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

[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.