The Decline of Glee - Poker Face (2/2)

Today the second part of my Glee piece. I already touched today's subject in my last part about the Decline of Glee. Right now the show is headed to become a 40 minutes music video, with our characters stumbling through it. 

On Tuesday I stated that I can not care for most of the characters anymore, as they are not defined through their relationships and how they deal with them. 

In a musical the songs express the feelings of the characters and/or drive the plot forward. Glee now does neither of that, but in the first season many songs did exactly that. For example: Season 1 Episode 19: Rachel listens to the tape her biological mother made her, which leads to them singing a duet of 'I dreamed a dream' (in a dream sequence, nonetheless!). The classic Les Miserable song is about a mother losing her child - which mirrors the situation perfectly. It also shows the pain of Rachel for not having a mother and in doing so deepens her character.

In the second season of Glee big tribute episodes are overwhelming and many songs seem like they were put into the show just because they are 'in' and top hits (like the 'Justin Bieber Experience'!). Alas, the problem is two-fold: the characters and their situations have no impact on me anymore, they became bland. The songs can not mirror something that is not there and so they are not much more than nicely-choreographed dance numbers. 

The makers of Glee are so lost sometimes on how to squeeze in the songs, that they have to resort to drugging the entire Glee Club and hallucinating Madonna songs. This can not be about the story and character development anymore. This is just about putting in as many popular songs as possible.

At the moment, you can watch Glee on shuffle and you wouldn't miss much! And don't get me started on the blatant misuse of AutoTune - they all started to sound the same.

In summary, Glee's characters are missing the emotional deepth at the moment and subsequently the music numbers are just shallow renditions of popular songs. The songs should be used to reflect the situations and feelings of the characters, only that way they can start to create an emotional impact on the viewer again.

The comment section below works without registration, just choose "Comment as Anonymous" - I am looking forward to your discussion.
And if you like my blog be sure to become my follower - Thanks!

Have a nice day,

- Tristan