This has taken three days to write, partly because Real Life interfered, but mostly because thinking beyond the first two paragraphs made me so angry I wanted to throw things. So. With that in mind let’s talk about 3×08, how it has officially killed any affection I had left for this show, and why the fandom reaction to this episode disturbs me. (Warning: VERY LONG post.)
This is a much more articulate way of saying something I’ve been off and on bitching about for ages, really, and it highlights an awesome point: am I disappointed in the show, or the fandom?
And it’s the latter, because I don’t know, I expected better? You expect this kind of shit from the show, but I didn’t expect people I talk to, and people who read my writing or whatever, to be so “oh whatever, they’re hot together” or—worse—“Rachel SAVED QUINN!” about how awful these female-oriented story lines are. Because, I mean, if this is the baseline for what’s acceptable, I don’t really know WHY on earth I spent 20 hours of my life reading about anxiety disorders just to make sure I didn’t totally fuck up an amateur portrayal of those, or why I painstakingly had Rachel wade through all of the past problems she had with Quinn.
I might as well just wrap up AITEWYLM right now and just say “and now they’re fine because Rachel said so” because, that’s apparently good enough for fans of the show Glee!
[ETA, this was sarcastic; but no, the fact that my writing is appreciated because it tries harder than the show does, is not somehow a justification for how positively the show was still ultimately received by most fans. A positive doesn’t actually cancel out a negative outside of mathematics, you’ll find. It’s bullshit that this was on any level acceptable to women, anywhere, really – the fact that those same women prefer a more nuanced approach doesn’t change that.]
I don’t think it’s a matter of acceptable so much as forced apathy and disassociation for their peace of mind. Oh, and lowww expectations. If it sucks even a little less than usual, all right. I think of it as a series of loosely related mini-musicals wherein I get to look at pretty people singing.
Any actual hope for even a remotely well-done storyline is so far gone by this point.