Glee has received — appropriately, in this humble blogger’s opinion — quite a bit of praise since it debuted last summer. It’s fresh, fun, and has turned its iTunes and CD sales into an additional revenue stream that no other show on television can replicate. Not to say that the show doesn’t have its detractors. I don’t understand those people, like one I know whose name starts with a K- and ends with an –eith McDuffee, and how they don’t like the show. (Huh? When have I said that? – Ed.)
I will admit, though, that there are some valid criticisms of the show. Terri sucks — obviously intentionally — but at the same time, she’s not a likable character in any way, shape, form, or fashion. In fact, if you really look at the characters, very few of them are written positively at all. Finn is as stupid as a brick, Quinn is a cheater and a liar, Mr. Shue is a bit of an emotional cheater himself, Puck is Barney Stinson in-training (without the suave), Rachel is this generation’s Tracey Flick, and Coach Sylvester is, well, delicious. However, none of these criticisms bother me nearly as much as the fact that very few things that happen this week affect what happens next week.
This show has very little continuity week-to-week. The main exception to the rule is the Quinn/Puck/Finn relationship, but other than that, very little seems to change. The most obvious example is the Artie and Tina episode from a couple of weeks ago. Not only do we finally get to learn more about both of these way-underdeveloped characters, it happened in the budding of a very sweet relationship. Unfortunately, the two weren’t left in the happiest of places, but worse, the audience has been left in the same limbo ever since. Two weeks have gone, and we haven’t seen a furtive glance between the two.
I’m not advocating that Glee become some intensely serialized show like Lost, but I’m tired of seeing interesting plot threads left dangling for weeks (and weeks) at a time. Take a page out of How I Met Your Mother’s playbook, the show that owns handling week over week (and season over season) continuity (a title that used to be NCIS’s, but as Aryeh has pointed out, doesn’t necessarily handle it as well as it used to). Glee has the potential to be a great show for a long time (until, at least, it has to answer the question of what grade these kids are in, and how to handle graduation), but it needs to work on getting some of these little things right first.
Other things:
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Nov 26, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
I was starting to think that the temporality of Glee was akin to that of the Simpsons. Because how many times is Will going to come to the kids with another new idea for Sectionals? They do need time to rehearse, so constantly changing up the routines is NOT going to help… but that’s only if we take it ALL in a linear form.
And I agree, I was disappointed that there was no continuation of the Tina/Artie storyline– their last interaction deserved some follow-up.
I also kind of wish we could see Rachel’s dads… I would have loved to have seen their reaction to her “makeover”.
I actually feel the same way. Because they are so all over the place with the story I feel like they often times betray the characters. At least once an episode it seems like someone will do something completely out of character in order to push the story to the weekly conclusion. It is a shame, because they have developed these strong characters, but don’t seem to know what to do with them all.
I would really love to see someone come into the shows writing staff that could help with that aspect. Someone like Joss Whedon or Bays/Thomas as you noted. The show is good, the writing sometimes hilarious, the music is great (besides for the auto tune) – but it could be great with a little help in the story department.
Dear God, no, please keep those three writers away from this show. Nothing has repelled me away from their channels faster than their current seasons’ stories.
Perhaps it’s the fact that Glee is a hyper-realistic farce, but the bouncing around from one storyline to another has never bothered me.
in the first episode rachel said she was a sophmore – btw
Rachel is a very mature-looking sophomore, haha, and the others HAVE to be older than her. None of this 90210 business–AnnaLynne McCord could NOT pull for one last year. Anyway, I agree with Tasha: Tina/Artie deserve more screen time because Artie is really interesting (“Wheels” was amazing) and Tina could totally develop herself with some more background; Rachel’s dads NEED to make an appearance. THEY HAVE TO. But yeah, I first had this feeling that Glee would be the fantastic show that nobody watches, but that’s not it now. Then I got this feeling that Glee would be the fantastic show that just stops. I hope they can overcome this, because the writers really need to connect the dots here.