other than that, though - what did it resolve? And the reason I'm even getting into this is that this show was written, meaning there was intention behind this. Right? Was the point of the storyline to get that speech in? Because it doesn't fit in with the rest of the storyline at all.
   
   The problem Finn had wasn't that he was rooming with a gay guy, it was that he was rooming with a gay guy with a crush on him in a house that isn't his where no one seemed to understand how uncomfortable he was with the entire thing. I thought they'd let Kurt and Finn hash it out and finally get a better idea of where both of them stand, because that conversation is necessary, especially if they're going to be living together. Having Burt come in out of nowhere and just steamroll over anything Finn had to say basically turned the storyline into "anti-homophobia!" again and seriously, are we going to get into this same message every single time we have Burt on the show?
   
   And are we supposed to feel bad for Kurt and hate Finn? Because both of them were stupid and did stupid things, but it feels like the show would rather have us sympathise with Kurt, and I don't like that that's what they're trying to get across. Finn wasn't the villain. If Kurt had maybe had a scene with his dad telling him he kind of understands where Finn was coming from, I would've been OK with this. Instead we get Kurt saying "I thought you were better than that!" Really, Kurt?
   
   I hate when Glee tries to get political, even if it sticks to the politics of high school. The emotional bits they do fine, but this sort of thing makes me want to set something on fire. God. All three actors are so good; they deserve better than this. The storyline started off well, and I thought both Finn and Kurt's points of view were given a chance to come through, which I thought was nicely done and subtle enough (subtle enough for Glee, I mean). Then they turned it into a misplaced rant and "don't hate homosexuality!" storyline, which it had never been about.
   
   Maybe I'll just sign it off as Glee being hammer-on-the-head-y about everything it does.


3. Or maybe I'm caring far too much about a show like this and really why do I even bother? WHAT IS MY LIFE?! I hate myself so much for what I wrote in #2. (ETA: Really, I've cooled off now and I loathe myself; what a waste of time.)


4. I really loved Kurt defending Tina, though, and I like how he isn't afraid of what he is. If he'd stop being super-creepy with Finn I'd be more OK with all of this.


5. Shelby and Rachel were actually rather sweet, and the inappropriateness of a mother-daughter Poker Face duet was offset by how happy they looked to be finally singing together. I like how they handled this. Actually I really like how they handled this. All of their interactions felt so natural, like they were just struggling to come to terms with whatever they have and are to each other. I wanted to hug Shelby, I really wanted to hug Rachel. I loved Will's talk with her (yay for Will being a good teacher/person!). The cup with the gold star! The terrible outfits! The thirsty/sad thing wasn't great, but I appreciate the sentiment of it.
   
   I hope we get just a little bit of them together in the Regionals episode. I really loved the heart of this storyline.


6. Rachel Berry I love you! The Gaga introduction was awesome (I saw things in the trash! Materials are missing! I WILL ALWAYS SPY ON OUR COMPETITION!!). And I love how mature she was in handling her mother - she wants her mom, but she understands they won't ever be like that, and she dealt with it instead of being crazy and over-the-top. Lea is perfect. (As long as we're talking about Lea being perfect, I want to say that Cory is perfect, too, and he isn't given nearly as much love for his acting as he should.)


7. Tina wasn't bad! Although the "lesson" made me roll my eyes. This show makes me roll my eyes a lot.


8. That other guy had a line! What's his name? Matt?


9. Hey, I liked Puck in this episode! Besides his funny lines, he also had the Star of David painted on his face, and he was low-key. I liked Beth. Not a lot, but.


10. Poker Face was delightful, though inappropriate, but I've already said that.


11. Bad Romance was fun, but the videos from the tour are so much better! I forwarded through most of the performance on the show because of how much I enjoyed what I saw from the tour. Santana/Naya killed the vocals, I loved that.


12. Shout It Out Loud was also fun! I'm always happy to see Cory/Finn drumming in the background.
    
    (Did You Know?: Cory's on the drums during Sweet Caroline on the tour, and videos of him drumming and Lea air-drumming in time to him from a distance on-stage are adorable and make me 'ship them so hard. Lea/Cory, that is. Not Finn/Rachel. Because I already have my Rachel OTP.)


13. I miss Jesse. Next week's promo made me wail. Why did I let myself get so attached?! His absence makes my heart ache, it really does. I just want him forever. Him and his facial expressions and how great he looks when he's been in the rain for a while. And Rachel/Jesse!! AGH. Grofffffff. I hate you. (for making me LOVE YOU SO MUCH!)


14. Apparently they switched the airing of this episode and next week's, which makes me think that there's a huge amount of Jesse-related scenes we lost in this episode. WHYYYY. Also, how heavily Vocal Adrenaline is featured in next week's episode (judging from the promos, of course) is strange - how are they going to get around this Shelby-is-her-mom-and-sent-Jesse thing? Whatever. I'll just work with what they give us. I'm good at that.

My favourite thing about Parenthood is the Sarah-Amber relationship. I love them so much.

-- rachu

Comments

[zombie_boogie.livejournal.com]

NO. NO. DON'T REGRET POINT NUMBER 2 BECAUSE IT WAS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY VALID. Did Finn say stupid things? Of course he did. Mean, hurtful, homophobic things. But his actions weren't motivated by homophobia. Every single thing he said about Kurt was true - Kurt was making goo-goo eyes at him. Kurt was gleeful that Finn was moving in because of his crush (heck, Kurt orchestrated their parents getting together for that very reason!). Finn was uncomfortable because he was being forced to share a space with someone who was clearly attracted to him and whose feelings he did not reciprocate. Of course there was some gay panic going on because of his earlier experiences with the jocks, but overall I think the "homophobia is bad" message was misplaced in this sequence of events. It wasn't fair to Finn. He said awful things but Kurt needed to be apologetic for some of his behaviour as well. Basically: word.

I really loved the core of the Shelby/Rachel stuff, but it felt a little rushed. I just kind of felt like Shelby put out all of this effort to make Rachel find her and then they decide to go their separate ways? Maybe it was a realistic choice but it seemed to be resolved awfully quickly and conveniently. Still, they were lovely together.

*Wails over Rachel/Jesse DOOOOOM and lack of Jesse and stuff. You know what I mean*

I know for a fact that we missed seeing Jesse in Vocal Adrenaline's red "Bad Romance" outfits. WE MISSED JESSE IN RED LACE. UNACCEPTABLE.

[falulatonks]

THANK YOU. Not just for being more articulate and good at summarising thoughts than I am, but also for letting me feel justified about this! The "homophobia is bad" message didn't fit in with the rest of the storyline, and I hate that Kurt is consistently painted as the better person when it comes to storylines like this, because he isn't. It doesn't matter that viewers can see that he's wrong, it matters that the show writers seem content with repeatedly giving him the upper hand in everything.

Yeah, it was rushed, but I've given up on complaining about how quickly things are dealt with on this show. :P

Have you seen those photos of Groff and Lea hanging around set while he's wearing the red lace stuff? That means THEY FILMED RACHEL/JESSE SCENES OR JESSE SCENES AND THEY WERE CUT! THIS IS NOT RIGHT, GLEE!! It's like that promo that magically appeared with an R/J kiss from Power of Madonna which we realised we weren't getting. You have Jonathan Groff. Why are we wasting time on homophobia?!?!

[zombie_boogie.livejournal.com]

I think I would enjoy Kurt more if they would acknowledge what a little shit he is sometimes. I think what they were trying to say is, "It's wrong to think that every gay person will be automatically attracted to you! That's a really unfair assumption and being uncomfortable around a gay person just for that reason is homophobic." Ok fine. Except Kurt was actually attracted to Finn so that sort of undermines their point. I didn't have as much as a problem with Burt's reaction because he is unaware of Kurt's machinations, so he would feel naturally defensive of his son. I just wish they would use Burt more than just "tender moments with his gay son." Heck, I just wish they'd give Kurt something else besides a storyline related to his sexuality.

Oh yeah, those promo pictures give me so much woe. The entire episode I was waiting for one of the Vocal Adrenaline guys to pull off his Gaga mask and reveal himself to be Jesse. WOE.

[falulatonks]

I think I would enjoy Kurt more if they would acknowledge what a little shit he is sometimes.
Oh, so much word. I don't even have anything to say to that paragraph that won't be me repeating everything you've said. Just: word. Seriously. He's getting away with too much.

I'm genuinely nervous about how they're going to handle Groff/Jesse. I'm so annoyed with myself for getting this invested.

[falulatonks]

Yes, that's exactly what it is. It's probably why I reacted as strongly against it as I did - this "Glee with agenda" kind of Glee really, really doesn't work for me, and it pisses me off.

[uptheapples.livejournal.com]

YES. THANK YOU. I have the exact same feelings about the Kurt/Burt/Finn story and how completely assy this show gets when it's political. Yeah, Finn was in the wrong when he said "faggy," but Finn gets less respect than just about everyone on the show, and alkdfjaldkrjaldjr. You put it better than I could, so basically what you said.

This episode, for me, was full of everything that I find aggravating about this show, and the fact that I don't like Lady Gaga didn't help. But seriously, they rushed the Shelby/Rachel stuff, they once again ignored past development, or just repeated it like it hadn't happened in the first place, and there wasn't enough Brittany!

Very frustrating.

[falulatonks]

Oh thank goodness I'm not alone in feeling like this. Most of the comments I've seen on it have been "Finn was a douche!" and "yay, Burt!", so. ugh. I really hope this trend doesn't continue - this is the third, fourth time we've gotten this Kurt-Burt-homophobia rehash in the back nine, isn't it? Enough already!

The Shelby-Rachel was just as rushed as anything on the show is, so I'm just trying to deal with it. Obviously this show is never going to give storylines the amount of time they deserve, even the ones that have actual emotional mileage, like this mother-daughter one.

[cashewdani.livejournal.com]

I don't know that at the end of the scene in the basement we were supposed to hate Finn, because I certainly didn't. I felt all the worse for him. Honestly what I liked so much was that I understood where everyone in the scene was coming from even if they didn't. But, to each his own.

[falulatonks]

The episode and the actors really emphasised that all three of them had their own problems and views, which I really, really liked up till that scene - I think my reaction was based entirely on the fact that the response that I saw from most viewers online was "Finn sucks! Burt rocks!", and the fact that it was probably Burt's speech that skewed the viewers that way. :/ I do think a lot of people get all three perspectives, though.

[la-petite-singe.livejournal.com]

We discussed this in my post, but I will say that it'd be nice to have a Kurt storyline, with or without Burt, that doesn't have to do with him being gay. I know it's only the first season, but I hope they start exploring other parts of his character soon, because if they're trying to avoid/break down stereotypes, they're gonna have to mix it up a little more. I really love Burt and I love the way he's come to understand and defend his kid, but it's definitely a little repetitive. And I still say Finn could have articulated his feelings a little better and stood up for himself more instead of just lashing out in anger, but then again, he's a 16-year-old guy. :P

I ALWAYS need more Groff in my life. I'm guessing he won't be on next season, and I will just cry & cry. He's marvelous and his voice is DIVINE and... :9 I...don't know what they're going to do with him now that the Rachel/Shelby thing is resolved (um, kinda), though...but as long as he's around, I won't nitpick, I promise.

[falulatonks]

I seriously agree with that!! Both about Kurt and about Burt - they're both interesting but they keep getting the same parts of their characters played with repeatedly. And yes, hee, Finn is such a boy.

And YES, GROFF. I can't promise I won't nitpick if he's around, but I do know I'll probably be too distracted to say anything too sensible.

[darling-ashes.livejournal.com]

Ditto on everything you just said.

The Kurt-Burt-Finn scene was incredibly well acted and had a good message (and I agree with everything that way said) but it seems that everytime Kurt has a storyline, it revolves around him being gay. I wish they would branch out a bit more as Kurt is a great character (and Chris is a phenominal actor) and the writers don't seem to be showing that being gay doesn't define who a person is, it's just one part.