Before I get into all that, I’ve been sort of analyzing my feelings on spoilers? And I feel like writing them down. So:
When Buffy was airing, in the dawn of the internet, I spent one season spoiled for everything. And it kind of killed my enjoyment of that season, so the Lovely Husband and Jason and I decided on a strict “no-spoilers” policy (to the point where we all literally plugged our ears and sprinted from the room yelling “No spoilers! No spoilers!” when my cousin’s wife began a sentence with, “Well, according to the internet, Robin Wood is actually …”) I currently avoid Doctor Who and Sherlock spoilers like they could kill me.
But I don’t mind Glee spoilers, though I don’t tend to seek them out (especially after seeing what amounted to a scene-by-scene breakdown of “The Break-Up”). Most people whose blogs I read, when dealing with Glee, are not massively spoilery, they just refer to spoilers they’ve seen, and that’s fine.
In the end, for shows where I feel spoiler-friendly (not sure yet if Orphan Black is one or not), it boils down to my not wanting to know every last detail of the plot, but also having that sense of oh, that sounds interesting, I wonder how it’ll work.
So, all that said, for no better reason than why not, below we have major spoilers for Glee 5.19 (“Old Dogs, New Tricks”) and 5.18 (“The Back-Up Plan”), and a minor spoilery thing from the promo for 5.20 (I don’t remember the name, something about Rachel).
So, Chris Colfer knows how to structure and write solid TV shows and movies (I thought Struck by Lightning was a good movie, especially so when you consider how old he was when he wrote it). This episode felt a little too neat in terms of having a moral and tying up its storyline for Glee, but I enjoyed it.
It also felt a little removed from the ongoing storylines, so it makes it easier to write down a bunch of random stuff about it.
Like–listening to the audio before the episode aired? Okay, “Memory” is, in my opinion, a ridiculous, Broadway-cliche of a song. When people mock musical theater, this is the sort of thing they’re thinking of. It was ubiquitous at every drama competition I went to in high school; it was the Muzak in every shopping center; beauty pageant contestants and small children on Star Search sang it (as did some starlet or older actress/singer on the Jerry Lewis telethon every year).[1]
A whole lot of people were saying how amazing this version of “Memory” was. That Chris Colfer singing it was beautiful. I really wasn’t going to listen to it, but that changed my mind. So I was headed into work, plugged in the phone, and played the song.
My life was not even a little bit changed. Nor was my opinion of that song. It’s gotten to the point that I can’t listen to it without giggling, actually.[2]
That said … the staging of that song was lovely, and worked really, really well. I liked it a lot, especially compared with “Story of My Life” last week (which involved liberal use of my dinosaur-shaped Pillow of Secondhand Embarrassment, yoiks).
I, like everyone else, keep thinking about Blaine as performer vs. Kurt as performer.[3] Kurt draws people in, when he just does what he does best. He’s not the guy who goes out to the audience, he’s the guy who pulls the audience in to him. There’s really nothing wrong with either way of doing things; Kurt just hasn’t quite gotten to the point where he knows how to use his particular talent (which he can hone into a skill set … and wait until he does, man).
Really, one of the running themes I’m seeing right now is figuring out how to use what you’ve got in such a way as to help you get what you want. Hang on, let me back up a little …
Last week, I watched Rachel in her agent’s office, being told that she has a face for radio, mostly because of her nose, and I thought where’s the diva tantrum? Seriously, Kurt and Carmen Thibodeaux tell her things that are actually very good points, and she tells them off and flounces; but her agent, whose job it is to get her work, gives her a speech directly out of the Barbra Streisand mythos, and she not only takes it, she panics and massively screws up her current job because of it.
I am hoping that part of Rachel’s character growth is going to be figuring out who to aim all that diva rage at, because if she can harness it and use it the right way, she’s going to be right up there with her idols.
Anyway. I wished Tim Conway and Billy Dee Williams had had more to do (Lando should have hit on Santana. As far as I’m concerned, that happened off-screen); I loved seeing Sam and Mercedes arguing (the Sam and Mercedes scenes were some of the best in the episode); and OH MY GOD WHAT WAS THAT BLAINE/BRITTANY THING IN THE PROMO?![4]
1[back]Have we established that I grew up in the 80s?
2[back]If you loved it, it’s cool. I won’t mock you for it–you listen to “Memory,” I’ll listen to “Bring Him Home,” and that person over there will put “As If We Never Said Goodbye” on repeat. Maybe we’ll have a dance party to “Born This Way” later.
3[back]Right now I feel like Kurt should always do torch songs.
4[back]At the end of season 3, we got a quick flash in the finale promo of Burt doing “Single Ladies,” and my reaction was basically I was going to watch the finale anyway, but NOW I AM EXCITED. This is basically my reaction to Blaine and Brittany making out. Or whatever the hell they’re doing.
Laura E. Price 