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wishfulclickingThe downside to being off all day and not doing anything extensive is that past midnight I won't feel tired at all. So thoughts on Glee while it's fresh on my mind.
I can't help but compare this Regionals episode to last season's but I think a better comparison will be between the Nationals episode and last season's Regionals if I want to compare intensity of performance and level of drama going on with the characters. This 'Regionals' episode felt like it was something in the middle that had to happen and is more about being a bridge than an endpoint, while lat season was a destination.
The music was well, okay. Feeling neutral and near bored about the music is one of the worst things I can feel about Glee; this feeling stems from my growing indifference to The Warblers (I liked acapella before all this but unless musical arrangements are inspired and chosen to enhance the style of performance, the final product isn't going to be so great. 'Teenage Dream' still feels like a high point with the later song performances failing to reach it. I don't know if part of that is the power of being the first time hearing The Warblers and Blaine but the song itself was a major selling point. Teenage Dream was a perfect song to cover. If Glee was about The Warblers I think they would have had better song selection towards the end, but Glee is not about them so this has been useless hypothesizing.)
When I first heard Glee was doing original songs, I had the concern that they wouldn't play as well as their covers for these reasons: part of the charm of Glee is hearing how known popular songs are arranged or discovering lesser known songs that have a bit of quirkiness to them. In order for an original song to work it has to be good enough to not need that familiarity that other Glee performances had. It also didn't help that they composed songs that followed the standard New Directions performance (Rachel ballad with a second more upbeat Rachel with Finn jumping in); the format is fine, if well used, but it does bring comparison to previous performances that had a similar feel and tonight's performance will most likely be found wanting. The ballad was standard and of course Rachel sang it well. I preferred the second song, 'Loser Like Me' I think that was the title. I would not be surprised if this is the last we see of competitive performances that use all original songs, it probably would have gone over better if they had done one cover with one original. But please keep Rachel's and Santana's and Puck's hilarious song writing skills around.
Good on the show for not erasing what happened between Brittany and Santana. There's tension there and Santana has her guard up and apparently these feelings spill over into funny but humiliating songs. Admittedly I was nervous about background moments where Santana and Brittany act like the locker conversation hadn't happened, but they never occurred.
Sam may be starting to develop more of a backbone. Good. I haven't really given much thought to his state as the 'new kid' but it's there and he has lost what he was building when he first came. (Quinn, and whatever the relationship was between him and Finn. Buddies with similar interests?)
Quinn has received a lot of flack from certain corners of fandom and somehow I find myself still liking her, maybe even more despite recent events. She's such a product of her upbringing and her conversation with Rachel was so much more about the boxes she sees herself fitting in than it was about Rachel. Of course Rachel would bring up Beth because that was the time when Quinn seemed more manageable to Rachel, the moment when Rachel had the upper hand when it came to Finn, and Quinn went with her standard routine of shutting Rachel down but she seemed more raw; like she was actually condemning herself. There's nothing wrong with staying in your hometown but for Quinn who was so adamant about getting out of town and not being a Lima Loser, it says something that now her goals seem to be centered around settling down with Finn.
While recent events (cheating on Sam so deliberately) made me pause, they didn't make me feel like Quinn was OOC. She's always been manipulative and highly attuned towards her place in the social hierarchy. Last year, with the baby and Puck and everything, was an anomaly on many levels, and Quinn sought her prior social standing because she's not going to be top in Glee, vocally she's not as strong as most of the other girls (Santana seems to be actually stronger, it has to burn. Glee is Rachel's domain). She's had moments like standing up to Sue again and being willing to leave Cheerios. By the season's end, I believe she'll have found her footing more and really start considering what she really values.
Kurt and Blaine. Hmmm...here is the thing: when I first heard of the Kurt transferring to Dalton plot, there was a lot of talk about parallels and there was some joking about Blaine being like Jesse and then there was the less popular idea that maybe Kurt will be more like Jesse in this role. There's obvious differences between the two storylines in the details, but Kurt has shown growing discontent with The Warblers (look at him in background moments, especially this episode) and during that moment during Pavarotti's burial, he didn't look that enthused about performing in nursing homes as consolation to them losing Regionals. Kurt returning to McKinley is not a guess--it's going to happen--but I wonder how they're going to reconcile that he's leaving after Dalton is definitely out of the running for Nationals and New Direction has a ticket to New York. It could be something the writers gloss over like it's no big deal (highly possible because Glee) but as time has gone on with Kurt being at Dalton, he seems to be relaxing more into himself. That whole scene at the beginning and him speaking up during the council meeting, wouldn't have happened when he first arrived.
That kiss was hot though. The hand action made me swoon a bit.
Four week hiatus up next. Usually I use the time skimming for fic and playing at productivity.The ideas I've had haven't been ruined by recent episodes (oh the pained pleasure in focusing on Tina, Mercedes, Quinn); some AUs I've thought about still can work. So maybe something will get done this time. No, definitely something will be produced because I'm going to do it.
I'm not following American Idol this year so I'm going to have a ton of free media time on my hands. Maybe I'll catch up on some shows/books I've been wanting to view.
I can't help but compare this Regionals episode to last season's but I think a better comparison will be between the Nationals episode and last season's Regionals if I want to compare intensity of performance and level of drama going on with the characters. This 'Regionals' episode felt like it was something in the middle that had to happen and is more about being a bridge than an endpoint, while lat season was a destination.
The music was well, okay. Feeling neutral and near bored about the music is one of the worst things I can feel about Glee; this feeling stems from my growing indifference to The Warblers (I liked acapella before all this but unless musical arrangements are inspired and chosen to enhance the style of performance, the final product isn't going to be so great. 'Teenage Dream' still feels like a high point with the later song performances failing to reach it. I don't know if part of that is the power of being the first time hearing The Warblers and Blaine but the song itself was a major selling point. Teenage Dream was a perfect song to cover. If Glee was about The Warblers I think they would have had better song selection towards the end, but Glee is not about them so this has been useless hypothesizing.)
When I first heard Glee was doing original songs, I had the concern that they wouldn't play as well as their covers for these reasons: part of the charm of Glee is hearing how known popular songs are arranged or discovering lesser known songs that have a bit of quirkiness to them. In order for an original song to work it has to be good enough to not need that familiarity that other Glee performances had. It also didn't help that they composed songs that followed the standard New Directions performance (Rachel ballad with a second more upbeat Rachel with Finn jumping in); the format is fine, if well used, but it does bring comparison to previous performances that had a similar feel and tonight's performance will most likely be found wanting. The ballad was standard and of course Rachel sang it well. I preferred the second song, 'Loser Like Me' I think that was the title. I would not be surprised if this is the last we see of competitive performances that use all original songs, it probably would have gone over better if they had done one cover with one original. But please keep Rachel's and Santana's and Puck's hilarious song writing skills around.
Good on the show for not erasing what happened between Brittany and Santana. There's tension there and Santana has her guard up and apparently these feelings spill over into funny but humiliating songs. Admittedly I was nervous about background moments where Santana and Brittany act like the locker conversation hadn't happened, but they never occurred.
Sam may be starting to develop more of a backbone. Good. I haven't really given much thought to his state as the 'new kid' but it's there and he has lost what he was building when he first came. (Quinn, and whatever the relationship was between him and Finn. Buddies with similar interests?)
Quinn has received a lot of flack from certain corners of fandom and somehow I find myself still liking her, maybe even more despite recent events. She's such a product of her upbringing and her conversation with Rachel was so much more about the boxes she sees herself fitting in than it was about Rachel. Of course Rachel would bring up Beth because that was the time when Quinn seemed more manageable to Rachel, the moment when Rachel had the upper hand when it came to Finn, and Quinn went with her standard routine of shutting Rachel down but she seemed more raw; like she was actually condemning herself. There's nothing wrong with staying in your hometown but for Quinn who was so adamant about getting out of town and not being a Lima Loser, it says something that now her goals seem to be centered around settling down with Finn.
While recent events (cheating on Sam so deliberately) made me pause, they didn't make me feel like Quinn was OOC. She's always been manipulative and highly attuned towards her place in the social hierarchy. Last year, with the baby and Puck and everything, was an anomaly on many levels, and Quinn sought her prior social standing because she's not going to be top in Glee, vocally she's not as strong as most of the other girls (Santana seems to be actually stronger, it has to burn. Glee is Rachel's domain). She's had moments like standing up to Sue again and being willing to leave Cheerios. By the season's end, I believe she'll have found her footing more and really start considering what she really values.
Kurt and Blaine. Hmmm...here is the thing: when I first heard of the Kurt transferring to Dalton plot, there was a lot of talk about parallels and there was some joking about Blaine being like Jesse and then there was the less popular idea that maybe Kurt will be more like Jesse in this role. There's obvious differences between the two storylines in the details, but Kurt has shown growing discontent with The Warblers (look at him in background moments, especially this episode) and during that moment during Pavarotti's burial, he didn't look that enthused about performing in nursing homes as consolation to them losing Regionals. Kurt returning to McKinley is not a guess--it's going to happen--but I wonder how they're going to reconcile that he's leaving after Dalton is definitely out of the running for Nationals and New Direction has a ticket to New York. It could be something the writers gloss over like it's no big deal (highly possible because Glee) but as time has gone on with Kurt being at Dalton, he seems to be relaxing more into himself. That whole scene at the beginning and him speaking up during the council meeting, wouldn't have happened when he first arrived.
That kiss was hot though. The hand action made me swoon a bit.
Four week hiatus up next. Usually I use the time skimming for fic and playing at productivity.The ideas I've had haven't been ruined by recent episodes (oh the pained pleasure in focusing on Tina, Mercedes, Quinn); some AUs I've thought about still can work. So maybe something will get done this time. No, definitely something will be produced because I'm going to do it.
I'm not following American Idol this year so I'm going to have a ton of free media time on my hands. Maybe I'll catch up on some shows/books I've been wanting to view.
