Tag Archives: Glee

Fandom, TV

Saying Goodbye

862 Comments

Warehouse 13 recently concluded its second season, and I’m so sad to say that I won’t be back for a third, even if the show is renewed. It’s really hard to say goodbye to the show because I could see it being my #1 show if the true stars of the show remained Myka and Pete (and Artie, to lesser extent).

Instead of acclimating to the addition of Claudia, I have found the character, and the actress, to be more and more distasteful. I place the blame evenly on poor writing and poor acting. The character routinely reminds us that she is a young genius, yet she attempts to throw out cool 80’s references a la Shawn and Gus from Psych. The combination rings false. Claudia is also supposed to be some modern punk (I suppose) with her Kool-Aid striped hair and Hot Topic wardrobe. This would have been almost cool around seven or eight years ago. As it is, the whole look is cliched and played out. The actress has begun to clean up her speech, but her tendency to mumble and vomit up words is still too pronounced for me to be able to sit through any dialogue involving Claudia.

I tried to fast forward through any Claudia scenes all through Season 2, but in the end, I finalized the split by deleting Warehouse 13 from my DVR for good. Now I selfishly hope that it doesn’t get renewed because I really am going to miss the stories, the artifacts, Pete, Myka, Artie, Leena, and Mrs. Frederick.

I also deleted Glee from DVR, but I have to admit that I felt much less regret than with WH13. I guess I’m too old to really care about most of the music played, and I never cared for the lead actress’ voice at all. I really only cared about Shu and Finn, and all of the “Hot News” in the off season was about Kirk and who would play his bf, so I took that as a sign to run. I wish the show well, though, and that’s more than I can say about most.

Fandom, TV

Bait N’ Switch

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While I could argue that Lost is the worst offender of the Bait N’ Switch in terms of not staying true to itself, I think I would have to admit that the more egregious offender is Glee. The problem with Glee is that it used up 75% of its heart with the pilot. That one episode had more light-hearted, feel-good moments than almost anything I had ever seen. It was inspiring, touching, and dared us to dream.

In the next few episodes, we began to cringe at the ridiculous pregnancy stories, bad production numbers, and lack of originality. What we didn’t know then, was just how far off the rails the show would go. Not since Finn laid his head in his mother’s lap and wept at his (alleged) impending fatherhood have I seen anything close to a “heart” on this show.

The worst part of this whole ordeal is that we are still in Season One. In less than one full season, a show about misfits coming together and conquering their peers is now little more than a gaygenda show. A Madonna episode? Really? That would have been cool about 15 years ago. Word is that there may be another one. Ugh. Neil Patrick Harris (current poster boy for gayness) playing a reformed singer who has turned uber conservative? So obvious. Also? He cannot sing. It’s this kind of ploy has me ashamed to have pimped this show based only on the pilot episode. Behind the scenes, the creators would rather fight political battles over Newsweek articles than realize that their show has lost its charm to all but the pandered. Even the moments which are supposed to tug at our heartstrings are so heavy handed that more often than not, we can only groan.

I guess it’s no coincidence that Lost and Glee both air this season on Tuesdays, in the ultimate Bait N’ Switch hour.

Fandom, TV

Glee Me

938 Comments

After looping the first episode of Glee for months, we finally got a new episode this week. The big question everyone had was, “Will it maintain its endearing quirkiness?” I think it did.

The characters stayed pretty true to the established cliche roles, and even though they are near-caricatures, I think they work. As a matter of fact, the portrayals are so over the top that they’ve actually looped around to the realm of believability.

The school situations are way more absurd than the happenings of the Glee Club, though. For instance, a teacher would never be given a part-time janitorial job by a principal; the job would go up for bid through the BOE and applicants would be ranked and placed according to seniority, etc. blah blah blah. Another point, and one that is important to me, is the fact that the school counselor is still referred to in the antiquated “Guidance Counselor” terminology. Still, if those are my biggest gripes, I’m thrilled.

I like how we got to see the setup to some resolution for the big events of the premiere. The oh noes!Baby situation leaves me satisfied and the will-they-or-won’t-they of Finn/Rachel was addressed early on, as it should have been. I wasn’t a fan of the final song, so I fast forwarded through it. This may be the case with future episodes, too, but I’m not watching the show as a musical, so that’s fine with me.