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.

Worst of Season Four

I must say that Glee has survived television much longer than I thought it would. After Season Three, I thought it was all downhill from there. However thanks to the addition of characters who are not depressingly self centered and a location other than the Typical Midwestern Town, it actually made something of a comeback this season.
That being said, this post is all about the constructive criticism (that is it would be if the writers ever read it). So here are the mistakes that Glee made in Season 4 in no particular order in varying degrees of stupidity.

The Glee Kids Develop Some 'Tude

Episode: The New Rachel

The Glee club has just won Nationals which now means they are celebrities. Of course the most talented ones have graduated leaving the less talented kids to bask in the attention from their classmates. Now that Rachel has graduated they feel the need to decide which of them will become the new Rachel even though all of them (Especially Tina) were always complaining about only one person carrying the team. Hypocrites. Also no one even liked Rachel and now they are all fighting over who gets to follow in her footsteps. And why are they asking Artie? Is he even that impartial- I mean he dated two of them. Thankfully he had the good sense to choose Blaine. They got something right.

Brittany

Episodes: Almost all of them (unfortunately)

I may face some hate for this (if anyone even reads this which I doubt) but I have never liked Brittany. Never have and I almost positive I never will. So when she graduated I thought it was going to be the last of her and I wouldn't have to deal with her pointless storylines. I mean Brittany has been involved in more pointless storylines than anyone else in the series- there was Artie's comb, then there was Damien being a leprachuan and the whole pot of gold thing, there was the Santa is real, there was the "I'm pregnant because a bird is outside my window" Come on guys. No one is that stupid. And that's coming from someone who went to public school for eight years.Brittany has always been somewhat intolerable but during the finale I think they decided to up her irritatingness quotient up 20 points. The only thing climatic about the finale really.

Tina

Episodes: Way Too Many

During the first season I thought Tina was pretty cool. I liked her style and I liked the way she was a team player and gave the Tonight solo to Rachel. But the writers took Tina in the same direction they took way too many of the characters- the direction of overly loud, overly confident and overly cocky. The way I see it the only people who have that right are Rachel, Kurt and Mercedes. You cannot add more loud characters without quieting some of the other ones down too. Otherwise it's just a whole lot of yelling. And that's what Tina always seems to be doing. Whining and yelling. And the whole crushing on a gay guy- been there, done that. Let's see something else with Tina. If the writers want her to actually contribute to the show they need to develop her around instead of moving her around from boy to boy while she constantly complains about being on the sidelines.

Wemma's Wedding

Episode: All or Nothing

I feel like this episode title perfectly describes the wedding(s) of Wemma. Their almost wedding was definitely the "all" and the anti-climatic wedding at the end was most certainly "nothing" I have no problem with impromptu weddings but the fact that the original best man was not present seemed a bit strange. Then again maybe Will figured that Finn was bad luck. Still they could have at least explained Finn's absence- not just from the wedding but from Regionals. Or they could have put a cardboard cut-out of Cory Monteith or used Photoshop. I feel like that would have garnered a lot less attention. 

Ryder's Dyslexia

Episode: Dynamic Duets

Why is it that Ryder is dyslexic in this episode and the few following it and then when Katie pops into the picture he is able to read her messages perfectly? Consistency glee writers, consistency please.

The Entire Glee, Actually Episode

Episode: Glee, Actually

Irrelevant

Diva Week

Episode: Diva

This comes back to what I said about only having so many loud mouthed characters. And a week where we fight over who is going to be the loudest? Not really my thing. Why do we have to have a diva anyway? They only serve to cause problems for everybody else. Emma's definition of a diva is "A fierce, often temperamental singer who comes correct.She is not a trick ass hoe" My definition? An annoying, often problematic drama queen who thinks they are more talented than they actually are. I got news for you ladies: true divas don't need a stage, makeup or costumes to make themselves heard. They don't even need to be loud or obnoxious. They're personalities speak for themselves. 

Rachel's Possible Pregnancy

Episode: I don't even remember

Irrelevant (Which is why I don't remember)

Sue Sylvester's Feud with Blaine

Episode: Again I don't remember

Irrelevant

Fake School Shooting

Episode: Shooting Star

I think this is the only episode of glee that I have not watched. So technically I can't exactly review this fairly. But I don't like the idea of a comedy show doing an episode about an extremely sensitive topic only months after the Newtown shooting. The very fact that I could not watch it tells me that there is something very wrong with it. I will probably face some controversy for this but I feel that a comedy show can handle cheating girlfriends and pregnant teenagers not the murder of innocent children.

Blaine's Neediness

Episode: All or Nothing

One of the things I liked most about the Blaine-Kurt romance was that Blaine was always so charmingly sure of himself and the person he was. He was always there to offer Kurt well needed advice or comfort. Now all of a sudden Blaine is obsessing over marriage with a guy that he isn't even dating. Also Blaine switched schools for Kurt and based pretty much every decision he made afterwards off of what Kurt did. Where's the sexiness in that? Sorry writers but in the Blaine-Kurt relationship is going to spark my interest any time in the future we need to see more of the confident, independent Blaine that first got everyone's attention.

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.