shut up and let me see your jazz hands

As this show goes on, I'm really finding less and less "glee" in watching it. And yet I can't seem to stop. But this is just a warning that this post is not squee-filled, and I doubt future posts will be, so if you don't want to see criticism, move along. And if you want to tell me how wrong I am, then by all means, go ahead, but chances are I won't respond. I just don't have the energy to argue this right now.

( Glee 1x09 )

Okay, so after hearing so much talk about, I finally started watching Glee a couple weeks ago. I've been meaning to post about it but just never seem to get around to it. But now I'm caught up through episode six (though of course there's a new one tomorrow night), so I figured now was a perfect time.

Basically, I'm really torn about this show. I like the premise and love the singing and musical numbers (especially last week's mashups - Halo!), but wow, this show is really, really, REALLY problematic.

There is a lot of diversity in the cast, including the background characters, but all too often those characters (including those in the main cast) just serve as window dressing for the straight, white, (often male) ablebodied characters who are the show's focus. When I first started watching the show, I thought it would be about the kids, but at least in the beginning, it was clear the main focus was the (white, straight, ablebodied, male) teacher. Some of the kids have started to get larger roles as well, but unsurprisingly, the two with the most focus are Finn and Rachel, both white, straight, and ablebodied.

I love Mercedes and I really love that she is actually fat, not just "TV fat", but she is totally the fat sassy black girl stereotype. Kurt is your typical flamboyant femmy gayboy. I like that Artie is in the band and plays electric guitar, because that doesn't seem like the sort of hobby disabled characters are generally allowed to have (though it really irks me that he's played by an ablebodied guy), and I love that Tina is not the typical Asian nerd character. Instead she's sort of Hot Topic/gothy. But in exchange for not being stereotypes, Tina and Artie barely get any lines. And although Rachel has a larger role, she's not free of stereotypes, either. She fits the pushy, spoiled Jewish princess to a T.

And the other adults... Well, it's nice that Ken Tanaka teaches PE, not math or science or something, but why does the Asian guy have to be portrayed as someone no one would ever be attracted to and Emma's only going out with him because she can't have Will? There's also ex-glee teacher Sandy who is just...I don't even know. Way to go for the creepy gay stereotype. I mean, he is just really gross and I kind of seethe every time he shows up on screen. And as much as I love Sue (and I do love her a lot), it would be nice if we were allowed to have a woman who is both not traditionally feminine and not a weirdo. Rachel's gay dads are also horribly stereotyped and they have not even appeared on screen!

Then there's Will's wife, Terri. Wow. I just don't even know where to start. But really, it would make the Will/Emma relationship much more interesting if Terri had even a single redeeming quality. As it is, she's so ridiculously cartoonishly horrible that you can't even imagine what Will ever saw in her.

I'm also not thrilled with how Emma's phobia is played for jokes (and is, of course, the result of childhood trauma).

I will say that I'm very happy that Finn and Will are not gay, because so often there is this assumption that straight guys could never like singing and dancing (certainly not glee club). But breaking stereotypes with two white guys is really not enough to make up for all the badness that is the rest of the cast.

I do enjoy the show quite a lot and will continue watching it, but gah. So much fail.


Another new show I watched the other day is Bored to Death, a comedy on HBO. I saw a poster for it a couple weeks ago and was interested purely because it has Jason Schwartzman, whom I love from I ♥ Huckabees. Unfortunately it turned out to be, well, dull enough to bore me to death. Also stupid and offensive (mainly in terms of sexism) and just really, really pointless. Not even Jason Schwartzman was enough to keep me watching. I had three more episodes downloaded, but I just deleted them all.