One To Grow Weary On

Remember when I used to love Glee?  When it was fun and funny and mostly good-natured silliness and over-the-top insults with a sweet underlying message about acceptance and individuality with a bunch of catchy, auto-tuned, entertaining songs throughout?  I know, I barely do either. 

Somewhere along the way the show became so self-satisfied that it stopped trying to be about anything and started trying to be about...everything?  Bullying is bad, unless it's funny.  Emma is over Will and her new dentist husband has improved her issues, except that now OCD isn't just funny, it's a real, debilitating disease that keeps her from having sex so now they're not married and she needs medication to eat her grapes.  Sue hates Glee club except when they might lose and then she secretly likes them but still wants to destroy them but not really.  The glee club are friends with a strong "us against the world" bond unless there is no world against them and then they spend all of their time infighting and back stabbing.  Religion, health scares, sick kids, down syndrome, closeted teens, poor self image, tater tot addiction - you name it, they want to make a very special episode out of it.

If I have to sit through one more lecture from this show about how bad bullying is while they try to make me feel sympathy for Santana who is in the top three worst bullies at the school (the order goes: Karofsky, Sue, Santana), I will lose my shit.  Santana is the epitome of my biggest beef with the show - that they completely change the personalities of their characters to fit the lesson they're trying to impart regardless of how the character has ever acted before.  Quinn is pregnant, off the Cheerios and kicked out of her home? She becomes a sweetheart who bonds with Rachel and is BFFs with Mercedes. Quinn has the baby and the writers need a love triangle? She's a snotty bitch who only cares about being prom queen and stealing Finn back.  Mercedes, who? Nothing for Puck to do this episode? He's in juvie for knocking over a liquor store or something.  Need him to play guitar in the background next week?  He's out of juvie and in love with Lauren, who, incidentally is a truly unpleasant character.  Kurt needs to feel loved despite being threatened by a bully? Santana is a fiercely loyal friend. Have a bunch of clever jokes saved up about Rachel or Sam? Santana is a raving bitch with nothing nice to say about anyone. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the statements about how abhorrent bullying is, and I'm fine with the meat of the story revolving around gay bullying in particular, I just wish they'd admit that Santana is every bit the bully that Karofsky is.  It isn't ok to threaten a kid, shove him against walls, or throw slushies in peoples faces, but guess what?  Bullying doesn't have to be physical intimidation.  It can also be incessant, mean-spirited teasing and name calling - you know, like how Santana is always calling Sam "trouty mouth" or spewing venom at Rachel.  It's irresponsible to make one bully the bad guy and another a voice of your "comic" sensibilities.  You want to make a statement about bullying?  Don't make the one that says if you're a pretty girl and someone laughs, whatever you do is ok.

Last night it was time for us to again learn about the damage that rumors can do and to be reminded that it's ok for Santana to be mean because she's afraid to come out of the closet (despite the repeated insistence that it's not ok for Karofsky to be a closeted bully, I guess because Karofsky isn't in Glee Club).  The secondary lesson was that being poor is shamefull unless there are cute kids and music.  Or something like that.  And we learned it all through the songs of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album. 

You guys, I really think I've grown to hate this show.