Tuesday , March 19 2024
Have I fallen head over heels for Glee after the finale?

Going Gleek After the Finale?

It would make for the perfect script, wouldn't it? Over the course of a television season going from unconvinced to semi-convinced to slightly disheartened to totally in love – it all sounds just like an executive in Hollywood would have it be, doesn't it? It's got the emotional arc, it's got the journey, the growth… whatever you want to call it, it just works exactly as it should. For that reason if for no other I can't be overly enthusiastic about last night's Glee season finale.

The big question then is exactly how to complain about it? What little bit or piece could be picked at, complained about, mulled over, and generally found wanting? That's where I find that I have some trouble.

Okay, so the first thing that sticks out that one could complain about is the fact that New Directions' year ended pretty much how you figured it had to. The odds that New Directions was going to make it to nationals at the end of the first season were minimal – that sort of thing has been known to happen before on a show or in a movie, but with the series renewed for next season (and the season after), it's actually easier to have the squad lose at the end of season one so that they can come back bigger and better in season two.

I'm not going to complain about that. It may have been pretty clear what was going to happen, but the way it unfolded was compelling and having Sue end up voting for New Directions instead of against them was pitch perfect for both the show and the character. Her flip in the judges' room worked so well, how can I possibly complain? Glee has been great about making Sue incredibly mean one minute and completely human and full of heart the next. Plus, her argument that she needs an enemy seemed absolutely true, didn't it?

As for the fact that the club isn't going to be shut down, and that too being obvious, well there are just certain requirements of television, aren't there? Let's take it as a given that New Directions wasn't going to make it to nationals this year — where then did that leave the show in terms of options for the group? It had been previously established that they would be shut down if they didn't at least place at regionals so they were either going to be shut down this week and reopened in the season premiere or given a reprieve tonight. Personally, I'd rather that they be given the reprieve now instead of us knowing months in advance what is going to take place in the premiere.

Perhaps then one could argue that the notion of a pregnant woman getting to the hospital and delivering her first child during the amount of time it takes to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" is absolutely ludicrous. Of course it is, but even I, a nitpicker, can't really pick that nit. That's the way montage functions; Sergei Eisenstein may have even been proud about the way that was cut together.

Ah! I got it! I know why I can't be hugely enthusiastic and declare myself now and forever more a Gleek! Schuester told us that while they did a "nine" version of "Don't Stop Believin'" at the beginning of the season they would make it a "10" tonight. They didn't. The original version of "Don't Stop Believin'" was at least as good as if not better than the version we got in the finale. The version in the finale was good, but it didn't carry the same emotional punch as the one in the premiere did.

Ta-da! The finale was not perfect. I am not completely blinded by the series and therefore not 100 percent in love with it. Take that, Hollywood scriptwriters trying to translate your feel-good nonsense into real life.

Sadly though that does leave Glee open to make things better in the sequel (season two), and that truly is the holy grail of scriptwriting, isn't it? Maybe they do have it all worked out.

About Josh Lasser

Josh has deftly segued from a life of being pre-med to film school to television production to writing about the media in general. And by 'deftly' he means with agonizing second thoughts and the formation of an ulcer.

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