Recently in Glee Category

I still haven't gotten around to publishing something about WHY Glee is great--I merely said that it was, and promised to provide details later.

And now, before explaining why it's great, I'm going to complain about something wrong with it.

The last episode, "Throwdown," really disappointed me. I didn't much like it. And I had to think about why. Here's what I came up with: there was too much evil blonde in this episode.

Sue, Quinn, Terri, Terri's sister Kendra--they're all blonde, and they're all more or less villains.

Yesterday I recommended that anyone who hasn't already watched the pilot of Glee do so immediately. If you haven't already seen it, you might stop and ask yourself WHY THE HELL NOT, since it's been available on Hulu or wherever since May. Or you might not waste any time with that question and instead just watch the pilot while you still can.

I had heard from a dozen people how great this show was before I finally watched it in June or so; I trusted them and everything but I don't really like watching shows on my computer and I was lazy. But I got around to watching it eventually, and I had a reaction television doesn't usually arouse in me: I WEPT. Seriously. I shed big, sloppy, noisy, wet tears of joy and sympathy and admiration and amazement at the beauty and pathos and complexity that is the human condition.

I'm not kidding. I've watched the pilot three or four more times since then and while I haven't cried every single time, I still think it's the best 47 minutes of television I've ever watched in my life.

Remember earlier this year when I was writing indignant screeds about how VILE Dollhouse was? I complained about the names, the stupidity of Topher Brink (the Dollhouse's putative "genius"), the sexualized violence against women that the show trafficked in.

And then the show ended and I forgot about it.

Last weekend I was visiting Hulu, and an ad for Dollhouse popped up--seems Season II has gone and started and I forgot to pay attention to the buildup. But hey, it was the weekend, and I had a sandwich to eat, so I figured, what the hell, I'll watch the first ep of the new season.

And it bored me.

Now, as I have written in relation to True Blood, I can watch something that is JUST boring, but if something is boring on top of being annoying, pretentious, pompous, unbelievable, unrealistic AND really super busy, then I have a hard time watching.

There is so much going on in this stupid show, but not in a good way. Echo is SUCH an amazing presence, according to the show's own mythos, that she can be A) a doll who has to go back to the Dollhouse and get checked up repeatedly, AND B) an undercover federal agent who has an apartment, a life, a partner, and an agenda that involves bringing down a super-duper HOT arms smuggler whose specialty is dirty bombs, and C) so seductive and alluring that in a few short months she convinces said arms smuggler to propose to her and marry her in a lavish ceremony with killer catering and lots of guests? (Aside: Which dolls were used to served as the family and friends of this particular persona? I'd supply the persona's name, but I can't remember it for the life of me, not on top of the other two names Eliza Dushku already has in this show, and besides, the individual personas don't really matter; they just disappear into the TV void.)

Anyway. Adding to the unrealistic, unbelievable nature of the show is the fact that this long-term assignment for Echo is paid for by Agent Ballard, who now works for the Dollhouse. Wow! The Dollhouse must pay its employees well, if they can afford to hire the entire establishment for a massive project.

I should note that there are still people who love this show. The reviewer at Salon thinks it's great. She mentions an exchange from the Season II opener, between the doctor played by Amy Acker (whose name I also can't remember--oh, wait--apparently it's Claire) and head of security Boyd something, and writes glowingly about it: