Glee? More like Gloom!

Glee? More like Gloom!

Anyone that knows me knows that I have an extremely complicated and unhealthy relationship with the show “Glee.” I have invested precious time, sweat, and tears into it. I’m the type of person who finds something that they like, be it book, movie, show, band, and gets extremely invested in it. If I like a show, I will watch every episode in existence probably more than once, keep updated on spoilers, follow the cast on Twitter, tweet them unnecessarily throughout the day, and talk about the show with anyone I come into contact with for months. Maybe I’m pathetic, but I know I’m not the only one who reacts this way. At this point you’re probably thinking that I’m insane and need a lot of prayers sent my way and a good intervention, and that would be correct but that’s not the point of this article.  The point is that this week it was announced that “Glee” has been renewed for two more seasons. Now, I’m a huge fan of “Glee,” and one of the biggest Gleeks out there, but  at the same time I absolutely despise what the show “Glee” has become. Enough is enough, and it’s about time that “Glee” gets cancelled. Here’s why.

I first heard about “Glee” four years ago. I heard that it was a show about show choir and immediately wrote it off as High School Musical 2.0 and wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. It wasn’t until a year later that I decided to watch it just to see what the fuss was about. Once I realized that it wasn’t just a show about a bunch of kids frolicing throught the hallways while singing show tunes for thirty minutes, I really started to like the show.  After I was introduced to the crude humor of Sue Sylvester, the sassiness of Mercedes Jones, the obnoxiousness of Rachel Berry, and the bravery of Kurt Hummel, I found myself  rooting for these characters and enjoying every element of the show. It was different than anything I had seen on TV before. They had a way of dealing with the character’s stories in a way that was incredibly relatable. They brought forth topics in a way that I could understand, such as sexuality and self confidence. Sure, I had seen these topics talked about on other shows, like Degrassi or Skins, but “Glee” dealt with these topics in a creative way. There was always a sense of hope and love behind every single storyline that really caught my attention. As Heather Hogen from AfterEllen.com said, “ When Glee does it right, it does it better than anyone.”

However, when “Glee” does it wrong, boy does it go completely wrong. As seasons progressed and time went by, “Glee” started to lose more and more of that unique element that made it such an amazing show. This season, season four, has been one of the most excruciating thing I’ve ever watched in my seventeen years of life. Granted, this season was definitely a transition season. At the end of  the last season, almost every character we have grown to love over the past four years graduated, so we were left with questions about what the new season would bring. This season made me so angry I couldn’t, and still can’t, handle it. With a huge portion of the original cast gone, and some not to be seen for extremely long periods of time, we were introduced to four new characters. I have nothing against introducing new characters and bringing new life into the show. However, I do have an issue with the writers being too lazy to come up with new storylines and thinking that their viewers will be too dumb to notice that they are just recycling old ones from seasons past, while at the same time adding a whole bunch of things in between that no one cares about. These new characters have absolutely no substance for me; they are bootleg versions of old characters and I just can’t get behind them. It doesn’t help that they are taking so much time away from characters we know and watch to hear more from. Instead, they give attention to these new characters that we couldn’t care less about.

In addition to shoving pointless storylines, the song choices are become just as pointless. Tell me why it was necessary for them to cover “Gangam Style”? Was the cover any good? Absolutely not. Should they think twice about putting this cover on the show? Yes, they definitely should have. This has been the case for so many elements of “Glee” as of late. It seems like no one is really thinking about the things that they are putting into the show. The  writers and creators of “Glee” have become so obsessed with popularity, getting the most views they can, and selling the most songs they can, that they have made extremely poor decisions in order to do so. They have brought so many controversial topics to the table that they feel like it’s their responsibility to take them all on and make people understand. Unfortunately, they don’t  know how to handle what they want to talk about. For example, in this season we were introduced to a girl name Marley Rose and she struggled with an eating disorder. The problem with this story was that it was handled very disrespectfully and poorly. They tried to show Marley’s struggle and  how serious this issue is while at the same time downplaying how serious it is. One minute we would see Marley crying and struggling with her self confidence issues, and the next we would see her peers not taking her issue seriously and telling her to get over it. It was very contradictory and confusing. Another controversial topic that “Glee” has brought to the table is gun control. Two weeks ago they caught us all off guard with a shooting at the school. There were a couple of things wrong with this episode. In my opinion, it was way too soon after the shooting in Connecticut to write for this story; no one asked for it  and it came off as a way for “Glee” to get more views by taking on a topic that is being widely discussed right now. It was very tacky to me, and we really could have done without it. It was also unfortunate to see them make Becky Jackson, a down syndrome cheerleader, the one to bring the gun to school. One thing I really enjoyed about Becky’s character was that she was never looked down upon or pitied for her disability. Because of this, the fact that they decided to write her in as the one who brought the gun to school really disappointed me because it felt like they were just using her disability for the sake of the plot.

Overall, “Glee” has completely drifted from the show it used to be. It used to be a show that brought happiness, awareness, and understanding to it’s viewers. Now it seems that it is doing the exact opposite. Storylines are starting to become completely pointless, and the show is losing its meaning. Because of this, it really baffles me that it has been renewed for two more seasons. I think “Glee” had its time to be great and now it is becoming something that none of its fans recognize. Fox would have made a good decision to have this season be the last, but alas, they decided to try continue the show. It is because I know how good “Glee” can be that I get so upset that “Glee” has turned out the way it has. I would love to see Ryan Murphy, the creator of “Glee,” and his group of writers get their act together, but I’m afraid from what I’ve seen from the last couple of seasons that’s not going to happen.