You Say Goodbye and I say 'Hell No'--Glee Rehash

The excitement of my Glee Returns! night devolved into apathy.  First off, I was late...missed the first glorious five minutes.  And in Glee World that is a lot because the opening sets the tone of the show.  I did get a chance to download the episode and see it in it's entirety.  Slightly better, but still not on par with previous amazing episodes.  At first I began to believe that this had to be a dream sequence because too much was happening too fast and the idea of Sue in bed with Figgins was just unreal.  I mean, really?  Am I supposed to believe this?  Then I remembered, duh, it's GLEE.  That's how they roll. 

I've been lurking quite a bit on the technicolor Glee Forum and have decided that this new generation of youngsters are sadly ignorant of what good music is.  But, let's not go off on a tangent yet.  While I was lurking, I discovered that there were a few intelligent eggs in the bunch.  I love that many of the Will/Emma shippers have picked up on the clever parallels between the aforementioned couple and the constantly inconstant Rachel/Finn.  It became more than obvious that Will relates to Finn far too much for a man in his thirties.  He tells Finn to find his inner rock star and forget about relationships.  Of course, Will never was able to do this because he was too busy following bitch!Terri around like a sad-eyed puppy dog.  And I know that the creators want to foster that father/son dynamic, but Will is slowly beginning to act more like a poor, lost teenage boy than Finn does.  Finn is actually maturing.  I found his reluctance to give up on Rachel and his cleverness in being suspicious of Jesse St. James much more mature than Will acting like an escaped zoo animal. 

On the other side of the coin we have Emma and Rachel.  I say that they are similar but the difference is that Rachel is much more of a risk-taker than Emma.  Although, Emma definitely knows who she is and is not afraid to tell the truth.  Very similar to Rachel, particularly in this episode.  Rachel had my heart this week and that hasn't happened since the first few episodes.  I do agree that she is used a bit too much and I fear that there will be a backlash if the writers don't pull back on all the Rachel-ness in every episode.  I always enjoy delving a bit more into the secondary characters' lives.  But, I forgive the overuse of Rachel simply because she and Jesse St. James(hottie!!) had me near tears with their version of 'Hello'.  I am biased due to 'Hello' being one of my favorite songs growing up.  That poor blind girl had no idea just how much that bust DIDN'T look like Lionel Richie.  In any case, they blew me away.  Can't wait to get that on my ipod.

Now with Emma, we see a woman getting what she wants only to realize that it is much more trouble than she expected.  There's her issues with physical closeness due to her mysophobia and then there is the little fact of Will still being married and emotionally underdeveloped.  I can personally relate to this which is why I understand Emma and her situation too well .  What I love about Emma is that though she has problems, she's strong.  Strong enough to honestly tell Will that he needs to get his sh*t together before he goes on to another relationship.  Not many women could do that.  The good thing is that Will is smart enough and just mature enough to know what his problem is.  However it doesn't stop him from reverting back to the little kid he was in high school.  He still gets too caught up in wanting to be the Glee stud he use to be.  He still needs to figure out who he is as an adult.  Then he can move forward and claim his lady love.  Of course, Emma has her own problems but if previews from next week are to be believed, she is working it out with the help of a certain Material Girl.  Go Girl!(bringing it back from the old school)

I'd say this one rated a low B.  Maybe even a high C.  Next week will be better.

Wishlist: Less Brittanna(although they are amusing)
              Fewer Rachel lead songs
              More Chocolate Thunder and Fashionable Soprano
              More adorable!Emma
              Lots more Quinn!!(did she even get a line??)
              More Matthew Morrison(Mr Schu) chest exposure




    

Sterling Cooper: Where The Boys Are

There has been so much passion and polarization over the 8th episode(Souvenir) of this season’s Mad Men. Specifically in regards to one Pete Campbell and his extreme lack of judgment conscience with a German au pair. At first I couldn’t see what others were seeing: an obvious rape. That word conjures up something forceful and violent. And since we didn’t see extreme force or violence, it’s hard for me to use the word ‘rape’. Now, of course, the legal definition of the word has changed significantly over the years to include less obvious forms of violation. So to 2009 viewers, that was essentially rape. And wrong. I do not doubt the wrongness of it, but didn’t want to look at one of my (sometimes)favorite characters like that.


However, I’m beginning to see the other side of it.

So TCM(AMC’s classic movie rival) aired the 1960 movie Where The Boys Are on the Thursday following the “Souvenir” episode. And the programmers at TCM either watch the show or read my mind because the minute that Hildy made the comment about getting a place for the weekend with the other secretaries, I immediately thought of this movie! As I watched it, for the first time I understood it not just as some fluffy 60’s teen movie with the requisite musical numbers. There was social commentary, however flippant about young women expressing their sexuality, presaging the sexual revolution for women. What jumped out at me beyond the obvious morality tale was the fact that the young college guys were very much like Pete Campbell in attire and attitude. The Florida air was filled with entitlement. And poor little Yvette Mimieux was literally terrorized by her Spring Break fling’s buddy. I thought, ’Wow, I am having a profound Mad Men moment of clarity‘....and not all of those young men were ’the wrong crowd’ as George Hamilton stated. They were college preps just like his character. It hit too close to my fangirl home and I had to re-evaluate. Even if Pete was Uber-dork in college, he probably saw this type of behavior all the time...probably where he got his lovely manners towards women.  There was a constant demonstration of aggressive skirt-chasing at SC(though not as much in 1963 as 1960...things they are a’ changin’) Add to this his loveless family dynamic and you have a little boy trying to be a man based on what he's seen rather than what he's taught.  He does have sociopathic tendencies and we've seen it being alluded to with his mentioning of movies such as Rope and Cape Fear, which he apparently loves.  We've been set up for this to happen probably since the first episode of Season 1.  I can't believe that I didn't connect all the dots until I saw this cheesy teen movie. 

Also... It adds an entirely different meaning to the statement Pete made about Hildy at the beginning of the episode: “...it’s her you should feel sorry for.“ Maybe Pete knew what she and the other secretaries were in for over the weekend.

I do still believe in Pete and hope that this was the bottom for him. He can’t be the only villain at SC!  I do think he sincerely recommited himself to Trudy, even if it wasn't in the ideal Don Draper way. I still have love for him with a large side of hate but I’m keeping faith. Not so sure about Don Draper, though....that’s a whole nother post.