@Blue Corn eeee eeeee e e eve ee w ree we eeeee we eweeeeeeeeeeewweeee weeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeee we ee we eeeeee we eeeeeeeeeeeeeeweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee e eee eeeeeeeeeeee we can eewww eeeeeweee eeeeeee we eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
@Blue Corn eeeee e eeeeeeweeee ee e e ewe you ewere eweee e eeeee eeweeeeeeeeeeee eee eeeee e ee e ee ee ee emma emma wew eeeeee eeee e ee e e eeeeeeeeeeeyou eeeeeeeeee ee ee eeeeeeeeewe eee
Something I haven't seen many people mention is the fact Vocal Adrenaline is from the same state as the New Directions yet, both teams are in the NATIONAL competition TWICE. It drove me crazy for years.
It's because they never do a state competition. They do sectionals and regionals, but never state. Regionals is the qualifying competition for nationals. Even though they're in the same state, they can be in a different division for regionals
@mac this isn’t always how national competitions work. a lot of activities and athletics do have the possibility of multiple teams in the same division from the same state
On the point of how Glee handled its LGBT characters, the one standout memory I have from the show is the Teen Drinking episode where, when Blaine was questioning whether he might be Bisexual, Kurt's immediate response was, "Bisexual is term gay people use to tiptoe back into the closet", and every once in a while that sneaks up on me like being smacked in the back of the head with a rotting Mackerel.
That was the general attitude about bisexuality until recently, think Sex and the City when Carrie said “I'm not even sure bisexuality exists. I think it's just a layover on the way to Gaytown.” Men who were bi were seen as “easing into” being gay, and women who were bi were seen as performing their sexuality for male attention. It wasn’t really until the mid-2010s that bisexuality and pansexuality were more broadly accepted.
Idk if it's just me but it feels like something that Kurt as a character wouldn't say, like it feels out of character for him specifically. Like yeah ok maybe he's just saying it bc he's jealous or whatever, but even then that just felt like a bizarre and overly mean line coming from him.
Not many people talk about how after Cory's death, Sam was basically made to be a discount Finn. They deadass even put him in the same clothes that Cory wore as Finn, and had him take the same path that Finn would have. This was so apparent to me and still disgusts me to this day.
@jessicotte ok that makes me MAD they cut a happy ending for those two to give more time to RACHEL??? THE WHOLE SHOW IS BASICALLY JUST RACHEL WHY DID THEY DO THAT!!!!! WE WERE ROBBED 😭
Nicole Davis apparently i heard the sam and Mercedes did end up together in the last episode but they cut the scene where they got back together so that rachel can have more screen time. in my head i still think they are together
Yeah I find it really bad when Sam kissed Rachel in season 6 or 5 ( can't remember which one ). And it also sucked because since we never got a conclusion of what happens to Cory/Fun, as to Rachel just moving passed it without really going back to her roots but goes bad as the seasons continue
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (who developed Riverdale) is one of the writers staff in Glee through Season 3 onwards and also the writer for Archie meets Glee as well.
I find it really funny that Gorillaz actively and publicly denied Glee, cause their song Clint Eastwood (banger) is in the first Trolls movie. It has "MCR refusing to let Twilight use their music but personally recorded Welcome to the Black Parade in simlish for the Sims" energy
@lithiumkid tbh i just think at the time it felt weird for their frontman because, althought it was not as well know at the time as today, the concept of a vampire boyfriend and all that was based on mcr's concept and main vocalist. maybe today that would be another thing but at the time maybe he felt weird about it
Twilight portrayed an abusive relationship as romantic, had a main character pretending to be native american when the actor wasn’t, and was written by someone who based one of the love interests on her own brother. Sims is a good, pretty unproblematic series of games with multiple iconic gothic and alt characters that tons of people remember by name even 22 years later. i see why they didn’t want to be associated with Twilight and i think there’s nothing weird or hypocritical about them then going on to put a song into Sims 3.
I will say this for Glee: the Bohemian Rhapsody sequence is top tier editing, and probably one of the all-time best visual spectacles ever seen on TV in the 21st century. To. This. Day. I still, even when watching it out of context on TRvid, get goosebumps every single time I watch it. It definitively shows how the rival show choir beat the New Directions simultaneously with the very reasons as to why ND is a better group of people by having them all show up for Beth's birth, all while _some-fuckin-how_ breathing new life into the greatest pop song ever written. Ryan Murphy's greatest achievement. Bar none.
@Indira Sheumaker i liked Rachel in season 1-2 because she was actually hardworking while being very very obnoxious but also kind of entertaining Then yknow
Yeah but his own son was sexually harassing Finn and made him uncomfortable and Burt was just screaming at Finn when he said few bad words? The words were bad, don't get me wrong. However they were about THINGS and not about Kurt himself. Go and watch the episode if you want. Kurt didn't suffer ANY circumstances. I always found that unfair.
There's a new Glee podcast hosted by Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina) and Kevin McHale (Artie). They interviewed Ryan Murphy in the first two episodes, and he said that if he could go back and do it again, he probably would have cancelled the show after Cory's death. He admitted that they filmed The Quarterback way too soon and that it wasn't good for any of them to go back to set so quickly. Kevin said that he and other cast members would occasionally just walk off set during takes to cry. I haven't watched that episode since it aired but I remember absolutely hating it. Glee was my happy place, and to see the characters and cast grieve so openly was not something that I (or they) needed. Also the last two seasons were just awful. They completely ruined so many beloved side characters by giving them horrible storylines (namely Blaine and Tina). They also spent four seasons using Coach Beiste's character to show us that being a woman could look however you wanted it to look, only to totally turn their backs on that and say 'a masculine woman must actually be a trans man.' Seriously, by the end of the show my fanfictions were better than what came out of that writers' room.
I'd agree with almost all of this, but I would gently push back on what you say about Bieste. I am a masculine woman myself, with a number of friends who are trans guys! A lot of them did think they were butch lesbians at first- it's a pretty natural assumption. It doesn't mean all butches are secret trans men, of course (I'm not) but it's certainly not not unrealistic! I also think it's a little unfair to pit masc women and trans guys "against" each other in this way, as if representation for trans men is a "loss" for Butch women in some way. I'm a "rising waters raise all ships" type. More acceptance of trans people will mean more acceptance of gender nonconformity; which is a win for masc women! Of course it would have been nice if Glee (or any show lol) had more masc women or trans characters on it, so they could all stand alone as characters rather than having to represent whole demographics, but I don't have any problem with the storyline itself!
I was so devastated hearing about Cory. As a huge fan back in the day, it just broke me. Then Naya really just was so tragic. I really hope the two of them are resting in peace.
Honestly the editing in the first season is top tier! That’s the best example, but there were so many other times they used the editing for humor, but it was funny because it was more subtle. After season one they started beating you over the head with the editing gags and it got exhausting.
I agree and would also like to nominate Coach Beiste for second place. They were awesome, even if the transitioning storyline contradicted the feminity storyline from earlier in the show
The ENERGY that man gave to the scene where Finn calls the lamp and blanket Kurt picked out "faggy", and he IMMEDIATELY shut that shit DOWN. "this is our HOME, Kurt. *turns to Finn* he is my SON. And you will NOT speak to him like that. I love your mother, but I'm prepared to lose her over this if I have to." The fucking CHILLS. The only father to ever father. Him and professor Utonium from the PPG are the only men who exist and that's the tea 💅🏻 Truly tho, being a little gay kid when I saw that scene....... it hit different
Can we talk about Ryder opening up being sexually assaulted and everyone made fun of him, Will said NOTHING about it and it was never talked about again?🙈
@Lee Cow honestly i think it was rlly reflective of attitudes towards sa at the time, especially when it came to men as victims of it. glee was never amazing at dealing with social issues anyways but they rlly fucked it up, plus the fact that its never mentioned again??? weird
@i wake up and boom im a rat The characters telling Ryder that he is "lucky" that a woman had SA'd him brings light to the fact that people think it is okay for women to SA men, and when the men try to speak up about it they get told she is "Into him" or she "tried to make a move" on him etc. It was almost a hidden message in the show about how men SA'ing people is bad and women SA'ing people is okay.
Glee and Tumblr go arm in arm in the fact that they both are items of their time that really make a person cringe when looking back, but are so connected to our formative years that a lot of us would fight to death to protect it
this reminds me of one of my favorite Tumblr quotes of all time: just because a television show doesn't actively address a specific issue doesn't mean they're actively avoiding it either. you know what happens when you try to stuff every possible social debate under the sun into one show? you get glee. that's what happens.
OMG THIS!! This is brilliant and should be copied and pasted as a reply to every Twitter rant of people overreacting to something being “problematic” because it didn’t explicit address every single social issue.
"When it was good, there was nothing like it" sums it up very well. I was in my mid 20s when i watched glee and the teen drama and ridiculous story lines were grating at that point. BUT. Having been in some form of choir/chorus or musical theater group all through my time at school, when they were on stage and they hit those big notes, and you could see the emotion on the faces and hear the harmonies welling up like tsunamis - i cried. A LOT. If performing is your thing, then there is NOTHING like it. And glee reminded me of "my time in the spotlight" (if you can call it that lol). Yeah, it's ridiculous, over the top, silly, insane, exaggerated, just straight up DUMB sometimes. And viewed from today, the tokenism is just... oof. But the core of the show - people being passionate about music and performing - is something i will always be able to come back to and hysterically cry over. (Because i did not make it as a singer, like, at all. Singing makes me sad now. But glee reminds me of when i was still able yo dream, like the characters.)
I'm not a performer but I fully agree with you!! I cry when I hear someone singing from the bottom of their hearts. Ughh just watch Death Note Kwang Ho Hong singing.... jeeeshhhh.
Remember when MARLEY had to apologise for fainting from her eating disorder. She Had to be The one to apologise because everyone was mad at her for fainting. SHE HAD TO APOLOGISE FOR HER EATING DISORDER
I was so mad a Shue for suspending her from the group for coming out at the last minuet as a Katie and not a GaGa, I yell at my TV 😂 how dare he yell and punish a girl with an eating disorder for being true to herself and not what she thinks others want her to be! the actor dying on Grey's anatomy helps to think about sometime lol.
@Malou Arquiza To be fair she also had a flawed mom who told her super skinny daughter to go on a DIET. Maybe I have a different experience with my mom, but how could a mother say that as a response to her daughters worries?
Can we just acknowledge the fact that Neil Patrick Harris got an Emmy for a guest role?? Like, this man is so fucking talented he got an Emmy for being around twenty minutes on screen (and, hands down, giving one of the best duettes).
Yes, he won the Emmy for GUEST Actor in a Comedy Series. It is an award the give out every year. He is very talented but you make it seem that he was so impressive that they made up an award just for him.
The fact that in the story his characther lost the audicion for Shue annoyed me so much. Like they could have made him do a subpar performance, but instead they just pretended he didn't rock and tried to gaslight the audience about Shue being better.
The most egregious “no consequences of their actions” part of Glee for me is Kurt attending approximately 4 days of his Vogue internship and then basically never going back again, with a little insert by Sarah Jessica Parker saying yeah it’s chill you’re so talented you don’t even have to come to work
Lea Michele's performance in "The Quarterback" is one of the greatest performances in television history. Her conversation with Will is devastating to such a degree that I can't watch it anymore.
Finn's homage episode makes me sob to this day, even just the clips in this video made me cry, such an honest and raw portrayal of emotion (also, glee is one of my absolute favorite shows and you're so right about everything)
The problem with Glee is literally Rachel (and the actor who played her). I was so sick of Glee constantly revolving around her while pushing mediocre or downright absurd storylines to literally every other character. The later seasons feel like a fever dream most of the time.
@Zahrah I feel the same way, she's a good singer but there's nothing special or unique about her voice to me, like she needed to give it a little more flare or personality or something
It makes me so mad that she got so much screentime that basically nobody else got significant storylines or development. Like I wanted more Mercedes and Santana singing, and better writing for Sam and more stuff for him to do. And Mike!!! Give Mike a plot dammit!!!
I feel like the reason why so many people (me included :/) put up or even liked rachel is because she is a revenge fantasy. I related to her because she was this deeply insecure person who hated everything (her looks, her personality, her social skills) about herself except for her *one* talent (her singing). And she tried to overcompensate by acting confident and using her ambition and hard work to push her talent towards success. But the show tried to paint her as the bullied underdog and her bullies as the “peaked in highschool types” and the thing is not only did they humanize her “bullies” so rachel had no excuse to be such a nasty person, but highschool and life just does not work out like that, nerds don’t always become bosses, popular kids are genuinely nice and can become successful after highschool. We have to remember that rachel wasn’t just beloved by annoying theater kid fans, but by critics as well, heck lea got nominated for an Emmy 🙄. But Rachel was not an underdog because the writers always gave her the upper hand, because she always succeeded at the end, and she only did because she was their wish fulfillment fantasy. And honestly people are able to call her out more easily because we have progressed past the “I’m gonna be your boss one day” storylines, I still kinda like her because she inspired me to be hardworking and mainly simply because of nostalgia since she helped me through my teen years, but now I’d rather watch booksmart for a relatable nerdy overachieving female character who actually ends up getting a taste of reality, and who actually grows.
Hebe Casas she had 0 character development and it would’ve been nice if nyada didn’t accept her but no she eventually gets in and becomes famous and successful and gets her fairytale ending despite the love of her life also dying like what everything bad that happened to her she’d immediately get way more good things and the bad thing would get fixed it would’ve been good for her character if she didn’t get everything
The New York part of season 5 was its best part imo which isn’t saying a lot because yes it was mostly bad. They should have graduated the show to NY in season 4 instead of trying to replicate the glee club again. That was where the show took a dive for me personally. Also yes, Rachel is the worst and I agree with everything you said about her lol. I could never be happy for her past season 3 because it never felt earned. Idk the show suffers to me because it’s obvious that they had a certain vision or plan for certain characters and instead of letting them evolve as the characters did they got dragged down by them in the end.
The snark in season 1 was so good! Santana’s lines were prosthetic most consistently good through the entire show, but the principal in season 1 was fucking great!! 🤣🤣🤣
i feel like cory's real-life death made ryan murphy short circuit, because if there's anything i've learned from all of American Horror Story, it's that ryan CANNOT kill off a character. everyone who dies comes back as ghosts or vampires or literal resurrection. he has a problem with consequences across his growing empire of shows (see: Netflix's Hollywood removing racism and homophobia from 1930's Hollywood)
Trisha yeah it did? kurt’s character only started being treated that way after summer 2011. aka when there was a wording mix up. chris let reporters know that he found out about the spin off through twitter, and reporters said that he “found out he was leaving the show through twitter”. ryan or someone got pissed because this led to them pulling the spin-off entirely. brad falchuk said that it was odd for chris to say that, which he didn’t. check out the article “glee’s ryan murphy blames actors for spin-off failure”
also the politician could be looped in as well i think. ryan loves these hyper stylized plots and ideas and then just kinda,,,yeets them. also scream queens
Trisha this started when ryan planned to have a rachel, kurt, finn spin off. there was a misunderstanding regarding it that led to bad blood, mostly between chris and ryan
the one thing that wasn’t mentioned was how rushed kurt and bkaines relationship was. they broke up 3 times, randomly got engaged?, started dating again randomly, and then got married within a week. honestly most of the plot holes like Blaine cheating were unnecessary and made some sense but not much. blaine dating karofsky was unneeded as well, and the whole plot with Kurt and blaine was rushed, dramatic, and unrealistic. I hold glee very close to my heart and it got me through the roughest times of my life but i feel like there was no point in what they did. and even though the whole sue sylvester klaine stuff was hilarious it made no sense. they started dating very quickly and as much as I like their show and the representation it makes no sense to me.
They also first got together in one of the dumbest ways: first Blaine is not interested, then he suddenly is after Kurt sing a song to a dead bird which makes him realize he likes Kurt actually. It would have been a good arc to show that not just because someone's also gay it means you have to get together, but... Ryan Murphy just has a crush on Darren Chris...
I had a friend who said the show should have ended with "The Quarterback." After streaming the show, I realized, I had pretty much stopped watching after that. Cory was absolutely the glue. Just a note, though, when I re-watched the very first episode, I cried when Cory came on screen. Oh, yeah, and after being mandated at work to go to "violence in the workplace" trainings, Sue would not have been able to continue working - she would have had to clean up her act or leave. No comments on that!
Annoyed at myself that the segment about The Quarterback had me ugly sobbing. I was pretty tired of Glee at the time but that episode was even harder to watch then than it is now. I didn't even really like Finn as a character but the voyeuristic portrayal of the cast/characters pain was heartbreaking. Great Examining, thanks for the video!!
i actually really liked santana's storyline about being a lesbian because 1 its rare that lesbians get any representation, 2 she was experiencing a lot of internalized homophobia which i related to a lot and had never seen portrayed before and 3 i had also never seen an accurate (sort off, the tv thing was weird) portrayal of what being outed is like before, which is something that happened to me in school so i really liked that :) . There were some things tho like how she just forgave finn after because he sang a song.
As a ex-show choir kid, you could TELL who the Glee kids were. The ones who joined because they liked the show and quit at the end of the semester. Some of the Glee kids stayed though, and they were incredible
hey just as an fyi for the future, the terms "wheelchair bound" and "handicapable" are not generally loved by the disability community. "wheelchair bound" just isn't super accurate because wheelchairs are tools for mobility that help people get around and live their lives, wheelchairs are not a hindrance or something that someone is "bound" to, they actually give people freedom. "handicapable" is considered to be a little patronizing, we know we're disabled, you can just say disabled. again, it's not a super huge deal, just for the future. also it was a pretty big ppoint of contention within the disability community that archie was not played by an actual wheelchair user, just because their are so many wheelchair-using actors who can't get non-wheelchair parts.
I absolutely agree that Season 4 is a hot mess. However…Santana singing “Mine” as she breaks up with Brittany…is well done and completely heartbreaking. (Totally unnecessary and stupid but you have to give the actresses props for making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear).
36:08 The Glee train would muster on. That is until it got derailed. The editing and timing gave me chills. I was watching Glee during its prime and as a fan back then and partially still to this day. Cory's death was a horrible tragedy and no matter who you supported or even knew the show. July 13 2013 was a day of sorrow and also condolences. Some people to this day miss him.
Crazy Ex Girlfriend is a great tv musical that I’m so glad that Ryan Murphy never touched. Although I would love to see the CXG writers to tackle Glee.
i never see anyone talk about this, but i think a major reason for the shows complete shift in tone and seemingly lack of direction during season 5 was largely due to the fact finn was, essentially, the heart of the show - it's clear most of the storylines planned would have relied on finn being there. like yeah, finn wasn't an amazing character but you can really feel the loss of cory monteith in the later seasons had a major impact on the shows overall feel and quality. another note: glee's main problem is it's refusal for their main characters to actually grow and develop. quinn was the only character that actually changed and grew and then (this is from memory, so i may be wrong on this) ryan murphy threw that away for petty reasons because he wanted quinn to stay the bitchy mean girl and dianna's portrayal of quinn meant he couldn't do that anymore.
Why? He was in love with his wife and then Emma. He was a friend to teenagers so he's automatically a predator?? You snowflakes get a fking crip to the reality and look up what a predator really mean. I had a ''kind uncle'' that liked touching me. No he WAS a real predator. Grooming me by being my friend and trying to lure me in. Like an idiot I bought it. I was a child and believed and trusted him. Will never touched anyone. He was what he was. I also had adult friends cause I was more mature for my age. They didn't touch me or try to force me to do anything. Learn the difference, please. And stop trying to turn something wonderful into ugly. Friendships between young and old exist. Older teach us many things and we should appreciate them. I did. It was much better than doing childish shht with the same age idiots. So yeah. There was only ONE predator. And he wasn't even one of those that I chose to be a friend but a relative. Teachers CAN be predators. But he wasn't!
The editing in this video is just so damn good, not to mention the research, usage of songs and clips, transitions, just everything. You can really see the amount of effort that went into this. The fact that you made it through all of Glee and made this is phenomenal. Also Kudos on how you handled heavier topics. I was so steeped in your handling of Cory Monteith’s death that I started to cry when the Naya Rivera clip was shown, and I didn’t even know those actor’s names until this video. Great job!
Lauren Parsons so happy someone else mentioned this. the way it focused on him and the sound drowned out to silence...i immediately knew what was coming and it broke my heart.
I would have stopped watching Glee after season 3 no matter what, but losing Cory was… the end of ever enjoying Glee for me. It happened not long after my stepbrother ODed and died, so many people are me were struggling with addiction, and losing him like that was heartbreaking. The episode The Quarterback was like therapy, but it was the last episode I could bring myself to watch.
This really makes you appreciate teen dramas like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where consequences are the backbone of the entire series where everything that happens is such a huge part of the characters and their growth.
Omg this is so perfect!! thank your for making this!!! PS. Pokerface jazz version existed thanks to gaga before glee. So that one isn't on glee, hope they give her credit for it.
This is one of the most complete analysis of the Glee phenomenon I have ever seen. Too many people nowadays simply label is as dated and cringeworthy, it's nice that someone tries to understand why people liked it instead.
Rachel was quite literally a horrible person and she got so much pass throught the show AND THEN they tried to make you feel bad when another character put her in her place
Anyone remember they give Tina a horrible line when Finn pass? The one complain dressing black? I am not talking about how they ruin that gothic girl's personality in show Jenna and Cory are friends! How could they? I just can't believe it. Poor Jenna. And there are always racial jokes around Tina. Even when she trying to win the prom queen. They make it like a moral kidnapping if people don't vote for Tina then they are racists. I really love Glee. But all the racial jokes it's not ok at all.
I’m so confused at your description of the Rachel and Finn S3 ending cause it’s entirely the opposite of what actually happened. For me it captured what you were talking about with s1 doing so well - emotional stakes. Finn literally breaks up with her on their wedding day cause he acknowledges the reality that long distance and the work Rachel will need to put in to achieve her dream just won’t work congruently with their relationship. It’s quite arguably the most selfless thing a Glee character does (all to be undone 4 episodes later of course LOL).
"when it was good, there was nothing else like it" honestly that perfectly encapsulates that show and why i (and probably many others) kept watching and honestly still can enjoy it now. obviously it was frustrating, at least when it was ridiculous you could laugh and make fun of it, but sometimes you would have those awesome moments that just made you forget about everything frustrating.
You forgot one of the worst parts of the school shooting episode: Ryder: Hey I just wanted to tell everyone I got molested when I was 11 by my babysitter. Artie and Sam: Wow that’s so cool man. Getting abused by an older woman is hot. We are going to completely ignore how bad that sounds, never apologize, and suffer no consequences for this other than Will saying “hey that’s not cool man.” Kitty: I am a survivor as well, Ryder. I haven’t been able to share this and it’s hard coming forward. Ryder: Lol I just told you all that because I’m trying to figure out who’s catfishing me. Nothing else about this is important. Just figuring out who my catfisher is so I can have a mini arc in the finale.
THAT WAS SUCH A WASTED PLOT LINE AND WRITTEN REALLY BADLY IT KINDA SENT A MESSAGE THAT IF YOUVE BEEN FEELING UNCOMFORTABLE ABOUT SOMETHING KEEP TO YOURSELF CAUSE ITS A JOKE ANYWAYS LIKE WHAT
Tina's character disolvement from the end of season 3 is a symptom of Ryan Murphy being totally unable to write a shy/introverted character or a character with lower confidence and self esteem
Fanny was white. Santana LOOKS latina. Maria was a latina. Rachel COULD be latina cause the way she looks. She just has a certain look. Take it up with the entertainment community. That's the way they do it. And that's just the way the world works. So many characters can be played by the person if s/he LOOKS the part. And if you have the talent needed. Rachel/Lea is just a better singer as well. Say what you want or disagree but showbusiness is TOUGH and no place for snowflakes. Eventhough the today's talking heads in tv try soooo hard to tell us - everyone should be equal. We're not equal. This chick that could't sing was still on Glee club? Cause she's rich maybe? That's wrong but that's the way world works. Hypocrisy and unfairness. So deal with it. Life is tough.
it’s insane to me that no one in this comment thread has mentioned that Lea Michelle auditioned for Maria in Spielbergs WSS even though it was widely known that he was only accepting actual Latinos and Latinas for the Sharks ? She even complained that she went out of her way to learn Spanish and cried when she didn’t get the role
santana and brittany being in love and their story plus some other kind of background characters is what gave glee life for me. i was fine with how ridiculous it became because at least their were some characters that i loved. this show is a lot of insane. chaotic, random ass things but there are episodes that are very real and the emotion everyone showed in the quarterback episode was so real and i don't even know how they were strong enough to do it because i couldnt.
Okay, to be real, that entire first 12 episodes of Glee is probably the best writing the show had, and we'll never see it again. Glee was about a show choir trying to win the competition, but those first 12 episodes showed that they can balance multiple story arcs and have a well executed pay-off. Again, something we never see from that point on
I'm glad you mentioned the "Baby Got Back" discourse, I was upset when it happened and when I tried to explain to people why they all thought I was overreacting. Glad to see someone else saw how fucked up that was
i personally think seasons 1 - 3 are the golden age of this show. seasons 4 and 5 are tolerable but bad and season 6 should be considered a national tragedy and apologized for just like the run joey run performance
I avoided Glee for years, but out of my post-college graduation loneliness or something like that I started the show on a whim about two months ago. I moved slowly through the show at first but as time went on I felt a need to be able to engage in the discourse around it so I finished it pretty quickly and got to the end last week. It's gotta be the most chaotic and unhinged piece of media I've ever consumed. You brought up a lot of good points here that help to understand the show a lot better. It sucks that there doesn't really seem to be much of a place in modern media now, though, for musical TV shows like this. Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (an excellent show, by the way) got cancelled after two seasons and the fans and people making the show had to campaign really hard to get it resolved in its Christmas movie. I doubt that any more of it is gonna be made, as much as the showrunner seems to really want to. Some shows aimed at younger audiences like HSMTMTS are still on, but they feel very different. I do love that Glee seems to be making something of a resurgence with Lea Michele's real life casting as Fanny Brice (which, by the way, there was talk however many years ago of some reboot that she'd be doing with Beanie Feldstein? Absolutely wild)
My biggest problem with Glee is that...It's kinda my personally designed trash? As a former Show Choir kid who graduated High School in 2009, I was smack-dab in the center of its core audience. Raised on the most popular music of the past 5 decades and in love with expressing my broken home, angsty, world ending teenage emotions through song, Glee *was* me. The outcast nerd girl imagining sweeping dramatic music videos every time I sang. The unreality of it was the *draw,* not off-putting. And yeah, around season 4 it kind of all fell apart, and it's problematic and bad...But I mourn it precisely because it's as close as I'll ever get to that premise done perfectly to my taste. There's nothing to replace it with because nothing comes so close, and yet so far. I am bereft and full of guilty pleasure every time I come back to it.
I have to totally disagree about Santana. Her storyline hit me more than Kurt. I love Kurt. But not everyone has a Burt in their life. Santana's outing is a far more likely scenerio.
@Palpad100 i guess you're right, i shouldn't have to fill in the gaps of the plot. Also can we talk about the worst part of it, the "i kissed a girl" cover? Seriously, i kissed a girl? For these circumstance?
@Agnes Sofia Castro Carvalho It's not a joke. Everything just returns to the fact that they handled everything about Santana's sexuality and her family baddly. So her father had "issues" with Santana being a tomboy, but her grandmother who called her "garbage" during her childhood is someone that she looked up to and was close to? what?? Her grandmother also didn't like that she was a tomboy, she put her to do ballet to make her more feminine.
@Palpad100 it makes sense that you'd wonder that, but the impression *i* get is that she was never close to father (he never appears, she said once that he didn't like the fact that santana was a tomboy when she was a kid) so she was closer to her grandmother and sometimes you want the love of people who are toxic and won't accept you for you are esp when raised you. But we do see her mother (and i think we only don't see her father cuz glee producers were afraid of miscasting his race but a that's whole other subject) we see her supporting her daughter. I do agree that her outing was mishadled though, but on the glee clubers sphere not her family sphere
as an avid glee fan, there’s nothing i hate more than this damn show… the fact that the writers got away scott-free with some of this is genuinely crazy, however there’s also a part of me that is super grateful it got me into actors like Darren Criss and even side characters like Jonathan Groff. If it weren’t for this show, i wouldn’t have discovered musical theatre and now it’s something i can’t live without.
I was actually obsessed with Rachel when I was younger. I dressed like her for a while too 😂 Corey’s death was very traumatic for me. He was my favorite character and I felt like he brought the heart and soul to the show. I couldn’t bare to watch season 5. It took me over 5 years to watch quarterback.
I hate that in the last couple seasons he gets like...meaner?? He started out so sweet and not innocent in a purity culture way but innocent in a sweet purehearted way. Like he was so caring, friendly, fun loving, and even tho he was a bit air headed he wasn't stupid. And then magically he just became kinda more of a dick and just straight up dumb at times. Makes me sad man.
It's such a shame too. He's probably my favorite character from the show but its so blatantly obvious they were trying to make him into a bunch of different things from him dating literally every main New Direction girl to a dumb shell of the character we once knew. I wish they just stuck with what they wrote him to be in seasons 2 and 3. He was somewhat responsible, cared about people a lot more than most of the other characters and actually had somewhat of a purpose with his character. His relationship with Mercedes was sweet imo and he was a good contrast to a lot of the other male characters on the show. His slightly nerdy schtick was refreshing and was the perfect comedy for him rather than just making him a dumb blonde. The writers so obviously tried to mold him into the New Finn but it completely took away any charm his character had and I hate it all so much.
@thenvie They should have just made him a love interest for Kurt. He could've been bi or something. But I still love Blaine. Just in season 4 onwards...
Marley Rose is our unproblematic queen end of discussion thank you have a great day. Also, we were totally robbed of the mentorship/friendship between Marley and Mercedes.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about Glee. I love it because I see myself in Kurt quite a lot. Also, although she is definitely not the best character, I actually like how Rachel doesn't give up on her dreams. However, the show is extremely problematic. Also, Cory Monteith's death was actually heart breaking and the show wasn't the same without him. I actually like the second half of season 5 and season 6, but it just wasn't the same without him
The worst thing about Glee (IMO) is how new characters would be hyped up, then forgotten 3 episodes later. SJP's Vogue editor, the British guy that Kurt dated, Demi Lovato and Adam Lambert's characters....gone after 3 episodes with little to no explanation.
@ALEX ESTRADA true, sugar and Joe just disappear for a few episodes and turn back up again for regionals but after that just disappear until season 6, and Rory was an exchange student, so he was only there for a year, then he had to go home, so that kind of explains what happens to him, but the others just disappear without any context.
@Sidney they pushed aside kurt and mercedes friendship so they could make kurt and rachel best friends instead, because god forbid something not revolve rachel i guess. but about kurt and adam - even if klaine was endgame, kurt could've actually had a storyline with adam, and the character could've eventually been written off in a way that made sense. chris himself was pretty outspoken about how a lot of klaine fans would get so hostile any time a different love interest was introduced, and how he wanted kurt to be able to have storylines aside from klaine, and wanted kurt to have boyfriends in new york, because kurt was a whole person not just one half of a pairing. honestly all the writing around klaine seasons 4 through 6 was a mess and thoroughly turned me away from the pairing, personally :/
Alexander Maxpower exactly! Joe’s fling with Quinn was so cute and they had so much chemistry, then the writers forgot about it 🤷🏻♀️ I feel like the writers forget everything Quinn, like her friendship with Mercedes
We know why the love interests were gone. Fandom outrage. They were good characters but the damn fandom was all teenage girls (I know, I was one), and teenage girls want every story to be fanfiction. The things I'd see on tumblr every time Kurt or Santana kissed someone else, I can't speak of.
I love this video so much, 100% accurate. The only thing that wasn’t mentioned here was that Santana and Brittany are actually 2 very good characters (which is rare for Glee), but it’s also understandable that this wasn’t mentioned seeing as the writers of the show neglected them and wrote next to no scenes for them. A shame really
Your ending description sums glee up perfectly. It's so bad but so good at the same time. The bad and cringey parts are overshadowed by the good and loved parts because the good parts are just THAT GOOD. Glee is one of those shows that just keeps you coming back over and over again and won't ever stop.
The fact that they were so lazy they left “Johnny C’s in trouble” on the the stolen arrangement shows not only did they not give a damn, they actively didn’t give a damn before being publicly called out. It got past numerous people and onto tv. Certainly multiple people asked “Johnny C?” And were told . . . who knows what. I would sure ask if I was on a tv show and asked to sing a different line in a song I already knew the lyrics to and that didn’t make any sense even in context. I really want to know how they explained to the numerous people on the production who asked.
They "borrowed" all kinds of arrangements. Early in the video Mic says "they put their own spin on songs" and cuts to an acoustic Poker Face - but that's just one of Lady Gaga's versions. I wonder how many others are like that and they're just not well known enough for people to know they're not original. trvid.com/video/video-laIr_d0hFB8.html (see the date that video went up, predates Season One.)
This was so fun to watch. As a pansexual kid in high school, this show helped me so much. The Tumblr fandom was nothing short of amazing. Everyone was so kind and the community was outstanding. We always supported each other. In fact, through the Tumblr Glee fandom, I met the person I'm married to today. Funny how life works! We actually rewatched it last year and cringed but there were so many memories associated with each episode. Growing up, it was what we needed. And, I'm totally here for a reboot. I'll never give up on the show that gave me so much. May Naya and Cory's souls rest in peace. PS - Quinntana and Faberry for life!
He's like: "do you want to see Glee ruining your favourite songs?" And i am like: yes! I am a gleek i want Glee to ruin my favourite songs, i spent 6 years waiting for The Smiths week
@rotting I watched the pilot at the start of this video to remember a little bit more and I had to literally move my laptop to look away from the screen a lot of times. And that was only the first episode.
Coming back two years after this video was posted and how many years after it aired, but I am still livid that Kitty faced NO consequences for gaslighting Marley into a fucking eating disorder.
The image of Glee trying to do TikTok is thoroughly terrifying, tysm, but frankly I think the much greater thing that we were all saved from is Glee trying to tackle the Trump presidency as a whole. There wouldn’t have been a way to avoid it - how do you position yourself as a socially progressive show without at least acknowledging an incredibly socially conservative president and a serious slide to the right across the board? Sue’s character in particular would be ruined.
the SECOND you said there was a second song you thought was great and those question marks came up i went "its got to be paradise by the dashboard light". my all time favourite performance pulls through once again
"But when it was good, there was nothing else like it." This sums it up perfectly. I was part of the fandom from mid-season 1/beginning of s2, through the beginning of s4 (and tried to at least read summaries until s5 when I really lost interest). There were literal live watch parties on Livejournal every week when a new episode aired. People created episode commentary blog posts complete with full screenshots and quotes and animated gifs and memes from the show. Even the people who unironically loved the show, myself included, would rant about all the dumb, weird, and/or just plain nonsensical stuff happening in each episode. But there was just enough "good" in it, to string us along and keep us coming back for more, week after week, hoping for more "good". But also, you couldn't love Glee and not poke some kind of fun at it. It was stupid, and we recognized that even as we loved it - possibly because it was stupid and insane.
The version of Teenage Dream that Darren Chriss sang acoustic later on is 1000x better and still gives me goosebumps till today. I actually listen to it a lot. I have to admit, back then Glee already was bad. Besides that performance I dont remember much of that season.
31:10 i'd like to mention here that Let's Have a Kiki/Turkey Lurkey Time is a massive inside joke and iconic point in time with my friends. It is my favorite number from the show, actually. Love it.
Not only was Idina in frozen and in glee but so was Jonathon Groff Also Idina and Kristin Chenoweth were part of the original cast of wicked and through out the show several times songs from wicked were sung Also a demi song was sung in S4 then demi Lovato guest starred in the show in s5 as dani Also Kurt once said that Blaine is obsessed with Adam Lambert and Adam also guest starred in glee There might be more but those are the ones I remember now Which means there must be many doppelgangers in their world
All though despite all the bad jokes, episodes, songs, etc. this show really does hold a special place in my heart and shows how people who may not fit in perfectly can become successful and find a place where they can freely express how they feel and be who they are. When I was a kid I was bullied and mistreated by my peers all the time, seeing these characters go through the same thing I did all because they are different, gives me clarity and shows that what I went through is not an original experience and I am not alone in the treatment I received. Glee is a huge part of my life and it has gotten me through a lot of battles in the past, and although the show is a lot of satire and it is cringey and badly written, this show is one of a kind and merely nothing will be able to beat it and its excellence. (Btw apologies for my poor punctuation and grammar, I am incredibly fatigued at the moment. Hope you understand🙂.)
Glee isn't a good show, but if you play any song from "Quarterback" and I will break down crying. Even the section in this video going over it made me tear up. So glee had an impact on me, as a preteen in choir when this show came out it had an impact on me. Thanks for this video.
