InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Unlike you."

Keep away from children and irresponsible adults (eyeball_tree) wrote,
@ 2012-02-22 09:20:00

following up on

shark and

omystarling and

glitterberries's posts but here because I'm a bit too rambly and a bit too jumbled still.

Glee. I wish I could quit you.

Glee's one of those shows I hate, but I keep coming back to. I'm sure I'm not the only one on my flist in that boat. And I thought I had made a break for a while, but came back to it because ~~I had no other TV to watch on Tuesday nights?~~ I honestly have no fucking clue. But the past few episodes haven't been as terrible as last fall's ~~entire line-up of episodes~~--boring heterosexual teenage marriage plots aside. But last night's was exploitative, triggering, and in incredibly poor taste.

I get that they're trying to be edgy or pertinent after school specials or whatever the fuck. But last night they decided to bring two plots out of no where [SPOILER AND TRIGGERS BEYOND]

teen suicide and teenage death in car accidents.

The way they handled the suicide plot was tasteless, but the car crash--ugh. glee.
Other people than I have addressed the suicide plot, far better than I have, and I'm in total agreement.

I want to talk about Quinn for a tick though.The worst part was, there was almost an 8 mm lead up to both scenes where you could tell what was happening several minutes in advance and then having the "action" shot happen right before commercial break (or the end of episode). The adjectives coming to mind to describe that are perhaps as disturbing as the scenes themselves. :|

What the fuck was up with "going to the chapel" for the car crash one? Haha! Get it? because it's happy and death isn't! And there's nothing that goes with happy like teenagers dying in car wrecks!

And ending with a truck slamming into the side of Quinn's car and that honking? Horrifying choice. I was shaken for a good while and I only have the imagined experience of "Is this what my friends who have died in car accidents saw?"

I've not (fortunately) been in a car accident like that, but as a person whose best friend and first boyfriend was in high school--I literally don't remember the first half of my junior year--it brings up the same sickening, wretching sort of feelings. And not in the "good drama makes you feel" sort of way or even the "physically nauseating but mentally healing" sort of way like Elfriede Jelenik's The Piano Teacher. Just in the triggered way.

I know they know texting with driving is a hot-button issue, and I'm certainly hoping they know car wrecks and death are fairly serious issues. But it didn't feel like they approached it anywhere remotely near serious territory. I've stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt long ago though. I don't know.

I had made a break at Christmas and I really don't know why I went back. I wish I hadn't.

(Post a new comment)

	squidtastic 2012-02-22 04:58 pm UTC (link)
	I stopped watching over Christmas. It was one of those 'I JUST CAN'T QUIT YOU' things and then when I missed an ep--I just didn't go back. But I'm so sorry that there wasn't a warning on the episode and even more--for how poorly it was written. I hope that, from the negative reactions they'll be getting, things change on Glee. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	eyeball_tree 2012-02-22 05:07 pm UTC (link)
	I had quit too, but then it was a Tuesday and I had nothing better to do so I thought "well. I guess." I may take this 7 week break to find some other show on tuesdays at 7. (Reply to this) (Parent)

racetrack
2012-02-22 05:12 pm UTC (link)

I don't watch Glee, thankfully. I tried, couldn't get into it, and now I'm even happier that I don't, tbh. If Quinn dies in this car accident, all of her past sins of this season will be thrown away in favour of "OH GOD WE MISS HER;" if she doesn't die in this car accident, all the shit she did this season (I've heard about it from all over) will be glossed over in favour of a "You're cruel and heartless, can't you see she's hurt?" And that's just lazy, sloppy story-telling and characterization. Either way, it a cheap cop-out.

And yeah, Ringer had a massive car accident on the show too, and that always gets me too. (Sister dying in a car accident'll do that) But TBH, I'd rather watch Ringer cause at least there's Sarah Michelle Gellar for me. And Ioan Gruffudd. And Jason Dohring (even tho omg). For my Tuesday nights.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

eyeball_tree
2012-02-22 07:46 pm UTC (link)

Firstly. I'm sorry to hear about your sister, Dawn. ♥

Yeah, it's definitely a cheap cop-out and stupid plot for them to be addressing. I'm not saying it might not have a place on television or media. But I am saying I doubt glee can do it well based off their past not doing anything else well.

But is Ringer at 7 on Tuesdays? because I could just switch over to that and try to play massive catchup.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	racetrack 2012-02-22 10:19 pm UTC (link)
	It was 8 years ago. Made my peace with it, but it still stings from time to time. But yeah, I trust Glee to handle a car accident the way I expect them to handle teen pregnancy: wringing it for angst and then forgetting all about it next season tbh. Ringer is on at 8pm on Tuesdays, alas. New Girl also comes on at 8pm. :( (Reply to this) (Parent)

glitterberries
2012-02-22 10:12 pm UTC (link)

For god sakes, Ringer too? It's like The Thing of this season and it is making me rage. Skins did, there was one on The Secret Circle that didn't end as badly as it should have probably but seeing the car flip like that is still awful, it's the whole springboard of the premise for the show Awake (although the concept of that one interests me a lot) and I just wish that it would stop.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	racetrack 2012-02-22 10:14 pm UTC (link)
	Yup, and it was last night's episode too. On Ringer's behalf, the scene happened 7 years before the beginning of the series, and it kind of set up all of Siobhan's hatred for her twin, Bridget. Thankfully, you didn't see much of it. Especially given that a two-year old child died in it. :X (I totally want to see Awake, too) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	muggled 2012-02-22 05:47 pm UTC (link)
	I stopped watching over Christmas too and I honestly now don't think I'm going back. I defended it for a long time but not anymore. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	eyeball_tree 2012-02-22 07:32 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah. It jumped the shark ages ago, but I guess I'll see about quitting for realsy this time. Which is sad. But only kind of. (Reply to this) (Parent)

jennavette
2012-02-22 06:26 pm UTC (link)

This season was deceptive because it had some episodes at the beginning that really showed promise of it maybe not being terrible. But then they do things like this.

Frankly, I saw the suicide plot coming. And I might have been kinda okay with it except that they tried to cram entirely too many emotional things into one episode while having happy, shiny competition in the middle and it just wasn't the appropriate way to handle it.

Mostly though, I was RAGING when Will made his 'cheating on a test, thought about jumping off a roof' comparison, because that's not even slightly the same thing, and I found it in exceedingly poor taste to pretend that it was.

The car crash...they've put Quinn through SO MUCH shit on the show, that putting her through even more? Is just getting unreasonable. I wish they could've come up with a better way to inevitably stop the wedding than pandering to our emotions with that crash. Not to mention I'd be cool if TV just chilled out on the car crashes for a while. YOU ALL DON'T NEED TO HAVE ONE. BE CREATIVE.

Ugh.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

eyeball_tree
2012-02-22 07:30 pm UTC (link)

I mean, I guess I'm not surprised that they went there with the suicide plot but that's because I'm not surprised when they co-opt serious issues for one-off episodes. I think if they were going that route, there should have been more of a development with Kurofsky.

Ugh. Will in general. Ugh. He's always been off-putting and skeevy.

But yeah. Quinn's probably the most complex character if only because the characterization's so bad half the time she's a villain who's destroying herself, the other half she's on some golden girl redemption arc. But, I mean, it's kind of crappy to make her some moral lesson or throwaway female character.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jennavette
2012-02-22 07:50 pm UTC (link)

Oh there absolutely should have been. And these issues shouldn't have all been crammed into one 42 minute episode.

They've been horribly inconsistent in Quinn's characterization which is really a shame because I think the things they've done with her have the POTENTIAL to be really interesting.

But I mean, that's Glee for you, really. A TON of potential, and terrible, TERRIBLE follow-through.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	morgielefae 2012-02-22 09:52 pm UTC (link)
	I haven't seen it since ... the episode after christmas? My computer has been acting up, and streaming videos make it freak the fuck out. I have no idea what's going on, and Erin refuses to give me the spoilers I actually want. :( I am so confused. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	eyeball_tree 2012-02-22 09:57 pm UTC (link)
	I will spoiler you all you desire. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tomboychef 2012-02-22 10:01 pm UTC (link)
	SPOIL ME PLEASE (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	eyeball_tree 2012-02-22 10:16 pm UTC (link)
	You got it bb But in srsness what spoilers? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tomboychef 2012-02-22 10:19 pm UTC (link)
	Like.. four episodes worth? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	glitterberries 2012-02-22 10:08 pm UTC (link)
	I am still so angry that all the previews were just about that fucking wedding and there was no warning whatsoever that it wasn't going to be some ridiculous campy regionals romp. (Reply to this)

	onethingreal 2012-02-23 12:01 am UTC (link)
	I am watching it right now and I'm on only Blaine's number so far, with the David stuff. WHY DOES THIS SHOW NEVER ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF BULLYING IN A WAY THAT EMPOWERS STUDENTS (Reply to this)