I just want to live here and - and make art.

[ellydash]

First off, sorry for skipping a week! That sounds immensely conceited - I'm sure none of you were just sitting around last Tuesday night/early Wednesday, moping about NO GLEE TALK ON ellydash's JOURNAL, MY GOD, HOW WILL I FILL MY LIFE WITH MEANING - but I still feel a little guilty for disappearing. Life's been immensely, wonderfully busy for the last month or so, and I didn't want to make a post and not have the time to reply to comments - plus, there wasn't much I was interested in talking about last week besides Puck Puckerman and Quinn "Really? That's - well, okay, I guess that's what they're going to do with her now" Fabray. (Which we can totally still talk about, if you guys want!)

This week, though: lots for discussion. I don't know how much I actually liked this episode, but I want to talk about it, which is more important to me, tbh.

Finn broke my heart. I feel a little guilty for developing this sudden interest in S3 Finn, because he's bothered me on a consistent basis, and occasionally downright angered me, since "Theatricality." Having ~emotions about the problems of a straight, white cis-dude, especially when he's been such a shit so often, feels weird. (And before you say it, I don't have ~emotions about Will, other then general delight in his earnest, off-the-mark terribleness and rage over his more egregious offenses.)

That being said, I'm really interested in what's been going on with him this season. Finn's always been on the top of the high school food chain, and now he's seeing his future yawn out in front of him, and that future is unstructured, without any obvious opportunity - and pretty scary. He clearly doesn't know what he wants out of life, other than to be "special," somehow, like Rachel and Kurt and Blaine, but his skill set isn't their skill set. (That, to me, is where the upset over Blaine last week was coming from - Finn trying to cling as hard as he can to his leading man status, because he's completely terrified that for the rest of his life, he's going to be an extra.) I wasn't expecting the Finn/Rachel first time to be so blatantly within this context of reassurance, but it really was. It's like they're confusing the love they think they feel for each other with the need they both have to feel safe, for very different reasons.

Kurt and Blaine were really compelling for me, too, from a character standpoint, and they usually don't hold my interest much. The car fight scene felt realistic, very IC for both of them, and Chris Colfer acted the hell out of it (also, is it just me, or is Darren's acting getting better?). I like Kurt/Blaine so much more as a ship when there's some interesting conflict that challenges what they have, both outside - the WSS casting issues - and inside the relationship. They had a bunch of little moments tonight that worked really well. I especially loved Kurt's fingers running over his own hand after Blaine walks away in the hallway scene (see gif). Chris is so goddamned good at finding the small things in his performance, those tiny movements that make Kurt and Blaine's connection come across as something that doesn't end when the scene does. (As a side note, could their crotches have been any further apart when they were in bed? I'm imagining Standards and Practices marking the distance between them with a tape measurer.)

Finally, Shannon. Okay. I totally love Shannon Beiste - you guys know that - and I'm always down for her to have more screentime, even when that screentime makes her a little more problematic (see: her comments regarding Kurt and gender). And I'm thrilled that she's getting a love interest, because she deserves to have an awesome guy romance her, and it's just really cool seeing an unconventionally attractive woman in that context. However (and you knew that was coming) I'm really not thrilled with the fact that we're seeing, yet again, a plotline where Shannon feels unattractive and unappealing to the opposite sex, and a conventionally attractive man - or, in the case of one Will Schuester, a man we’re supposed to think is conventionally attractive - tells her how beautiful she is, end of plot. Isolated, it's not the worst, but in the context of Glee, where so many conflicts seem to distill down to "woman acts crazy or has insecurity; man steps in and resolves situation," it really doesn't sit well with me. At least this time she didn't get a pity kiss, I guess.

Other thoughts:

- Artie, stop it. Seriously, stop it. I had to turn down the volume during his sex talk with Shannon, I was so embarrassed for both of them. And what the hell was with the whole "you need to have sex in order to be sexy" thing? I realize there needed to be some sort of catalyst for the virginity storyline, but that was some lazy, stupid writing.

- "You can't do this with your brother!" Rachel, I can show you a whole lot of fic that begs to differ.

- I usually tune out the Dalton scenes, but that French teacher in the red skirt? WOW. Oh, wow.

- Really, really wish "A Boy Like That" hadn't been intercut with Blaine/Sebastian. I get what they were trying to do with it, and I appreciate the attempt to shake things up stylistically, but I really just wanted to watch Rachel and Santana have inappropriate chemistry, tbh.

- Cried with laughter at ND's "acting" in West Side Story, especially Puck and Rory. Ages ago, I read a fantastically terrible Glee/Titanic crossover (don't judge my life choices, okay) that had Puck uttering the line, "Ah, forget it, boyo. You're as like to have angels fly out your arse as get next to the likes of her." Tonight's line readings were almost as good.

- Curious to hear what you guys think of Karofsky's return. I've got some mixed feelings about it myself.

- Loved the shot of Mercedes in the audience supporting her friends.

- Kurt's possessive shimmy on the dance floor when he cut in between Sebastian and Blaine may have been my favorite moment of the entire episode.

Comments

[merkintosh.livejournal.com]

I find Finn's story interesting in a very abstract way because he fits that trope of the high school big shot graduating and finding out that he doesn't have enough to make it past that. He does need to find new dreams, like Rachel said. Nonetheless, I found their reasons for having sex and being together very sad and I can't see them lasting with what they currently have.

IA with you about Kurt and Blaine. The conflict was great and the story flowed although I do wish S&P would unclench a heck of a lot more. It's almost 1950s-esque. If they were older and lived together, they'd probably have separate beds a la I Love Lucy.

I like and don't like the Shannon story. I'm going to wait with that one until we see more of it.

A lot of the intercutting of the songs with the other scenes was interesting, but I didn't care for it in the end. I found it unnecessary and A Boy Like That was the worst offender in that sense.

I love that Puck remains a terrible actor, but those accents they all put on! My gosh, I was horrified, laughing, and offended all at once. Incredible. And it was so obvious that the Jets sang that one line of America only so they could get Mike in view of his mother for that supportive clap. It was pathetic. Yay, at Mercedes being there with Shane, though. She's a better person than all of them, I swear.

The French teacher was majorly hot and I enjoyed the choreography and arrangement of the scene(Billy Joel owns me), but the singing and production was awful! Total trainwreck.

Kurt was a badass with Sebastian and he uses that shimmy like it's a weapon. Sebastian better watch out or Kurt's going to add some jazz hands.

As for Karofsky: I still don't care for him as a character and Max is only a passable actor even when Chris is carrying the entire scene for him. I liked the scene as a resolution, but I don't think having him show up again is necessary.

[ellydash.livejournal.com]

I really can't see Finn and Rachel lasting either, and I'm beginning to think the show's intentionally setting them up that way. There was such a marked difference between the emotional context of Finn/Rachel and Kurt/Blaine's first times, you know? The latter felt so much more connected and positive, and came across as relationship growth - and the former was just - really, really sad, and came across more like clinging to what they had or what they thought they had, rather than face their future.

On the one hand, I completely, totally love that there was a storyline on network TV with two gay characters in a loving, committed relationship who talk openly about their decision to be sexually intimate. RIB+ get major, major snaps for that - as frustrating as the writing for this show can be, sometimes they intentionally do pretty great things. On the other hand - the way their hips were angled away from each other in that shot was super obvious and distracting, and a pretty clear sign of a double-standard (for which I'm much more likely to blame S&P than RIB). Small steps, I guess.

Those ACCENTS. Glee at its best/worst, tbh.

I'm still sorting out my Karofsky feelings, I think, which tend definitely to be on the negative side, but I agree that I'm glad Kurt had some resolution.