Verdict: Glee’s Shooting Star episode fails to live up to lofty goals
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Oh Glee, you continuously find new and interesting ways to frustrate/enrage/engage the people that watch your show. How else could one explain that tomfoolery that was the recent episode of Glee? Everywhere you looked on the internet were people saying how this was Glee’s most intense episode ever, yet by the end of the episode I just felt emotionally abused and cheated. So much so that it’s taken me this long to even write up my thoughts because I was just too done. But here at last is my sternly worded blog post.
For those who haven’t seen the episode I’d encourage you to watch it so you can be properly infuriated along with me. But here’s the gist. This episode concerned itself with two main plot lines, the first being the Catfishing of Ryder and the 2nd being the prospect of violence at McKinley High. From a storytelling standpoint, I thought it made sense to at least give the audience the appearance of this being a regular day. That is after all how real school shootings start, as regular days. The real drama started when the glee club hears 2 shots ring out in the hallway and we are thrust into a scenario that’s been all too familiar these past few years.
The first problem with the episode was just simple execution. Glee has never been a show of subtlety but if you are going to mollywhop us over the head with titling the lesson Last Chances and having Brittany think the world is going to end, the least you could do was make the shooting and the aftermath the main focus. This was the first sign that I should have known Glee was going to have me mad as shit by the end of the episode. By devoting so much got damn time to the Ryder catfish situation and Brittany singing songs to Lord Tubbington it left more than one viewer confused and really took away from a strong plot. Also, what in the entire fuck was that ending Glee? Why would you end the episode with Ryder still not making contact with his damn online crush, that whack ass song, and then show us the videos that Artie shot on his phone? That was a clusterfuck of stuff you wanted people to absorb in too short a time frame. Also, NO ONE is here for that Ryder storyline. AT. ALL. I really like Blake Jenner and that scene where he confronts Marley and Jake was A+ acting, but chile this storyline has got to go. ESPECIALLY if you are going to wrap it around a school shooting and not give us resolution.
Also, what in the entire fuck was the scene with them in the choir room? It was realistic for all of about 1 minute before the bullshit started. I spent a good 5 minutes of the sequences screaming obscenities not out of fear but out of pure anger that you would have characters act so fucking stupid during a serious situation. Why on God’s green earth would anyone be dumb enough to crawl across the fucking classroom or worse yet try to LEAVE when there is a shooter on the loose? That was the dumbest thing and never have I wanted to judo chop a character more than I did Sam at that moment. And everyone in that bitch was talking about as quiet as a fan at a football game. There was nary a whisper during a time when being quiet is imperative to your survival. And everyone’s fucking phone was on loud! Has no one in the world of Glee heard of silent mode? You could hear the clicking of those texts from a mile away and the fact that Ryder would let that phone call ring for so long with a possible shooter strolling the halls. If there was a real shooter in that school, they’d have gone directly to that choir room and we’d have no more show. Everyone in that that scene was so unbearably aggravating that it completely took me out of being scared and set me up for being pissed especially because of the dreadful scenes that followed.
Side Note: Let me give props to the wonder that is Heather Morris. The scenes where she was locked in that bathroom were the most harrowing things since life and I was bawling my eyes out the second I saw her on perched on the toilet seat, barely holding in tears. When Mr. Schue found her whew Lord…alright back to the issues.
Just when you thought the episode would go quietly into the night, Glee slapped us with having Sue Sylvester admit that it was her gun (!) and get fired, only to show us a minute later that it was actually Becky (!!!!!) who brought the gun and actually accidentally fired a shot and having another one fire when she dropped the gun. So let me get this straight Glee writers, after we’ve endured this horrific sequence of people huddle in a choir room you try and hoodwink us twice in a 10 minute span? *fights the air* UGH. This was just the worst because it completely negated the impact of having a real shooter in the school or Sue’s very good reasoning. This is a powerful topic and by not showing us that it was Becky or at least intercutting with Sue’s initial confession robbed the show of its power. Also it destroys most, if not all, of the sympathy we have for Becky because not only did her mistake cause this life altering but her ass might be directly responsible for Sue not being on the show anymore! Like bish what? If you ever wanted to know how to make an entire audience not be here for a disabled character you just got it.
As I mentioned on my last podcast, being stuck in a building with a shooter is in my top 5 things I am most scared of happening to me. I am horrified at any type of violence that happens inside of enclosed spaces with unsuspecting people and the mere fact that these were characters I’d come to care about was a lot to take in. My nerves were shot to shit DAYS before this episode aired and I was laid out like Lazarus in the tomb on my couch by the time the warning came on the screen. However, by episode’s end I was livid and upset that such a powerful episode had been reduced to nothing more significant than a few plot points and ragged emotions. I’m just disappointed in a show that has pushed so many boundaries and done tough subject mat
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