Reaction Post: This wasn't a year for winnning (Glee, Doctor Who)
Here is a reaction post. Plenty of thoughts in here. Contains some spoilers but basically just a lot of flailing about The Rebel Flesh and whatever the Glee season finale was called. (Why do American shows not tell you what their episodes are called? :P)
So, I haven't exactly been the biggest fan of Glee. I totally jumped on it when it was new and shiny, and kept watching more or less consistently through the first season. Then I fell out of love with it in Season Two, watching it - and enjoying it - less often. Right around where Kurt became the patron saint of gayness - and was suitably martyred - I decided I was done, and turned it off, even though my brother and sister still liked it. And overall, I've almost always been one of those fans who loves the idea of Glee more than they actually love Glee.
But that was one hell of a finale. I mean, really fabulous episode, all around. It was actually kind of wonderful, and nobody had a child, and there was young gay love without being YOUNG GAY LOVE LOOK IT'S TOTALLY OKAY IT GETS BETTER WE'RE INSPIRING. (I get that forcing that stuff down people's throats can be good, but it is not my cup of tea and I don't think Glee is necessarily the best about that.)
I didn't like the Will storyline at all, but that was five minutes out of forty-five, so I ain't even bovvered. Still think the idea of the kids actually writing the songs while they're a week away from performance is hilariously dumb - they could've just used the original songs they wrote for Sectionals, couldn't they? - but again, Will Schuester, and besides the plot makes sense about half the time and has since the beginning.
Disclaimer: I have latched onto a recent trend and watched this finale without seeing the few episodes preceding it, or, indeed, several episodes of Glee Season 2. I still understood 90% of it, though I still wondered: Why and when did Kurt leave Dalton? Puck and Lauren are still together, right? Is there a good reason for Jesse being back, or is that just the creator's lingering hard-on for Jonathan Groff? Why does the disgusting new director of VA look familiar? How many songs does each show choir perform? (New Directions does two, but Vocal Adrenaline appears to only do one - they're announced before it, and have a big celebratory hug afterward, rather than jumping right into another song.)
Finn and Rachel were appropriately cute, and I am kinda hoping they've now gotten out of the eternal Rachel-Finn-Quinn triangle, but that's too optimistic. At least Puck, Sam, and Santana have gravitated away from that polygon seemingly for good. But getting back to those two - "Manhattan work date" looks very good on them, and somehow Lea and Cory still managed to look like teenagers while also in a romantic comedy. "Bella Notte" was one of the sweetest things ever. I want a hallucinatory quartet of pretty boys singing Disney songs while I'm on dates!
Quinn Febray is legitimately unhinged, to cite the theory I subscribe to, and she had a few great moments tonight. I could point out that a drastic change in appearance is a red flag for depression/suicide, but it's also a legitimate coping mechanism, and the girl looks great. Bit sad she didn't have a resolution at the end, but I get that everything post-rankings was a cavalcade of couple cuteness (and two seconds of group celebration).
Rachel and Kurt's scene was the best part of the episode though, in my opinion. The songs they sang for Nationals were also nice, especially the second one ("Light up the Night," yeah?), but "For Good" was just transcendent. It wasn't that they were on the Wicked set (because they've already borrowed three of that musical's biggest stars and used them wonderfully, why not take another one?). It wasn't even the cute moment with the security guard beforehand. It was just a gay boy and a theatre diva singing their damn hearts out. (I had a moment like that in New York once - just 100x less gorgeous and profound.) And they were so good! The two biggest dreamers on the show, they've been catty and argued and torn each other apart, but ultimately they understand each other. And however much Rachel might get hated on (something I don't get), she has some big, powerful dreams, and this was the furthest they've gone since back in Season One to showing us how much those dreams matter to her. Plus, it's just an amazing song, and it has some personal significance for me, too. I loved that scene so much. :)
And poor Finn gets some more character development, although it should be pointed out that a) that kiss was great; b) really good kissing does not usually stop time; c) all the other kids fully understood the implications of putting those two in a lovers' duet, but still urged it along. And d) they were competing against really intense, elite show choir teams, so surely that one kiss was not the only thing that took them out of the top ten; Jesse is a douchenozzle and it's to his best advantage to say that, but that doesn't make it true. Also, they beat 38 of the absolute best teams in the nation... With songs they wrote themselves. That's got to be good for their resume, if nothing else. Why are they so surprised they get a banner in their school, just because they were not absolutely 100% the Number 1 champions?
(The writers did kinda tip their hand, though; the actual performances didn't start until the episode was 2/3 over, so if New Directions had advanced to the top 10 they would've only had 5-10 minutes to take the kids to the round where they finally lost, plus a few minutes to wrap up. Winning was out of the question at that point.)
I approved of cutting the ridiculous judging-room moments that they had in all the Sectionals/Regionals episodes, because that joke kinda wore thin for me. But that might've just been a thing Ryan Murphy cut because he, unlike Russell T. Davies, does not get to extend his season finales' running time if he feels like it. Sucks for you, American TV. :P
The little montage at the end with all the new couples and friends was pretty wonderful. The last-minute Mercedes/Sam hand grab was super-cute, but kind of out of the blue so I don't know how to respond except "Aww." Reminded me of the last-minute Sally Sparrow hand grab, except that will never be continued/followed up with a plethora of love polygons in the fall. But hey, way to showcase two multi-ethnic pairs, two same-sex pairs, and two opposite-sex pairs, show! And Santana is still the best. I could watch her and Brittany for ages.
Finally, I wasn't quite sure what Patti LuPone was doing there, besides that either she wanted to be on the show or the producers wanted her there and both of them have loads of money so that worked out. Good for all of them!
Anyway, speaking of productions with loads of money and powerful stars playing important cameos (the sun... yeah this is kind of a stretch), how about that "Rebel Flesh"? I was pretty darn fond of that too! I wouldn't even say it was a letdown after the utter brilliance that was "The Doctor's Wife," because they're so different; that one was a more intimate, character-driven piece, celebrating a relationship that's spanned decades. The Rebel Flesh was an adventure story, the more traditional mode of Doctor Who. It's hard to judge without having seen "The Almost People" (which used to be called "Gangers"), but I think that if it ends well this story could go right up there as the next "Impossible Planet/Satan Pit" with the best mid-season two-parters. Specifically, the two-parter with a strong cast, that happens to be a horror-movie-lite style of adventure, with a deeper undercurrent to provoke some thought. (Not sure who to be rooting for in this supposed war? That's the intention...)
It's funny, I like Series 5, and I remember really liking it. Last I checked, it was tied with Series 3 as my second-favorite series of Doctor Who - after Series 4, if anyone's keeping track. But I feel like I am enjoying Series 6 so much more than I did then... Even though it is a big tease which is full of mystery for the sake of mystery (hello, Schroedinger's pregnancy) and things that serve no discernable purpose but to raise tension for later (hello, Madame Eyepatch!). It is still cracking good sci-fi fun. Whatever they are doing, I approve.
Some smaller random notes:
~Love the scene at the beginning, that was just absolutely pitch-perfect. The clothes scattered around the TARDIS stairs and Rory playing darts were so domestic and great. They felt like two people who were living together on the time machine. I'm sure this has something to do with the expansion of Eleven's control room, and something to do with the Ponds' dynamic, and something to do with last week's TARDIStravaganza, but the TARDIS feels much more like home than it ever did under Ten. Not just home base, but a proper, welcoming space home.
~Rory and Jennifer's interaction was great. For the third episode in a row, he acts like a nurse, woohoo. That kiss was a good character moment, without falling into "ahoy, shipping drama here." Rory in general is one of the best things about this episode - I've heard this said several places, but for good reason; he gets more development than Amy here and it really suits him. He's so great. She's a lucky girl!
~And yes, all the best episodes are now getting penned by people who are not Moffat. Hopefully he reserved all his actual writing talent for the finales?
~Like in the aforementioned Impossible Planet story, cutting the number of roles really helped here. After the giant ensemble piece of the first two episodes, and the somewhat smaller piratical cast, the last two episodes have greatly improved from lack of people. They're tighter, and more consistent, and you just know people (and almost people) are going to die come next week.
~So far in Series Six, we've had two episodes featuring the idea of alternate universes connected to ours - in a different way than Pete's World or the Inferno World - and now a two-parter devoted to clones, which features a cloned Doctor. Anyone get a good look at those shoes Eleven's wearing in The Impossible Astronaut? :P
(Essentially, he is coming back and Steven Moffat has now set up even more options for bringing him back. How was that death supposed to be big and dramatic, again?)
~Rory didn't die once. HA.
~The one New Who episode that the writer, Matthew Graham, did prior to this was "Fear Her," the episode where Ten and Rose investigate a council home, a girl is sad and alone, and Ten carries the Olympic Torch.
I actually liked Fear Her; it was cute and fluffy and full of the amazing dynamic between Ten and Rose, when they were completely in love but neither of them had to say it. But I know many fans really dislike that one - 'twas rated #200 out of 200 in an official poll, among other things - so clearly the solution is give this guy two-parters. Yay clones!
And I don't have that much more to say. Tl;dr - I am really enjoying television at present. And now, off to finish some Classic Who fic.