“There is Nothing Ironic About Show Choir!”
Has anyone else noticed?
About a season or two ago, Glee got a little carried away. And that’s saying a lot for a show about high school kids in an underdog show choir. But sometime between Santana’s lesbian “this is why she’s a bitch†plot line, Sam’s foray into stripping to feed his family, and this year’s rotating romantic spiderweb, it lost its way. I continued watching, but with a sense of mild distaste and boredom. I was starting to feel like the writing was merely a vehicle for the music.
But, in all honesty, that’s why I kept going back anyway. For every poorly-developed character there was also a rousing rendition of “Total Eclipse of the Heart†(gush). And before you call me out for thinking way too deeply about an adolescent teen drama, let me just say, yes – I know that I’m giving this too much of my precious time. But for a musical theater/pop culture junkie like me, it really isn’t that strange.
And also, in my recent musings on the subject, a bit of truth occurred to me:
Yes, it was a bit arbitrary when Santana came out (or was outed, depending on perspective). And true, we stopped caring about Sue Sylvester when she got a heart, long before she decided to have a late-in-life baby as a single mom. And YES, it’s bizarre that Tina is now apparently in love with Blaine. (Although it’s hard for us to believe that someone Blaine’s age is even in high school anymore…So maybe we should just suspend our disbelief to begin with.) And now – spoiler alert – Ms. Pillsbury and Finn?! COME ON.
But then again, this is high school. Romances bud and end in an instant. You date your friends’ exes, because let’s be honest: You just don’t know that many people. By second semester sophomore year, you’ve forgotten that you even had friends as a freshman. You swoon over your teachers, you flirt with whoever makes you feel comfortable, and you “accidentally†make out with ill-advised partners. You wonder about your sexuality. You experiment with your fashion sense, your taste in music, your reading material, your hair. You take your family for granted. You fall in love a hundred times…and then a hundred times more.
It’s all very dramatic. And to the outside world – i.e. adults – it probably seems trivial and ridiculous. But it’s yours. And with all of the hormones, and the newness of every experience, and the microcosm that is high school, it’s natural. It’s normal. It’s to be expected.
So maybe I’ve been too hard on the Glee writers. I still cringe – a lot – watching the characters fumble around so much. And I admit that a lot of it still seems implausible and annoying to me.
But then again, so does adolescence.