Overly Positive

Last night was the mid-season finale of Glee, Fox’s neato high school dark comedy hit of the fall. Usually, when it comes to these things, some finales fall a little flat, others leave on too much of a cliffhanger or too little of a suspenseful note, but Glee managed to deliver in spades, ending their year with a feel-good outcome while still setting up some stuff for the future.

Now if you haven’t seen the finale, you may want to avoid this post til you have a chance to watch – fair warning.

A season finale has several goals to accomplish:

Wrap up season-long arcs: Finales need to resolve certain story elements that are introduced at the beginning, whether they are overall themes or side stories that deserve closure. Glee did this by exposing the fake pregnancy of Glee faculty advisor Will Schuster’s wife, as well as the secrecy surrounding the father of ex-cheerleader Quinn’s baby. That, combined with the overall story of the Glee club’s trip to sectionals were wrapped up at their current points with nice little bows. I have to say, in any of the arcs, it was difficult to predict an outcome, as they could have gone in a variety of different directions, but I was ultimately glad with where things ended.

Establish new arcs and suspense: Along with closing out some stories, new ones need to begun as well. A good finale puts their closures hand-in-hand with new openings and new possibilities. The revelation on Finn’s part that his best friend and now ex-girlfriend betrayed him should create some interesting team dynamic, and the possible new relationship between Will and germaphobe Emma could be intriguing to explore. The Glee club will continue onto regionals, the next step up, where they are sure to go up against rivals Vocal Adrenaline in a conflict that’ll be sure to elicit some laughs and gasps.

Take major steps in characterization: There are new developments that change established characters in a finale, and Glee delivered on obvious and no-so-obvious levels. There’s the stuff I’ve already mentioned with Will making a choice with his failing marriage, Puck and Quinn now having to deal with the consequences of their actions, and Rachel making a rare decision to give up the spotlight, but secondary characters like Santana and Mercedes shine on their own with performances and dialog that shows they too contribute to the reason why Glee is so successful.

Preserve and encapsulate the foundation of your series: Many series out there try to do something crazy different just for the finale shock value, failing to keep alive the whole idea why the series is appealing in the first place. Not so with Glee, which preserved the overall theme of triumph over adversity, uncomfortable morality, and dark comedy. The buildup to and culmination of the club’s mission to legitimize themselves was shown in grand detail, not without some obstacles (stolen set lists and crazy judges among some of them) to get over, of course, and the overall feeling to me came off as “this is the reason why I watch the show”. The last number of this season, compiled of a mish-mash of the kids’ performances over the course of the past few months, is a testament  to how far the characters and the show has come.  From High School Musical clone accusations to a whirlwind tour spanning nations and a rabid following of folks, Glee is here to stay – and there’ll be a gap in midweek TV til April, given with what they left us with.

I suppose it’s only appropriate that I post from my BlackBerry when Fox hit Glee is going to be hitting the road next week in their season finale. The motley crew of cool kids and misfits will take to the stage in sectionals to try and prove their worth.

The mark of a good show is their setup, and Glee has certainly done that in spades while still maintaining their thematic charm. Glee handles deafness and the underprivileged with its traditional uncomfortable aura and there are some interesting moments as the Glee kids look at competition that is more outcast than they are.

All of that, however, is only part of the setup for the finale. Without spoiling things too hard, let’s just day that pregnancy both young and faked takes a turn at the stage, and if we’re to believe what happens typically to Glee relationships (I.e. They get screwed up) then it’s going to be some interesting times for sure. As I’ve written before, the true charm of Glee is turning things on an awkward head while still being funny about it, and this will be no different.

There are some people out there that think Glee’s musical chops might not have endurance, but with a healthy mix of familiar pop and traditional musical that isn’t just spontaneous, I’d be wary of jumping to conclusions. Couple this with a finale that’s sure to create some characterization waves and you’ve got something that’ll be singing a song to us (and assaulting our piggybanks through iTunes) for a long time to come.

This week’s episode of Glee on Fox was a great one for Gleeks like me, for a variety of reasons, notwithstanding the dueling vocals of Chris Colfer and Lea Michele’s rendition of Wicked‘s “Defying Gravity”. The main reason, however, was a sense of an uncomfortable feeling that stemmed from seeing characters who were not considered “normal” trying to fit into normal roles. This feeling, and many other bitingly comedic moments like it, is part of the appeal of the show that separates it from being a glorified high school drama.

For those who aren’t watching, the main plot point revolved around wheelchair-bound Artie, and Glee teacher “Mr. Shue” trying to get the other members of the club to see what it was like to not have the use of your legs. There are several scenes in which the characters themselves express apathy, disregard, and sometimes unintended hurtful commentary towards their wheelchair-riding fellow member, and I definitely felt uncomfortable to begin with.

But that wasn’t all. The episode hit many notes of unease, from putting forth the question of whether a male (and a homosexual male at that) could be accepted as singing a prominent song written for a female, how a simple stutter can isolate you from people, and whether those with mental disabilities can be cheerleaders. The power in Glee is not just in the fact that there’s a stereotypical exploration of those who aren’t “normal”, but that it forces you to look through their eyes at what they have to go through. Environmental consequences, collateral damage to loved ones, the uncomfortable moral need to accept those not like us as normal even though we know they are not – these are the things that Glee screwed our eyes open to watch. And while sometimes things end pretty nicely, Glee isn’t afraid to drop the ball and show you what happens when the fairy tale idea of acceptance isn’t widely shared by all.

More than ever, Glee continues to show us that the premise and theme of the show is not just the done-to-death “geeks, freaks, and unpopular kids triumph over adversity”, but also how geeks, freaks, and unpopular kids cope with and adapt to adversity that, in reality, never goes away. This is the serious and uncomfortable undertone that punctuates parts of the comedic moments (a bake sale succeeding through the use of medical marajuana, for example), and it lends power to the series that can and should be its greatest strength. I know it keeps me watching, certainly, and it should have the same effect on you, no matter how uneasy it makes you feel.