Ooookay, how was Glee this week? It was a good return from a 3-week hiatus but it wasn't amazing.
"Wheels" is an episode focusing more on our side characters, namely Artie, Kurt, and Quinn. (I consider Finn, Rachel and Will to be our "main" characters, but there were no major plot lines concerning any of them. Seriously... Finn gets a job, Will gets suspicious of Sue and Rachel deals with self-esteem issues. Normal day for the trio we generally get the most internal monologue from.
What I found to be extremely disappointing was the fact that Emma didn't appear, nor was she even mentioned, once. At this point I tune in MAINLY to see things develop between her and Will.
Maybe Jayma was just off doing some shooting for Heroes or something (really excited about Charlie being back) but it seemed like in general, we didn't see a lot of the cast members that help give this show the complete, comfortable feel I watch it for. Ken was nowhere to be seen, nor was Will's wife Terri. So our weekly dose of crazy was a little lower than usual (but for Glee, slightly less crazy is still plenty of crazy)Missing faces wasn't the only thing that left me feeling uncomfortable about this week's episode. It seemed like the creators very suddenly became compelled to create countless out-of-the-blue subplots for the show despite already having a plethora of rather pressing main plots lines that we as an audience are all on the edge of our seats over!!! These random new additions for the week include, but are not limited to:
--->Puck being extremely conscious of Quinn's needs and doing whatever he can to support her a
nd win back her love (this one we kind of knew about, but it suddenly became very explicit). But the man is now trying to provide some financial support and calling her and the baby his "family," saying that when she decides to be with him and live in the house he buys for her, than Finn will
be angry for a little while but understand...--->Artie having a crush on Tina and vice versa?!?
It's clear now that any character in this show who has an average of at least 3 spoken lines per episode will almost definitely be romantically involved with another character with at least 3 lines per episode by the end of this season. So we get a hint (a pretty blatant hint) 
that Artie is all of a sudden (unless I've been missing something) into Tina while he's blaring out a pretty rockin' solo of Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself", commenting on how he has to deal with being the only one around in a wheelchair. And by the end of the episode it becomes clear that Tina likes him back and that they are going to hit it off!!
...until Artie decides he only really liked Tina for her stutter because it made her weird like him... and then rolls away... douche...
--->And lastly, the Sue Sylvester has a heart subplot: Apparently Sue has an older sister with a mental condition and is a massive softy. Sure it's the writer's way of saying "Don't you dare take any of my characters for granted! They've all got layers upon layers of personality!!" But a lot of the appeal of this show, coming out of the gate, was that there were characters with such straightforward personalities that it created an excitingly ridiculous setting for the characters who we did expect to see some sort of development in. Sue being the most one-way personality of them all!
--->oh and also Quinn's suddenly more of a raging bitch than ever about the pregnancy and she's letting her frustrations out on Finn
Ok, the action we DO get:
Artie:
In keeping with the episode's emphasis on treating those with disabilities as they deserve to be treated, Artie gets the spotlight as Will decides that the Glee Club needs to raise money to rent a wheelchair accessible bus so they can all drive to nationals together(Holy run-on sentences Batman)! This stirs up a big hubbub (yes, hubbub) where no one else realizes how important the issue is to Artie and they resist the entire fundraiser idea outright.
So Will lays down the law and makes them put on a bake sale... as well as requiring each club member to spend at least 3 hours a day 
in a wheelchair to understand what Artie has to go through. You'd think most handicapped individuals would want to draw emphasis away from their differences, but Artie eats up the attention and then sings a song about it.Kurt:
When Kurt hears that Will's chosen "Defying Gravity" as the new piece for Glee and reflexively gives Rachel the lead, he requests the right to audition for the part. Despite Kurt possessing many more feminine tendencies than Rachel, Will gets old fashioned on his ass and rejects him outright. ...UNTIL Kurt's dad gets involved and makes Will realize that he's being unfair. At
which point it's decided that an audition will be held and that the Glee members will decide on the victor. Kurt throws the audition in the end anyways because of some complex internal issue he's been discussing with his (surprisingly cool) dad. But the parallel edited audition between Kurt and Rachel was by far the greatest musical number of the week.
I liked the episode. But it made me feel like the story as well as my feelings toward the main characters progressed very little. Also, the big group musical number and Artie's solo were only so-so compared to past weeks. And I miss Jayma.
Final rating: If you were going to miss one episode of Glee this season, this would be the one that would be least damaging to emotional investment and plot comprehension as of yet.
I'm still deciding whether or not to make the emotional investment in this show...hmmmm...
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree with almost every part of this blog.
ReplyDeleteYou don't agree that they created random new subplots?
ReplyDeleteAnd that Sue's caring nature alienates her entire character?
i'm not happy with sue's new development either. and i miss Jayma too. And i'm sorry Andy, but you might be hearing a lot of defying gravity this week.
ReplyDeleteYou just seemed to not like it a lot more than how you put it at the beginning "good return...but not amazing". You seem so much more disappointed than that. I guess I just disagree cause I enjoyed the episode and emoted with it. At these points I disagree...
ReplyDelete"it seemed like in general, we didn't see a lot of the cast members that help give this show the complete, comfortable feel I watch it for"
I dunno what you mean by a comfortable feel that you watch the show for. I'm not saying I disagree with that, but I don't know exactly what you mean.
I dunno, I don't feel comforted by main plot lines. I think it's just cause the show is constantly interjected with song numbers and character switching, I figured why not keep switching it around to sub-character pairings. I liked this episode because it focused on subplots, even if they did seem unannounced (or even unimportant). It reminds me that the show is called Glee and is about the high school club, as opposed to just being about Finn or Rachel or Mr. Shue.
Ok and Emma being gone was sad, but not so extremely disappointing. They have to get back to it later, but it keeps people watching the show. $$$$
"any character in this show who has an average of at least 3 spoken lines per episode will almost definitely be romantically involved with another character with at least 3 lines per episode by the end of this season"
You sound upset with this. But I can't tell. If it's cynical though, who cares? It's high school. I like the stories where at the end everyone ends up with someone, regardless of their relevance to the story line. And this twists it, cause Artie was a douche instead. I mean he'll probably come to terms in the next couple episodes (like in movies when the person is always like "I can't trust you, I feel like I've been lied to..blahblah" He'll get over it after he gets over the feeling of betrayal... if the writers are smart.
"Sure it's the writer's way of saying "Don't you dare take any of my characters for granted! They've all got layers upon layers of personality!!"
Again, so cynical? Since when did Andy get so cynical? Haha. I think we all can safely recognize that this was out of left field and yeah, I thought it was like a dream sequence or something. But remember when Sue "fell in love"? They did it with the swing dancing, and Sue seemed tamed. We've seen her go soft once, so why not again? I still think she's a hardass bitch. But now she's also a misunderstood hardass bitch. As long as the writers don't emphasis this softy Sue for more than tiny portions of subplots, she's an asshole to everyone else (including Mr.Shue and the Glee club).
So, I DO AGREE that they created random subplots...but am not peeved by it. I ALSO AGREE that Defying Gravity was awesome! And Artie's number ! :) In general,though, I found that the episode was a refreshing break from the main characters, regardless of why they didn't focus on them. I guess I treat TV a lot different from movies. I have learned to wait for important developments and expect them to detour and give some other characters a chance to be crazy (Quinn).
I HAVE TYPED WAY TOO MUCH.
Woww you were prepared.
ReplyDeleteStill disagree with you on the sub-characters though. I'm almost positive they did that because they were missing actors for one reason or another.
Keeping Jayma out of the show for a week isn't going to keep me watching as much as having her in it with dilemma and intrigue would.
Also, one of your above arguments was "i figured why not"
And finally, I just really hate it when a show like this, with such an interesting style and character scheme, tries to make itself more mainstream by making all the characters more relatable. Shows like The Office get boring.
-so now Tina has no stutter
-75% of our characters have romantic dilemmas concerning other characters (btw, they will now have to maintain the 10 romantic ties they've created or it will look like bad writing. audiences don't forget.)
-there are no characters with constant radical or extreme personalities
I'm not worried about the show but I do think this episode did a few things wrong. Like if things kept moving this way, the writers could easily lose focus of what's kept their ratings high in the early episodes.
Maybe I'm looking at the show more so like a film than television and coming down hard on it, but I think I prefer those series anyway.