A Case for Season 2 (Glee Rant)

I watched a couple of Tuesday agos night's Glee the following Wednesday night (I was busy Tuesday, sue me). My mind was blown clear out of the water and it fell into small pieces on the walls of my Residence Hall Rooms. (And I wrote part of this post a long time ago, can't you tell?)

The thing is, I don't understand how people don't like this season of Glee. I mean I've heard the complaints but the complaints I've heard from classmates and friends aren't articulated that well. What I've been hearing is "It's different."

And yeah, it IS different, but I realize this is all a matter of opinion, but MY opinion is that it isn't really THAT different and the differences are a step in the right direction. Glee now is what Glee has been aiming for since it began.

What I've noticed this season is more of a focus on the ensemble of the show not the "Will Schuster and Rachel Berry Show with cooky guys Kurt Hummel and Finn Hudson in recurring roles and Sue does things"  the first season had a feeling like. Sure the first season had a few episodes here and there where Artie, Quinn or Mercedez centric episodes here and there but season one focused on things Rachel did and things Mr. Schuster did, occasionally Finn's decisions and Kurt's life or Sue's evil machinations would affect the over all plot but at the end of the day the questions that drove everything were "What's going on with Schu? What's up with Rachel?"

I cannot make a claim without proof, so here's my proof: The reason we were interested in Quinn's pregnancy was because Quinn was dating Finn, who Rachel was attracted to and wanted to be her love interest.Quinn, along with Santana and Britney, joined Glee club because Quinn wanted to make sure Finn didn't up with Rachel with the added bonus of spying for Sue. Mercedez's temporary crush on Kurt had an attempted interruption by Tina and RACHEL. Finn finds out about the true father of Quinn's baby is through Rachel. She drives and is the reason for lots of drama. Except for shippers of quirky ships the source of a lot of the DRAMA of the first season (school kid side) was 'Will Rachel end up with Finn?' and all the questions that need clearing up to get to that point such as 'Will Finn find out the baby isn't his?' and 'Will Puck actually be able to make a move on Rachel?' This continued into the second half of the season. 'Will Rachel and Finn get BACK together?' 'Will Rachel see Jesse is an ass?' 'Can Rachel find her birth mother/' are big sources of drama in the second half of the season beyond the road to Regionals.

Will drove other parts of the plot of season one much the same way Rachel does. The main source of Will drama are his feuds with Sue, his sham of a marriage and subsequent 'pregnancy' with Terri, and finally his extramarital attraction to Emma and of course holding his rag-tag bunch of misfits, the Glee Club together. The  Will Schuster circle of plot influence is more equal than Rachel's. Sue starts grubbing all the budget in the school leaving Will to fight her for everything Glee club has. Sue is perhaps the only person, Schuster/Berry duo, who has direct influence on the plot and drama of Glee though generally it's in retaliation/reaction to the Will and the club. Even when it seems Will is fighting back with Sue, it's her reaction to his reaction that truly drives the plot (The Madonna episode anyone?). Terri and Emma though, only react to Will, or act on their own attraction to Will. Terri drives Emma to Ken because Terri is attempting to save her relationship with Will. Will's attraction to Emma drives Terri to fake her pregnancy to keep Will. Terri, Emma, even April only exist in their relationships with Will. Their plots genrally only add to the drama of "Will Will end up with the 'totally deserving' Emma?"

Sure sub plots exist and sometimes get more screen time which hints at a wish to be more of an ensemble cast type show. I always thought this would be a step in the right direction as, despite some of the obvious moments of absurdity, a fairly realistic show.

The second season mixes this up a bit and you get more of that ensemble feel. The show allows you to think of different couples through out the first season. Artie is now dating Britney and that is going well (well, except for the Santana drama), Will seems like a good match for Holly, and until Quinn went queen mega-bitch (which wasn't really that bad from her point of view, but it tore up Rachel) on Rachel I thought she and Finn might actually get back together. The subplots are more broad reaching. It doesn't feel like a specific Artie episode or Kurt Episode and like that. The large plot is much more spread out and feels grander in taking on the whole Glee Club (Plus Kurt and Blaine). Mr. Schuster's plot has also slowed down considerably. He has no rush to get back with Emma (as she's been showing up less and less) and it allows him to see more people. We also focus on Emma as a person and her deep problems with life, specifically sex.

Because of the slower feel things feel grander. When Emma still has the hots for Will despite being married to Carl, it's considered shocking because it's been a while since we've focused less on that and haven't seen her as much. It wouldn't be as surprising if he were hanging out with her every episode talking about their lives. When Rachel and Finn have a moment despite not being together or hanging out for a while, it leaves you questioning and it's surpising. Not to mention Kurt's subplot (from Kurofsky to Blaine), being used SO sparingly, has created some of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the entire show because by showing us so little we know what big of an impact it actually has on him.

This is my defense of season two, I'm not saying  there haven't  been missteps or an eyebrow raising moment here and there, but over all this is a good direction for the show to take and I'm excited for the few remaining weeks of Glee once it comes back.