GLEE finale: Graduation, Dreams

I enjoyed the Glee finale. I actually did. I'm a sucker for finales. I’m going to talk about why more in depth, obviously, and the reason I’ve decided to talk about Glee again is because I liked this finale for more reasons than what I said in my last post. (Of course those reasons will be mentioned again)

First, I want to say something about the songs. I don’t normally talk about the songs, because they are normally a stupid waste of time only used to sell iTunes singles, but every now and then they work for me. And since this may be the last time I talk about Glee in a positive light I might as well talk about them for a moment.  They work for me when a song is being sung and it cuts between the performance of the song and some other story. Like Blaine singing Cough Syrup to Karofsky’s suicide attempt, or Shake It Out to Beiste’s not leaving Cooter. The best example, though, will always be the Season One finale, Bohemian Rhapsody to Quinn giving birth. (Seriously. Go on Netflix. Go to Glee, Season one, episode 22. 18 minutes, 35 second in. Fantastic.) I thought Puck and Finn singing Glory Days as the graduating ceremony was happening was stupid, but it was good because it has to be viewed as them not literally performing it, but it was how they were feeling. Just like that song Rachel was singing on the train. She wasn’t actually singing it on the train; it’s just how she was feeling. And that’s the point of having a musical, to quote Abed: “they sing what they mean instead of making a face.” It’s a reason why people don’t like the genre, but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful.

Lots of the time, I really do dislike Glee. I’ve already talked about the reasons I still suffer through watching it. I may one day write about all the reasons I thinks it’s awful.  I dislike it most when it tries to be like a normal television show. With little weekly plotlines and stories about the characters that don’t come up again, just used to fill in the episode or for wherever/whatever Ryan Murphy’s ego trip takes us that week/makes the characters. Like Artie being interested in directing, or Blaine’s relationship with his brother. I mean, some of them are average, run-of-the-mill TV fodder, but Glee isn’t really successful when it tries to tell any specific character stories. It is successful when it tells larger, universal/archetypal ones. Glee is really good at playing off big emotional moments, especially big moments lots of people have lived through (like graduating high school. (Glee doesn’t have to be subtle, so neither should I)). When it takes those moments and puts it on the characters, instead of the other way around, it works so much better.

“Goodbye” doesn’t have a plot. Pretty much nothing happens. They graduate. They sing songs.  Yet the episode was moving, sad, and entrancing. It felt so momentous, because when we went through it, it felt. So. Momentous. I know when I graduated--only two years ago--I felt lost and excited, just like these crazy Glee bastards. Because the world was now in front of me, and I had no idea what to do with that. It’s terrifying. Because of the very real possibility of failure.

Failure, as I talked about before, has always been prevalent in the really good episodes of Glee. Because, think about it, these are kids who love to perform. I don’t know the actual statistics, but I’m pretty sure high school performers are less likely to “make it big” than high school athletes (which also has pretty low stats). Again, like I said last time, look at your parents. Some of them might be doing what they love. But they are few and far between. And if they are doing what they love it’s probably in the context of a basic middle-class life. (Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a basic, middle-class life, I’m just saying: most dreams, especially teenage dreams, are a little bigger than that) So when the show even allows the possibility of this, it’s pretty successful in my eyes.

I know that on one point this show is about the “joy of performing.” But joy is boring, from a dramatically interesting standpoint. (Which is probably why I’m having a hard time writing about the funny episodes of all the wonderful sitcoms I watch) So when the show does those episodes about how much fun they’re having, it sucks. When they toss in stupid melodramatic plots to counteract that, it also sucks. When they try to have melodramatic plots about these kids confronting serious/important issues, it’s mostly a 50/50. But when the show is about these crazy Glee bastards confronting the fact that they could end up never doing what they love, staying in their hometown, working at Linens ‘N’ Things or the Lima, Ohio equivalent of Big Y, it’s often been fantastic. Or at least wonderful. Ok, at the very least, it doesn’t make me want to murder small woodland creatures.

That brings me to Rachel Berry. Now, there was no denying that Rachel was going to be the girl to get out. It’s been established since the pilot. To make her character not get into NYADA (a word I NEVER want to hear spoken again) would be to completely kill the point they were making with her character.  Rachel is talented, that’s always been made clear. But she’s also got the persistence. She harassed Whoopi Goldberg enough to get into NYADA, as only one minor example. She’s motivated, she’s driven. You can see that from all the shit in her bedroom and locker. And how every other sentence she’s said since season one has included the word “Broadway,” “New York,” or “star.”

Rachel is painfully, obnoxiously annoying. Annoying as holy hell. She’s been insufferable about her dreams. Going on and on and on and on about them. Nonstop. We all know someone (or many people) like this. Who has a goal or a dream and are constantly doing stuff to work on getting there, constantly talking about it. And it’s annoying. Irritating. Obnoxious. But the point being made is that those people annoying you with their “big dreams” and with their frequent, if not nonstop, working on them are often the people that will achieve those dreams. Don’t get me wrong, there a certainly completely delusional people out there, but there are those people we know that just seem destined to live out their dream lives. Glee reminds us that the successful people of this planet we live on, 9 times out of 10, are the Rachel Berrys. The people who talk nonstop about what it will take to become a pro-athlete or a famous actor or the president. And it’s funny. Because we admire that quality when they’re up there, giving their inauguration speeches, post-Super Bowl interviews, and Oscar speeches, but we find it immensely irritating in real life. I, for one, have a hard time deciding what to eat for breakfast, why would I want to deal with someone who knows EXACTLY where the next thirty years will take them?  

I should talk specifically about the actual episode a little, though. Most of the scenes were nice; tying up storylines about where all these characters are going. Mercedes is going to LA to be a backup singer for some indie label. Quinn is going to Yale, and she’ll be able to walk around and dance if she wants to, I guess. Santana’s got an envelope full of Gloria Estefan’s money, so she’s all set to do whatever. Will finally tells Finn how much of a creeper he was back in the pilot when he spied on him in the shower and then planted weed in his locker. (Remember??) Brittany is staying at McKinley, because she’s a moron. A loveable, good-looking, dancing, fat cat having, moron. Puck managed to graduate, which I suppose is a victory in itself. And the underclassmen will be fine until next fall, probably. And the teachers once again say goodbye to another generation of kids they’ve grown too fond of, forever sending young people off into an uncertain world.

Most of these scenes are only motivated by the fact that it’s the finale and they’re graduating. But that’s enough for it to be good, because when they move plot aside to focus on the emotional moments, it always works. Nearly always, at least. The Puck and Brittany scenes were meh for me, and I feel like they could’ve done something better with the Santana stuff. But what I was unprepared for was the Quinn/Sue goodbye scene. I didn’t expect to be affected by it, but I was. And I don’t think it was just because I enjoy both Jane Lynch and Dianna Agron.

Two other scenes stuck out for me, and I’m sure they stuck out for most people as well. First: the scene where Rachel, Kurt and Finn are opening their letters. Finn doesn’t get into the Actor’s Studio (Which makes complete sense and no one should be mad/upset/surprised about). Rachel gets into NYADA (and I repeat, makes total sense and no one should get mad about it). But Kurt doesn’t get in. They’ve normally been really good to Kurt in that he’s gone through a lot of shit but has always come out on top. So it’s sad, yes, but kind of nice that they made something bad happen to their saint character that won’t be fixed for a while. But God, that scene nailed the emotional shit, because that moment has happened to everybody. Lord knows I remember opening my BU letter, taking like two hours of trembling before clicking on the link, to see my rejection written out so plainly. And the several days after that, feeling defeated, sad, depressed. Having to change my plans (I would say dreams, to be more fitting, but I didn’t really have any).

Finn’s joining the army was a gutsy move, only because they mentioned the possibility only ONCE before, in that episode where he learns his father’s death hadn’t been as noble as he’d thought. But it makes sense that he does that instead of going out to try to become a star. Because that’s not who Finn is. He’s always just been there as the support for Rachel. He’s a loser and a lummox. He only was able to become the lead because they needed a lead and he looked the part. But that scene where Finn drives Rachel to the train station. Lea Michele and Cory Montieth kill it. They nailed it. It was great. It was great because it goes on and on and on and on, and never seems like it’s going to end, because you’re seeing a whole set of dreams disintegrating in front of these kids’ eyes, replaced by another, much more uncertain one. But that’s the way the dreams you have at 17 or 18 are. They gradually fall apart, and then you build new ones. Or maybe you get caught up in the old ones and wish for a way to go back, for a time machine you don’t have. I’ll quote Springsteen (I figure it’s appropriate because they sang Glory Days DURING the graduation ceremony, which was lame. Finn was singing as he was giving Emma a hug and accepting his diploma, smh) : Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?

The COMMUNITY finale

Ok, I got sent to Twitter jail, and I couldn't NOT say something. Luckily I started this blog.
I'm shaking from excitement and from all the energy I exerted these past hours, so I know I won't be able to write out all my thoughts and feelings about the finale, let alone the other two episodes, let alone let alone the show as a whole.

But I just needed to say that those final scenes made me feel so many feelings. And I know I would have cried if the show didn't get renewed and that was it. I would have died. Dead. Done. Best show ever. Six seasons and a movie. I can't even make a proper sentence because I'm so damn excited and filled with emotions.

I think what I'll do when I talk about Community is go one episode at a time. Compile a list of my all-time favorites that have such powerful significance for me to talk about. I don't think I'll ever find the words to write about this season's finale, though. But I think I can do some episodes justice.

GLEE

Don’t know how to start this professionally so I’ll just jump right in:

I think the stuff in the body-swap episode really pinpoints the stuff that I like about Glee. In fact, a lot of episodes this season did, but they become a blur to me. I feel like season two was a real mess in that it completely lost its direction due to its huge-hit status and so just started going slightly insane, burning through plotlines and story arcs like Ozai burning through the Earth Kingdom (can I get a ‘Yip Yip’?). Season 3 still had some of this, but much less so than that second season. So what I like most about Glee can be seen in most of the first season and a handful of the almost-over season three.

I know I don't like Finn, and that's bad because it prevented me from fully getting into and appreciating his story arc, because it really nails, once again, the stuff that I like about Glee. First I guess I should explain why I hate Finn. Cory Monteith (who's THIRTY by the way) played Charlie Tanner on Kyle XY. Charlie Tanner was a douche that cheated on the wonderful and dare-I-say perfect Amanda (Kirsten Prout). So I hate him/ I know that's stupid, but fuck you. Also, his original character on Glee--popular athlete with a hidden passion for singing--was a little too High School Musical for my taste. ANYway,

The prime example that was in this episode was Rachel’s little monologue in the car with Tina on her way to harass Whoopi Goldberg. Also, parts of Tina’s wonderful rant at the beginning of the episode. “Isn’t she the one who had a stutter?” 

What originally brought me to watch Glee was the review of the pilot episode at The AV Club. Also, I will admit, I am a fan of a good song and dance number. Let’s be real, everyone enjoys a good performance, there’s no denying. And some of those song and dances have been quite phenomenal (See season one’s finale, for example). But what I really liked was the inherent sadness that was a part of Glee. Will Scheuster (a character I’ve come to hate and only appreciate when he’s creepily smiling in the corner during a performance) was a man who had failed.  His dreams didn’t come true. That’s sad in itself, but it’s made more tragic by the fact that he went back to his high school, the place of his glory days, and tripped into a job as a Spanish teacher if only to be in that place and cling on to that dead and gone dream. Rachel was a girl, albeit obsessive and a little conceited (turned a lot conceited) and crazy, who was talented and whose talent was going unnoticed and unappreciated.  You had your bullied-gay-kid and kid-in-a-wheelchair, because Glee wanted to let you know from the very beginning that it wasn’t going to be subtle or put in any effort at all to be subtle.  

What I’m saying is you feel bad for these people. Or at least you were meant to.  And once season-one-Will’s arc (thankfully) became much more minor halfway through, after him ending it with his high-school-sweetheart-turned-assistant-manager-of-Sheets-N-things-crazy-with-fake-pregnancy-nonsense-wife (who I actually miss, btw), it got to what the show really became/is about: life as a teenager. 

When you’re a teenager everything is a big deal and blown out of proportion. It’s an earth-shattering moment when you get dumped by your boyfriend via text message or if you have a bad hair day. You feel like a king when you give a presentation without stuttering like season-one-Tina or when you’re made captain of your (insert sport here) team. Or when you jump up and cheer with the rest of your band/choir mates when your Superior rating is announced your sophomore year after getting a Fair when you were a freshman (Mr. Tedeschi surprisingly didn’t murder anyone, which I attribute to the wonder and magic of Disney World). These things matter; they’re big deals. 

It’s the over exaggerated, over dramatic highs and lows of something like picking out a prom dress that shows that being a teenager is filled with such high energy and excitement and confusion and chaos. I often call Glee nonsense and a confusing hot mess, but I continue to watch it. It’s because I know it’s a confusing hot mess because that’s what it’s like being a teenager and that’s what this show is about (Of course there are things about the show that I loathe, like their unnecessary PSA episodes, but I’ll talk about that another time, maybe). 

The second big thing Glee is about is dreaming. Most especially teenagers and their dreams. The best part about Glee is that it makes it clear that most dreams do not and will not come true. That’s something that other shows have dealt with, but Glee deals with it in the context of teenagers. And when you’re at an age where who you sit with at lunch is more important than who the president is, your dreams are the ultimate epitome (redundant, I know, but I want to get the point across) of a big freakin’ deal. 

I’ve liked season 3 because of its focus on being a senior and graduating, the most annoyingly stressful time in a young adult’s life, for sure.  Finn’s storyline during this time gets a bit iffy, but it encapsulates the reason I like the show. He doesn’t know what the fuck he wants to do (even though now he does, apparently, but it’s too convenient for me and doesn’t make sense, he wants to be an actor all of a sudden?) with his life. And although I think Will’s method in the Saturday Night Fever episode of him taking Santana, Mercedes, and Finn into a room and saying “FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIVES BY THE END OF THE WEEK. ALSO, a song and dance number on this floor Sue pulled out of her ass” is the most LUDACRIOUS thing ever, the scenes with Finn in that episode hit hard on the fact that sometimes, you’ve gotta accept that you’re a loser. Like Will. That maybe whatever dreams you may have will not come true. Because most of the time they don’t. That’s why I can put up with Rachel. She is the way she is because she wants her dreams to come true so badly, so painfully badly. She doesn’t want to accept the very real possibility of a failed dream. 

Finn not getting the football scholarship and thinking about giving up and working as a mechanic. Rachel choking at her audition and being completely devastated as her dreams walk out of the theater under Whoopi’s head-scarf. Quinn getting pregnant. All of these things happening in the swirling chaos that are the high school years are intense to say the least. And when those things happened to those characters, and they don’t know what to do next, that’s it. It’s that emotion they are able to capture at those times, the feeling of what it is to not know what comes next, that’s why I watch Glee.

Because that’s the feeling you get, and all you high school seniors will know what I mean. It’s May. You all have got about a month left. Many of you may know what you’re doing next fall. I’m sure some of you don’t. I’m sure there a many of you who are going to a college with no idea of a major, no idea of what you actually want to do with your life. Or no idea of how to fulfill the dreams you have. Or you know what you want to do, how to fulfill your dreams, but have no plan for if and when an obstacle comes in your way and throws you completely off course.

That brings me all the way back to that body-swapping episode.  What Rachel says in the car to Tina. She’s terrified that her dreams won’t come true (and she doesn’t have a backup plan). To paraphrase what she says: Think of most of the adults you know. Things may have used to go there way (in high school, perhaps? winkwink) and now have jobs that they hate and/or live lives that they don’t even recognize. ( I was about to recommend sitting down with your parents and asking them what their dreams were when they were in high school, but I feel like that could lead to a real bummer of a conversation, and in an extreme case a potential divorce.) So she’s terrified that she will have to give up. Or settle. Settling may be worse than giving up. She’s TERRIFIED of that. Having to live a life like season-one-Will. Settling for what’s just good enough to get by. And I don’t mean get by in economic terms. Settling for what’s good enough, just good enough, to not want to kill yourself. And that sounds depressing. Because it is. 

It’s not everyone. But it’s most people. Most people will settle. Most people are, like Tina, in the background (a better example would be those kids who play the instruments for the Glee club, they are SUPER in the background). There are far more people dreaming about being in movies than there are people who dream about being an assistant regional manager at a second-rate paper company. But there are far more not-famous people than there are famous people. There are far more people sitting in a cubicle than there are Nobel Prize winners or astronauts. 

And I like Glee for showing those moments and being able to say those things; I really appreciate the fact that they do make it clear that most dreams don’t come true. I’m not saying I enjoy depressing, sad, and borderline macabre type things, I’m saying I appreciate that Glee treats these as real and important parts of life. There’re as integral to the human experience as happiness is. Not everything is all sunshine and rainbows. There will be sunshine and rainbows. But there will be rain and clouds just as often.  There will be show-stopping performances. There will be those four years of high school that feel like they’ll never end. Those friendships, those people you care so much about, those people you love.  But the curtain will always close. You’re gonna wake up, seniors, one day soon. It might not be in June or July or even in a year from now. But you’re gonna wake up. And they won’t be there anymore. Sure, you’ve got Facebook and cell phones. But that won’t stop it. Trust me. The train doesn’t stop. The curtain closes. Fade to black. And then whatever comes next.

I don’t mean for this to be depressing. I could try to be optimistic and say “The curtain will close, so end on a high note!” or something like that. But that won’t solve anything. Just look at Will Schuester. You end on too high of a note, and you’ll never want that note to end. You could end up lost in a life you don’t recognize, living in desperation of your lost dreams, living in painful nostalgia. 

Okay, I’m getting super depressing. But I’m saying all that because, once again, that’s why I like Glee. I’m definitely writing about Community soon, and that will have much more positive messages and such. Don’t think I’m a super depressing person. It’s just that I want to explain why I like Glee. I like it because of its inherent depression. Sadness is just as important as happiness. You need the sorrowful and the joyful. That’s the message here. I’m not trying to be too philosophical or come off as pretentious, but if I do, so be it.