The crap, it burns

[oselle]

I've begun to enjoy watching Glee just to revel in how appallingly awful it is.

I'm now 22 minutes into the season finale. There's been one commercial break already, so let's say there have been about 17 minutes of actual show. The Glee kids are in New York for a national competition and in the 17 minutes I've been pelted with one "Big Apple" cliche after another, including:

1. Singing "New York New York"
2. Lea Michelle echoing "That Girl" in Times Square
3. Singing a variation of "It's a Wonderful Town"
4. Frolicking in Central Park
5. Skipping around the fountain at Lincoln Center
6. Some kind of "Mad Men" scenario in period dress
7. Breakfast at Tiffany's (yes, really)
8. Breaking into an empty Broadway theater where the gruff-but-kindly security guard (or janitor or whatever) doesn't throw you out but instead lets you sing "just one song!" to the darkened house because gosh-darn-it, you kids've got moxie! (Actually a similar scene also played out with Mr. Shue at the beginning of the ep, so you can count this one twice.)

All that in 17 minutes. And I'm sure I left some out. Wow I can't believe how creative and groundbreaking this show is.

OMG the hate. Get out of my city, you're making it look stupid.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

That song of NYC cliches they did reminded me of something sung by that brother/sister team on SNL who makes up the song as they sing it.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

This whole show reminds me of some kind of spoof, the way I sometimes think the entire Twilight saga is in fact a brilliant satire written with the secret intent of proving that people will swallow anything.

What was even better than the cliches is the way these kids were facing the biggest competition of their lives, so they spent the entire run-up to it frolicking around the Big Apple instead of, y'know...REHEARSING. Not that rehearsing would have mattered because Finn and Rachel decided to blow the whole fucking thing by impulsively tonguing each other in the middle of their performance, after which Rachel consoles Finn by telling him "that's what artists do." No, Rachel. Real artists REHEARSE instead of munching croissants on 57th Street and then they PUT ON A PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE so that they don't fuck it up for everyone else.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I loved that although they didn't have the money to get more than two rooms, they paid to stay in a hotel for an entire week before the competition. And that they showed up without even having written the songs they were going to sing, much less rehearsed them. Then they spent their time doing anything but rehearsing while their teacher didn't know where they were half the time.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Fuck it, the teacher was AWOL himself having his own singing-to-an-empty-theater cliche.

On top of the cliches and the overall stupidity, this ep had one of my biggest pet peeves: the message that it's more important to follow your emotions than to pursue your goals. The last time I saw it executed with this level of stupid was on One Tree Hill...but at least everyone is willing to admit that OTH is just a silly teen soap opera and not something fresh and inventive.

What especially annoys me about this is that the people who produce and act on these shows most likely got to where they are by pursuing their goals, not by letting their goofier impulses run away with them. So why on earth do people like this keep pumping this bullshit (and potentially destructive) message out to kids as if it were some great wisdom? WHY??

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It is kind of weird that they do that. Especially in this case where they set up that whole thing of Rachel not wanting to go out with Finn because she didn't want anything to interfere with her dream of being in NYC...when going out with Finn would not keep her from being there in NYC. (In fact, if she'd just been dating him they wouldn't have had to dramatically kiss onstage.)

But yeah, did Patty Lupone find success by going with her emotions? Or by breaking character in the middle of performances? Was there some performance of Evita where she kissed a cute guy unscripted? It's not like we're talking very important emotions here for Rachel...

I guess it's always a case of do as I say, not as I do... Of course, it goes along with the writer cliche on TV where being a writer means you need to do pretty much anything but write. You need to hang out with your friends and it will magically turn into a book at the end of the ep when you write down exactly what happened.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Also, why couldn't Finn go to New York with her? Obviously this song-and-dance thing is important to him too, so what, is he planning to spend the rest of his life in Ohio?

it goes along with the writer cliche on TV where being a writer means you need to do pretty much anything but write.

Oh yes of course. You need to get out there and live and the writing will just come to you.

I remember in that OTH episode, Brooke bails on a cheerleading competition for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to break into the fashion scene in New York. There she meets a Magical Pakistani cabdriver who counsels her that you're only young once and you need to follow your dreams. Obviously misunderstanding the wise cab driver, Brooke blows off the fashion show and runs back to her squad. When they see her they're all so happy that instead of competing they just start goofily dancing with each other on stage, blowing any chance of winning but nevertheless delighting the crowd with their spontaneous teenage joie de vivre. The episode ends with Chad Michael Murray intoning about what's really important in life. Apparently a giant double-fail is what's really important in life.

Sorry, I didn't mean to carry on like that.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

That's the biggest fail I've ever heard on this subject. I'm impressed!

I remember in the first season of Melrose Place had a wanna be dancer who was an aerobics instructor. She auditioned for the dance company she hadn't auditioned for in high school, faced off her teenaged competitor who was now in the company, got the job...and then rejected it because she was happy with her life and really only needed to prove to herself she could do it.

Um....you're happier being an aerobics instructor who *wants* to be a dancer than being an actual dancer in a respected company? Okay. And she wasn't even a teenager. She was 21.

The whole "normal adolescence" thing has always been a pet peeve of mine. Even as a teen I very strongly felt that it would have been an advantage to have one of those "untraditional" childhoods where you started life with a lot of skills, professional contacts, and/or money in the bank.

And there are so many successful people who took that for themselves too. I remember Christian, one of the winners of Project Runway, ran away to London and apprenticed with a designer. He would not be running home to be in a cheerleading competition.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

OMG, that Melrose Place thing is the perfect example of this. WHY does this bizarre message keep finding its way into fiction -- especially television aimed at young people? Especially television aimed at young women? As if there's something psychologically or even morally wrong with being driven and goal-oriented -- even though those are the people everyone winds up admiring!

I will say this much for Gilmore Girls -- as ridiculous as it often was, they never for one second gave Rory one of those "what really matters" moments where it was okay to blow off all her goals to hang out with her friends in Stars Hollow. And even when she did briefly drop out of Yale, the show made it clear that it was because she'd lost her way, not because she'd suddenly discovered the true meaning of life.

Even as a teen I very strongly felt that it would have been an advantage to have one of those "untraditional" childhoods where you started life with a lot of skills, professional contacts, and/or money in the bank.

I think you and I were separated at birth because you so often echo things that I've always thought. I felt exactly the same way when I was young, and I was horribly frustrated by my own average abilities. I remember there was a dancer in my high school class who was actually in the ABT company and she had a special class schedule because she was usually rehearsing. I never once pitied her for not having a "normal" adolescence -- I envied her for having a talent that allowed her to be better than "normal." What exactly did she miss out on? Lunchroom makeovers? The great debate over punk vs. new wave? The endless struggle to raise uniform hemlines? Good lord!

He would not be running home to be in a cheerleading competition.

People who run home to be in cheerleading competitions (which they then also blow off in favor of having fun with their friends) do not become successful. Again, I have to wonder why the successful people who create this shit think it's okay to pimp this ridiculous message over and over.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder if they're trying to cut back on the competition. Might as well encourage as many people as possible to think they don't have to work at what they want and that it's better to just hang out. Of course, they also wind up thinking that they're still supposed to be successful because they really want it, even if they haven't demonstrated this want with any practical work.

I so hear you on the teenagers with actual jobs like being in ABT. I remember getting into a whole thing when I worked in kids' publishing because we did a book where the main character had divorced parents and her dad moved to France. And I just questioned why everybody in the book kept talking about how it was so important that she not have to spend too much time there because it would be so disruptive and traumatic. And I kept asking why, exactly, people thought it would be a huge detriment to a person to spend a lot of time in another country? You'd honestly think that any moment spent away from her New Jersey suburb would be lost, so dad's off in France and the kid doesn't even get anything out of it. I made exactly the same arguments--what exactly would she be missing that's so important? It was like they though that not eating lunch in the cafeteria enough would leave you culturally deprived.

I knew a guy once whose family went to France in the summers and his mother spoke French etc. And he told me that growing up he hated it, that he was ashamed of their silly vacations when his friends back in Georgia were going to 6 flags. He absolutely refused to learn to speak French. But luckily he was totally getting enough background in it that when he wised up in college and decided to try to learn he was fluent in something like 3 classes and moved to Paris. Good thing his parents didn't listen to his 9-year-old self and gone to 6 Flags!

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about this since last night, and I've come to the conclusion that this nonsense keeps showing up because it appeals to most of the audience and helps them either pity or identify with characters who otherwise would only inspire envy.

Let's face it - 99.9% of people in any audience are not going to be future Broadway superstars or fashion designers or what-have-you. We're all just average or even below average and it's comforting to hear that "what really matters" are the simple, everyday things in life -- not the extraordinary achievements that are way beyond most of us. It also allows us a little sniff of superiority to believe that talented, high-achieving types may look like they have it all, but deep down they're secretly yearning for the "normal" life that we already have. LOL, what baloney.

Good thing his parents didn't listen to his 9-year-old self and gone to 6 Flags!

Amen. He has the rest of his life to go to Six Flags and if he'd spent his summers doing that, he probably wouldn't be living in Paris now. I'm not on board with parents forcing their kids into tons of activities or pushing them into show business if they don't want it etc. -- but the notion that the only normal, healthy childhood is one spent riding your bike around the block and going to the mall is, IMO, borne of lazy parenting. I spent my childhood doing nothing and receiving no direction or encouragement for anything and look how I wound up. So yeah, this whole thing is a real sore point with me.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I think you may very well be right. I remember reading a little Q&A with Siskel & Ebert where they were asked about movies that shoudl have done better. And oneo f them said that Searching For Bobby Fisher was the kind of movie people keep saying they want Hollywood to make, but then they didn't go see it.

I was surprised because everyone I knew loved it. But thinking back, that movie might have had a real problem in that it was all about respecting the talent and putting it above normal life. Sure the father in the movie needs to learn balance--but because that in itself is better for the kid's growth. (Like how a lot of the best athletes grew up playing different sports while kids who get forced into one sport at the age of 5 that's supposed to put them through college aren't as good.)

But there's a scene in that movie where a teacher actually gives the dad the "it's better to let him be a kid" speech and he calls her an idiot. And I don't think he was really supposed to be proved wrong by the rest of the movie. He was a little too harsh about it, but he was right.

It also reminds me of a kid's book I edited recently about Yo Yo Ma. The first thing I said to the author was okay, Yo Yo Ma's story isn't that interesting. You need to make it the story of his sister who worked just as hard but wasn't a genius and had to deal with it.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

You need to make it the story of his sister who worked just as hard but wasn't a genius and had to deal with it.

This has got to be the worst thing in the world. Thank goodness everyone in my family is a loser!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Seriously. This girl handled it really well and was successful in her own right, but it was amazing the humiliating moments she had. Like her violin teacher announcing her lessons are ending (her parents didn't tell her), because she's just not that good. But she should stick to the piano so she can accompany Yo YO whenever he needs her! What more could you want in life?

[ramalama.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't watch it, as I gave up on the show shortly after season 2 started, but I can't help but wonder if the finale might have differed had they been where the show choir nationals are actually happening... right here in fabulous Indy.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Oh, but then they couldn't have spent the whole run-up to nationals skipping around New York like Audrey Hepburn instead of actually rehearsing.

Speaking of "show choir" I'd love to know where the "choir" part comes in. The two big rival performances centered around a solo and a duet. I thought the point of a choir was singing together, not turning over the spotlight to one or two singers.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Well at least she didn't live in the Victorian era, because then she might have wound up like Henry James' pathetic sister, Alice, who spent her entire overshadowed life as a neurotic invalid until she was finally diagnosed with cancer, which she joyfully described as "the most supremely interesting moment in life."