Glee - Season 1 Wrap Up

Our season 1 glee club members

So, I finally finished a thing. One season down, five more to go. Yikes. When I started this journey, I had a very fond nostalgia for the first 13 episodes. On re-watch, I still do but there are a few things that stick out as pretty problematic (the April Rhodes episode specifically which breaks my Cheno fan heart). For the most part, the first 13 holds up very well for what it is. A dark, over-exaggerated look at high school that is not really meant to be taken seriously.

I think the beginning remains and probably will remain my favourite part about Glee, the part that can make me smile regardless of some of its more problematic or dated elements. There's just so much fun to be had with the characters and they walk the fine line of being obnoxiously funny but still likable. 

All that changes as soon as we hit the back 9 episodes. I chalk this up to executives seeing that people liked the snarky one liners of the first 13 and thus learned the lesson that people like jerks? I mean, I am wildly speculating here because there had to be some reason that the writers seemed to want to torch every character upon their triumphant return. And it seemed to mainly be the male characters that were given the jerk upgrade so I'm not sure what that says about the writers' perspectives on high school boys. I mean, yeah there are jerks in high school, a lot of them, but not all of them are jerks or think in super overly misogynistic terms about women. In fact, the majority of high schoolers that think in these ways in high school, is often because that is how a lot of men are portrayed in media and they believe that's the way they must perform to be seen as "manly". It's a lot of BS and I can tell I'm falling off topic here so back to Glee, the writers made me hate most of the male characters. Except Mike Chang because Harry Shum Jr is a delight. Also, he rarely talks so it's hard to hate a character that doesn't talk and can dance like this:

Look at him go!

I think part of it is that Glee in the beginning was the little show that could. It hadn't yet become a breakout success but was popular enough that it had a devoted following. It felt very much like this secret club you could be part of and part of it I was. There was a time where no one was sure it was going to get a second season and we all rejoiced when not only did it get a second season, but it got extra episodes ordered for season 1. The fandom was super happy but as a whole, it makes for a very disjointed first season. It's why I still refer to them in this split way because they don't play as if they're from the same season at all to me. Sure, we carry through with some of the plots set up in the first 13 but it felt like the first episode of the back 9 worked really hard to tear apart everything that people liked about the show, the characters, and their relationships. There was a very short list of things that people wanted for season 1's continuation and from my memory I recall the big ones being Finchel, Emma and Will, and Quinn and Puck...Pinn? On top of that, people wanted more of the background characters, they wanted to see Tina, Artie, Mercedes, Santana, Brittany and even Mike and Matt more. Let's go over the things they fucked up upon their return, shall we?

Thing the first: Will and Emma. They were the ship that everyone was rooting for. People liked them together, thought Emma was sweet and that Will deserved better than Terri. I even rooted for them, because they do have good chemistry, and despite my rose coloured glasses being taken off and realizing that Emma was actually a colossal bitch to Ken rather than Ken not being right for her (he wasn't but damnit, he tried) I also wanted them to be together and melted like an ice cube when they finally got their kiss in Sectionals. We all wondered what would happen to keep the tension going. Some speculated that the kiss could have just been in Will's daydream as the scene actually could easily be explained like that as it was a montage while the kids were singing. But what did the writers actually do? Have Will essentially cheat on Emma the first chance he got. That was certainly not what anyone was expecting nor what they wanted and it definitely soured me on both the relationship and Will as a character. I do like that Emma grew a back bone from this experience though but it's good character development for Emma at the cost of making Will a giant dickhead who doesn't really deserve her.

Gone are the days when I liked this ship.
Will is too creepy.

Thing the second: Rachel and Finn. I'll admit I shipped these two in the beginning. I always identify with the dorky girl who has a big crush on a guy who just doesn't really notice her and wanted her to get her guy. The thing is, nothing was super resolved about their relationship in the Sectionals episode. Very easily they could have continued with Finn still being hurt from the whole baby drama and not being ready to date. Rachel could have guilt over exposing the secret and breaking Finn's heart or maybe just feeling rejected for still not being his choice even with him losing interest in Quinn. The build was there and the writer's chose to go with the bizarre gag of having Rachel forcing a relationship on an unsuspecting Finn because they thought it would make for a funny scenario but then to break them up, have Finn act like a total douchebag about everything. I did not need Finn to break up with an overbearing Rachel so he could possibly have a threesome with Santana and Britt, who honestly should just be together because that was yet another thing the fan's wanted because of the teasing lines they threw in about them having sex in the first half. To be honest, my entire investment in the Finchel ship died with this portion of the season. Honestly, Rachel deserved better and she got it with Jesse only for the writers to realize their fuck up and torch him without explanation so they could get people back on board with Finchel. This is totally my speculation or imagination based on my own displeasure with this relationship, a lot of people are still ride or die for Finchel and never liked Jesse.

Rachel so deserved better than this insecure man-baby

Thing the third: Puck and Quinn. Well, they teased it with their cute baking scene together in the first half, with Rachel pointing out Puck's feelings for her after their brief fling, and with him constantly trying to get with Quinn. They kind of torched this early on with him failing the babysitting gig by sexting Santana but it seemed to be shifting once again. I feel like one of the writers kept trying to develop this relationship while the other writers just wanted to make Puck a mega douche dude bro for the lulz and it killed the flow of this relationship and any weight the final scene with the birth of their baby might have had. From him telling Quinn she couldn't super size because he "doesn't dig on fat chicks" and then immediately chasing after Mercedes to him seemingly being paired with Santana from time to time, it made for a less than moving moment when he flips the switch back to "wants to be with Quinn and raise their baby together". 

What once was maybe cute is definitely not cute anymore

Thing the fourth: The side characters. The side characters will always get the shaft for one very big reason, they were only ever conceived of and written as basic stereotypes. That's really the weakness of the writers but I think they were only intended to be background and when people expressed an interest in those characters, the writers didn't know what to do. Other than Kurt, none of the others really get a strong moment to shine. Sure, Mercedes got a couple of spotlights and Tina and Artie had a moment but Santana and Britt were still stuck in the background and did everyone remember Matt existed? The writers didn't. Mike gets called on to dance from time to time but that's it.

Look how many characters this show has, and this isn't even including the adults
There was no way they could give them all story lines

With the lackluster release of the back 9 episodes, a lot of the fans were split. Some people loved them, some hated them, some still had fun with it but hoped that season 2 would be better and that this was simply a bump in the road because they hadn't planned on further episodes and creating a mini conflict for only 9 episodes can be challenging. Surely they'd fix what they'd broken, surely they'd develop their characters better and space out songs? 

Lol, nope. The writers decided that their struggle to write for how many characters they already had wasn't big enough and decided to write in some new characters! For all the we don't have time to develop the characters we have, the news that even more characters were getting stuffed into the show, sure didn't sit well with me but it's ok because in order to bring in some more white guys, they got rid of Matt Rutherford. Ooops. 

The first 13 will always be near and dear to my heart. It's silly, fun, and just makes me feel happy when I watch it so it was always going to be hard for anything to top it. The songs they chose were mostly fun and/or fit the mood of the scene preceding it (or it was usually a fun little look inside a character's feelings) I do still enjoy some moments in the back 9, the whole Run Joey Run thing being at the top of that list because it's hilarious as well as the introduction of Jesse because Groff is the best, but it's sloppy as a whole. The fans, me included, mostly forgave the sloppiness because hey, it was extra Glee that we might not have gotten and it beat waiting a whole year for season 2. Still, we hoped that season 2 would be a lot more put together and feel less rushed. 

Narrator voice: It was not.

From my fuzzy memory, the things people wanted for season 2 was for them to fix up the broken ships and make more time for other characters both in story and songs. Also from fuzzy memory, the writers only heard the words "more songs". We'll soon find out as we dive head first into Glee's second season and folks, this is where a lot of the wtf moments start to really pile up and it only gets worse. Buckle in, we're in for a bumpy ride. But, hey...

That's Glee!