tv: Last time I wrote about Glee, which wasn't too long ago, I spent a lot of time blasting the show for what it did with the character of Quinn following her accident. This post has nothing to do with that. In fact, I hope this is the last time I mention Quinn's accident in this post. This also doesn't have anything to do with the specifics of last weeks episode. It does, however, involve certain things that happened in the more recent episodes. I am more here to talk about what seems to be the plan of Glee for its end of the season and how I applaud it.
Ever since Glee came back from its Christmas break it seems like the plan has been to systematically say goodbye to all of the characters that will be graduating and thus, unlike in a lot of network teen shows, leaving the show. This has been a really interesting thing to watch. It has taken on a setting outside of the show (which I know is something I killed in my last Glee post). One can watch the episodes and see the creators conscious effort to deal with saying goodbye.
This, however, in this situation, is a good thing. If Glee is about to send off the majority of its cast, then allowing the viewers the chance to say goodbye to them is a good thing. People have spent the past three years getting to know these kids. People have spent the past three years falling in love with them. It may sound trite to talk about emotional attachments to characters, but spending years of your life with someone, even if they aren't real, does make you form a bond. Its why people cry at movies or books or anything else that tells a story that one can identify with. These characters are going to leave all of the viewers that have spent the past few years getting to know them. The viewers and characters deserve a chance to say goodbye before the cast is thrust into getting to know someone new (Artie, Tina, and Blaine, and maybe Sam, notwithstanding).
The most important thing about saying goodbye, though, is that it is the story the show has chosen to tell. This is a show about high school. The characters in the show (Rachel, Finn, Curt, Mercedes, Santana, Brittany, Quinn, Puck, and Mike for those who don't know their names) who will be graduating are going to scatter to the four winds after high school.
This is a remarkably realistic thing to have happen, given the often convoluted things that happen in Glee. Very few, if any, cliques from high schools would end up together in college whether or not they stayed in touch despite what Saved By The Bell would have you believe. Having been there, I can't imagine any part of the end of high school being more important. Sure there were extra-curriculars to finish out. Sure there were still finals to take. None of that mattered though. By half way through second semester everyone knows if or where they are going to college. The most important thing academically is to make sure your g.p.a doesn't slip. The most important thing is the end of that era in your life. The fact that your friends are going to leave you; maybe forever.
That is the story Glee has chosen to tell. It is the story, we who have all been through it know all too well, and those going through it are dealing with, and those yet to go through it refuse to believe they will have to deal with. That story is the story is that of saying goodbye. Not to anything deep or metaphorical, but saying goodbye to friends and an era. And for us viewers, saying goodbye to people we have gotten the opportunity to know.
This was supposed to about Glee and not about saying goodbye at time in one's life when it feels hardest. But alas, they are one in the same. I know I blasted the show for not being important enough with their story about Quinn (shit I mentioned it again), but this in the case of the larger picture, they seem to be getting it right. Its time to graduate. Time to move on. Time to say goodbye. Let me applaud Glee for giving us this opportunity. I will be saddened by having to say goodbye, but can't wait to watch my opportunity to do it. Its almost time to move on.
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