Some Gleeful Thinking in the Middle of the Night

I couldn’t sleep last night so I watched the most recent episode of Glee, “Jagged Little Tapestry,” in which the glee clubbers were tasked with mashing up songs from Alanis Morissette’s album “Jagged Little Pill” with songs from Carole King’s album “Tapestry.”  I don’t usually write about television shows – heck, lately, I’ve not been writing about much at all – but I have been growing increasingly disenchanted with Glee over the years and having no one with whom I can discuss my feelings, I suppose it’s time to put cursor to paper.

I think the best season of the show has to have been its second, the year that the Warblers were introduced.  That was a great a capella group, and I enjoyed every cut to Dalton Academy and the introduction of Darren Criss as a positive gay role model.  Initially conceived as an older, wiser, gay young man, Blaine Anderson was also presented as multi-talented, smart, an altogether together person.  Unfortunately, the show ultimately made him younger than Kurt (Chris Colfer), his romantic interest, probably so that he could stay longer in the show, talented as he was, but his use in the show declined once he transferred to McKinley and no longer appeared with the Warblers regularly.  His most interesting moments, indeed, came when he had the chance to sing with them again – for reasons that were highly improbable, but of course, much of the show is improbable.  And Blaine became less himself than he’d been:  he cheated on Kurt, he pined after Sam (Chord Overstreet), his tone became whinier, and he no longer played the older, wiser role.  Something valuable was lost.

The third year introduced a recurring character, Sebastian Smythe (Grant Gustin), a sarcastic, selfishly cruel Warbler who was interested in Blaine – and with whom Criss shared an incredible spark.  Some in Glee’s audience called for Blaine to ditch Kurt and create a new couple:  Sebastlaine?  The show even gave Sebastian a conscience, and he eventually redeemed himself, so much so that our last sight of him was when he helped Blaine to propose to Kurt.

Now Kurt and Blaine are once again apart, and the show has paired Blaine with Dave Karofsky (Max Adler), the boy who tormented Kurt through so much of the first and second season (because Dave was gay himself and couldn’t deal with it, which is a plotline I didn’t like and won’t discuss now).  Dave and Blaine have as little chemistry together as Kurt and Blaine had, and I find myself wishing they had brought Sebastian back (and I think the writers wanted that too, or else why would Kurt have silently wished for Blaine not to say Sebastian’s name when he was revealing his new boyfriend?)  Too bad Grant Gustin is off on another network, superheroing as the Flash.  Oh, if only…

Meanwhile, the improbable continues to weave itself through these three episodes of the show’s last season.  Suddenly, Lima is rife with McKinley alumni, and several of them are now in educator positions in their schools.  Blaine, having flunked out of NYADA, is the Warblers’ new coach (which at least enables him to don the jacket from time to time and join in, which can only be good); Rachel (Lea Michelle) and Kurt are working as coaches for McKinley’s New Directions (“Look at us!  We’re teachers!” Kurt exclaimed in the most recent episode); and with Coach Beiste’s (Dot Jones) upcoming gender reassignment surgery (wouldn’t you think she would need to provide more than “next week” as notice for being absent?), Sam is, despite having only modeling on his resume, the new football coach.

Then there are the other alumni, many of whom one would think should be at college, or in the military, but can easily arrange to “stay another week” beyond homecoming weekend.  It’s nice to have these oldtimers back to perform, but really? 

What am I thinking, though?  This is a show that regularly suspends the expected.  In this episode, Rachel declared her students ready to start down the road to sectionals:  did she happen to notice that she has only 4 students in her glee club?  I do believe they need 12 – she’d better get back to recruiting.  And perhaps decide what the set list will be before leaving for the competition.

I will admit that Chris Colfer and Darren Criss have voices that blend well, as they demonstrated in the opening number, "It's Too Late," but Colfer, despite his many talents, annoys the hell out of me.  Please, powers that Glee, do what you can to send Blaine off into the wild blue yonder with Sebastian.  It's the only thing that makes sense in this world you have created.  Then, maybe, I can get some sleep.