Glee

To be fair, Kurt's reaction was that Karofsky was being creepy and off-base. Did he have sympathy for someone whose journey to self-acceptance is a lot rockier than his own? Yeah, but I think he drew the line at "sympathy" and no further, even making it explicitly clear about no further.

One thing about this episode, as it was Sue-free, solidified something in my mind: Figgens is a FAR more interesting antagonistic foil than she is.

I resent that I as a VIEWER am expected to sympathize with a person who has had absolutely zero consequences for his shitty, abusive actions. Yes, he's in pain because he's struggling with himself. But he has not had to pay any price for anything he did to Kurt, or to Blaine, or threatening Finn on the football field, or throwing Mike into Artie so that Artie was knocked over in his wheelchair, or giving Sam a black eye. He was given an expulsion that the school board immediately overturned, so that doesn't count.

I'm supposed to care about his pain when he didn't show a single ounce of remorse for his actions before Santana bullied him into stopping his bullying? Eff that noise. Smell you later, Karofsky. Smell you later FOREVER.

I didn't watch The Glee Project at all, but I like this new guy, Joe. He delivered those lines with good comedic timing and he definitely has the singing chops. I hope they find more for him to do, and if it's at the expense of Rory, I'm totally fine with that.

And I've been liking Sam more and more so I'm really happy they brought Chord Overstreet (the most ridiculously awesome name ever) back.

I do think they have set things up to give Karofsky a taste of his own medicine with that guy from his new school seeming to overhear everything. That could get ugly. And I do have a tiny (I said tiny!) bit of sympathy for Karofsky. He was so full of self-hatred that he did some shitty, shitty things. Perhaps unforgivable things. But self-hatred is a powerful thing. And I kind of like that he's trying to come to terms with it. That doesn't really excuse his horrific behavior, but there is a bit of reasoning behind it. Maybe it's because I like the actor, too. I like the nervousness and vulnerability he displayed. Again...not excusing any of his behavior, though.

I wish Dance was part of my family's motto. Alas...

queenofdenile wrote:I resent that I as a VIEWER am expected to sympathize with a person who has had absolutely zero consequences for his shitty, abusive actions. Yes, he's in pain because he's struggling with himself. But he has not had to pay any price for anything he did to Kurt, or to Blaine, or threatening Finn on the football field, or throwing Mike into Artie so that Artie was knocked over in his wheelchair, or giving Sam a black eye. He was given an expulsion that the school board immediately overturned, so that doesn't count.

It's not like anyone else's bullying ever "counts" on this show. Hell, Shane was usually an equal partner with Karofsky on a lot of those things, and he's shown zero remorse, and yet this season he's been only Mercedes's boyfriend, whom we're supposed feel bad for when she breaks up with him. Frankly, I have more trouble swallowing that.

Uhhh, no he wasn't. That was Azimio, a different character. Shane's first episode was the season 3 premiere.

I stand corrected.

I don't recall Puck getting any real comeuppance for his bullying, either. I can't say I care too much that Karofsky doesn't get that much punishment, especially since he hasn't been onscreen much this season anyway. He seemed perfectly capable of making himself miserable.

Actually, I think the only bully who's really been forced to deal with consequences so far is Santana (outside of Sue, and I think the adults are a separate matter). If the only bullies who get punished are the closet cases, then I think this show might want to reconsider what message they're trying to send.

I see your point about the "lack of consequences" point applying to other people. It's the same reason that I don't enjoy Santana as much now as I did in season 2 (even though I still love Naya), as I thought her past nastiness was whitewashed like crazy and forgiven just because she was in pain. The difference to me is that Santana had up until that point at least been entertaining, while Karofsky wasn't written with any redeeming qualities and I was still expected to feel sorry for him just because.

As for Puck, he was locked in a port-a-potty for 24 hours. It was played for comedy but I'd say that was some sort of comeuppance, yes. And, as an important difference, he started being nicer to the members of the glee club before anyone made him do it.

Puck also went to juvie for a month.

This is a show I can enjoy if I'm willing to overlook (or, more accurately, pretend they never happened) certain storylines/behaviors/characters/plotlines. As someone who endured a lot of bullying way back in high school, that's the aspect of Glee that I have to just ignore. Otherwise I'd get aggravated and I don't believe Glee is worth being aggravated over.

As always, that's just how it works for me.

That, too. With Karofsky, the writers skipped a step in Redemption 101.

Step 1: Introduce character who does bad things.
Step 2: Include entertaining/interesting qualities in this character.
Step 3: Put character in pain. Audience sympathizes.

Instead, they wrote it like this:

Step 1: Introduce a character who does bad things.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: PROFIT!

The Underpants Gnomes wrote his arc.

RiverThames wrote:Puck also went to juvie for a month.

I thought that was for ignoring his contract stealing hubcaps.

Puck has had everything he dished out thrown back on him. He was slushied, tossed in a dumpster, attacked by the football team, and locked in a porta-pottie overnight (notably, both the slushie and beatdown were done by Karofsky.) And each event led to another step in his redemption as he learned from those experiences. His response to the slushie was to apologize to Rachel. He started standing up for Kurt. He made a vow to be nicer to people (well, at least to Jews) after the porta-pottie thing. When Artie reached out to him, he took him up on it. When Karofsky was reached out to by Blaine and Kurt in the same episode, his response was to start bullying even harder. When he was slushied, his response was to bail on the football game and halftime show until people started cheering for it. And he only apologized to the Glee Club because Santana blackmailed him into it. Then suddenly he wept and he was sorry for real? Whatever. The entire storyline was a shambles and the only thing good about it was that it was over.

I will say that Sugar is probably my new favorite character, for now. Vanessa's done a great job with such a minor character.

Vanessa's done a great job with such a minor character.

A remarkable job of making something with almost nothing. She could so easily be grating and over the top (haven't seen the prying reporter lately, have we?) but manages (to my eye) find just the right balance, and steal scenes where the camera just pans past her.

Unfortunately, it only highlights the problem of expecting reality contest winners (decent enough singers) to be able to bring equal strength to the acting side.

Re Karosfksy et al: Even within the show's own rippling universe, that was left field. Though it caused me to actually wonder 'So what did Blaine do for Kurt for Valentine's Day?' Show up at someone else's party? And what did Kurt do in return? Nothing?

And how were Kurt and Blaine not at the Big Family Dinner? There was clearly enough time to do both. Sigh. Rachel's Dads: Such a nice example of not trusting your actors. Or audience. All they had to show was the glass-clink (our cunning plan is working) then Goldblum's withering gaze (YOUR cunning plan is SO NOT WORKING). Instead they overscripted. A lot.

Vanessa is hitting that same sweet spot that Harry Shum used to in the first season-- making the most of every frame he's on screen without actually blatantly stealing the scene. (Not that he still doesn't, but Harry did a LOT with very little to work with. He had two lines in season 1. Two! Yet he was in almost every episode, and popping.)

This is the strangest part in terms of NOW bringing in Rachel's Two Gay Dads: you'd think they'd already have a strong relationship with Kurt. We know Kurt has been at her house plenty, and he's been hungry for role models and life advice, so... why isn't he tight with them? Though it is clear why he (and Blaine) wasn't at the dinner: cunning plan.

That was highly entertaining. My three favorite things were: 1. Teen Jesus, 2. that stereo song, and 3. Jeff Goldblum.

As usual it was highly slapped together and didn't really make any sense, but I don't worry too much about that sort of thing anymore. I did like Mercedes's "I Will Always Love You," BUT I have to admit that it was an exact copy of Whitney's. Simon (the judge, not the gay apostle) wouldn't be having that no matter how good it was. (Not Amber Riley's fault, I know.)

Rachel's horror at Finn's intent to poop at her house cracked me up. Oh, and also Brittany's songs for Santana, which included Disco Duck and On Top of Spaghetti. And yeah, Sugar is really fun.

I didn't like Sugar at first but now I love her. This whole change with Karofsky s way too fast.

Regarding Sugar: once when I was browsing through Kurt/Blaine fanfic (shut up), I stumbled on a story that had the premise of Sugar being Brittany and Santana's daughter from the future, who traveled back in time to get/keep her moms together.

Whether you want to find it or not, is up to you, because I can't remember where it is, but I thought I owed it to everyone to inform you that such a fic exists.

What was that episode? Just so much, and wow.

It can best be summed up, in my opinion, by this quote, which has me giggling still, from a commenter on TWoP:

In the grand scheme of things, at least Quinn was reaching down to check her phone and not to pick up a scoop of fallen ice cream.

Heyyy, neat! I've been waiting eleven years to see what happened to Brooke McQueen!

Glee is about opening yourself up to joy.

Or, you know, a depressing and stilted hour-long PSA with really terrible music that ends with a twist straight out of the really bad Whedonian years.

queenofdenile wrote:Heyyy, neat! I've been waiting eleven years to see what happened to Brooke McQueen!

THIISSS!

My wife, who never watched Popular, said, aloud during this ep "They're not going really going to get married!" I said, oh yes they are. Ryan Murphy loves high school students being married!

True, but at least Popular didn't have undeserved critical praise and Emmy noms and self-congratulatory articles about how they're sending such good messages to kid and teen viewers. Good messages such as "you are responsible for your former bully's mental and emotional well-being if said bully has a crush on you."

I really didn't like this episode. Honestly, the Finchel storyline is WAY more offensive to me than the Karofsky one. At least the Karofsky story was remotely in character for him when you look at his development over the last three years. Rachel is gone. What we're left with is some shadow of herself that thinks her future happiness is dependent on being with the oaf who has no goals or dreams of his own. What the hell?

Why show the one part of the episode I was most looking forward to in the previews (Quinn calling Rachel out on her terrible, terrible plan of marriage) and then cut it and only have Quinn being supportive?

Also, what was the point of Blaine singing in the Dave suicide montage? Can we say needless and inappropriate? Could Tina please get a song? She pretty much won sectionals for them and then has to take a backseat to the Troubletones who LOST sectionals? Really?! And then Blaine and Santana rapping? What the eff was that? If you NEED to have rapping in the song, maybe give it to Puck or Sam or someone who can actually rap. Just an idea.

Finally, could the Berrys and the Hudmels just try being parents? Instead of scheming, could they maybe sit their two idiot children down, say, 'we don't support this' and list the reasons why?

Ugh, this show. I supported it and supported it, but it's not even fun crack anymore - it's just stupid.

(Tune in to the next time Mike or Puck is shirtless, and I'm all full of hope again.)