The Thing About Your Past, It Must Always Last.

It's Sunday Afternoon, and except for my Grandfather's birthday dinner (which isn't until this evening), I gloriously have nothing to do all day - so I've been catching up on what I've missed on YouTube and rounding up fun, wacky, and just plain awesome videos to share! ( A Buncha Videos Under The Cut )

Dear Ryan Murphy,


PLEASE. I am begging you on bended knee: Stop writing plotlines surrounding Will Schuester's gross obsession with Emma and inability to function romantically! Because it's not endearing, watching him ruthlessly pursue a woman who has already clearly rejected him. It doesn't make me cheer for Will and Emma as a couple to watch her get him shirtless, then abruptly become horrified with herself and run back to the boyfriend who has been good for her. It makes me feel icky, and it makes me want to turn off the show.

And R.Murph, that's a shame. Because you have all the ingredients for something really wonderful in this show - you have a bunch of charismatic young people who really understand and embody the characters they are playing, and each of them deserve the opportunity to shine in plotlines that actually show their character development.

Mercedes stepping up to play Frank-N-Furter was INSPIRED. She completely rocked that solo, and I would have loved to have seen more from her this episode.

Brittany and Santana just had a big fight, and we didn't see how they worked it out. You had them singing and dancing together during Touch-A Touch Me, but couldn't you have given them a scene together?

Mike Chang, who has been my favorite character since before you even gave him lines, is finally getting a little more room to shine, but why don't you give us a story line that actually shows some of the family problems he's been hinting at in his fight with Tina and his parents not wanting him to do the show?

Just - just stop with Will. He's awful. He didn't start out that way, in fact I kind of liked him for a lot of the first season, but episodes that focus on him are always awful and icky and leave me wanting a shower. His romantic life is pitiful and gross, and the reason those story lines creep me out as much as they do is because the show writes those stories in a way that's asking me to feel sorry for him, or cheer for him, or be on his side. And I can't be on his side, Ryan Murphy. I can't be on Will Schuester's side because I think that he has terrible attitudes toward women, and that he's bad for Emma. Despite his frequent moments of remorse over his behavior, Will Schuester has shown himself to be incapable of genuine self-reflection and has a disturbing tendency to act incredibly selfishly without regard to how it will affect the people around him, including the students he is responsible for.

And the thing is, Ryan Murphy, that you don't actually have to figure out how to *fix* Will as a character. In fact, I don't want you to (or, to be quite honest, think you can). Just stop focusing the plot on his storylines and give the other incredibly talented actors in your cast some space to shine.

I am a fan of the show. I love that it tries so hard, and takes on issues that other shows don't. When it's good, it is so good - but it has problems. And the problem that poses the biggest danger of making me turn the show off for good? Is Will Schuester.

All that said, there were a lot of elements of the Rocky Horror episode that I liked. At this point, though, an actual show recap is a whole other post.

I was underwhelmed by the first episode of Glee this season.

Basically all we did was rehash some major themes from last season, such as:
( Everyone is exactly the same as last year )

Narratively, it's re-setting the scene for a new season and essentially putting everything back to where it was in the first place. I'm left so cold by this episode because I don't want to watch the same season over again.

There were a few things I did like.
( Sometimes, good things happen )


But tomorrow night is Episode 2! And despite all its problems, Glee still gets me excited. So that's a point in its favor. And I've also just learned that ( CASTING SPOILER FOR LATER THIS SEASON )

The theme this week was amazing! Reclaiming songs with terrible reputations is so perfect for this show. All of those songs are guilty pleasure songs, and they all work so well for Glee.

Jonathan Groff's continued appearance makes me so happy. The acting isn't phenomenal, but it's just the right kind of cheesy. And it cannot be denied, the boy gives good face. Specifically, good comically taking himself too seriously face. He and Lea Michele are so funny together - Lea's goofiest acting, her most over-the-top reaction shots, come when she's on screen with Jonathan and the end result of them being overly-dramatic at each other is me being amused and charmed by the pair of them. I want them to get their own behind-the-scenes-of-Glee reality show.

The poor library group - that whole thing was so adorable. They just want bad reputations! So they're gonnna make noise in the library! I love all of them.

Emma & Will - Oh man, this episode was awesome for this pair! I loved that being called a slut was actually really detrimental to Will's reputation, and I loved that Emma didn't instantly forgive him AND called him out on expecting her to. I'm not really rooting for them as a pair. I'm more rooting for Emma to do whatever is best for her, and if Will shapes up enough only then will I be happy to see them get together.

Sue Sylvester - her scenes with her sister are so incongruous, but I really enjoy them. Sue's becoming a more interesting character, I think. She's being given depth without being robbed of her sharp edges, which I think is really good.

Once again, I have to ask - WHERE IS MIKE CHANG? GIVE THAT BOY SOME LINES, PLEASE! OR AT LEAST AN EXTENDED DANCE SOLO! Honestly, it's getting to the point where I want to start a petition. Or the "Fans of Glee for More Mike Chang, Please" Facebook Club.


PS - ohmigodmollyshannonisongleeohmigodohmigodohmygod! I love Molly Shannon. Molly Shannon is from the cast of SNL that I grew up with, and she was my FAVORITE. I hope she stays!

Embedding Disabled on Moses Supposes, but you should watch it anyway

A few weeks ago, I was watching movies at a friends house. We saved Singin' in the Rain for last-of-the-night and only got half-way through before we were too tired to finish. But we talked about it as we were watching, and during the Moses Supposes number linked above I mentioned that I really wish more modern movies had awesome dance breaks. She pointed out (to our mutual horror) that the closest thing contemporary Hollywood has to a Gene Kelly or a Donald O'Conner is the cast of High School Musical. And in the acting world, it's kind of true - the movie actors who CAN sing and dance (Neal Patrick Harris, Hugh Jackman, &c) are known for being Broadway crossover actors but tend to keep their singing and dancing to the stage and off the silver screen. The non-tween singing and dancing movies are more likely to cite Bollywood as their influence (see: Bride & Prejudice (2004)) than Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire. Interestingly, musical numbers do occasionally crop up on TV - in every episode of Glee, in that well-known episode of Buffy, twice this season on How I Met Your Mother. Delighted as I am by this, I feel it can be put down to added pressure on the writers to do something new for the show. And it tends to be more of a novelty item than anything else.

But then again - perhaps our storytelling through song and dance has just migrated to the short form, ie music videos. The boybands of the 90s were all known for their choreography as much as their music, as is Beyoncé, Chris Brown, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson. The dance style en vogue may not be tap any longer (though I would love to see it make a comeback!) but if we're desperate for a song-and-dance fix we don't need to watch a 90 minute film when there's a 4 minute music video readily available. It sort of makes me yearn for the longer form, though. There are a lot of bands I like who release albums where every single song would make a gorgeous music video. There are a lot of really interesting concept albums that are thematically strung together to tell an overall story. I would love to see a band turn their entire album into a music video - craft each song into a chapter in the overall story of the album. Muse's latest album The Resistance is a perfect example of this. The album is basically a space opera that I would love to see brought to life visually - and why not stage it as a musical with dance routines helping to tell the story? Perhaps not every moment, but at least in part. I feel like there's room for longer form musical storytelling in the mainstream, and maybe doing it through music rather than through drama is the way for the form to gain authenticity right now.