Glee

D'aww.

I have just started watching the season.

WHO TURNED MY GLEEKS INTO JERKS!?

Success. Success did that to them.

They'll probably stop being jerks now that they got kicked off of the cool kids table. I'll see when I watch episode 2 next Friday. Grumble grumble South Park and The Daily Show don't make me wait a week.

edited 24th Sep '12 9:35:19 AM by Pannic

I don't know where people get this idea that being popular and being a jerk are somehow correlated, let alone compatible. Popular people have a very specific way of being jerks: not acknowledging your existence.

But I suppose quipping despicable one-liners makes for better TV.

Glee? Being realistic about an archetype that's been beaten to death since forever?

Hah.

Glee is built on stereotypes.

I mean tropes.

...stereotropes.

Mostly. If you could flandarize the kids all to one moniker:

• Rachel - The Ingenue (or wanted to be)
• Finn - The Dumb Jock
• Kurt - The Camp Gay
• Mercedes - The Sassy Black Woman
• Artie - The Wheelchair Woobie
• Tina - The Asian...Goth
• Quinn - The Cheerleader
• Santana - The Bitch (even more than Quinn)
• Brittany - The Dumb Blonde
• Puck - The Bad Boy
• Mike - The Athletic Asian
• Matt - The Twelfth Wheel

• Sam - The...Poor Hot Guy Who Strips :|
• Lauren - The Big Girl
• Blaine - The Preppy Gay
• Sugar - The Spoiled Bittersweet Rich Bitch
• Joe - Teen Jesus

• Marley - The Humble Girl
• Jake - The New Bad Boy
• Unique - The Sassy Black Transgender
• Kitty - The New Alpha Bitch

...I ran out of tropes and I might have missed some people, but I'm proud of this list.

edited 25th Sep '12 10:08:07 AM by Keybreak

Well, I think Sam's shtick is "good-looking nerd." Then they added "poor guy" later.

edited 25th Sep '12 10:07:06 AM by Pannic

He's got that thing for impressions too, so...

Well I'd call him a geek instead. Artie is a nerd.

Him, Artie, and Blaine (or at least Darren) are the geek group.

But most of the stuff you listed isn't even tropes. It's more like Glee characters walk in with a huge billboard saying "LOOK AT ME I AM TROPE", and then actually turn out to have tons of Hidden Depths, taking their tropes into new territory.

But yeah, fusing The Beautiful Elite and The Bully... I don't see it. A Real Life Alpha Bitch will be the type to screw you over with a big smile, because they're popular and they damn well intend to remain so, even with you.

I've said, again and again, that this is and has always been Glee's greatest strength: transforming one note cliche characters into deep well rounded ones. Actual gay kids (myself include) can look up to Kurt and say, "I relate to him and his struggle, I feel like he could be a real person facing the same issues I am" even though he's flamingly gay in a way that most gay guys aren't actually (again, myself include). I think that more then anything, is what separated Glee from the pack, it's amazing character depth.

About half the stuff.

Sure they can be subversive, but they're still built off stereotropes.

If I looked closer I could probably find more...

Other people have already done that job on Glee

Hahaha, I wasn't liking this episode until halfway when Isabelle sang, Sam took off his shirt, and Finn came to New York.

I was really looking forward to the next episode anyway.

Did he get rejected from the Armz? Prettz strong feat, that.

Hudson men...

Something I just thought would be funny: Isabelle singing Come Little Children on the episode nearest Halloween. ;p

The debate was hilarious.

edited 27th Sep '12 8:35:35 PM by BearyScary

Tomorrow I will probably be watching Brittany 2.0. I'm quite looking forward to it. Watched the half-minute preview thing on Hulu, looks hilarious. Looks like Brittany's back to being funny again, which I felt she kinda lacked in season 3 as a result of becoming something of a satellite character for Santana (Santanalite character?). Or maybe not, and I was just really sore about Britanna. I'm man enough to admit that.

edited 27th Sep '12 9:52:42 PM by Pannic

Sore?

Well it's okay...this episode is set up so that all four power couples have a chance at dying.

Will's getting a new dream, Brittany's hot on Sam, Blaine's feeling neglected and Rachel's flirting with the college boy.

It's as if...they were all scripted to fail...

Four instances of The Paolo?

Blaine has been feeling neglected since 'The First Time', it's gotten way past old.

It's been confirmed that Finchel will break up, though.

Oh I loved the dramatic irony! As she is ready to consummate her adultery, Finn shows up on her doorstep like the inexorable voice of consciousness, and now the fool must face her reckoning! Kurt is now a full-blown Mary Sue, Sue has lost her teeth and seems to be rattling on for the principle of the thing, and Blaine is an adorable nerd and I love that.

Also, I ship Blam!, just because the name is funny as hell.

Kurt is not a Mary Sue—he's ignoring his boyfriend. ;/ That is shameful.

That word is still thrown around too much. "An implausibly flawless/competent idealized character"...he starts out as a shy intern who gets a lucky break and can't make room for his guy back home.

He's totally flawed and plausibly incompetent.

True, but the show still goes incredibly easy on him when it comes to moral responsibility.