I’m sure I’m not the only one who sits down to watch TV every week thinking: “Glee, why can’t I quit you!” Looking at the last three weeks of the show (the first episodes following what seemed like the longest hiatus ever), the series seems to be highlighting what does and doesn’t work for this series, which has a little under a season and a half to go before its final episode. (Does anyone think that the move to show New York exclusively is an attempt for Fox to determine if it would have been worth doing a spinoff following Rachel and Kurt? Almost as though they’re thinking, “If we do this and the ratings don’t improve, we were totally right to scrap the spinoff; if we do this and it works, well great, there’s always time to greenlight it now that we’ve announced that we are foregoing pilot season.” Trying to have your cake and eat it too, Fox?)
In a way, Glee is like Heroes. It was a cultural phenomenon when it hit. Seemingly everyone was thinking about it, watching it, talking about it. The pilot was a little wacky and offbeat, but when the New Directions hit the stage for their rendition of “Don’t Stop Believin'” it was like they were talking to the audience and saying “look how amazing we can be, come back next week and you’ll see it.” For a season or two, the show could do no wrong. Then the criticism came, the ratings plummeted, and you can’t help but wonder if Fox might pull the plug early, despite a sixth season renewal. So, what went wrong?
The Good-
There are some things Glee has done an incredible job with. Kurt’s coming out story, seeing his father accept and push alongside him, was everything that good TV should be. Chris Colfer and Mike O’Malley play so well off each other that every time this pair is on screen, you cannot help but watch, rapt, waiting to see how they are going to make you cry. We don’t get to know many of the parents very well on this series, but when Burt Hummel was in the hospital, it wasn’t only the characters who were praying for his recovery. (Santana’s coming out was also poignant, if less delved into.)
Finn and Rachel’s relationship was another very well-developed storyline that took so many twists and turns. I wouldn’t go as far as calling them Ross and Rachel, but by the time Finn had showed up in NY, it was pretty clear that they were each other’s lobster. It might have taken them a few more years to end up together, but you knew they would end up together eventually, barring the tragedy of Cory Monteith’s death that no one expected. And more than that, you wanted them together. Not the married-too-young idea that Glee wisely decided to forego, but the “we-are-adults-ready-to-embark-on-life-together” type of couple that comes with age. (Though a part of me thinks, if they had just gone through with it, at least they could have been married for a little while…)
I have also loved seeing Rachel and Kurt’s friendship develop (I’m trying to ignore the last couple episodes a bit here). They started as semi-rivals, both the divas who wanted to rule the glee club (for being such losers, the New Directions sure has a lot of divas). Rachel was utterly self-centered and unapologetic. Kurt was afraid to truly be himself. We watched these two characters grow up (again, barring the events of the recent few episodes), and find that being friends has changed them “For Good.” Rachel helped give Kurt the push he needed to audition for NYADA. Kurt has stood by Rachel’s side despite her worst diva moments. They give each other advice and their scenes together almost always evoke emotions. Of all the friendships depicted throughout the series, this is my favorite and probably the most developed. (The only other non-sexual relationship that is actively on screen anymore is Blaine and Sam and even they went through a phase where Blaine was attracted to Sam.)
This week’s episode, the series once again showed that it knows how to handle grief. It surprised me, in the episode dealing with the death of Finn (and by extension, Cory), that it was Finn’s mother and not Burt Hummel, who really made the sorrow feel real. I am not one of those people who gets emotional about a celebrity who dies, however beloved the celebrity. They aren’t my friends or family. Their death is extremely sad, especially when it is a young, unnecessary death that might have been avoided, but it isn’t a personal experience. Even so, that scene where Finn’s mother Carole, played by Romy Rosemont, was sobbing over Finn while surrounded by boxes of his things, made it feel so real and so personal. Even my friend who happened to be over and never watched Glee was sobbing. In Glee‘s most recent episode, as the club went to Nationals, just as Finn had always said they would, Rosemont’s performance was no less poignant as she struggled to be around Finn’s friends (and pseudo-students) to give them hope the way her son would have wanted. We finally got some of the closure that fans have been waiting for (including some Finn flashbacks that were perhaps too soon to include during the memorial episode) and [SPOILER ALERT!] the devastation the New Directions felt at not coming in first was palpable. They wanted to win for him and they felt like they had failed. And even this feeling was well-handled.
NEXT: What didn’t work.
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