tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post483901939901363233..comments2023-10-19T05:45:19.897-04:00Comments on Eric's Daily Horoscope: This girl is on fire Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16428491630726035905noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post-75041487376885549582013-02-08T17:02:27.518-05:002013-02-08T17:02:27.518-05:00The blackmail was one of the best moments in recen...The blackmail was one of the best moments in recent TV history. It worked not because it was already well established that Will was a good guy, but because it proved what we all know: even the good people - and maybe especially - have to do questionable things to reach goals, especially if those goals mean nothing to anybody. When you're on your own, it's your unethical behavior that gets things done. <br /><br />They tried to make a whole series about this with Smash, but it never seemed like something people did out of desperation. It seemed they wanted to do things the audience would find amusing but they all seemed like assholes because, for some reason, they thought it would be a good idea that every character would ENJOY doing questionable things. It might not strike the average viewer as disingenuous, but anybody who has ever worked on any show at any level knows that nothing good gets done if anybody known to play any games is able to stick around. My "anybody" here includes most people at some point in their lives, be it in high school or college or when they're making costumes for their kids' kindergarten shows... or whatever.<br /><br />There have been chances for Glee to get darker, now that they're in NY, but the best they've done is create the awful Kate Hudson character who represents the worst of the worst. Nobody who so obviously hates everybody that much would ever get a job doing what she's doing. Now, they could have made the Rachel story from this week more interesting if her annoying behavior had been evident to the audience, but it wasn't. <br /><br />If they showed Rachel becoming as self-involved as she was in season one but with the sort of reckless streak that can be triggered with any amount of success in NYC, the NYADA story line might have become something interesting... FINALLY. <br /><br />Did any of that happen? No. Kurt simply told us it was so and then, after he bested her at some meaningless whatever-the-fuck stolen directly from Pitch Perfect, she realized her mistakes and now all is going to be fine. That's not how it works; her loss would have made her that much more of an asshole, if she ever was one to begin with, that is. <br /><br />I guess Glee was never supposed to be about individual character development, but when you have the opportunity to better define and explain the characters you've been pushing onto millions of people for four years, you'd think the show runner(s) would think it is worth doing, even if it would cost them a song or two per episode to have those extra eight minutes to tell a story. <br /><br />It's very clear, now, that what they want more than anything is the ability to sell the songs they perform... and they're doing a GREAT job of that. I do think the show has lost enough of its popularity to start thinking about once again telling a story instead of selling the songs. That is one thing I had never put together and I'm glad you clarified it; the popularity did cause some concerns, but the people who are still with it are the people who would enjoy some actual developments instead of the eye/ear candy with which we're content (for now).TJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04194507632084940540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post-26775731692238134122013-02-08T16:35:03.864-05:002013-02-08T16:35:03.864-05:00I agree re: the quality of the pilot. I don't ...I agree re: the quality of the pilot. I don't think they ever "knew where they were going", but at least they knew what the show was. The show was about doing an amazing job on a song, but still getting slushied or thrown in the dumpster because you were just a geek in glee club.<br /><br />Even once it changed into something else because it got too popular too fast and couldn't stay nice and dark (remember Will blackmailing Finn with drugs to get him to join the club in the first place?), they had a natural conclusion. Unfortunately, they used it last year. All they ever needed to do was divorce the Glee calendar from the real-world calendar year. And, IIRC, there were eps where there were football games in the spring, etc.<br /><br />Now their "conclusion" is going to be Rachel's first opening night on Broadway, and I am going to puke.<br /><br />(I wouldn't call it a soap; it's no more serialized than Friends or any other sit-com these days.)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16428491630726035905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post-3928772621263713562013-02-08T16:19:36.927-05:002013-02-08T16:19:36.927-05:00Yeah. I can see how they might be building up to a...Yeah. I can see how they might be building up to a situation where everybody ends up in NYC. It wouldn't be a bad show, but it wouldn't be the show we signed up for. The fact is that the seniors from last year should have been seniors this year and they should have done 25 episodes per season instead of 20 or 22. This way, they could have done 100 episodes and told the story from start to finish, with a natural conclusion. <br /><br />Unlike shows in the sci-fi idiom (like Lost and Fringe), soaps - if that's what Glee is; I have no idea how to define it anymore... do you? - don't plan out an entire story before the first episode is filmed. I'm going on record as saying that's a bad idea because, even if the ending isn't satisfying, it's still clearly the ending. <br /><br />Glee is going to get some sort of natural conclusion, if only because they're going to get sufficient warning that the show is ending. Even thought Glee isn't sci-fi, it is a "genre" show (at least if it is a musical, which I guess is the broadest definition of it), which means that they really should have put some thought into its natural conclusion. <br /><br />The pilot for Glee felt so much like an actual film that I thought they knew what they were doing. (It is probably the best pilot of a show I've ever seen. I'm looking for the pilot of that flippin' Ironside, though.) I think that's probably the root of every complaint I have. It no longer feels like they know where it's going and every episode is filler with only one or two developments and a whole bunch more songs than anybody needs in a 44-minute production. Once I feel like they have a conclusion that will make sense, I'll be able to look back and judge it more fairly, but let's be honest: the show is a mess and we're still watching it because we're suckers.TJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04194507632084940540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post-73004208653912839822013-02-08T15:19:47.179-05:002013-02-08T15:19:47.179-05:00I think I heard Diana Agron was off making some bi...I think I heard Diana Agron was off making some big-deal movie.<br /><br />We will have to agree to disagree re: Hung Up. The fact that it was a huge hit doesn't make it a diva song. Same with Bad Romance. Firework, yes.<br /><br />NYADA is apparently the story they wanted to tell to start with, but it's not the story those of us who started out with the show at the beginning signed up for. They already had that show on TV...it was called FAME.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16428491630726035905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post-24621420184902919902013-02-08T15:01:21.736-05:002013-02-08T15:01:21.736-05:00Mike has been back once this year. It wasn't a...Mike has been back once this year. It wasn't a memorable appearance because, well, how many of the episodes are "memorable" anymore? (BTW "Gorgeous," huh? REALLY. I guess he can be one of the three, but not on my list.) Your point is well taken, though. <br /><br />I think Naya Rivera has become a much stronger singer than she was in the earlier seasons, but there is no reason why she had to have three solos last night (on top of a duet), two of which were show stoppers in the worst sense. The show doesn't need the sort of stopping it's been getting this season. <br /><br />I was wondering why Diana Agron had disappeared until a few weeks ago and then in a more recent episode, I got my answer: bitch is getting FAT. She has an ass on her that those baby doll dresses do not help. She might as well just start wearing pantsuits. (It could be a reference to the fact that she is going to Hillary's alma mater. Or something. I guess the point is that she isn't really part of the show, so it doesn't matter.)<br /><br />"Hung Up' is a diva song because it's EPIC. It doesn't require a great voice to sing it, but the song is one of the few "monster" hits of the past decade. There have been others. "Firework" is one and "Bad Romance" is another, but only in this new modern sense of the term. <br /><br />So many songs sound so much like everything else that character is what passes for any such thing these days; this is clearly all opinion, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. The big diva ballads just don't work anymore. You could say that in a few years that Adele might pull one off, but musical styles will have reverted back to making it possible, so any of these artists might be able to do it again, provided they haven't died of anorexia or osteoporosis in the case of the more aged/ancient of them.<br /><br />I'm guessing you don't consider it a diva song because of the fact that it is, indeed, ironic. But if you listen to the entire lyric, you'll see it's about someone who refuses to be hung up on anybody, which is about as strong a diva point as any other. One might say it's the ONLY point of any real (classic) diva song.<br /><br />The NYADA story could be an entire show, but it isn't and that's where the problem is. And there is no room on television for it. TJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04194507632084940540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post-23027444048818422602013-02-08T14:10:46.248-05:002013-02-08T14:10:46.248-05:00I disagree re: "Hung Up" being "as ...I disagree re: "Hung Up" being "as good a diva song as any". Without McDonna performing it, "I'm hung up on you" is a totally ANTI-diva song.<br /><br />Also, Tina was too chunky for that pink leotard.<br /><br />Also also, whatever happened to Tina's gorgeous dancer boyfriend Mike? Everybody else got invited back onto this damn show after graduation.<br /><br />I suspect next season will be all about this remake of THAT GIRL starring Lea Michelle, in which case I am out.<br /><br />That said, I did think the casting of the Kurt-Wannabe at NYADA was brilliant.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16428491630726035905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post-12790995514998902182013-02-08T13:57:34.865-05:002013-02-08T13:57:34.865-05:00SIgh. I didn't mean to say "never." ...SIgh. I didn't mean to say "never." Of course Kurt was in love with Finn, but that was during the first season, when the whole point of the endeavor was to force the characters (and audience) into realizing the pointlessness of such pursuits. This brings me to another one of the problems: this season is a complete rehashing of the first season, with pointless scenes in NY and sometimes LA.<br /><br />Le sigh. Cuntplaints are sometimes all a woman has to hold on to.TJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04194507632084940540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828865939332981272.post-53096144531455726662013-02-08T13:52:00.723-05:002013-02-08T13:52:00.723-05:00One of the things that bothers me about Glee (and ...One of the things that bothers me about Glee (and there are, like, thousands... but I still endure, because what of those poor actors were we all to stop watching at once; this doesn't mean next season won't be its last, since this seasons ratings are already dumpster worthy... they just need enough episodes for a good syndication rate) is that the choreographer/producer, Zach Woodlee, was discovered by Madonna when she decided to let him tour with her in 2004 and, while that isn't necessarily a problem, the problem for me is that, whenever they do a Madonna song, which is quite often, he goes and uses the actual choreography from her videos or performances. That just can't do. So, last night, when they did "Hung Up" (as good a "diva" song as any), what bothered me even more is that they used the same costumes from the video. I'm not talking just about the iconic pink one, either. They used the black one with the green belt that nobody in the world would remember except for... well, except for 90% of Glee's audience.<br /><br />Anyway, that's just another ongoing critique. I'm glad they seem to have moved beyond the Blaine being on love with Sam story (if only because, no matter how realistic it is, one of the best things about Glee is that they never forced the gay stories to go down that path). The one thing I am worried about now is whether or not they're going to have Tina be in love with Blaine. No performance of "Hung Up" is proof of anything to me other than that is what is going to happen, since that song is one of the few "ironic" and humorous things Madonna has ever managed to actually pull off doing. Besides, if they're going to have a gay love story involving "Tina" it isn't going to be an asian girl; it's going to be crystal meth. And THAT would actually make the show interesting again.<br /><br />(But. What. Of. Those. Poor. Actors?)TJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04194507632084940540noreply@blogger.com