A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals” “My Life Would Suck without You” was the Perfect Cap to the Series The writers (and cast) did not know if the network would pick them up for any more episodes after “Sectionals,” so they gave it a traditional series finale feel. The glee kids had achieved their goal of winning Sectionals, Will knew the truth about Terri’s (not-so) pregnancy, Finn learned the truth about Quinn and Puck, Sue had been suspended for leaking the set list, and Will had been reinstated as coach of the glee club. Everything and everyone was all smiles when they went into that last number. “My Life Would Suck…” ended up being the cutest number of the whole series (and remains one of my favorites). The glee kids smashed together a bunch of the choreography from their past numbers into one super number. Not only was it fun for the audience to put together the moves with the performances they first showed up in, you could tell it was fun for the glee kids, too. They all looked like friends, like they were having the time of their lives (the cast’s real life feelings for each other always come out in the group performances but this time it felt in character). It was also a moment for the audience to acknowledge and appreciate just how far these kids had come. They started off in completely different castes and joined for a variety of reasons. But, at the end, they all fell in love with glee and, in that number, the audience believes that they all fell in love with each other along the way, too. The episode ends with Will getting the true “love of his life,” and that kiss between he and Emma was in a time when their relationship was still tolerable and when all of the characters were still likable, relatable, and rootable. In a way, everyone had a happy ending or at least ended happy. Glee’s about opening yourself to joy, right? Well, those 13 episodes were the closest this show has gotten to that and the end of this episode, with this number, pushed them into achieving it.

A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals”

“My Life Would Suck without You” was the Perfect Cap to the Series
The writers (and cast) did not know if the network would pick them up for any more episodes after “Sectionals,” so they gave it a traditional series finale feel. The glee kids had achieved their goal of winning Sectionals, Will knew the truth about Terri’s (not-so) pregnancy, Finn learned the truth about Quinn and Puck, Sue had been suspended for leaking the set list, and Will had been reinstated as coach of the glee club. Everything and everyone was all smiles when they went into that last number.
“My Life Would Suck…” ended up being the cutest number of the whole series (and remains one of my favorites). The glee kids smashed together a bunch of the choreography from their past numbers into one super number. Not only was it fun for the audience to put together the moves with the performances they first showed up in, you could tell it was fun for the glee kids, too. They all looked like friends, like they were having the time of their lives (the cast’s real life feelings for each other always come out in the group performances but this time it felt in character). It was also a moment for the audience to acknowledge and appreciate just how far these kids had come. They started off in completely different castes and joined for a variety of reasons. But, at the end, they all fell in love with glee and, in that number, the audience believes that they all fell in love with each other along the way, too.
The episode ends with Will getting the true “love of his life,” and that kiss between he and Emma was in a time when their relationship was still tolerable and when all of the characters were still likable, relatable, and rootable. In a way, everyone had a happy ending or at least ended happy. Glee’s about opening yourself to joy, right? Well, those 13 episodes were the closest this show has gotten to that and the end of this episode, with this number, pushed them into achieving it.
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posted 4 months ago
A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals” DSB, STL, and DRomP Have Not Been Topped (and Most Likely Won’t Be) “Don’t Stop Believin’” was the song that really got people talking about this show. It took the already awesome Pilot to a whole other level. The first time you see the glee kids perform this song, you get goosebumps and you know that you are in for one hell of a toe-tapping good time. “Somebody to Love” was the song that kept people’s interest when DSB became the song everyone started associating with Glee and not so much with Journey. “Don’t Rain on my Parade” is, quite possibly, the best performed and sung song on the entire show. No other songs have come close to those three. Not only in quality of song or singing, but also in what these songs made the audience feel. Sure, songs sang from one half a ship to the other half get the fans of said ship to feel a whole heck of a lot, but these three songs were able to elicit an emotional response for the audience as a whole. With DSB, you start to think that these losers can actually go somewhere. That they have what it takes to be better together than they are separately. It satisfied your craving for good music while also leaving you panting for more. STL was a stunning cover that was close enough to and different enough from the original that it found that perfect balance of pleasing the hardcore Queen fans and fans that were already thinking Glee could do these songs as good as the original, if not better. The vocals were superb from everyone involved, especially Amber Riley with her glory notes. DRomP was not only a vocal masterpiece; it was also the perfect song to cap the emotional journey that Rachel had undergone through the season. No, you can’t hold her down and you sure as hell can’t rain on her parade. There have been other great songs on the show, other well-sung songs as well. But, when you think of Glee, you think of these three songs. (There is a reason these three songs have been sung during both concert tours, after all.)

A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals”

DSB, STL, and DRomP Have Not Been Topped (and Most Likely Won’t Be)
“Don’t Stop Believin’” was the song that really got people talking about this show. It took the already awesome Pilot to a whole other level. The first time you see the glee kids perform this song, you get goosebumps and you know that you are in for one hell of a toe-tapping good time. “Somebody to Love” was the song that kept people’s interest when DSB became the song everyone started associating with Glee and not so much with Journey. “Don’t Rain on my Parade” is, quite possibly, the best performed and sung song on the entire show.
No other songs have come close to those three. Not only in quality of song or singing, but also in what these songs made the audience feel. Sure, songs sang from one half a ship to the other half get the fans of said ship to feel a whole heck of a lot, but these three songs were able to elicit an emotional response for the audience as a whole. With DSB, you start to think that these losers can actually go somewhere. That they have what it takes to be better together than they are separately. It satisfied your craving for good music while also leaving you panting for more. STL was a stunning cover that was close enough to and different enough from the original that it found that perfect balance of pleasing the hardcore Queen fans and fans that were already thinking Glee could do these songs as good as the original, if not better. The vocals were superb from everyone involved, especially Amber Riley with her glory notes. DRomP was not only a vocal masterpiece; it was also the perfect song to cap the emotional journey that Rachel had undergone through the season. No, you can’t hold her down and you sure as hell can’t rain on her parade.
There have been other great songs on the show, other well-sung songs as well. But, when you think of Glee, you think of these three songs. (There is a reason these three songs have been sung during both concert tours, after all.)
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posted 4 months ago
A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals” Season-Long Arcs Gave the Show a Sense of Cohesion The first 13 episodes (except the Pilot, with there being a break between the final shooting of the Pilot and the shooting of Showmance) were all shot without any idea of whether the show would find an audience. There was no input from the fans so the writers just wrote what they wanted, without fear of pissing off one sect of the fandom or being excessive in certain things that the audience may like. (This is why there was an actual balance to Brittany’s lines and Sue’s everything.) In other words, what was happening on screen was in no way dictated by the audience. Once the show got as popular as it did, the writers started paying too much attention to the fandom and they started beating every good thing they had done in the first 13 episodes to death and the writers took too much pride in their work and started kissing their own asses instead of focusing on the show. Also, in those 13 episodes, we were treated to the only season-long arcs we have ever gotten. Every season after, the only thing that could even come close to be considered a season-long arc was the prepping for Sectionals and/or Regionals and/or Nationals, but since the club never actually picks songs for their competitions until the episode that includes the competitions, those don’t really count. In these 13 episodes, we had the fake pregnancy storyline with Terri and Will and the baby daddy storyline with Quinn, Finn, and Puck.  Now, there is plenty of disagreement among the fandom on how successful said storylines were. My point, though, is that the presence of season-long arcs gave the show a sense of cohesion. It seemed like the show was actually building toward something with each episode, instead of every episode being a filler episode until a competition episode, the way it is now. It also allowed the writers to stay focused on their storytelling and not on how many tribute episodes they could do or how many famous guest stars they could shove down the audience’s throats.

A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals”

Season-Long Arcs Gave the Show a Sense of Cohesion
The first 13 episodes (except the Pilot, with there being a break between the final shooting of the Pilot and the shooting of Showmance) were all shot without any idea of whether the show would find an audience. There was no input from the fans so the writers just wrote what they wanted, without fear of pissing off one sect of the fandom or being excessive in certain things that the audience may like. (This is why there was an actual balance to Brittany’s lines and Sue’s everything.) In other words, what was happening on screen was in no way dictated by the audience. Once the show got as popular as it did, the writers started paying too much attention to the fandom and they started beating every good thing they had done in the first 13 episodes to death and the writers took too much pride in their work and started kissing their own asses instead of focusing on the show.

Also, in those 13 episodes, we were treated to the only season-long arcs we have ever gotten. Every season after, the only thing that could even come close to be considered a season-long arc was the prepping for Sectionals and/or Regionals and/or Nationals, but since the club never actually picks songs for their competitions until the episode that includes the competitions, those don’t really count. In these 13 episodes, we had the fake pregnancy storyline with Terri and Will and the baby daddy storyline with Quinn, Finn, and Puck. 

Now, there is plenty of disagreement among the fandom on how successful said storylines were. My point, though, is that the presence of season-long arcs gave the show a sense of cohesion. It seemed like the show was actually building toward something with each episode, instead of every episode being a filler episode until a competition episode, the way it is now. It also allowed the writers to stay focused on their storytelling and not on how many tribute episodes they could do or how many famous guest stars they could shove down the audience’s throats.

28 notes
posted 4 months ago
A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals” Sue Sylvester was a Character Worthy Enough to be played by Jane Lynch I think most people would agree that this character has lost her spark since those first 13 episodes. Sue Sylvester used to be an incredibly original, entertaining, engaging villain with understandable motivations. She doesn’t like the glee club because they are taking the money that (she believes) rightfully belongs to the Cheerios. So, she sets out to destroy that club, by any means necessary. This Sue Sylvester didn’t have this sense of ‘OK, but haven’t we seen this all before?’ that the current Sue Sylvester we have does. This Sue was hilarious, the lines were incredible (“I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat…,” and her Sue’s Corner segments), the time we got to see her sister, Jean, wasn’t just a ham-fisted attempt to create sympathy- it was a truly touching and sincere moment, and actually deserved to be played by the great Jane Lynch.  The Sue we have now is an attempted murderer one episode and volunteering at a soup kitchen the next. There’s no consistency now. The lines don’t have the same zing (all on the writing; Jane Lynch does the best with what she’s given). This once great character could disappear from the show and no one would miss her presence. It’s just a shame to waste the innumerable talents of Jane Lynch in such an epically bad way.

A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals”

Sue Sylvester was a Character Worthy Enough to be played by Jane Lynch
I think most people would agree that this character has lost her spark since those first 13 episodes. Sue Sylvester used to be an incredibly original, entertaining, engaging villain with understandable motivations. She doesn’t like the glee club because they are taking the money that (she believes) rightfully belongs to the Cheerios. So, she sets out to destroy that club, by any means necessary.

This Sue Sylvester didn’t have this sense of ‘OK, but haven’t we seen this all before?’ that the current Sue Sylvester we have does. This Sue was hilarious, the lines were incredible (“I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat…,” and her Sue’s Corner segments), the time we got to see her sister, Jean, wasn’t just a ham-fisted attempt to create sympathy- it was a truly touching and sincere moment, and actually deserved to be played by the great Jane Lynch. 

The Sue we have now is an attempted murderer one episode and volunteering at a soup kitchen the next. There’s no consistency now. The lines don’t have the same zing (all on the writing; Jane Lynch does the best with what she’s given). This once great character could disappear from the show and no one would miss her presence. It’s just a shame to waste the innumerable talents of Jane Lynch in such an epically bad way.

18 notes
posted 4 months ago
A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals” Brittany’s One-Liners Now, I don’t want it to seem like I am protesting against Brittany having screen time. This is me saying I wish her screen time could be used more like how it was in the first 13 episodes of the series. Any time Brittany would open her mouth, something hilarious would come out. “Cool epilepsy,” “Coach Sylvester didn’t tell me to do this,” “I bet the duck’s in the hat,” and many others. But, what makes the one liners from the front 13 superior to the lines she got after is the undercurrent that went with them. Sure, she’d say some dumb things, but they were more silly than stupid. There was a sense of ‘girl is a little slow, but she means well and just sees the world through a different lens.’ Now, her lines either make her seem like a crazy person (“I think my cat’s been reading my diary”) or actually mentally deficient. No one who can use the phrase “cool epilepsy” (my absolutely favorite Brittany line ever) AND it make sense should actually believe that her cat is smoking. So, basically, even though her lines in the first 13 episodes could be on the less intelligent side of things, her lines were much smarter and funnier than what she’s gotten recently. Also, she was a hell of a lot less malicious in the first 13 episodes than she has been in the more recent episodes. ETA: Her lines weren’t excessive in the front 13. You’d get a funny line or 2 per episode, so they weren’t predictable. As it stands now, the writers keep beating a dead horse and piling outlandish line after line after line on us so that we’re drowning in stupid.

A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals”

Brittany’s One-Liners
Now, I don’t want it to seem like I am protesting against Brittany having screen time. This is me saying I wish her screen time could be used more like how it was in the first 13 episodes of the series.
Any time Brittany would open her mouth, something hilarious would come out. “Cool epilepsy,” “Coach Sylvester didn’t tell me to do this,” “I bet the duck’s in the hat,” and many others. But, what makes the one liners from the front 13 superior to the lines she got after is the undercurrent that went with them. Sure, she’d say some dumb things, but they were more silly than stupid. There was a sense of ‘girl is a little slow, but she means well and just sees the world through a different lens.’ Now, her lines either make her seem like a crazy person (“I think my cat’s been reading my diary”) or actually mentally deficient. No one who can use the phrase “cool epilepsy” (my absolutely favorite Brittany line ever) AND it make sense should actually believe that her cat is smoking.
So, basically, even though her lines in the first 13 episodes could be on the less intelligent side of things, her lines were much smarter and funnier than what she’s gotten recently. Also, she was a hell of a lot less malicious in the first 13 episodes than she has been in the more recent episodes.
ETA: Her lines weren’t excessive in the front 13. You’d get a funny line or 2 per episode, so they weren’t predictable. As it stands now, the writers keep beating a dead horse and piling outlandish line after line after line on us so that we’re drowning in stupid.
13 notes
posted 4 months ago
A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals” The Journey of Rachel Berry The second character to undergo the most, best, most consistent, and most entertaining development was the one and only Rachel Berry. I would also argue that she is the most interesting (and best) character on the whole show, but particularly in the front 13 (whole first season, tbh). We already know so much about her from the Pilot alone. She’s crazy talented, ambitious, accused a teacher of sexual harassment when he did not give her a solo, gets bullied (by literally everyone), has the saddest sad face ever, and puts up a really good front. Oh, also, she will love you if you sing well. Most importantly, though, she just wants to be liked. She doesn’t want slushies thrown at her, she doesn’t want people to write awful comments on her Myspace videos, and she doesn’t want people to call her names. She believes that “being a part of something special makes you special,” and being a part of glee will get that for her. We see her struggle with her ambition and that pesky thing about making friends. We see her extend a hand to Finn, to Quinn, to Kurt, to Mercedes, to Puck. We see her change her goals to include the club, not just herself. We see her acknowledge that she wants friends and connections, but the only person you can really count on is yourself. We see her put a smile on her face after every single insult, diss, brush off, disappointment, and heartbreak because when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you. After everything- the failed attempts at making friends or just getting these people to kind of like her a bit, the tug of war that is her relationship with Finn, the notion that she is at fault for everything that could possibly go wrong, we see her shining, crowning moment. We get to see Rachel Berry [Gold Star] perform “Don’t Rain on my Parade.” We see her own that stage and make the crowd her bitch. We see her be the leader she was always going to be and we get to believe (for a whole hiatus) that things were looking up for Rachel Berry. She was going to have friends that appreciated her for her tenacity and her talent and her kindness. She was going to keep kicking ass at competitions and she was going to Broadway someday soon and she was going to conquer that, too.

A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals”

The Journey of Rachel Berry
The second character to undergo the most, best, most consistent, and most entertaining development was the one and only Rachel Berry. I would also argue that she is the most interesting (and best) character on the whole show, but particularly in the front 13 (whole first season, tbh).
We already know so much about her from the Pilot alone. She’s crazy talented, ambitious, accused a teacher of sexual harassment when he did not give her a solo, gets bullied (by literally everyone), has the saddest sad face ever, and puts up a really good front. Oh, also, she will love you if you sing well.
Most importantly, though, she just wants to be liked. She doesn’t want slushies thrown at her, she doesn’t want people to write awful comments on her Myspace videos, and she doesn’t want people to call her names. She believes that “being a part of something special makes you special,” and being a part of glee will get that for her.
We see her struggle with her ambition and that pesky thing about making friends. We see her extend a hand to Finn, to Quinn, to Kurt, to Mercedes, to Puck. We see her change her goals to include the club, not just herself. We see her acknowledge that she wants friends and connections, but the only person you can really count on is yourself. We see her put a smile on her face after every single insult, diss, brush off, disappointment, and heartbreak because when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.
After everything- the failed attempts at making friends or just getting these people to kind of like her a bit, the tug of war that is her relationship with Finn, the notion that she is at fault for everything that could possibly go wrong, we see her shining, crowning moment. We get to see Rachel Berry [Gold Star] perform “Don’t Rain on my Parade.” We see her own that stage and make the crowd her bitch. We see her be the leader she was always going to be and we get to believe (for a whole hiatus) that things were looking up for Rachel Berry. She was going to have friends that appreciated her for her tenacity and her talent and her kindness. She was going to keep kicking ass at competitions and she was going to Broadway someday soon and she was going to conquer that, too.
20 notes
posted 4 months ago
A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals” The [Actually Good] Character Development of Quinn Fabray There are two characters on the show that underwent the most (and most believable and consistent) development throughout the course of the first 13 episodes (and that writing ability seemed to go out the window after the front 13 episodes). The first is Quinn Fabray. When we first meet her, she’s just the bitchy head cheerleader girlfriend to Finn. Then, we see her as a girl that wants what she wants and she’ll do anything to get it; even if it means joining a club that she doesn’t want to join to keep her boyfriend, hide her pregnancy to continue the illusion of the perfect daughter and student, and lie about the sperm donor of said pregnancy to keep everything. We see a girl that takes orders if they serve her endgame even if they hurt others. But then she loses her cheerleading spot. She loses her popularity, the flock she surrounded herself with, her parents, and eventually her boyfriend. And along the way, we see her start to see that there are people who are interested in being her friend, her confidante, her boyfriend without the ‘perfect, Christian, head cheerleader’ character she had created for herself. She gets a song dedicated to her from the entire glee club and it lets her forget, for just a minute or two, about the crap she’s dealing with. She gets to just be a regular kid with no expectations or façades. (I’ve never seen Quinn smile more than when the club sang “Lean on Me” to her and Finn.) Her development comes to a great conclusion (if the show had ended after 1.13) when she, first, blackmails Sue into paying for the glee club to have a photo in the yearbook (a photo she didn’t even want, but that she thought they deserved) and saying she’d rather “belong to a club that wants [her], like glee club” over the Cheerios, and, second, after it is revealed that Puck is the father of her baby and not Finn. She tells Rachel that she’s not angry with her for telling Finn the truth and that she admires Rachel’s bravery for doing so while acknowledging that they are two girls that want things so desperately but can’t seem to hold on and when she tells Puck that she is going to deal with the pregnancy on her own. She’s reached that point where she wants independence; everyone she’s relied on has left her. Her parents kicked her out and Finn broke up with her, leaving her without the people she loved most AND a place to live. She knows that she has to go it alone, and she welcomes the chance. 

A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals”

The [Actually Good] Character Development of Quinn Fabray
There are two characters on the show that underwent the most (and most believable and consistent) development throughout the course of the first 13 episodes (and that writing ability seemed to go out the window after the front 13 episodes). The first is Quinn Fabray.
When we first meet her, she’s just the bitchy head cheerleader girlfriend to Finn. Then, we see her as a girl that wants what she wants and she’ll do anything to get it; even if it means joining a club that she doesn’t want to join to keep her boyfriend, hide her pregnancy to continue the illusion of the perfect daughter and student, and lie about the sperm donor of said pregnancy to keep everything. We see a girl that takes orders if they serve her endgame even if they hurt others.
But then she loses her cheerleading spot. She loses her popularity, the flock she surrounded herself with, her parents, and eventually her boyfriend. And along the way, we see her start to see that there are people who are interested in being her friend, her confidante, her boyfriend without the ‘perfect, Christian, head cheerleader’ character she had created for herself. She gets a song dedicated to her from the entire glee club and it lets her forget, for just a minute or two, about the crap she’s dealing with. She gets to just be a regular kid with no expectations or façades. (I’ve never seen Quinn smile more than when the club sang “Lean on Me” to her and Finn.)
Her development comes to a great conclusion (if the show had ended after 1.13) when she, first, blackmails Sue into paying for the glee club to have a photo in the yearbook (a photo she didn’t even want, but that she thought they deserved) and saying she’d rather “belong to a club that wants [her], like glee club” over the Cheerios, and, second, after it is revealed that Puck is the father of her baby and not Finn. She tells Rachel that she’s not angry with her for telling Finn the truth and that she admires Rachel’s bravery for doing so while acknowledging that they are two girls that want things so desperately but can’t seem to hold on and when she tells Puck that she is going to deal with the pregnancy on her own. She’s reached that point where she wants independence; everyone she’s relied on has left her. Her parents kicked her out and Finn broke up with her, leaving her without the people she loved most AND a place to live. She knows that she has to go it alone, and she welcomes the chance. 
25 notes
posted 4 months ago
A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals” Great pilots are a dime a dozen in television, but there are those few shows that have incredibly promising and entertaining pilots where the following episodes never match up. Glee is one of them. Glee’s first episode was an incredible hour of television. Plenty of dark comedy, subtle humor (naming the glee club New Directions was quite inspired, and of course there was the flier in Will’s office saying a teacher’s number one priority is the children while he’s blackmailing Finn to join the club based on some “confiscated” marijuana), incredible character introductions (I have only fallen so fast for a character once in my TV viewing life as I did for Rachel Berry and let us not forget how jaw-droppingly hilarious Sue Sylvester was when we first met her), and great music. The following episodes had some of these, but it was never able to find that mix that made the Pilot so great. 

A Series of Posts About Why Glee Should Have Stopped After “Sectionals”

Great pilots are a dime a dozen in television, but there are those few shows that have incredibly promising and entertaining pilots where the following episodes never match up. Glee is one of them.

Glee’s first episode was an incredible hour of television. Plenty of dark comedy, subtle humor (naming the glee club New Directions was quite inspired, and of course there was the flier in Will’s office saying a teacher’s number one priority is the children while he’s blackmailing Finn to join the club based on some “confiscated” marijuana), incredible character introductions (I have only fallen so fast for a character once in my TV viewing life as I did for Rachel Berry and let us not forget how jaw-droppingly hilarious Sue Sylvester was when we first met her), and great music. The following episodes had some of these, but it was never able to find that mix that made the Pilot so great. 

30 notes
posted 4 months ago

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I'm Calyn. 22 years young. Female. College student. Psych major.

Atheist, feminist, nerd.

Lea Michele is my favorite human being.

Love Supernatural, Veronica Mars, Community, Misfits, Friday Night Lights, The Vampire Diaries, Greek, Parks and Recreation, Kyle XY, Doctor Who, Luther, Harper's Island, Raising Hope, Psych, Awkward, Pretty Little Liars, Shameless, Teen Wolf, House and True Blood. Love lots of movies and books. Harry Potter = Love. Love to enjoy life and kick back with friends.