Seven Things Glee Does Right

[babydraco]

1) Look, they didn’t hire an actor in a wheelchair to play a guy in a wheelchair and everyone is livid about that, apparently. But in all the complaining, people rarely mention that they did hire a developmentally disabled actor to play a developmentally disabled character. Not only did they hire Lauren Potter to play Becky, but they treat her character like a real human being, not a Very Special Episode sympathy pet, or a one note joke. She has ambitions, and competencies and a sex drive and the ability to be mean or racist.

2) While the actual facts may not be accurate, the show definitely captures perfectly the emotions and experiences of being an underfunded, underappreciated, high school performing arts club full of theater geeks desperate for fame and attention, full of unrealistic dreams and ridiculous sexual shenanigans. I’m pretty certain my high school drama club had most of those characters (although we were a pretty whitebread school so Santana, Tina, Mercedes and Mike might’ve looked different) it wasn’t as cut and dried as it would be in fiction, but they were definitely all in there somewhere. When it comes to how it felt to be in a group like that, it’s almost like the show was a fly on the wall twelve years ago in the band room where Next Step Theater practiced.

3) It shows positive, healthy, gay teenagers living normal lives and engaging in age appropriate behavior. In a world where you don’t have to hide your sexuality, you also don’t have to explore it by sneaking out of the house and lying to your parents to party at 21+ clubs where 35 year old creeps just sit there waiting for you to walk in and throw yourselves at them (or even worse, being taken advantage of by a neighbor or a teacher). Every advance in gay rights allows more gay teenagers the opportunity to remain blissfully naïve instead of ending up as jaded as they might have in previous generations. When gay kids can easily find each other because they’re allowed to mingle openly, they turn to each other for healthy sexual development, they can grow up at their own pace instead of having to adapt quickly to an adult sexual world because they don’ t know how to find their own peers. And let’s be honest, Glee really is one of the most positive portrayals of gay people on tv right now and since the world of television has evolved a lot on the subject of homosexual characters, they have a lot of healthy competition.

4) Despite my ranting about “inappropriate song choices” , I really am enamored of the type of musical that reinterprets pop songs in interesting, unexpected ways. I’ve designed fantasy versions in my head for years. The musical choices are unexpected and innovative.

5) They can accept and make use of, con crit. They’re using audience comments to help improve the show.

6) Despite the fact that conservative Christians loath the show, the show does not loath them back. There are five openly Christian characters and only one is portrayed as a bad person. They are respectful and understanding of the fact that some people have beliefs. In fact, some fans complain that the show’s Christo-normativity (?) is a little pushy.
7) They’ve got great clothes.

Comments

[coneyislandbaby]

More commentary when I can think, but yes to all of this, particuarly 1, 3 (remind me to rant to you about my feelings about the fandom and it's opinion of some of the gay characters) and 6.

[babydraco]

re 1) Someone on some TwoP thread said that Becky "wasn't funny anymore" when she first started showing up more. And I thought "Where are people getting the idea that she's supposed to be a joke?" I mean, she mostly plays a comic role, but...

3) rant away :)

6) They even had a character on the most recent ep lead his classmates in prayer before a show.