I have never watched a TV series before
Mar. 24th, 2011 12:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
professor_tammiSo upon realizing this fact, I thought it might be fun to watch something. I've never really liked movies, because they're generally not long enough for me to feel truly attached to the characters - and that's not even mentioning the fact that most movies are too concerned with the story to focus on character development, while I'd prefer it to be the other way around. Which is why I thought I might like a series more.
So I decided to watch Glee. Mostly because I keep seeing it everywhere. Especially the gifs. Yep. They're everywhere.
To be perfectly honest... I don't like drama. Ok, Glee isn't all drama. Definitely not (because otherwise I wouldn't have given it a chance). But it does have a bit of it, and I'm not too fond of those parts. Maybe it's not the drama that's the problem. I'm just annoyed by the fact that, the vast majority of the time, it's really just... people getting angry about silly things with little to no reason. Such as, say, Rachel quitting the Glee Club because she didn't get the lead role in one of their performances. Um...? Is it that much of a problem to let someone else stand in the spotlight for just a little while? Idk, but. This kind of thing irks me.
Also, this might not be overly important, buuut the problems the adults in the show have? Their subplots feel a little tacked on to me. The glee club kids are much more interesting, imo.
With that bit of criticism out of the way, I have to admit that I like the series! (... eheh. I don't think I would ever admit to liking a high-school romcom musical in real life.I have problems) I'm fairly fond of it so far, though I'm really looking forward to getting to the second season. Which is still a ways off, as I'm only on the eleventh episode, but.
Glee does fulfill several of my criteria for the kinds of stories I like, namely having a cast with many varied characters as well as having a generally happy and humorous outlook on things. I've noticed that the show tends to subvert your expectations based on your first impressions of most of the cast, too, and I'm enjoying that a lot. So, for now, I'm going to comment on the major characters and then see how much my opinions of them will have changed by the end of the first season - should be a fun experiment.
Will Schuester: eh. I don't like him too much. He usually has good intentions, and I suppose he is a nice person overall, but he makes at least one awful decision per episode. I guess the show's morals (... which are admittedly a little unexpected given that the target audience is probably around 16 years old, at the very least) are usually a result of Will realizing he's made yet another poor choice, but I don't think that's a very good excuse. And the drama going on between all the adults in the series? Not exactly helping. It's really not all that interesting.
Emma Pillsbury-Howell: she's... kind of cute, and a bit of a silly character, which I do like. I don't really mind her too much most of the time. Fairly neutral towards her. Her crush on Will has definitely gotten old by this point, though. Hope it's resolved soon.
Terri Schuester: this character was practically made for the sole purpose of being horrible and awful and giving the audience someone to hate (or at least I believe I've read something like that somewhere?), and in that sense, she's very well-written. To be fair, I wouldn't exactly say I hate Terri. Hmm. Maybe it's something more akin to pity. Her sister is only making things much, much worse for her. It's just sad.
Sue Sylvester: Sue! She's actually delightfully evil and malicious. I'd say she was a completely black character, morality-wise, but she's shown that she has a human side a few times, so that would be lying. Speaking of which, her characterization in episode 8 did bug me, but thankfully it didn't last (her personality almost did a complete turnaround there, just felt too sudden imo). Regardless, Sue is an excellent villain. She's great.
Rachel Berry: ... so, this thing I mentioned about disliking unnecessary drama? It's often Rachel's fault. But I don't hate her. In fact, I wouldn't even say I dislike her. I really admire Rachel's honesty (because I generally love honest characters) and talent, but the things I like about her and the things I dislike seem to cancel each other out and leave me feeling fairly neutral towards her. But. I do like her pluckiness, I have to admit.
Finn Hudson: he's a dork. A not-so-intelligent dork. I like dorks quite a bit, so suffice it to say, I like Finn. I especially like the fact that, in spite of starting out as one of the "cool jock football-player kids", he's pretty much been a nice guy all along. It's interesting that he's still very concerned about his popularity, though, because he doesn't really strike me as the type at first (unsurprisingly, since first impressions mean very little here). I'm curious to see where his character will go.
Mercedes Jones: she's really been suffering from a pretty severe lack of screentime so far. One of her more interesting moments was all the way back in episode 3, where she busts Kurt's car's window - I was rather angry with her for a short while, but once she apologized at the end of the episode, I felt I was starting to like her character. It really did feel like a sincere apology, and then her complete and unquestioning acceptance when Kurt admitted to being gay? D'aww. That was sweet of her.
Kurt Hummel: ♥ Favorite character by a pretty large margin atm, rather unsurprisingly. He's a snobbish and manipulative jerk and I love him for it. Putting aside the facade he projects in front of the rest of the school for a moment, though, his more personal, love-related problems, as well as his uncertainty, feel realistic to me and are easy to relate to (I'm not necessarily talking about Kurt being gay, but rather him being in love with someone he knows he has no chance with). And the moments he has with his father are just heartwarming (speaking of which, Burt is probably another one of my favorites - I'm glad he supposedly gets a larger role in the second season).
(... also, is it just me, or is he kind of similar to Soren. Especially his crush on Finn and the way he attempts to manipulate Finn's relationships with women. Ok nevermind me I just compare everything to Fire Emblem and besides Ike isn't straight so Soren doesn't have as much of a problem there)
Artie Abrams: hey. It's another character who hasn't gotten enough screentime yet! I don't really know what to say about him, except for the fact that his treatment of Tina after she reveals she was faking her stutter bothered me. But he does seem pretty ok otherwise?
Noah Puckerman: okay, so he's introduced as an immature jerk, and... he kind of remains an immature jerk? But with a nicer side, which he generally only seems to show to Quinn. I don't really know what to say about his inability to stay with just one woman, though. He's probably not exactly her "perfect match" (not that I would know anything about romance, but), given how concerned she is about that. Wait why am I writing about Quinn here? Ok, so, Puck. I'm not overly fond of him right now, but that might change later on, and I wouldn't be surprised if it did.
Tina Cohen-Chang: where is your screentime, Tina? Apparently almost nonexistent. I really feel like I know almost nothing about her - even less than about, say, Artie, who at least had his own episode (of sorts). Aside from the fact that she's supposed to be a goth, which I would actually never have noticed if it weren't for the fact that Wikipedia mentioned it. But I can empathize with her reasons for faking her stutter - I'm absolutely terrified of holding presentations in front of people and flat-out refuse to do it.
Quinn Fabray: ... ouch. She's introduced as the mean, popular cheerleader girl. Then she's revealed to be pregnant and decides not to have an abortion. She's kicked out of the Cheerios, and her popularity at school goes down the drain. Finally, once her parents learn of her pregnancy, she's kicked out of her house. By her own parents (just. what). I felt awful and very sorry for her by the end of episode 10; and this is in spite of the fact that I found the teenage pregnancy subplot a little out of place. I can't say I liked Quinn's cold personality at first, but after seeing all the terrible things that have happened to her, she's grown on me. I have to admit that it felt nice to see that the glee club was supportive of her, too. She's a sad, but strong, character and I'm curious to see what will happen to her next. (... and also her actor is eye candy. I'm sorry! She just is.)
I think I'm glad I decided to watch Glee. It's fun. The music in it may not really be my thing, but the characters, the performances and the humor definitely is.
Just as an aside, some other shows I'm planning to watch eventually are Firefly and Avatar: the Last Airbender (though I'm not sure if the last one even counts, but). Hopefully I'll have something to comment on then as well.
So I decided to watch Glee. Mostly because I keep seeing it everywhere. Especially the gifs. Yep. They're everywhere.
To be perfectly honest... I don't like drama. Ok, Glee isn't all drama. Definitely not (because otherwise I wouldn't have given it a chance). But it does have a bit of it, and I'm not too fond of those parts. Maybe it's not the drama that's the problem. I'm just annoyed by the fact that, the vast majority of the time, it's really just... people getting angry about silly things with little to no reason. Such as, say, Rachel quitting the Glee Club because she didn't get the lead role in one of their performances. Um...? Is it that much of a problem to let someone else stand in the spotlight for just a little while? Idk, but. This kind of thing irks me.
Also, this might not be overly important, buuut the problems the adults in the show have? Their subplots feel a little tacked on to me. The glee club kids are much more interesting, imo.
With that bit of criticism out of the way, I have to admit that I like the series! (... eheh. I don't think I would ever admit to liking a high-school romcom musical in real life.
Glee does fulfill several of my criteria for the kinds of stories I like, namely having a cast with many varied characters as well as having a generally happy and humorous outlook on things. I've noticed that the show tends to subvert your expectations based on your first impressions of most of the cast, too, and I'm enjoying that a lot. So, for now, I'm going to comment on the major characters and then see how much my opinions of them will have changed by the end of the first season - should be a fun experiment.
Will Schuester: eh. I don't like him too much. He usually has good intentions, and I suppose he is a nice person overall, but he makes at least one awful decision per episode. I guess the show's morals (... which are admittedly a little unexpected given that the target audience is probably around 16 years old, at the very least) are usually a result of Will realizing he's made yet another poor choice, but I don't think that's a very good excuse. And the drama going on between all the adults in the series? Not exactly helping. It's really not all that interesting.
Emma Pillsbury-Howell: she's... kind of cute, and a bit of a silly character, which I do like. I don't really mind her too much most of the time. Fairly neutral towards her. Her crush on Will has definitely gotten old by this point, though. Hope it's resolved soon.
Terri Schuester: this character was practically made for the sole purpose of being horrible and awful and giving the audience someone to hate (or at least I believe I've read something like that somewhere?), and in that sense, she's very well-written. To be fair, I wouldn't exactly say I hate Terri. Hmm. Maybe it's something more akin to pity. Her sister is only making things much, much worse for her. It's just sad.
Sue Sylvester: Sue! She's actually delightfully evil and malicious. I'd say she was a completely black character, morality-wise, but she's shown that she has a human side a few times, so that would be lying. Speaking of which, her characterization in episode 8 did bug me, but thankfully it didn't last (her personality almost did a complete turnaround there, just felt too sudden imo). Regardless, Sue is an excellent villain. She's great.
Rachel Berry: ... so, this thing I mentioned about disliking unnecessary drama? It's often Rachel's fault. But I don't hate her. In fact, I wouldn't even say I dislike her. I really admire Rachel's honesty (because I generally love honest characters) and talent, but the things I like about her and the things I dislike seem to cancel each other out and leave me feeling fairly neutral towards her. But. I do like her pluckiness, I have to admit.
Finn Hudson: he's a dork. A not-so-intelligent dork. I like dorks quite a bit, so suffice it to say, I like Finn. I especially like the fact that, in spite of starting out as one of the "cool jock football-player kids", he's pretty much been a nice guy all along. It's interesting that he's still very concerned about his popularity, though, because he doesn't really strike me as the type at first (unsurprisingly, since first impressions mean very little here). I'm curious to see where his character will go.
Mercedes Jones: she's really been suffering from a pretty severe lack of screentime so far. One of her more interesting moments was all the way back in episode 3, where she busts Kurt's car's window - I was rather angry with her for a short while, but once she apologized at the end of the episode, I felt I was starting to like her character. It really did feel like a sincere apology, and then her complete and unquestioning acceptance when Kurt admitted to being gay? D'aww. That was sweet of her.
Kurt Hummel: ♥ Favorite character by a pretty large margin atm, rather unsurprisingly. He's a snobbish and manipulative jerk and I love him for it. Putting aside the facade he projects in front of the rest of the school for a moment, though, his more personal, love-related problems, as well as his uncertainty, feel realistic to me and are easy to relate to (I'm not necessarily talking about Kurt being gay, but rather him being in love with someone he knows he has no chance with). And the moments he has with his father are just heartwarming (speaking of which, Burt is probably another one of my favorites - I'm glad he supposedly gets a larger role in the second season).
(... also, is it just me, or is he kind of similar to Soren. Especially his crush on Finn and the way he attempts to manipulate Finn's relationships with women. Ok nevermind me I just compare everything to Fire Emblem
Artie Abrams: hey. It's another character who hasn't gotten enough screentime yet! I don't really know what to say about him, except for the fact that his treatment of Tina after she reveals she was faking her stutter bothered me. But he does seem pretty ok otherwise?
Noah Puckerman: okay, so he's introduced as an immature jerk, and... he kind of remains an immature jerk? But with a nicer side, which he generally only seems to show to Quinn. I don't really know what to say about his inability to stay with just one woman, though. He's probably not exactly her "perfect match" (not that I would know anything about romance, but), given how concerned she is about that. Wait why am I writing about Quinn here? Ok, so, Puck. I'm not overly fond of him right now, but that might change later on, and I wouldn't be surprised if it did.
Tina Cohen-Chang: where is your screentime, Tina? Apparently almost nonexistent. I really feel like I know almost nothing about her - even less than about, say, Artie, who at least had his own episode (of sorts). Aside from the fact that she's supposed to be a goth, which I would actually never have noticed if it weren't for the fact that Wikipedia mentioned it. But I can empathize with her reasons for faking her stutter - I'm absolutely terrified of holding presentations in front of people and flat-out refuse to do it.
Quinn Fabray: ... ouch. She's introduced as the mean, popular cheerleader girl. Then she's revealed to be pregnant and decides not to have an abortion. She's kicked out of the Cheerios, and her popularity at school goes down the drain. Finally, once her parents learn of her pregnancy, she's kicked out of her house. By her own parents (just. what). I felt awful and very sorry for her by the end of episode 10; and this is in spite of the fact that I found the teenage pregnancy subplot a little out of place. I can't say I liked Quinn's cold personality at first, but after seeing all the terrible things that have happened to her, she's grown on me. I have to admit that it felt nice to see that the glee club was supportive of her, too. She's a sad, but strong, character and I'm curious to see what will happen to her next. (... and also her actor is eye candy. I'm sorry! She just is.)
I think I'm glad I decided to watch Glee. It's fun. The music in it may not really be my thing, but the characters, the performances and the humor definitely is.
Just as an aside, some other shows I'm planning to watch eventually are Firefly and Avatar: the Last Airbender (though I'm not sure if the last one even counts, but). Hopefully I'll have something to comment on then as well.
