“And then I said to Justin Timberlake, ‘That’s not eggnog.’”

[ellydash]

This episode was holy glory sandwiched between massively disappointing slices of homegrown sub-mediocrity. Look, I’m not going to pretend to have any objectivity whatsoever about that television special, because the Judy Garland Christmas Show was a Major Thing for me and my dad when I was growing up, and I mean, add Star Wars and oh my god, I was a gibbering mess of joy. But pretty much everything else, with the exception of the opening number? Offensive, OOC, or just plain boring.

There was – no plot. None at all, unless “let’s put on a TV show! And then sing a song unironically to homeless kids about thanking God you’re not dying in Africa!” counts as a plot, which, even for Glee, nope. Most episodes of the show now suffer from a pretty bad case of “characterization serves the plot,” rather than the other way around, but what was really egregious and unforgivable about this one was that the characterization didn’t even serve an actual plot, just a bunch of haphazard, derivative pseudo-emotional notes. Sure, Rachel’s been blindingly selfish before, and I can even buy her giving Finn a gift list, but materialistic? Really? And Sue Sylvester is the passive-aggressive moral high ground? Sure, Sue is manipulative, mean, abusive and downright violent, but passive-aggressive she isn’t. Her scene in the choir room felt so incredibly off to me. At least Finn “I’m giving you the gift of myself” Hudson was as in-character as ever!

The tone was all over the place, too. I get that Rory reading scripture was an homage to the Peanuts special, but it didn’t work at all, and it was so jarring, especially in contrast to the zaniness that preceded it. Sam commenting that the best of Christmas is in its combination of happy things and sad things was a nice sentiment, and one of the few notes that rang true to me. My sense is that the episode as a whole was trying to do exactly that, a kind of emotional mash-up of happy things and sad things - except it failed, imo, to achieve any kind of relatable cohesion.

I did unashamedly, unreservedly love that special, though. They recreated the Judy special’s aesthetic almost exactly; the writing was pretty on point for a parody; Chris did a great job, imo, of affecting Judy’s voice and OTT persona just enough so that he still sounded like Kurt; the overacting was hilarious; Mercedes looked STUNNING; also, that eggnog joke. Kurt and Blaine’s duet was gorgeous and adorable (seriously, what is it about holiday episodes that brings out the best in their voices?), and ngl, my heart did a little shipper pitter-patter during Rachel and Mercedes’s moments during “My Favorite Things.” Throwing Star Wars into that mix makes zero sense, but it’s the kind of chaotic King’s Cup combination that actually works for Glee. I just wish the special had been the entire episode.

Other things:

- If it weren’t for the fact that Rory looks like a baby to me, and is therefore pretty much a black hole of shipping interest, I’d be all over Sam/Rory, but as it is, I’m all about seeing Rory become hero-fixated on Sam instead of Finn. Maybe they could accidentally bump hands while rooting around in the popcorn during a viewing of Alien, and Rory would blush a lot, and Sam would pretend nothing happened, but inside he'd be suddenly super nervous and maybe a little excited.

- There’s just something about Sam and Mercedes grinning at each other that instantly produces these tiny, high-pitched happy shrieks out of my throat.

- Puck, you can’t watch the Yule Log because it is DECAYING ON YOUR HEAD.

- RIB+ really missed a golden opportunity to have Rachel as Princess Leia singing an ode to Life Day Christmas, complete with blank, stoned stare and weirdly angled head.

- Yeah, the Salvation Army plug was awful.

- I seriously cannot get over the fact that the line “Well, tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” was sung in front of homeless children.

- On a semi-related note, does anyone know if there's any fic with Will in an It’s a Wonderful Life scenario? I’d say I want the show to do that next year, but they’d probably botch it horribly, and I think it’d be way more interesting if we saw the way some of the lives Will’s ~touched might actually be improved if he’d never existed.

- oh shit the episode's ending wait HAPPY HANUKKAH

Comments

[sceptick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really can't say too much about the ep. I didn't hate it? I didn't really love it either, tho. It was very meh for me, with the exception of the Star Wars stuff. And Mercedes' everything.

Bad stuff:

- Yeah, materialistic Rachel wasn't working for me. I see her more as the grand gestures type, so like, wanting Finn to help her recreate that scene from Elf where Zooey Deschanel gets up and sings and looks pretty and is on television, or something ridic like that. But flipping out over jewellery? That's not really Rachel's thing.

- Finn's gift, in the end, was super IC and douchey, but I'm fairly sure it was meant to come off as romantic :/

- WHY THE SALVATION ARMY. OUT OF ALL THE CHARITIES OUT THERE DOING WORK, WHY THE SALVATION ARMY?

- THAT SONG. THAT SONG.

- The whole Jesus thing didn't really fly with me. It was just sloppy and hamhanded, narratively. (Sidenote: I was having a conversation with a guy today and he started talking about how we're all God's children and the fact that faith is diminishing in this world disgusts him, and I'm just sitting there like... welp. Don't mind me, atheist over here. Enjoy your coffee, dude. In the end, I told him something like "well, those are your beliefs and I respect that, but I just don't share them. No hard feelings." Random anecdote over, okay, on to the good stuff!)

Good stuff:

- SAM/MERCEDES I MEAN HELLOOOOOOOOO GORGEOUS FACES PLS SMUSH TOGETHER NOW. Although, whatever happened to the bf? Didn't make a huge amount of sense, but I'm willing to disregard it for the sake of S/M.

- CAN WE TALK ABOUT SAM? BECAUSE I WANT TO TALK ABOUT SAM. I've seen a lot of people complaining about Sam being super self-righteous and irritating in this episode. I can see where they're coming from, because he was a little judgmental this episode and stuff. But the thing is, and maybe this is just my read on the scenes, it looked to me like he was just projecting all the hell over this charity stuff. It makes a ton of sense, and so honestly I just felt all of the Sam feels while watching. I mean, he's been there, and it has inspired him to help. And yeah, he gets a little angry when no one is going to come with him. Because that was him, you know?

Oh and also he had me weeping into my hankie (not really but you know what I mean) when he was empathising with Rory over not being near family and how hard it is. Just. Sam. And mfy i want Rory to hero worship Sam too. And Kurt can take them aside and tell them about the Salvation Army, and then Sam is like, shit no I'll find somewhere else. Only it's Lima Ohio and they don't have anywhere else, so he... idk. He comes up with one of those crazy ass Glee schemes. Maybe he has the entire glee club learn how to knit (Puck is a pro, obvs) and then they knit ALL the things and hand them out on a cold street corner singing something fantastically inappropriate. (Inappropriate but not as blatantly weird and offensive and srs bsns as Do They Know It's whatever.)

- The black and white was pretty fantastic. I'm not as over-the-moon as most people seem to be, but it was still hilarious. Chris and Lea killed it, for sure :DDD

- I'm js, Sam should have been Luke. And Han. At the same time. Alternately, I would've been down for Mercedes as Han and Sam as Luke, or vice versa. That said, Finn is definitely just entitled and whiny enough to be Luke, although Luke was never as much of an asshole as Finn is. (Puck's hawk should've been Chewie.)

[ellydash.livejournal.com]

I think the episode's wearing a little better on me overall, as the week's gone by. Maybe that's the Christmas spirit kicking in? idk, it definitely wasn't objectively good, as far as episodes go, but honestly the only time this season I can think of that I've been really, really impressed with this show is the transition between Santana running from Sue's office and into the RHI/SLY number, so "good" doesn't seem like an applicable standard anymore.

Rachel's materialism was awful, and made her seem massively unlikable. I've always been really impressed with the way Glee (and Lea, who deserves a ton of credit here) have made this character, who could/can be insufferable, a really lovable and sympathetic person in a lot of ways, despite her selfishness and ego. Not so much this week.

OF COURSE WE CAN TALK ABOUT SAM ASDSAKSLJSASDF. Sure, he was definitely judgmental, but I'm completely with you on this one; the charity stuff is personal to him, and of course he's going to want to prioritize that over making a TV show, especially when that kind of production isn't something that's up his alley. He's not Rachel, or Kurt, or Mercedes, or Tina, or Mike, in that performing isn't one of his ultimate goal. Man, this episode could've been a lot better if we'd gotten to hear some more from his perspective, or seen Sam and Quinn deciding together to go help Sue, or conversations between the kids about Doing the Right Thing or whatever.

Sam is Luke at his best and Finn is Luke at his worst, tbh.

Puck's hawk should've been Chewie.

EXCELLENT CASTING DECISION. A+.

[sceptick.livejournal.com]

I just don't like how Glee sacrifices consistent characterisation in favour of the storylines they want to push through. I mean, it's not like they had to have that storyline in there. What purpose did it serve? If they'd just reworked that storyline to fit with Rachel -- yes, selfish, yes, oblivious to other stuff, but materialistic? That just felt like it came outta the left field. They do the same with Sue on a weekly basis, and with most of the other characters, too. It's incredibly frustrating :/

SAAAAAAAAAAAM. That's absolutely what I think, yes. I mean, the fact that he went all judgey isn't exactly admirable, but everyone has flaws. I've always seen Sam as someone who just enjoys music, and that's why he joined Glee, not out of some burning desire to perform and to win competitions, so of course he would choose to help out at a homeless shelter, given his own experiences, over acting in a Christmas Special.

See, there's that thing with the characterisation again! I buy Quinn choosing to help Sam, because they seemed like good friends after all the cheating drama last year, but Sue? They got in that little explanation about Jean or whatever, but just -- Sue is such an interesting character, and they're letting her go to waste. If we could've just seen some scenes with them, I think that would've felt less shoehorned in, tbh. I mean, can you imagine Quinn and Sam's faces when Sue first arrived?

Sam is Luke at his best and Finn is Luke at his worst, tbh.

ACCURATE.