I’m going back and forth regarding how I feel about the past few episodes of Glee, but honestly, I don’t feel like I have anything to say that’s new or exciting about them. There were a lot of great scenes,[1] but not a very cohesive whole.
I keep thinking about them, though, and I figure I may as well dump said thoughts onto the internet so they’ll stop chasing themselves around in my head, and then maybe I can write that post about Hamlet that’s been eating the other half of my brain.
So, my thoughts, such as they are:
Despite my lack of investment in any of the new kids beyond Unique, it felt weird that they got one scene in the last two or three episodes. I’d have stuck them up in the flies of the auditorium rather than Holly and April; or, frankly, I’d have had them on the floor and the old New Directions in the flies: Finn was their teacher for part of the year, and they’re still going to be at McKinley, and they’re the ones who really need to know where his portrait is hanging.
I am worried about Unique. Yup, fictional character, and I am worried about her. That’s how we live in my genre.
I have a note scribbled down on some scrap paper that reads Finn was really the heart of the Glee Club? Before him, they aren’t going anywhere; without him, it all goes away. I don’t know how I feel about that, actually (in terms of whether it’s a sound interpretation and also whether or not I like it as a narrative, anyway).
The graduation scene seemed … weird. Very inorganic. Tacked on and really obviously filmed on a set somewhere, and while I usually don’t notice the lack of parents on the show, I really noticed the lack of them here.[2]
And then there’s the video for Will, which … okay, Will Schuester is a terrible teacher. I think we’re meant to see that he’s a terrible teacher. But this last episode really brought home to me that almost every other teacher at that school is worse. I also never saw the choir room as a completely safe space–it was just safer than the locker rooms or the hallways.[3]
But that said–Will and the choir room saved and changed and helped all those kids. Maybe not as well as he/it could have, but. So. And I admit, part of me would love to see him try and coach Vocal Adrenaline. Because it would be hilarious.
In the end, I can see why we’re getting out of Ohio completely, at least for a while (a long while, probably), but I wish the leave-taking had been a little more gracefully put together.
Oh, and okay, sure, Puck and Quinn–but Lauren Zizes lives on in my heart, people. As will Brad the piano guy, unless he (please god) gets a job playing piano at the diner.
1 [back]Tina should be knocked unconscious once per season, and if they aren’t bringing her back after this, she needs a guest shot just for that in season 6.
2 [back]How does Sue get along with Becky’s parents? I really wonder this.
3 [back]I have a lot of half-formed thoughts about the choir room as a haven, but also a trap. Like, Rachel and Mercedes get pulled back into it, while Kurt–having already gotten out of a number of traps in his life–is free to come and go, now, without the same sort of issues they have. But then we get the tots thing from this week, and my theory is shattered. The choir room is the Hotel California? I dunno.
Laura E. Price 