Best of Season Four

As I mentioned in my first post, Glee Season Four was the perfect antidote to the cliche character arcs and somewhat lagging plotlines of Season Three. So here are the redeeming qualities of Season Four that rescued Glee from it's downward spiral and set it on a more promising track.

Likeable Characters

Season Four saw the introduction of a whole batch of new characters. My chief complaint with the first few seasons of Glee was that most of the characters were unlikeable and therefore not much fun to root for. It's hard to support the underdog when the underdog is loud, obnoxious and downright freaking annoying. Anyway, Glee heard my prayers and remedied this problem with the introduction of several new characters including Ryder, Jake and (drumroll here) Marley. Finally, someone without an agenda. Someone sweet, polite, honest and someone who is actually nice to her mom. Someone who always takes the high road. I need to be honest here: I watched Season Four primarily for Marley- to see her get the guy, to see her get the solo, to see her score the lead in the school play. Who says nice girls don't come out on top? Go Marley!

Ryder and Kitty's Sexual Abuse

I've been waiting for Glee to tackle the topic of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse has been a topic that has always been important to me since I was molested in my early teens. In fact my story is not unlike Kitty's (no one believes her not even her friends and she has to change schools) Glee made the storylines of Ryder and Kitty realistic enough to bring tears to my eyes but not enough to trigger any PTSD. Also I really liked the backstory of why Kitty was so mean. It almost made her behavior justifiable (and I really hate it when girls are mean for no reason) I liked that they took the angle of boys being molested too even though it was executed somewhat clumsily in my opinion.

New Settings

Taking the setting from the small town of Lima (what kind of name is that anyway?) to the streets of New York City and more specifically an elite performing arts school was an excellent strategy. Nothing more refreshing than a change of scenery. Glee also did a good job at not overdoing it by throwing too many locations at us at once. I'm surprised they didn't hit us with LA or some random college in Wyoming but they did a nice job by limiting it to two places. 

Marley's Love Triangle

Love triangles are always exciting but when the girl is as awesome as Marley and the guys are as cool as Jake and Ryder (both hot) then no one is dissapointed (well not this girl anyway). My favorite part? Kitty throws herself at both of them but they have eyes for only Marley. Again sometimes the good girl does come out on top.

School Musical

Adding a school musical to the mix is always a good way to stir up some fresh drama and shake things up. There's the auditions, then the cast list, then the reactions to the cast list, then the rehearsals, then the inevitable obstacles that get in the way and finally the performance. Grease was also a good choice for a musical because everyone (well hopefully everyone) is familiar with it. I have an especial fondness for that show since I was in it last summer (I played a T-bird and was genuinely mistaken for a guy. After the show ended I went out and bought a leather jacket) And the casting couldn't be more perfect. Thank God they gave the role of Rizzo to Santana rather than Tina. I'm confident Santana's middle name is Rizzo.

Santana

More Santana + Less Brittany= A Better Glee. It's a simple equation. Moving Santana to a city as fresh and exciting as her was a smart decision. And she has great chemistry with Kurt and Rachel. Two is great, but three is better.

Rachel Decides To Keep Her Clothes On

One of the more admirable characteristics of Rachel is that she sticks to her convictions. In Season 1 she says that "with the exception of animals and nudity I'll do anything to break into the biz" and she pretty much sticks to that throughout the series. Until Episode     when she is offered a chance to take her clothes off...in a movie about a grandma. Sexy. Anyway I liked how Quinn and Santana managed to talk her out of it in what was (for the most part) a non cheesy way. TV shows usually don't have characters keeping their clothes on because it doesn't create any drama but I'm all for it. This is Glee not Gossip Girl. I also liked how Santana pointed out the repercussions of her tape because we don't really get to see the consequences in Season 3 which is unrealistic.

Cassandra July

 Yeah she's a hardass but I love her anyway. She's Kate Upton, how can you not? Besides her true character shows at the end when she rallies the dance class around Rachel before her audition.

           

So my suggestions for Season Five? Keep developing Marley (for God's sake please don't turn her into a  bitch or make her go through a bad girl phase), keep things happening in New York and have McKinley do another musical (I'll do another more in depth post on this later) So leave your comments and let me know what you think. I love feedback be it positive or negative but constructive. Either way I hoped you enjoyed this post and please check in again for my next one.