What happens when great moments come at a price? That seems to be the struggle with Glee as of late. With great messages and even greater song numbers, sometimes the story just doesn’t have the room to make it believable. Take ‘Hairography’ as an example…
The Sound of Music
If the number with the deaf students was standalone (as a music video or something), it would be fantastic and moving. Sticking it in the middle of an episode of Glee mainly about distractions, however, is a bit of a stretch. The show has a knack for expressing many great moments in a musical manner. While I love the exploration of this new usage for the television medium, the sacrifice is that many numbers are just that. They stick out and seem rather jarring most of the time. Glee has to abandon characterization, story flow and anything unrelated to the music and choreography in order to showcase the talent.
Still, I understand that the show is trying to create a new formula altogether. How that affects your viewing experience is up to you, but it’s definitely something rather unique about the show.
Love…Pentagon?
On one hand, uncontrollable romantic obsessions is completely appropriate for a show dealing with teenagers. Still, the chain of crushes is quickly getting out of hand. One can only hope that the mess that is Quinn/Puck/Finn/Rachel/Kurt, not to mention the pregnancy which brings in Will and Terri, finds a proper resolution soon. It can be entertaining to watch, but the more convoluted it gets, the harder it will be to satisfy all the main characters in the end.
Because so many character are juvenile in nature, the dramatic and emotional moments tend to fall short of being, well, adult. Again, the portrayal is realistic, but I hope the characters have the complexity to sustain for the entire season. Pulling the same Rachel face (seriously, freeze frame on her sad face, it’s everywhere) will not suffice forever.
Despite the inconsistencies of Glee, ‘Hairography’ is actually quite enjoyable. Good-natured popcorn fun has never been more pleasing to the ears. Will it satisfy my storytelling hunger? No, but that’s what other shows are for. Plus, conversely, none of them offer anything even close to the explosive theatrics of Glee.
Rating: 8.2/10
Popularity: 22% [?]
I like this show a lot. I agree on the implausibility of the plots – mostly just with regards to the Terri-pregnancy and Finn believing he can be Quinn’s child’s dad without having had sex with her – but in return those two are so insanely stupid its a little disturbing. However, they manage to get very nice stories out of it, and as you say, the characters themselves are rather plausible. (Though I’ve no earthly clue what could have happened in the past that would’ve made Will fall in love with Terri – she seems wrong for him in every single way, and he doesn’t seem to put up with that kind of shit from anyone else so it’s not even in-character for him to be okay with that)
Oh, and the songs are always good. Yays for musicals.