As you may have guessed by this blog a) I watch a heck of a lot of TV and b) I'm in the middle of a quarter life existential crisis, and am expressing my feelings through blogging about technically different issues, but really are all the same thing. Today's topic-the Glee Final. Yes I finally watched it, and I thought it was actually pretty good, I mean glee has definitely had some problems this season, mostly because it *cough* Ryan Murphy *cough* got to full of itself and thought it was such a great show and going to change the world, and usually I'm okay with that, but theses final episodes really depressed me.
In the heyday of Glee, by which I mean the first and some of the second season, it was great, it was funny ridiculous and had heart, but the thing that it did better than anything else was portray lost dreams. It did a beautiful job of painting a town were dreams just didn't come true, where adults lived their dull everyday reality, while the kids sung and dreamed of better. It was TV in one of its truest forms-escapist-allowing the audience to indulge in the kids dreams, it was a show about making you feel better (come on THE song for glee is don't stop believing, if that doesn't say its a show about dreaming I don't know what will) until they return to their more boring lives. Unfortunately there only so long you can do something like that, which glee soon discovered.Had this been airing on showtime or a non-USA cable network, the show would explore the kids not achieving their dreams, but that it was okay to do so, it would show the kids failing, but never stopping to believe. Unfortunately it's on fox, and while for the first season, thats kinda what it did do, you knew from the outset that the third season would be about the kids getting everything.
And boy did they, Winning nationals after a mere day rehearsing? check, large celebratory party where the kids are finally treated like heros? check. and the majority of the graduating class going on to a ridiculously wonderful post high school adventure? check. It the epitomy of getting your cake and eating it too. And this is where I had a problem. I mean I fully understand and get that a large part of this is because my mindset has changed so much, but just seeing these kids, who we were expected to believe were ordinary teens, become insanely insanely talented through just three seasons, and get absolutely everything they ever wanted. Ohh man, that practically sent me bawling. Its the whole american dream thing of anyone can do anything, anyone can achieve their dreams, but not everyone can achieve their dreams. The majority of people are just normal, aren't going to be stars, no matter how much you tell yourself in the bathroom mirror rachel berry, some people just have to live normal lives, and that's okay. Or that's what the show should be telling us.
Instead its telling the typical fairy-tale message-you work hard, be good, and your wildest dreams come true, which is what really set me off, because I work hard, so so so hard, and yet none of my dreams come true, instead of getting wrapped up in the misique and magic of the show, I got bogged down by reality, and the contrast was startling. After watching the finale I wasn't filled with confidence that my dreams would come true, I practically cried because they aren't going to, because that's life, and as vocal adeline can no don't adhere too, dreams don't come true. Vocal adrenaline worked harder, longer, and were quiet frankly better, but because of TV magic, the new directions won, and that is why the glee finale was so not gleeful to me, because there is no TV magic to make my dreams come true.
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