Showing posts with label Puckasaurus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Puckasaurus. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Glee-Cap: Are you funking kidding me?


 "Tell me if this is too suggestive..."

 It's not, I'm pretty bored.

Ok, from here on in, Will Schuester, is going to be called Mary Sue, because let's be honest, that's what he is. Increasingly, every time he's onscreen I open up a big old bag of not giving a shit. If you're not familiar with the term Mary Sue: here educate yourself. 
A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet".
But the major take away on the concept is that the character is so beloved by the writer/producer/whatever that they are just painfully, annoyingly PRECIOUS.

"Even your breath stinks of mediocrity"...

 
Also, in a storyline that literally had no utility except to provide Puck with an opportunity to sing Loser. Which I fully support. Because that was fun. The boys, Finn and Puck slashed tires of the Vocal Adrenalin's Range Rovers, in order to "Defend the honor of New Directions" after their choir room was T.P.ed. Now, this charming turn of events does give some commentary on the misguided chivalry expected of young men in this modern era, and the escalation of school prankery into astronomically difficult levels.
"Their School Statue is a Great White Shark eating a seal pup, it weighs three tons."

Even more frustrating than Mary Sue's storyline- that can I say managed to totally neutralize Sue's character which is not funny, literally, not funny in humor or being okay- we saw the return of Mrs. Sue (like what I did there?)

Quinn! Pregnantly singing with a chorus of unwed pregnant teen mothers. I'm going to call this the weekly interlude in WTF? because yeah, last week it was Artie's Safety Dance, and seriously, WTF? I've been pregnant, bouncing around like that it SUCH a fantasy. ... and group hug and back to our regularly scheduled show.

But not quite! we'll be taking a strange reprise later on in the episode, Mercedes and Quinn are moving in together based on a series of scenes that feel a little like Tyra Banks crying 'cause she had to wear a fat suit. That would be, your realization that you've been horrible means that not only are you destroyed by your own crushed vanity, but the people you've been horrid to have to comfort you as well.

I like Quinn and Mercedes as a pair, they can learn from one another, they're less crass than TyTy, but lets also be fair, if the writers are phoning this in it can go all sorts of wrong and very quickly. I applaud Mercedes ability to love thy former enemy, but also, unless you're planning to do more exploration of this storyline, and please, do more exploration of this storyline, it will be angering.

Ok Glee, lets be serious for a moment about pacing, five 30 second conversations do not BFFs make.  Also, I'm confused here, how is moving out of Puck's house the answer to all Quinn's problems? Puck wanted to step up to the plate more, and by Quinn's own words, it's ok there except that Puck's mom won't let her eat bacon. Where did I miss the squalor? Where did I miss the deep shared connection? was that pregnant chick ballet and discussion of how hard it is to be called fat the thing that brought them together?  This seems wholly precipitous and if you screw this up for me I will hunt you down and punch you in your face, show.

You did so well for me with Lady Gaga last week, lets not forget how well you did with that and see that you bring it next week at Regionals!!!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Glee-Cap: Rachel, it's not you, it's me, except that it's also you.


Hey there blog!

I could not be more excited, because these Glee-Caps are now syndicating on All Things Fangirl, which I think takes my geek cred up a notch or two, I mean, I think I already had some but you can never have too much. You may remember EruditeChick's interview with me and Jeff Gomez  here (and also here). But while me rambing about myself into the aether is probably not why you're here... wait, it's exactly why you're here.

Here's what you missed on the Glee-caps:
----Cue the Music----
Glee-is-a-show-on-Fox-where-a-bunch-of-high-school-kids-join-glee-club. They-spontaneously-burst-into-song-and-dance-numbers. It's-really-entertaining-and-even-when-it-makes-me-angry...
I-HAVE-to-watch-it, I-mean-HAVE-TO-total-fangirl-compulsion. 

So, even-though-the-guys-are-kinda-Mary-Sues-and-the-girls-ride-a-little-close-to-high-school-show-stereotypes-I-like-them-and-feel-like-its-worth-watching. 

But-sometimes-they-do-make-me-angry-or-concerned-so-I-use-the- 
AWESOME POWER OF THE INTERNET 
-to-yell-at-the-show, and-you-know-this-hugely-successful-TV-show-is-listening
-so-now-that-there-are-TWO BLOGS-where-I'm-taking-it-to-task, 
you-know-the-show-is-going-to-be-super-awesome-and-not-make-me-think-I'm-on-crazy-pills-while-I'm-watching-it. 

And that's what you missed last time on the Glee-Cap!

On this week's episode, Laryngitis...


 Rachel Berry, it's not you, it's me, except that it's also you.

For the record I think Lea Michelle is great, and also, I get that weird theatre kid thrill up my spine when she is singing. But, I seriously can barely stand the character of Rachel when she's not singing.
And to be fair, that's part of the point of her character:
"What if he says I'll never sing again?
What will become of me? Without my voice I'm just another spoiled annoying only child..."
"I'm sure he won't say you'll never sing again."
She's entirely and completely about her goals, becoming a famous singer is her unquestioned destiny and to get there she is willing to uncover any obstacle. She is talented, completely single-minded, and even uses MySpace– obsession if I've ever seen it, but yeah, in the first episode it said she updated with video weekly, WHERE ARE THE VIDEOS, FOX???? lame, but I digress. She has many positive traits, including knowing without a shadow of a doubt that she is annoying and single-minded.
"I am like Tinkerbell, Finn, I need applause to live."
This episode only served to highlight these aspects of her character. And, like Tracey Flick in Election, Rachel proves that despite horrible personality flaws, sincere commitment to one's goals can pay off if you have an innate talent for that goal. Also, what she learned in this episode, "that you can be more than one thing" that there's more to Rachel than being a singer.

True, she's also bossy. She's really unpleasant to people around her, all the time. Seriously. She orders people around, puts them down, is really a jerk. Kudos that you know you're a jerk, Rachel, but you're still a jerk.  And being a jerk is just, no way to go through life.

A big part of why I don't like you, Rachel, is because I'm out of high school, I've been out in the world a while, and I'm certain you would appeal to me if I were younger. You're aspirational and cool, and can belt a bit and clearly have a heart...

but yeah, you're also a jerk. Remember last week, when you used three guys to try and seem cool, two of which actually like you and now no one seems to remember that and the two guys still seem to be really into you? You lie, you are so self-absorbed you are usually the last person to realize a piece of juicy gossip, but how many times have you run into the glee club room to share that gossip as soon as you find it out? at least 5.

Generally, I think a character who lies, gossips, etc... is interesting, but is only really interesting when there are consequences for their actions. So far, Rachel's karmic calendar has a huge event coming up, like, Eyjafjallajökull level. Losing your voice and having the cute guy you like take you to the doctor and sing a song about you while your boyfriend is in San Diego does not cut it, Glee. 

Also this week:



Quinn rocked it, talking to Mercedes about Puck, let's talk about that because that was great. She was totally honest and if someone was keeping me from bacon, I too would not be able to handle conversations about "How Super-Mario Changed Civilization."

Also, I want to call you out, Glee, for framing Mercedes' story almost completely around a guy. At least you kinda gave Rachel some agency this week, but yeah, work on that. 

Honorable mention also has to go to Puck for being amazingly, hilariously desperate for attention throughout the episode. To the point of seriously borderline humor, a charming Sammy Davis Jr. homage, and to Mercedes for shutting him down because she's obviously above all that.
"I'm like a sex shark, if I stop moving, I die"

And so, because I ramble, I'm stopping here. Step it up with the consequences, Glee, you've set up the pins, now knock them down.

Catch up with the older Glee-Caps Here: F U For Making Me Tear Up, The Madonna Episode, Am I Taking Crazy Pills?

Tune in next week for NPH. OMG OMG OMG. Excellent.
And follow me on twitter, Caitlin_Burns