Glee - Season 2 Wrap Up

 

The glee club as of season 2's end

We did it, folks! We finished another season of Glee and it sure was something. I don't know what but it existed. I'm not even sure how to parse this season because Glee is such a hard show to really break down in terms of character and story. It's all over the place all the time and there are way too many characters to cover who barely change at all.

I'm going to break this season down based solely on its writing because honestly there is not much in regards to story or character development for me to sink my teeth into. My friends, I am not the best writer in the world but I try which is more than I can say for Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan, and Brad Falchuk. I don't think I can stress enough how incredibly lucky it is for anyone to be able to make a career out of writing, it's also a lot of work and let me tell you I am beyond disgusted that these three (more so Ryan and Brad) are so fucking fortunate in that regard and they don't care. What a fucking insult to the thousands of talented writers out there who don't "make it" in Hollywood or in publishing in general that would kill for the opportunities these men have had. 

If there was a photo under the definition of mediocre white men, these men would be it. I know people mock this show, including the writers, for how "bad" it is but it's only as bad as its writers. The premise is great, it's not everyone's cup of tea sure, but come on. A juke box musical, set in high school, with some absurdist and dark comedy elements? This show could be great. It could have actually been something to be remembered, other than for being a train wreck. All I see when I look at this show is wasted potential. The cast is stellar, talented, fun, and engaging and they were given shit to work with. Imagine how memorable they could have been with better scripts? We were robbed. 

I am honestly so fucking mad at how quickly this show went downhill because it didn't have to be this way. It just didn't and the only people I can blame at this point are the show's creators and, at this point, ONLY writers. Let's go back to the first episode this season to prove this, shall we?

We open the season with the team needing to recruit new members. Rachel and Finn are dating, and Emma and Will are not together. They recruit two new members, Sunshine and Sam, but due to Rachel's bullying, Sunshine defects to Vocal Adrenaline. Thus setting up a good antagonist for the season. Logic tells us that we are going to develop Vocal Adrenaline and Sunshine's experiences there. Why hire them if you're not going to use them? We already have a history with Vocal Adrenaline so spending more time with them as the main antagonists makes sense. 

What do we get? Sunshine vanishes for the entirety of the season and is only seen again once in Night of Neglect where again it's pretty clear she's not the antagonist as much as the writers try to make Rachel tell us she is but of course she isn't and it all falls so flat because their relationship was not developed. Instead, we just get Rachel angsting over Finn breaking up with her for most of the season. No one wanted that. I know writers get tired of happy relationships but god damn, let a relationship breathe for a bit and develop something else. They can be together in the background while you focus on developing other things. We could have Rachel feeling inadequate, both vocally and romantically and thus making her question if she can be with Finn while also pursuing her dreams which they did but for like, the last episode of the season. 

Puck and Quinn's relationship is non-existent so if anyone wanted that ship, they were sorely disappointed. She's paired with Sam which is pushed very obnoxiously at first only for them to immediately break them up so that Quinn can be with Finn only for him to inevitably shatter her heart at a funeral while pretending SHE'S the one lacking human emotion. I'm sorry, I am not over that incident and do you know what else I can't let go of? Quinn's BIG fucking plan for New York. SO BIG! So big we couldn't even handle it so it was completely omitted from the finale. 

The gall, the absolute gall of these writers to not continue something from the previous episode in their last episode of the season. They just don't address it. Whether or not the haircut thing is real, either way this is inexcusable and lazy. You do not end your episode on a cliffhanger only to ignore it in the next episode, you do not. That shows an utter lack of respect for your actors, your fans, and your own fucking show to be THAT fucking lazy. I know this is Glee, the show of dropped plots and forgotten characters but come the fuck on. How are you going to pull that and STILL have every opportunity handed to you? Ryan is STILL getting work today and he just shows a blatant and arrogant disregard for quality. Does he have good ideas? Sure but he has zero follow through. He gets all these amazing opportunities, works with amazing talent, amasses so much interest and passion about his shows and he just sits on a toilet and shits out a script while having the absolute audacity to complain that writing for Glee was too formulaic.

The gall, the audacity, the absolute NERVE of
them saying that when they're the cause.

YOU are the writer! YOU are in control of how the writing is. Every single fan of this show begged you to try and to develop the characters that they'd fallen in love with and you turned your nose up at your own success and said NO. I can't believe how mad I am at such a trivial thing but it really irks me when privileged people just lazily coast through life and reap all sorts of benefits without trying. Did I watch Glee despite all these flaws? Yes, I did. I watched because I really liked the cast, I thought it was fun, and I enjoy juke box musicals. This show was my fun escape from reality. It wasn't super high quality and was definitely a guilty pleasure show but just because it's a guilty pleasure doesn't mean it has to be terribly constructed. So many guilty pleasures have coherent plots and great characterization. I'd argue Supernatural was quite good at this in its first 3 seasons. I don't speak of the later seasons. My point is, there was no reason this show had to be as poorly written as it was. It all comes down to RIB. They are the reason this show went off the rails. They are the reason it was lazily written. They are the reason they were bored with the box they put themselves in with this show.

There is not much good to say about the second season, a lot of it felt like filler until they got to New York which was honestly a let down so their lazy attitude didn't even pay off with a satisfying end. There was no interesting or meaningful change in the cast. Sam was introduced, dated Quinn for a bit, became homeless, then ends up with Mercedes. Sunshine is introduced, disappears, appears again to sing, and then will never return. Finn and Rachel break up only to just get back together at the end of the season. Artie and Brittany date even though everyone wanted her to get with Santana and Santana is slut shamed repeatedly and then ends up alone though she and Brittany repair their friendship. Although, I must add that their friendship being on the rocks isn't really explored either. Brittany is mad at her and then dates Artie but then they're immediately friends again with no explanation and they only sort of stop being friends when Santana confesses her feelings to Brittany only to have Brittany reject her in favour of Artie who she ends up dumping anyway. A mess. This entire thing is a mess.

Then we have Kurt's storyline which was overwrought bullying which honestly felt like an insult to every other member of the club who also endured lots of bullying. Apparently it only counted if it happened to Kurt. Then when everyone backs him and gives him support, he leaves for Dalton and the Warblers only for him to immediately bail on them when they lose Regionals to New Directions. But hey, at least Kurt got a love interest who will go on to continue being an insufferable addition to this show. I know people love Blaine and Darren but man, I just hate how much he takes over the show. He was just a guest star and he got more solos than Sam who was added to the main cast before him. What an insult. I also like Sam's voice a lot more than Blaine's. I don't think Darren is untalented but I do think he's pumped up more than he deserves. Is it nice that Kurt got a boyfriend? Sure. But I feel like it's inconsequential to the main focus of the show which should have been on the competition and Vocal Adrenaline. 

Speaking of, why were they competing against Vocal Adrenaline at Nationals? They were both from the same region in the first season. They were competitors within Ohio, therefore only one of them should have won to move on to Nationals. The first half should have been developing Vocal Adrenaline, Sunshine and the Regionals competition. The last half could have focused on their road to Nationals and being nervous about what talent they will encounter there since Vocal Adrenaline is already hard for them to defeat. Instead, we get them both at Nationals because this show's writers are, all together now, LAZY. They don't keep a show bible and it shows. 

Season 2 was such a boring and pointless mess. There are only a few highlights I can think of and that's Rumours and maybe Duets. Maybe I could think of more but the end just really pissed me off. So, what do we make of this? Sophomore curse? I guess we'll have to find out in Season 3. Will they fix anything that's wrong with their writing? Probably not but we will get some more new characters. That's what everyone wanted right? RIGHT? Stay tuned.