Here's What We Missed on Glee | Mic The Snare

so here's what you missed on Mike the snare Mike makes videos about music on youtube.com he's cover topics like so bad it's good music cake a slider carly rae jepsen and what music to find the 2010 during quarantine he spent months watching Glee which sent him on a downward spiral of insanity and show tunes he also brings up crazy frog a lot but nobody knows why and that's what you missed on it wasn't supposed to happen like this I had the idea earlier this year to do a cute little video on Glee talk about the early seasons some of the best musical numbers stop around season 4 like most people then I started watching and I kept watching and digging into the business of the show at a certain point I knew this had to be bigger so join me if you will on an exhilarating dive into the pop culture phenomenon that was in late summer 2005 actor Ian Brennan wrote the first draft of a film based on his experience in high school show choir a few years passed with him shopping the script around with little success eventually Brennan's friend passed the script along to a colleague who happened to go to the same gym Ryan Murphy Murphy was fresh off the success of FX's nip/tuck which he ran along with Brad Falchuk as a show choir kid himself Murphy loved the idea he and Falchuk met up with Brennan and the trio rewrote the script as a TV show with an hours of sending it to Fox the show was greenlit the pilot was aired after American Idol on May 19 2009 based only on that one episode the show garnered a ton of attention it returned later in September of that year [Music] I'm gonna say something that I don't think is that controversial these days the first episode of Glee is a legitimately great piece of television and one of the best TV pilots of the late 2000s and early 2010's that includes Mad Men that includes Breaking Bad that includes The Walking Dead that includes Game of Thrones the pilot follows Will Schuester a Spanish teacher in his hometown of Lima Ohio feeling unfulfilled in his work in marriage he decides I'd like to take over glee club you want to captain the Titanic do the auditions bring an emo girl with a stutter Tina cohen-chang diva Mercedes Jones Kurt Hummel wheelchair-bound Artie Abrams and theater prodigy in Waiting Rachel Berry will is also able to rope in star quarterback Finn Hudson by watching him sing in a shower and planting drugs in his locker you could land in prison son at its core Glee is a show about sad people looking for something greater and the pilot is the best reflection of that core ethos it lays out everyone's dynamics and struggles will looking for fulfilment even if it endangers his job marriage and expected child Rachel wanting stardom without risking her relationships with everyone else Finn wanting to follow his passion and do right by his family without sacrificing his place on the pecking order the entire club having to fight back against an unwelcoming high school ecosystem led by coach of the cheerleading squad and series standout Sue Sylvester and it all culminates in the group's infamous rendition of journey's don't stop believin this first episode is a version of Glee that deftly balances snark self-awareness and sweetness it is a version of Glee that shows dreams are worth pursuing even while acknowledging the pain that can come as a result it is a version of Glee that never comes back again that might sound a bit harsh and I don't mean that to say the rest of season one is bad but the shows one foot in reality starts lifting right after the pilot and it only lifts further with each episode but before I get ahead of myself let's talk about the good the first season of Glee is my favorite because even with the high school melodrama and musical numbers the characters are still well-developed enough that following their arcs each week is enjoyable alongside the original members others join leader of the Cheerios and Finn's girlfriend Quinn Fabray plus cheerleader Santana Lopez and Brittany S Pierce Finn's football friends Noah Puckerman Mike Chang this guy who gets to dance and that's it the main plot lines usually revolve around a lesson will wants to teach the students all in preparation for a show choir competition the students are also dealing with classes maintaining relationships and just growing up in junk one of the most crucial plot lines and arguably one of the most memorable parts of the show is Kurt Hummel coming out as gay this character was specifically written for Chris Colfer after auditioning for Part II and as the season goes on more time is dedicated to watching him come to terms with his sexuality it might not feel like a big deal now but having a gay high schooler like this on network TV in 2009 was huge Kurt's storyline was a cornerstone of gliese thesis it's Glee --ss the idea that anyone from any background is welcome and valid even if the execution wasn't always great you were right to shine the spotlight on the fact that those kids are minorities because you're all minorities you're in the glee club [Laughter] know there are good things to be found in season one but it's pretty much common knowledge that at some point within the show's six seasons Glee got bad when that happened is up to personal opinion but I want to highlight an article by Emily van who said that the show went sour in its second episode specifically this scene where wills wife teri is visiting the doctor about their baby and she finds out you're not pregnant you're having what's called a hysterical pregnancy this reveal highlights as bender work puts it that shows propensity to stack up campy melodramatic storytelling against honest human emotion it also highlights one of the show's biggest issues in my eyes no one has to deal with the long-term consequences of any action will has to choose between supporting his family with a stable income and helping the glee club now Terry fakes a pregnancy for 12 episodes somehow will finds out their marriage crumbles and he gets to be with the club and pursue guidance counselor and the pillsbury whoa Finn finds out Quinn is pregnant and he might have to give up on his dreams nope turns out hottub pregnancies aren't real you're kidding me the baby actually belongs to puck and Finn and Rachel get to be together in my opinion the build-up in certain plot lines feel silly but the payoff can still be worth it Terry faking her baby is dumb but the scene where will finds out has some great acting between Matthew Morrison and jessalyn Gilsig Kurt trying to get his dad and Finn's mom together so that he and Finn can be together is strange like does he know that would make them step-siblings but it leads to a great scene where they argue Finn throws out homophobic slurs and Kurt's dad puts him in his place which by the way burped Kurt's dad best character in the show hands down every scene with him and Kurt is great and I wish nothing but the best for this fictional character but enough about the characters for now what about the music [Music] the first season averaged five musical numbers per episode in the first half and eight in the second half sometimes they relate to the plot in a fairly on-the-nose way sometimes they just sing a fun song this season also started a few trends the show would follow going forward episode centered around mashups or episodes focusing on a specific artist or album for example an episode dedicated to Madonna including a full remake of the vogue music video with Jane Lynch guest stars also get to shine in song season one included Broadway professionals like Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris as wills former classmates idina menzel as Rachel's biological mother and Jonathan Groff as head of a rival glee club and love interest to Rachael and man I got to say their romance sparks are real awakening the repertoire is a mix of Broadway musicals and renditions of pop songs that are more recent selections this season included a jazz piano led pokerface Rihanna's take a bow and will rapping kind of keep so she winks back and then you're feeling really fine cuz the girl is Stax's messiahs like a chemical spill these were on vision and what what but if you wait no Paula we both dreamed up a song making process for each episode went like this Ryan Murphy chose the songs based on the story and according to cast mates his encyclopedic knowledge of music at which point producers Adam Anders and / Ostrom got to work with Anders in LA and Ostrom in Sweden they were a 24-hour producing machine as one finished work and went to bed the other woke up and got started once they finished Murphy gave his approval and the track was sent along to be recorded choreographed and filmed so how are the songs fine they're fine ironically even though this is a music centric show there's not much to say about the individual numbers there slickly produced the voices range from okay to great from newcomers like Cory Monteith and Dianna Agron to Broadway stars like Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele they're often very very faithful to the original maybe they'll be in a different key maybe they'll add more backing vocals to make it more like a show choir arrangement every so often they put a whole different spin on it overall they're serviceable but aside from a few instances there's not much reason to listen to these synthetic imitations over their originals I know calling them synthetic might sound like a jab but I mean it sincerely since in all my research for this video almost no one is credited for any musical role that is in singing or producing oftentimes the magic of these songs come from their connection to the storyline Finn singing I'll stand by you too is suppose a child rachel singing don't rain on my parade as her first big solo number Mercedes establishing her raw talent with I'm not going from dream girlz jonathan groff scroop doing Bohemian Rhapsody in sync with Quinn giving birth I'm just amazed that that last one actually exists like a human being thought of that Queen but said it to childbirth so taken altogether the songs and the mostly effective writing which was handled solely by Murphy Falchuk and Brennan the first season of Glee was often pretty solid TV and audiences responded positively the first half of the season did fairly well but at second half saw an even bigger jump in viewership it was nominated for several awards and won three Emmys for Ryan Murphy Jane Lynch and Neil Patrick Harris perhaps most importantly was what was known as the Glee effect various news outlets reported a sizable increase in kids and teens joining or wanting to join some music club before the show there were an estimated 200 show choirs at schools across the country now there are about 600 the choirs are often supported by their own fundraising or if they're lucky they get paid to perform I mean we can make all the jokes we want about Glee and Performing Arts Kids stereotypes but we can all agree that more kids getting into music is a good thing right in so many ways Glee was a hit but it was about to become so much more Glee and its first season was a success but in its second season it was an imperial phenomenon in the worlds of TV and music in terms of plot it was more of what the first season had Teenage Drama social issues musical numbers a number of characters were introduced or were given more presents Santana and Brittany with their relationship Becky Jackson getting a bigger role as Sue's right-hand pupil chocolate I will cut you dot Marie Jones his football coach Shannon Beiste Darren Criss is Blaine Anderson the head of Dalton Academy's acapella group and love interest to Kurt and Chord Overstreet his name in the show is Sam but you can't have a name like Chord Overstreet and expect me not to use it come on we also have guests like the aforementioned Chenoweth and Groff returning Carol Burnett as Sue's mom and what might be the most well known guest appearance in the show's history Gwyneth Paltrow has a freewheeling substitute teacher [Music] even with more cast additions and more plot lines going around I still think season 2 managed to pump out some solid TV though it definitely felt less consistent the show's eternal problem of no long-term consequences came back in full force even Kurt's troubles with closeted jock Dave Karofsky something that initially had actual stakes feels kinda rushed in the grand scope of things there was also another issue that the show developed which is the show will Bend any character to its will for plot convenience for example the fifth episode revolves around the club putting on Rocky Horror Picture Show for its yearly musical I see no issue with that the whole reason they do it though is because we'll wants to get with Emma even though she's dating dentist and occasional Beach Boy John Stamos it's a total about-face for his character if there's one area the series still did well in though it's the music highlights include Mercedes and Santana slaying River deep Mountain High their regionals performance of Valerie and a drumline infused mashup of thriller and the yeah gas heads will roll this was the centerpiece of the Sue Sylvester shuffle which aired right after the 2011 Super Bowl it's also one of the two songs Glee did that I think are genuinely great even outside of the show's context themed episodes of the season included their first Christmas episode as well as oh ma jizz to Britney Spears Lady Gaga and Fleetwood Mac's rumours they even dabble in original songs mainly in the episode original song also will doesn't rap anymore wait kids don't like a little rap throughout this season you might notice they're starting to put in more modern songs there are still show tunes and pop classics but you'd be hard-pressed to find an episode that doesn't include a recent song like Empire State of Mind or firework or raise your glass or even an episode dedicated to triad under bridge getting super into Justin Bieber like I said though the show was still solid enough to suspend your disbelief in the moment and not make you notice the blemishes like out despite constantly battling for money and support from the school the glee club has access to both a full band that can play any song at a moment's notice and any stage decorations they want and with its continued success spawned a wave of merchandise promotional material a worldwide tour a concert film based on set worldwide tour a die-hard online community and of course the music sales by the end of the second the Glee cast had landed 156 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 63 in season 1 and 93 in season 2 they beat Elvis's record for most songs placed on the Hot 100 and held that record until this February when Drake beat it in other words based solely on that metric Drake only became more popular than Glee this year that's insane but it also requires a deeper look Glee would eventually get 207 songs on the Hot 100 by the time it ended which is a massive feat but there are three equally massive disclaimers attached to it where they placed how long they stayed and how they were released out of the 207 only 70 landed in the top 50 and out of that 70 only 3 made it to the top 10 don't stop believin the a cappella rendition of Teenage Dream and the original song loser like me the rest occupied the bottom half of the chart not only that but nearly all of the songs were off the chart by the following week but that was fine because there would be a new episode and new songs by the following week this short time on the charts was mainly because while the songs toured up in terms of digital sales and YouTube plays they were virtually non-existent on the radio Glee owed much of its success to the then booming iTunes with the platform accounting for a quarter of all music sales the year the show began they definitely had success with the albums and other licensing opportunities but it was the singles that made the headlines because of gliese omnipresent sin music at the time it became a new venue for artists to promote their work several were immediately eager to get their songs on like Rihanna and Billy Joel that said not everyone was on the hype train some like Coldplay and Neil Diamond were initially hesitant but eventually allowed their songs to be used some like slash and Damon Albarn of blur and guerrillas made public statement saying they would not allow their music on the show the most notable case was Kings of Leon who said they had turned down an offer for their music to be in the show and they had never even watched it Murphy actually responded to them publicly I think he was mad I admire the workhorse pace that Anders and Ostrom kept up and I understand why they would want to from a business standpoint but I think as a result the songs can feel like they were made on an assembly line to quote an NPR article Glee songs are a low-cost way to conquer ties the fleeting experience of watching the program like personal merit badges earned by watching and liking the show in other words the songs from Glee aren't hits they're souvenirs that didn't matter though by the end of season 2 the show's cultural status had been cemented but cracks in the show's armor were starting to appear both critics and fans were beginning to take issue with the critiques I mentioned earlier which was reflected by the show starting to dip slightly in the ratings the other big problem was the show's looming plan for the end of season 3 between seasons 2 & 3 news began to break that most of the cast would be graduating at the end of the third season obviously the cast couldn't stay forever or else they'd look even older than they already did now we got to get cracking though we lost a few days there and it's all gonna be about this whole saga was rife with drama specifically with the show's breakout stars Lea Michele Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer news of a spin-off for them came out which would follow their stories while the main show continued at the high school but that spin-off was ultimately canceled kind of but what we'll get we'll get back to that no matter the case the show still had a third season to get through I'm about to harness the Venn diagram of Glee fans and Oasis fans with this next comparison if seasons 1 & 2 are their Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory season 3 is their be here now it is a bloated messy exhausting season even though it's mostly more of the same plot lines that have defined the series so far the biggest change behind the scenes was the addition of a full writing staff so that the original trio could pull back or focus on other shows like American Horror Story new cast members include sugar Motta a rich girl who has [Music] just the best voice sugar they also added the two winners of the Glee Project what oh yeah that's right amid the whole merch wave they made an entire reality competition show where the contestants would compete for a role on Glee two of them ended up getting main roles jo is a Christian and Rory is Irish I'm not selling them short that that's who they are they also added two of the runners-up harmony as a rival Glee star and towards the end unique Adams the first openly transgender character on the show Blaine now goes to mckinley high setting off a new rivalry between new directions and the Warblers Blaine gets hit with a rock filled slushy and in response Santana and the leader of the Warblers have a sing-off to smooth criminal' with two cellos you've been hit by you've been shot back smooth this exists there's nothing we can do about it let's move on Quinn becomes a punk for like two episodes she also tries to reconnect with her daughter who had been adopted by idina menzel speaking of she starts a new glee club at McKinley called the troubletones members like Mercedes and Santana feeling neglected in New Directions defect over until they don't Ricky Martin helps will realize that he is a terrible Spanish teacher and he does a mariachi version of a little more satisfaction he also asks Finn to be his best man when he marries Emma are you screwed right now you taught me more about being a man than anyone I've ever known he's a child also when will proposes the club does a number in the pool and they just straight up Weil already into the water outstanding work everyone involved I know the ridiculousness of the show is what some people love about it and if that's you more power to you I also acknowledge I binge this show on Netflix I didn't watch it week by week as it originally aired that certainly contributed to my growing fatigue but even despite the ratcheted intensity of these scenes many of these plot lines filled both tired and tiring the show used to be a solid balancing act between the satirical and the sensitive and at this point it's now both at the same time but also neither at the same time there is an episode that within 45 minutes covers Karofsky suicide attempt soundtrack by Blaine singing young the Giants cough syrup' our regionals performance Finn and Rachel almost getting married despite the wishes of their parents oh yeah jeff goldblum is one of Rachel's gay dads and a texting while driving PSA with Quinn getting into a car accident and being put in a wheelchair for five episodes that sounds exhausting right me just explaining it imagine having to watch it on the musical end there's not much new of note some ridiculous choices like how Artie and Quinn both in wheelchairs do a rendition of Elton John's I'm still standing even more of a lean on popular tunes it should be noted though with this season Glee was actually a trendsetter when it came to new acts specifically acts emerging from the indie pop world for example give me a second I need again masterís treatment in the 8th episode of season 3 they close it out with this virtually unknown song we are young by fun now I was always under the impression that this song blew up when it was used in a Super Bowl ad but actually months before that Glee picked up on it first you hear that Jack Antonoff Glee made you in addition it was their use of gautier somebody that I used to know that arguably pushed the song to number one on the Hot 100 even still despite the trendsetter status the show struggled with declining ratings less charitable critical reception and only 47 songs from the season on the Hot 100 still a lot but less than both seasons 1 & 2 personally there were three aspects of the show that really started weighing on me first the editing the show style favors edits that are fast and flashy but don't gel together on closer inspection for the musical numbers this isn't a huge deal but for other scenes it is here's an example in this one scene during dance practice Kurt and Blaine are discussing who will get the lead in the school's production of West Side Story as a concept the scene is fine the dialogue is snappy everyone acts well enough in it but the gang is doing a grapevine throughout and the way they cut between Kurt and Blaine moving in different directions makes the scene feel disorienting yes something's coming those are Toni songs are you ready for 22 would that be weird no great Toni need a perfect Toni actually some respects a second the social tokenism the show would parade out regarding certain issues I said earlier the Kurt's story about coming out was a huge part of the show and an important moment for many of the show's queer fans there are criticisms that Kurt still embodies a lot of gay man stereotypes but from what I've read the consensus is that Kurt story was handled mostly well but he's Santana why don't you just come out of the closet in season 3 Santana is basically outed by Finn after she goes on a mocking tirade about him and then out it again in a political TV ad the way the show frames these two instances of gay characters coming out it strikes me as a bit hypocritical the third aspect that was starting to wear me out was Rachel Berry Rachel Berry is aside from Sue Sylvester the show's most well-known character she is also the show's worst character to be clear though my comments here are not meant to disparage Lea Michele or her performance if you're looking for that just go onto Twitter and watch your former castmates do it themselves rachel is established in the pilot as a Broadway hopeful determined to make it as a star and totally blind to the needs or feelings of everyone else I'd like to go around and ask everyone with solos they'd like to hear me perform at sectionals I brought up earlier the show's flaw of no one dealing with any consequences and that flaw is amped up to the nth degree when it comes to Rachel she has essentially no character development whatsoever she never learns from any mistakes and to make matters worse she never fails at anything in the grand scheme of things in season 3 she and Kurt have their auditions for a big performing arts school in New York City during hers she flubs the words twice and is rejected you get 8 bars now that could be an interesting idea someone like Rachel getting taken down a peg and having to deal with that failure for the time beater she harasses the school's director and eventually gets in even though Kurt has a great audition and doesn't get in the show is so overwhelmingly in Rachel's favor and it only gets worse from here as Kyle Turner wrote for the a/v Club it was Rachel though who was painted as the one who suffers the most both ironically and on ironically and it is Rachel who is written as if success no matter the risks is her destiny and everyone else who suffers or lives on the margins of her world or society at large are valuable insofar as the visibility of their trials and tribulations [Music] so the season ends with the gang at Nationals ending their set with paradise by the dashboard light which is in my opinion the other musical high point of the show it's a really good number everybody gets a nice little moment it still holds up today they win and become heroes at the school the last episode is the club hanging out singing songs and reminiscing about their time in high school we'll even comes clean to find' about planting drugs in his locker so I planted the pot in your locker and blackmailed you into join the glee club it was wrong by the end rachel is the only one going to new york Finn who got rejected from the Actors Studio decides to have her go on her own he'll go into the army and they'll try to make their relationship work long distance the ending is Rachel singing as she arrives fresh off the train in New York City as a whole this could honestly work as a series finale and in a thematic sense it is a finale of sorts we've gotten to watch this motley crew grow together and now they've moved on so how does the show deal with that okay let me let me let me try to explain this for season four a whole new cast of students is brought in to replace the old guard and boy does the show want you to know that these are replacements the first episode is literally called the new Rachel and it spends its time having the characters figure out who is the new version of each departed character newcomers include pucks half brother Noah filling in for puck cheerleader Kitty filling in for Quinn and also kind of Santana Marley the poor girl filling in for at first Rachel and then no one they brought in two winners from the second season of the Glee Project writer the jock filling in for Finn and Ali stroker in one episode side note Ali actually went on to be the first handi-capable person to win a Tony that's that's pretty cool go Ali returning high schoolers include Brittany Tina Blaine augmented atop bike trail Joe unique and sugar why is she still here she can't sing does she just mouth along in the background now you may be asking are the graduated characters just gone well do you remember that cancelled spinoff I brought up earlier and how it would have followed the characters after they left high school it turns out season 4 only spends half its time in Ohio the other half is in New York where rachel is going to performing art school NYADA in this same first episode Kurt moves on a whim and the two get an apartment in Bushwick together that only costs $1,800 a month newcomers in this space include Kate Hudson as Rachel's aggressive dance teacher Sarah Jessica Parker as Kurt's boss when he gets an internship at Vogue in one day and Rachel's new love interest Brody and I gotta say they do a really good job of Flushing Brody out and making him seem like a real human being his character traits include being attracted to Rachel this change in scenery could have been good for the show allowing these characters especially Rachel to learn more about themselves and what it's like to pursue a career in the Performing Arts there was potential here so do they make good on it what do you think yeah season four is a mess occasionally interesting but more often half-baked believe it or not when you basically split your show into two separate entities neither one ends up being all that great on the Ohio end the new actors have virtually no time to develop so when the show does another love triangle or another rivalry between two girls I don't know why I should care writer finds out he's dyslexic and then nothing comes of it Jake is conflicted about being half white half black and half Jewish and nothing comes of it Kitty manipulates Marley into having an eating disorder and nothing comes of it on the new york--and rachel is still seen in the show's eyes as a perfect superstar so even when she gets fairly reasonable if harshly worded feedback it's framed as if she's been personally attacked if there's one character who actually fares well this season it's Finn he comes back after being discharged from the Army he breaks up with Rachel in an episode where everyone breaks up with everyone and he becomes wills assistant in coaching the glee club he's a character who doesn't get everything he wants and he has to deal with the consequences and move forward like a human being in fact it's interesting to see how differently Rachel and Finn are treated as characters Rachel mailing every number and being flawless despite not ever learning anything or being held accountable and Finn being flawed and making mistakes but still finding ways to do what he loves and share that love with others there's probably a metaphor about the show in there somewhere oh wait never mind here's Gangnam style altogether I just have no reason to care about most of these characters and if I don't care about them why should I care about what they sing speaking of which how are the songs this season what do you think it's more of the same pretty much more modern pop songs a handful of show tunes you can definitely start to sense they were running out of solid picks that would feel organic within the story like in this scene a bunch of the McKinley students have a sing-off to see who would be the new Rachel and this happens what song are we singing what Rachel would sing if she were here the song of the summer call me maybe really really call me maybe Rachel Berry Barbra Streisand's heir apparents would sing call me maybe are there any notable songs there's Jane Lynch doing Super Bass [Music] turns out she's a huge Niki stand with your heads you'd call me gangster but every time you patronize me I will take it back leave me alone there's a mash up of Nellie's hot in here with the Jay geils bands centerfold that that worked surprisingly well [Music] Blayne does a stripped-down piano version of Teenage Dream that's emotional to the point of discomfort there's also this you know I think it's important in life to be honest and acknowledge when you don't know much about something so I'm just gonna say I don't know what's going on right now okay so this is a mash-up of the scissor sisters let's have a Kiki with burt bacharach s-- turkey Lurkey time yeah I'm just gonna I think that's it though everything else is Glee's typical brand of cookie wait why does this version of baby got back sound familiar oh I know where it's from it's Johnathan Colton's version Johnson Colton's a indie singer-songwriter you might know him best for the two songs at the end of the portal games it's so cool that Glee would boost Jonathan Colton's profile like that and include his arrangement actually you know what I want to take a second and just look up what he had to say about the matter I bet he was so happy when he apparently they didn't credit his arrangement like they just made a version that sounds very faithful to Colton's and when Colton found out and reached out to them Fox's lawyers said it was within their rights and he should be happy with the exposure even though they don't credit him I don't even have a joke for that Jesus Christ gross plagiarism aside most of season 4 is hit or miss in terms of story and music but there's one episode I want to highlight because it represents the absolute nadir of this show other episodes left me feeling annoyed or frustrated but this is the first episode that actually pissed me off episode 18 shooting star the first 20 minutes or so our typical Glee fare but in the second act it turns into a school shooting PSA the sequence depicting the shooting is tense and effective because of course it is how could it not be the acting by everyone is commendable even though some points don't hold up like why does will restrain sus for nearby sidewalk from looking for someone but then leave the classroom in the next scene to look for someone also they try to shoehorn in resolving Marley and Kitty's rift having an eating disorder [Music] so yes the scene is well-made I'll give it that but I know this show I know how these writers do things they're never gonna mention this again this won't impact anyone or anything going forward one of the most traumatizing things about an experience like this is the trauma the memory of the event and having to carry it with you for a long time but this show is so horribly incapable of portraying something like that even though no one got hurt it would still weigh on these characters oh yeah that's right nobody dies or gets injured turns out Becky was fearful of graduating and going out into the world so she brought in a gun to school it accidentally goes off in Sue's office and Sue takes the blame and gets fired and some might say that it's the thought that counts or it's the depiction that matters most Heather Morris's acting in the bathroom was really effective to which I say true ten minutes before this she was singing extremes more than words to a cat who had joined the Ku Klux Klan for at best this episode is well-intentioned but unsuccessful at worst it's a craven ploy to boost ratings and I would have stopped watching here had it not been for this video plus a little ditty I like to call the sunk cost fallacy oh and in case you're curious they mentioned the shooting in the first 10 minutes of the next episode and then that's it for the rest of the series anyways after that debacle rachel auditions for funny girl on Broadway by singing the Barbra Streisand classic don't stop believin she ends up getting a callback and subsequently the lead role despite only being a first semester college student New Directions goes to regionals and wait aren't regionals in the fall semester yeah so unlike the past seasons all of season 4 took place in just the first semester whatever they win and will and Emma get married I'll give this finale props there are worse ways to lose your will the live all in total it doesn't feel like anything of actual worth happened this season and I think that's a big reason as to why so many people dropped off Glee after season 3 according to billboard season 4 only managed to get three songs on the hot 100 and they all stayed in the 90s even looking at this series box set I got the only reference to anything past the first three seasons on here is this super small pic of the new students doing grease I spent $80 on this in any case the show had been renewed for two more seasons during season four second half despite ratings critical opinion and music sales dropping even further the Glee Train would muster on that is until it got derailed to another story that is breaking overnight a star of the popular show Glee found dead in his hotel room in Vancouver in the summer between seasons four and five Cory Monteith passed away it was a tragic event one that shocked Glee's cast its fanbase and anyone with a passing knowledge of the show in order to plan how the show would move from here it was announced that production would halt for two weeks this led to the season premiere being pushed back two weeks and season five episode count being twenty instead of 22 Ryan Murphy also announced that the third episode of season 5 would be dedicated to both Finn and Cory [Music] 525,600 minutes that episode the quarterback is I think the best episode of Glee since at least season two I say I think because I'm not entirely sure that it is an episode I mean yeah literally it is but it sure doesn't feel like one there are only two storylines in it one about a tree that's wrapped up quickly and one about Finn's jacket that only comes up in a handful of scenes the rest is just these characters coming together to make music and grieve someone they lost on that note I find this episode so fascinating because it has no interest putting up barriers between the fictitious and the real it is both a TV episode in which fictional characters mourn the loss of another fictional character and a recorded grieving session for real actors mourning the loss of a colleague for instance Kurt's really pointed voice over about people wanting to know how Finn died everyone wants to talk about how he died too but who cares one moment his whole life I care more about how he lived and anyone who has a problem with that should remember that he was my brother also Rachel talking to will and literally laying out how the show was supposed to end I was gonna make it pick on Broadway and then when we were ready I would just come back and he'd be teaching here and I'd walk through those doors and I would just say I'm home the songs across the board are good the club doing seasons of love Mercedes doing I'll stand by you which Finn did in season one Santana's rendition of if I die young and Lea Michele who had been dating Monteith singing make you feel my love I could offer you a warm embrace to make you feel my love that last song is considered by many to be one of the show's finest musical moments it's also incidentally the last time the show ever made it onto the Hot 100 with this episode for the first time there is no pretense in Glee this feels like the first real acknowledgement by the show that there are some things that song and hope and Sue Sylvester snark can't fix it's a captivating episode and I wanted to bring it up first so that I could separate it from the rest of season 5 and I wanted to do that because season 5 is one of the worst seasons of television I've ever seen in my life all of last season's main cast members both in Ohio and New York returned notable guest stars this season include Demi Lovato and the lead singer of Queen Plus Adam Lambert why can't I remember his name so let's start with the good parts of this season um oh they they they do the Beatles for the first two episodes you can't really mess up the Beatles nevermind but the numbers here are fine also curtain blame get engaged which is that's nice and um that's it a part of me wants to avoid being critical because I assume some of the seasons quality is due to Cory's death I don't envy the writers situation at all having to deal with the death of one of its principal characters and move the show forward that said it's just the worst the storylines this season are some of the most brain-dead things ever filmed for the small screen the club does a competition to see who's a Katy Perry and who's a Lady gaga which leads to Marley getting suspended from the club for not wanting to dress outside her comfort zone they do a non-canonical Christmas episode involving Rachel Kurt and Santana acting his elves for an alcoholic mall Santa and then bringing another mall Santa home and singing alvin and the chipmunks [Music] there is an entire episode dedicated to twerking with will defending the students right to do it he shows his steadfast support by of course obviously dancing with twerking teenagers too blurred lines Santana gets the part of Rachel's understudy and funny girl despite not having any stage experience and also looking nothing like her this leads to a massive feud and it reduces both characters to the absolute worst versions of themselves it's just it's really hard being a star shut the hell up Rachel Blaine gets really controlling and then hallucinates everyone as puppets because of a gas leak so he makes puppets for everyone and they all sing eventually the club performs at Nationals they lose and Sue who is principal at this point shuts down the club over the next two episodes which happened to be the show's one hundred and hundred and first episodes the old students come back to join the club in singing songs from past episodes when his paltrow and kristin chenoweth also come back to help save the club but it turns out they both suck so no luck there the last song they do is don't stop believin which frankly just sounds Hollow at this point and so ends the McKinley High glee club [Music] there are still seven episodes left in the season for the remaining episodes the show focuses solely on New York and cuts the main cast down to a third and it's not terrible I appreciate the smaller cast and the plot lines are as ridiculous Mercedes as a recording star after selling CDs out of the trunk of her car half diminished 7th next to intersection is a model artis that but he's also in film school Kurt and Blaine have some good scenes as they try to navigate the relationship outside of school but it all feels too little too late at this point wait zoom in on that TV that's the credits of Glee on the TV being watched by the characters of Glee does Glee exist in glee Rachel eventually gets her big Broadway debut even though sue sings part of the big showstopper in an imaginary sequence like wat Y and her performance gets rave reviews so what do you think happens next for real just take a wild guess at what you think is gonna happen next that's right yep the very next episode she becomes disillusioned with the things she's been working towards since day one and gets convinced to fly out to California to audition for a TV show despite having a performance that same day she also auditions with Bette Midler's the rose even though the show isn't a musical Jim rash is just sitting over here like I've spit better bars than this criminals Wall Street taking the pie not the black man I don't know if that was that dumb anyway she nearly gets fired from funny girl and doesn't get the TV show Rachel learned her lesson for sure wait no sorry I read that bit in the script wrong she actually gets an entire show made about her life she plans to head out to California as the other New York kids are all prepping for the next stage in their lives and to commemorate this moment they sing a song about a volcano erupting please end me season 5 is terrible and audiences seem to agree the ratings went from 5 million viewers at the start to about 1.8 by the end but anyway that's done there's one more season left let's get this over with season 6 blessed soul is only 13 episodes long it premiered in January 2015 and aired on Friday nights here's a visual metaphor for shows that are moved to Friday night time slots in the first episode we learned that Rachel's TV show absolutely floppies having her reputation ruined she returns to Ohio she decides to restart at McKinley glee club with the help of Kurt who was using it for school credits also he and Blaine broke up and Blaine's now dating kirovsky the guy who bullied Kurt back in season 2 good for them meanwhile sue is still principal and will is now coaching rival club vocal adrenaline all of the students from seasons four and five except Kitty got kicked out by sue so of course they add new characters this season Jane is the first girl to go to Dalton Academy and originally starts out wanting to join the Warblers but transfers to McKinley when she's rejected Roderick is shy it has a good voice Mason and Madison are cheerleading twins Spencer is a gay jock Myron's a spoiled child who ends up transferring at the behest of superintendent Ted Beneke and Alice - oh my god that that's Phineas O'Connell that that's Billie Eilish his brother and producer what the hell is this show I know I've said this before but there was potential here the first episode has what might be considered themes about what it means to fail coming back home and legacy not just for the characters but the show itself does the rest of the season make good on that potential I mean it's better than season five for one thing it's shorter the same issues that have plagued Glee since the start are still here in full force the new characters don't get much screen time the plot lines are also still ridiculous but I don't know the energy is different there's a difference between a grown man defending teenagers right to twerk and Sue being revealed as a shipper for claim and locking them in a fake elevator slash saw parody to make them kiss you were trapped elevator this isn't an elevator elevator with the bathroom I didn't say it was a good difference but it's a difference hey guys do you mind if I ritualistically slaughter this children I want to counteract with the bad luck of Santana seeing me my wedding dress there's also a whole episode focused on Coach Beiste transitioning and the cast accepting him as a mess the episode ends with unique and a 300 person trans choir singing I know where I've been from hairspray from the reviews I've read of this episode the general consensus was it could have been much worse even if will does rap same love at one point God will suck so much Kurt dates Harry Hamlin for a hot SEC Britney's real dad is Stephen Hawking which is why she's a super genius sue hypnotizes Viennese try cord betwixt toll booths to toy with Rachel's heart and also swap out their sectional setlist ascension millennium by Corey Feldman are you kidding me hi everyone Susan e Silva Stano here towards the end of the season not only do Brittany and Santana get married but they managed to convince Kurt and Blaine to get married - it's a shippers dream come true hello before I get lost in these plots the music this season is ok at this point they had foregone physical releases or even single releases and had been putting out each episode songs as EPS they do an episode mashing up Carole King and Alanis Morissette which I'm sure is what all high schoolers circa 2015 were hyped about they do hey yeah at the wedding a song that is absolutely about everlasting love if you squint your ears Rachel sings let it go from frozen that's not notable because of the performance but because it confirms frozen exists in the glee universe and since idina menzel is already in glee as Rachel's mom it opens up a whole bunch of parallel universe questions but enough about my conspiracy theories let's get to the ending the series finale was a two-parter when it aired the first part was a flashback to the pilot with many of the side characters getting more time to explore why they wanted to join the club everyone looked super old at this point and it's ironic to realize that a show that became so popular by mining musical nostalgia was now mining its own nostalgia but it's not it's not a bad episode the second part is ok you know how in other shows they would end by showing like a five minute montage of ore everyone or would be imagine stretching that montage out to an hour the new New Directions win nationals will has made principal of McKinley which is now in art school he adds more glee clubs and makes Neapolitans six adjacent to roundabouts the head of new directions the show then jumps five years to 2020 where sue is now vice president under Jeb Bush Blaine and Kurt are respected arts professionals that are expecting a baby and their surrogate is Rachel Rachel ends up marrying jonathan groff scare achter and she wins a Tony at the 2020 Tony Award the whole gang comes back to McKinley in the newly christened Finn Hudson auditorium and they all sing one republic's I lived and that's what you missed on Glee I worry that by condensing this show down into the most basic understandable points I haven't fully conveyed how much of a roller coaster this show is to follow I've left out a ton already there was Leah Michelle and I Rivera's alleged feud in the later seasons mark sailings death Dianne Agron not being in the quarterback episode sue Sylvester's wishy-washy villain status throughout the show the fact that they ruined Tina in the fourth and fifth seasons the fact that Blaine and karofsky find out that they're cousins in the last season but still continue to date the fact that there are virtually no positive relationships between two women anywhere on the show the fact that they do a funk episode at one point and their definition of funk includes Marky Mark's Good Vibrations the cast making fun of the show in the years after it ended yeah my least favorite Glee song would probably be Beth I would probably I mean Beth is a great yeah but it's probably don't believe DMA I wrote Gangnam style Tina got abused more than any other character my least favorite Glee song is don't stop believin my least favorite Glee song is don't stop believin yeah but I don't want to get sucked down the Glee hole any further than I already am so I want to close this out by asking two questions the first is what impact has Glee left on media I mentioned the Glee effect earlier but other shows in media also sprung up around Glee that contributed to this pedagogical uptick Disney movies like High School Musical and Camp Rock helped form the foundation that Glee would eventually launch off of pitch perfect and the sing-off came around the time Glee was picking up and the three together helped a cappella music surged into the spotlight NBC made their own Glee with smash which followed Glee's lead of having a stellar first episode and less stellar rest of the show Fox's Empire premiered soon after Glee ended and released original songs of its own from what I've seen it was solid there's even Zoe's extraordinary playlists which premiered recently if you're looking for something musical and still focused on high school I mean some episodes are Riverdale and sorry I'm different now I guess deaf just changes a person the second question is one that I've been asking myself for a while now and one that Ryan Murphy himself may have been teasing the answer to and a now-deleted Instagram post Murphy revealed an idea he had to revamp Glee with Lea Michele Ben Platt and beanie Feldstein so the question then is could Glee itself make a comeback please god no I admit part of that answer is fueled by the fact that I don't want to watch any more of this damn show but I don't really think this show could work today first off the music of today is not as pop dominated as it was in the early 2010's I could see them doing dual eepa doja cat maybe some post Malone songs but you know they would try doing stuff like bad and bougie or sicko mode or 2z slide ii all of their songs would go on to streaming platforms and a show like Glee or any TV show for that matter wouldn't be able to keep up with the speed at which musical trends move now because of streaming do you really want to see Glee do tic toc dances months after their relevance and finally Glee was praised in its heyday for promoting social causes but I think that its attempts would be eviscerated today and not because of any politically correct backlash its championing of LGBTQ rights and diversity is great on the surface and in some regards it absolutely deserves its place in history after watching the show for a while though you start to notice how the queer characters on the show often boiled down to the most basic of stereotypes or how the non-white characters are all pushed to the sidelines while Rachel gets yet another solo as Jeff Jensen wrote for ewo bout season 6 it arrived so full of progressive fire representing change and promising hope for more it now moves towards the exit dogged by criticism of inconsistency and unmet ambitions framed as a disappointment glee is wholeheartedly a product of its time for better or worse and yet we as a culture keep coming back to it ever since its tenth anniversary last year and its availability on streaming services tons of people have either gone back into glee or started it for the first time and I can understand why some people are so captivated by it it exists in its own surreal universe where every social issue was splattered onto its canvas like Jackson Pollock if he was really into Sondheim it's been said by other critics that Glee was only good in chunks or minutes at a time which might be the most accurate praise I can muster for it as a whole Glee could be sporadic salty impulsive ditzy sombre saccharine tasteless and outright awful sometimes all within the same episode but when it was good there was nothing else like [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Mic The Snare

Views: 1,587,925

Keywords: micthesnare, mic the snare, music analysis, video essay, glee, songs, performances, don't stop believing, smooth criminal, finn dies, valerie, toxic, teenage dream, santana, if i die young, loser like me, lea michele, cory monteith, rude, audition, umbrella, ryan murphy, lyrics, season 1, season 2, season 3, season 4, season 5, season 6, tik tok, the scientist, full, review, reaction

Id: 2a8FEqrG8c4

Length: 54min 54sec (3294 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 22 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/UrNotMissingMe]

He brought up so many plot points from seasons 4-6 that I don't remember even though I know I watched it. It's almost like I just erased the whole "new cast" of season 4 from my memory.

He's completely right about the first episode being a great episode of television. Even though the rest of the show did not age well, the first episode of Glee was really Ryan Murphy at his best.

[u/wavingwolves]

this was so well made! a in depth analysis about the show and its influence is pretty perfect for the moment, since a lot of people have been rewatching the show and it has sparked some discussions about its issues.

it's crazy to think that this show ended only 5 years ago because i can't imagine it being broadcasted right now, where discourse about whether something is problematic or bad/good representation is more and more common among younger audiences. as someone who watched glee as a teenager, i don't remember being as aware about how badly represented some of the characters were. also, marginalized groups representation in media is definitely something more talked about now than it ever was before. i remember only being a little more aware of the problems it had when the show went downhill after season three.

and god, the "you're all minorities, you're in glee club" line is so painful to listen to now that i got a full body cringe from it.

[u/Mumpmander]

I have never watched Glee but found it fascinating. Love Mic The Snare!

[u/AvenueRoy]

This was amazing. Honestly, seasons 3-6 have blurred together in my memory, so this was a good reminder of how terrible season 5 was.

(Also I hate that I know this, but in the Funk episode, Finn and Puck were called out for doing Good Vibrations and thinking it was funk, just because "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch" was the first thing they found when they looked up "funk" on iTunes.)

[u/mitzimitzi]

why have i been thinking that the actor who plays will schuster is ryan murhpy

[u/jayhawksfan0965]

This guy is incredible at making videos.

[u/survivorjdmarina]

I love Mic The Snare! His Quick Review Basheroo videos are great.

[u/luckylukeinlimbo]

The descriptions of seasons 4-6 sound like a fever dream.

I dropped Glee mid-season 4 and can barely remember what happened beyond being angry at how they treated the eating disorder subplot like a joke -- recently beat 10yrs of bulimia -- being puzzled by the cast jetting back and forth between New York and Ohio like it was an hour-by-car distance and the weird storyline slut-shaming Rachel's new love interest because he worked as an escort.

Didn't help that the show was so far up Rachel's ass and, to quote Quinn, "I feel like punching her every time she opens her mouth"

Honestly, all the new characters were so boring, what even was the point of remaining in the school? Were viewers that attached to Mr Shue?

Also, I feel like Riverdale took the space Glee left, except with much, much worse musical numbers and no quotable dialogue.

[u/gonline]

Thanks for sharing this. Instant subscribe.