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rm1. That was perhaps the greatest Christmas episode of anything ever.
2. Every second of the black & white part was PERFECTION.
3. Holy shit, that dirty dirty eggnog joke.
4. The accent Kurt was using -- perfection. Do we understand its utter perfection?
5. The pause before the whole "holiday guest/bachelor" thing was lovely and on point and frankly hilarious. Let's also remember, they are high school boys, even if they could have said partner there, that might not have been comfortable without advance discussion.
6. Now is as good as time as any to mention the answer to the cut rung box scene seems to be this: (Link is now gone, the item in the box was a ring made out of gum wrappers).
If that’s what it was, I get why it was cut. The whole episode was about Kurt and Blaine being completely at ease about assuming an adult future together, and this was, therefore, unnecessary, and was clearly set up, not to be about their commitment (because that was the rest of the episode), but to illustrate the epic fail that were Rachel and Finn around the holidays.
Narratively, in light of all of the above, I am okay with the cut.
7. Mercedes looked GORGEOUS all episode.
8. They are trying to make us ship non-canon Sam/Rory. Wait... wait... wasn't there even a teaser that Rory might have found a relationship at the end of this episode. Are they trying to make us ship canon Sam/Rory?
9. I really like Rory.
10. I was uncomfortable with Rachel, the most explicitly Jewish character on the show, being so money focused about gifts.
11. I was not uncomfortable with how Rory brought religion in, because we saw the mixed reactions.
12. I was uncomfortable with bell ringing for the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is, among other things, anti-gay -- I know it's an iconic Christmas thing, but on a very gay episode of a very gay show, I was annoyed that no one thought about this.
13. Kurt is Lucy!
14. Chris Colfer, may you always grace our screens, you are fucking delightful.
15. I have lot of patience for Rachel and her pain. She made me really angry in this ep. Grow up -- Kurt sure is.
16. Person I was watching with felt that it seemed like Rachel and Finn have not continued to have sex and Rachel holds it out as a reward and that it seems like Klaine are just having sex. She doesn't even like Klaine. I agree.
17. That shit was nearly flawless.
18. Blaine and socks.
19. Blaine and capri pants.
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Date: 2011-12-14 02:55 am (UTC)I totally agree on the Kurt as Lucy!!
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Date: 2011-12-14 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 03:15 am (UTC)The whole episode was about Kurt and Blaine being completely at ease about assuming an adult future together
Completely adorable. Squee!
But this:
10. I was uncomfortable with Rachel, the most explicitly Jewish character on the show, being so money focused about gifts.
is making me cranky. The Jewish girl has to learn the meaning of charity, from her dimwit boyfriend no less, while the Catholic boy and the show structure reinforce Christian privilege and the idea that charity is intrinsic to the dominant religion? That's off, show.
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Date: 2011-12-14 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 03:20 am (UTC)I like your point about the gum wrapper ring scene. That's my takeaway, too. If there's one thing we saw in this episode, it's that Kurt and Blaine are not afraid of commitment. How much of that is playacting remains to be seen, though, and I'm looking forward to seeing if that develops.
MERCEDES. GOD, YES.
I felt the Salvation Army thing, too. :/ I noticed that there was no explicit Salvation Army stuff on the collection bucket/sign, so I'm choosing to believe in Gleeland their "Salvation Army" actually helps out LGBT+.
Is this where you found out about the ring?
Date: 2011-12-14 03:30 am (UTC)http://perfectklaine.tumblr.com/
http://perfectklaine.tumblr.com/post/14196757434/in-case-anyone-hasnt-seen-yet-in-the-scene-that-was
Re: Is this where you found out about the ring?
Date: 2011-12-14 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 03:57 am (UTC)Plus, with the exception of the Klaine duet, the music did nothing for me.
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Date: 2011-12-15 06:00 am (UTC)Nail. On. The HEAD! I was so let down by this episode. I understand the tribute aspect (some people were calling it a parody, but I really don't think that's an accurate description of what was going on there), but if they were going to do a tribute Christmas special, I wish they would have just DONE a Christmas special and not try to squeeze it in the middle of a pseudo-plot driven episode. I think I giggled exactly once during the B&W segments and I don't even remember what I giggled at now. I liked the developing Sam and Rory relationship, and I see next episode we again get Finn trying to police the other guys on what it is ~to be a man~ (again, I don't even remember what happened in the preview now but Finn tried to tell Sam not to do something because it wasn't manly or whatever). Rachel's entire attitude was beyond deplorable. They seemed to have taken Quinn's issues when she was trying to make Finn work to support a baby who a) wasn't his and b) she lied about to him and multiplied them. Rachel got Finn an iPod? You can get an iPod for as little as $50, and she expected him to get her FIVE presents, one of which was a set of diamond earrings? Oh. OKAY, WRITERS.
Sorry, I have a lot of feelings. I don't even go here.
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Date: 2011-12-16 02:24 am (UTC)I've been thinking about this all day and had to come back and say what I've been noodling about: I think the show is really good at showing, quite baldly and sometimes even brutally, how privilege structures work, who benefits from them and who loses because of them. But what it doesn't also do, a lot of the time, is respond to the issues it raises or offer alternatives. You're just stuck with those wins and losses. It's commentary and collusion at the same time.
I think of Glee as a show about being trapped, finding places to breathe in the interstices of a stifling world, and I think that this pattern is where I ultimately got that reading from. Part of the reason that this season is really engaging me is that I'm seeing more and more characters really fighting the paradigm, and starting to get small wins here and there. Especially Mercedes and Artie (Kurt, of course, has been the character doing it for longest; I'm glad he has company).
In which our heroine is once again distracted from meaning by language
Date: 2011-12-16 03:52 am (UTC)Re: In which our heroine is once again distracted from meaning by language
Date: 2011-12-16 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 04:11 am (UTC)That being said, I always have mixed feelings about Salvation Army. I want to be against them because of their stance on, well, me and the people I love; but my old job required that I interact with them a *lot* and they do so much for people who have been affected by disasters, regardless of who they are. So, yes, I disagree with them in principle but I also feel like they do good and I don't know how to support that without supporting them. Ugh, yes.
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Date: 2011-12-14 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 05:19 am (UTC)Glee writers making Sam and Rory stand very closely together, give them pseudo-romantic lines to say 'hey fandom, don't disturb the beautiful Klaine ship with your Kum/Blam or Kory/Blory nonsense, look what a beautiful might-be-canon pairing we're setting up for you over here'!
Chris Colfer SHONE, especially in the holiday special section. Just couldn't take my eyes off him. Watching him have so much fun as though he thought 'motherfucker, I've got actual comedy, I'm going to kill this thing!'
By the way, why is no one mentioning Blaine randomly playing a harmonica, plus walking over to the piano, sitting down and NOT PLAYING IT?!!! - that was hysterical. I adored every moment of the two of them perched on the back of the sofa, very cute staging decision.
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Date: 2011-12-15 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 06:02 am (UTC)That being said, the only song that didn't make my teeth grind was "Let It Snow," mainly because Criss and Colfer didn't dick around too much with the arrangement.
Am I bad for wanting them to instead sing "Baby, It's Cold Outside"?
OTOH, both Springsteen and Clemens are weeping with rage over that horrendous version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and the fact that they cut short "Christmas Wrapping" also annoyed me. It's telling a complete story, people.
And of course, they had to cap with the one holiday song I hate more than any other, mainly because as a child of the early 80's, I was force-fed that song once too often.
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Date: 2011-12-14 07:54 am (UTC)They did that last year!
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Date: 2011-12-14 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-15 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 06:37 am (UTC)7. This is the first time I've enjoyed Mercedes this season (she's a great singer, but I have no enjoyed her character).
8. I don't really understand this Sam/Rory thing, but hey... can we call that ship Ram? ;)
16. This is an interesting observation. Clearly, Klainer are having ALL OF THE SEX based on the way they interact with each other now. I think there is definite pause for thought with the Finchel theory. Their relationship was portrayed as not particularly healthy or functional, starting with "I thought we agreed that the 'things you did wrong this week list were more harmful than helpful'" line. I dunno...
Oh, and P.S. (I need to add this to my thoughts post)... preview for next week... FINN TALKED TO AN ARMY RECRUITER?! Whoa. I mean, it actually kind of makes sense since Finn isn't academically strong and his football scholarship dreams were dashed, but holy shit.
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Date: 2011-12-14 06:42 am (UTC)Otherwise, I felt the episode was a bit choppy and overplayed (and I'm not talking about the incredibly awesome Christmas special). Rory was my favorite on The Glee Project, and his reading was lovely.
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Date: 2011-12-14 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 07:23 am (UTC)I understand they're all in with the we-make-jokes-about-everything, but their treatment of disability-storylines has not earned them that joke.
Otherwise, i enjoyed the episode, and loved the fuck out of Blane and Kurt.
Also, I caught the Salvation Army thing. Too bad they didn't
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Date: 2011-12-15 01:10 pm (UTC)Glee tend to do right by their disabled characters, a lot. Artie was a bamf this ep. <3
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Date: 2011-12-14 10:39 am (UTC)I liked the episode but I would've liked it better if it had been just an hour long extended version of that black and white Klaine sequence. No context, just merriment.
This was the first time all year I felt anything positive about Mercedes. It certainly helped that she looked AMAZING. The show's costume dept. is having an incredible season so far.
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Date: 2011-12-14 12:45 pm (UTC)One of my lesbian co-workers led a "let's have our staff ring the TSA bell somewhere" thing this year, and of course, my (private) reaction to that was O.o???????
Because I'd like to keep my job and because TSA happens to be one of our partner agencies (I work for a local United Way), I have to keep my mouth shut as regards my opinion about some of their policies (I certainly did not sign up to ring the bell and had anyone actually come and asked me why I would have told them, but it's not information I'm going to offer up out of the blue) it really did boggle my mind that she would have come up with the idea if she knew that TSA was anti-gay. Thus my "hmmm, maybe it's not as well-known as it should be??" I don't know, it's just weird.
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Date: 2011-12-14 03:51 pm (UTC)He takes Rory very personally LOL
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Date: 2011-12-14 04:29 pm (UTC)Cut scene: I don't care about the gift, I'm just sad we missed another scene of Blaine being endlessly charming to Kurt. I wanted an AWWW scene.
Overall episode...aaaaah. Didn't really enjoy it. Except for Rory and Sam! <3 Maybe because we don't celebrate Christmas. I also didn't like the way they did the materialism versus what's important message, I just didn't believe in it.
But, oh Kurt. *dies from love*
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Date: 2011-12-14 06:42 pm (UTC)Let's put it this way: I hate Christmas music. I hate that song. I LOVE Kurt and Blaine doing that song. That's got to mean something.
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Date: 2011-12-15 09:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 06:54 pm (UTC)However, I loved the Sam and Rory subtext. I loved the black-and-white segment because it was clearly a spoof, and I'm okay with spoofs. I'm also all for Kurt and Blaine being the hosts, because hey, perfect hosts! And did anyone else notice that Rachel was actually trying to be Judy Garland? She even used the accent in some areas...quite skillfully. I was sort of impressed. Although it surprised me how awkward she appeared to be on live TV cameras.
However, it still doesn't fix the fact that it was still a poorly done obligatory Christmas episode full of dumbass Christmas music. To me, Christmas songs are even more of a cop-out than breakup songs, whether they're sad or happy. Because who needs imagery when the concept of Christmas already has imagery installed? You don't even have to try with those lyrics. People already know about the damn tree and the damn jingle bells and horses and sleighs and snow (even if they live in Arizona or some shit). You don't have to tell them about warming by the fire or presents or Satan Claws. At this point, you say Christmas and they just ASSUME.
At least once, I'd like to see a frickin' Hanukkah episode. There's way better Hanukkah music then Christmas music anyway. Or better yet, see if they can make a Winter Solstice episode and still find songs to sing that people already know. Now there's a challenge.
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Date: 2011-12-15 03:32 am (UTC)I feel you on Rachel, here; most of her diva-outs I understand, even if I think she's being TOO much of a diva. I've not ever out-and-out disliked her, but I did tonight. Not at the end--she learned the lesson and all--but MAN did I want to smack her over the head for a while there.
I did not catch the "eggnog" thing as a dirty joke until you pointed that out. Holy hell! KURT! XD