One Thorn, Two Roses

Hi I’m back—finally! Sorry it’s been so long. Soo I have a rant I need to go on. But don’t worry, it’s not all negative. For every negative, there are two positives, so I will discuss two other shows that are not royally pissing me off, but in fact give me the warm and fuzzies.  I’ve spent a couple days mulling over whether I should even write about this episode because it is so controversial, but any time I try to write about something else, this just keeps nagging at me so I need to just get it out of my system. 

SPOILER ALERT

This week’s episode  of Glee featured a character with Down’s Syndrome, Becky, bringing a gun to school because she was scared of the real world. She’s in her cheerleading coach Sue’s office when she takes it out and it accidentally goes off. Thankfully, neither is injured. Now, what would you do if you were in the ADULT coach’s position? You would tell the principal that it was an accident, and that it was Becky’s gun and hope that this would result in her getting serious HELP. I would pray that’s what a responsible adult would do in this instance. Is this what Sue did? No. She allowed the ENTIRE school to go into lockdown/panic mode. Students were huddled in the choir room scared out of their minds for what was supposed to be hours. They didn’t know what was going on. One girl was shown trapped in a bathroom stall in complete and utter terror. All because of an accident. All because an adult didn’t do the responsible thing and report it. The fact that Sue would allow this to happen is absolutely despicable.

Because she doesn’t want Becky to get expelled (which she should’ve been and this way she could have had counseling), Sue goes to the principal the day after all of the panic and confesses that it was her gun that accidentally went off and is consequently fired. So now Becky is free to go back to school after that (and now without even Sue to protect her). She is allowing someone who is capable of taking a gun to school to return to the very school that she terrorized. Disgusting.

Now, what message is Glee sending to the viewers by doing this? That an adult will always be there to cover up your reckless choices? Or worse, that it’s okay to put hundreds of lives in danger because you’re scared?!

I understand that this is a TV show and these characters are not real, but people watch this. Especially, people in high school. They really need to be more careful of what they are sending out there because they are reaching impressionable minds.

Also, way to negatively portray a special needs character, as Television Without Pity discusses in their review Five Reasons Why This Was The Worst Episode of Glee Ever , quoted below. 

The Treatment of Down Syndrome
"Glee's treatment of Becky Jackson can fluctuate between "pretty empowering," "totally normal, which is great" and "questionably horrifying"... but last night's characterization was just plain nasty. Not only was this oftentimes strong young woman with agency horribly infantilized in "Shooting Star" -- she was also literally deadly. I don't buy for a second that Becky lacks the sense not to bring a gun into school, and I'm appalled that the writers chose to take away her strength as a teenager with Down Syndrome in order to martyrize Sue. Even just from a critical angle, this was just plain bad retconning; we've learned that Becky knows right from wrong (and when she does choose the "wrong" thing, it's about her choosing to defy what's expected of her). More importantly, Glee has actually taken some strides to try to destigmatize her condition, and this pulled the rug out from under that."

Well, after all of that negativity, I did promise you two positive things. So here is what I did like about TV this week! 

Parks and Recreation was awesome and amazing as always. April was made the deputy director of the Animal Control Department, which has been foreshadowed by her love of animals (she and her husband Andy rescued a three legged dog named Champion). Leslie presented her with a plaque she made April's first day interning years ago, just because she could tell April would be going places. Sooo nice :) I love shows that are not afraid to show women empowering other women to be their best selves. It makes me feel all warm inside. More of that, please. 

The New Normal- Brian and David got married! And they got their baby! It was written as a possible series finale, so everyone was happy in the end, so of course I loved it! It was such a beautiful episode. 

Love and Light and Happy TV Watching! 
Be back next week! 

How 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation defy gender stereotypes

I found a really interesting article on Thinkprogress.com on how NBC has done a good job of showing two weddings this season that defied gender role stereotypes by showing two women who, despite being in serious, loving relationships, were still able to be career oriented. 30 Rock's Liz Lemon and Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope are great role models for young girls to look up to. They both demonstrate that you should not have to give up on your goals just because you fall in love. Link is posted below. Check it out!

Tina Fey as Liz Lemon and Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope via dstv.com

Click here to read!

Weddings Part 2

I am so excited to be blogging about Ben and Leslie’s wedding this week! Unlike last week’s Glee wedding, the Parks and Recreation wedding actually happened and it was beautiful. Last week’s episode featured Ben and Leslie, along with the rest of the crew, throwing a gala to raise money for the park they are trying to build. They were not planning on getting married for another three months, but during the gala they realized that all the people they cared about were there anyway, so why not? This left them with exactly two hours to plan their dream wedding.

via starcasm.net

As the episode progresses, they are forced to overcome obstacles standing in their way including not having wedding rings and the unfinished wedding dress. Thankfully the first two problems are solved with some good-hearted creativity. Ann, Leslie’s best friend and maid of honor, wins the award for Most Creative Maid of Honor. She had to figure out how to complete the bottom of the dress because it was only half-done. Leslie, a recently elected city council-woman, is so passionate about government work that Ann decides to fashion a skirt out of all the important documents and bills Leslie has signed or been involved with.  It is so perfect and unique only to Leslie Knope.

via ew.com

Ron and Chris, Ben’s Best Man, are assigned to ring duty. Because there are no jewelry stores open at such a late hour, it is nearly impossible to find rings that could pass for wedding rings. They even go to a liquor store, and are discouraged after they have no luck. Alas, Ron’s quick thinking and outdoorsy skills save the day! He rips a sconce lamp off of Ann’s wall at her house (we don’t see her reaction, but she would probably be fine with it since it’s for Leslie. Obviously), and fashions two rings out of the lamp using a light torch—in only 20 minutes!

via usmagazine.com

Finally, just a few minutes before the episode finishes the ceremony takes place after bypassing those obstacles and dealing with a nemesis of Leslie’s who tried and of course failed to derail the wedding. The last debacle caused them to have to move the already last minute wedding to the Parks and Recreation office at the last minute. I can’t think of a more perfect location for the wedding because it is such an integral part of both of their lives and they would never have even met if it weren’t for Ben being assigned to Pawnee’s Parks and Recreation Department in the second season. As if everything weren’t already so perfect, they eat waffles served by the local favorite, J.J.’s Diner as they are surrounded by all their friends at Leslie’s place of work. 

This goes along splendidly with Leslie’s motto in life: The most important things in life are friends, waffles, and work! 

Weddings Part 1

This is going to be one of two entries this weekend because I have a (SPOILER ALERT) wedding special coming tomorrow night in honor of Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt. Seriously, you guys don’t understand my excitement! I cannot believe this is actually happening. I feel like I know these people  and now they’re getting married! I’m having flashbacks to the first time they met, their first date, their first kiss, etc. Ahhh! Sorry for getting sidetracked; back to this week’s entry. Because tomorrow is a wedding that I am so excited about, I will do this entry on a wedding that left me very disappointed and unhappy earlier this week.  This was an egregious example of writers who simply don’t care about their fans and only seem to care about pulling as high ratings as they can each week.

I am referring to the wedding that didn’t happen on Glee. Okay, I know that Glee is not meant to be taken seriously anymore, but you don’t spend FOUR YEARS building a relationship up, only to royally mess it up like that. Yes, we got a wonderful performance out of Jayma Mays, who plays Emma, as she left Will at the altar, but I seriously was just so infuriated. When you have fans who have spent four years shipping a couple, sitting through their ups and downs, you don’t just take all of that progress and completely do a 180. We never even got to see Emma contact Will and explain why she left him like that and offer him any kind of closure. Yes, the audience knew that she had anxiety, but it just wasn’t fair to the character to portray her in such a negative light. I almost think the only reason they had her flip out and leave was so they could use the song that she sang, “Not getting married tonight”. It definitely showed the actress’s talent as a singer, but everyone knows Glee gets most of their publicity from downloads on iTunes. This makes me believe that unfortunately the music is probably what drives some of their storylines. I really think that because this is a TV show, that it should be character and/or plot driven, and the songs that they sing should be more in the background. They should not feel the need to alter storylines to fit the songs they want to sing that week. I will admit sometimes it works for them,  but in this case it was glaringly obvious exactly what they were doing. I know I am probably reading way too much into this. It’s just TV and it is supposed to be entertaining. I always hear people saying that TV should be mindless. I disagree with this. I am a believer in mindfulness, therefore you should put your 100% into anything you do, and this also means writing things that actually make sense. Now, I realize this may seem hypocritical of me to say in this blog entry that seems more like a stream of consciousness, but it just really “grinds my gears” as a friend of mine says. 

Five Shows You Should Be Watching

Tomorrow I will be back with reviews of tonight's packed lineup: Glee, The Office, Community (which is FINALLY back!), The Big Bang Theory, and Parks and Recreation. Tonight I wanted to share a list of my top five shows that I think you should be watching now. Feel free to post in the comments what you think I should be watching or what you would like to see me review!

1.     Parks and Recreation: This is my #1 favorite show right now! I am unabashedly just such a fangirl when it comes to this sitcom. It is really just the best show on right now. It has the perfect combination of humor and heart. You really find yourself caring about these characters. I can’t even do it justice. Watch it for yourself and then thank me of course!

2.     The Big Bang Theory: The general premise of a pretty girl moving across the hall from two geeky guys does not seem highly promising at first. However, the show has been on for five seasons so the writers must be doing something right. Each character is so delightfully quirky in his/her own highly personalized way you just can’t stop watching. I watched reruns all winter break and could not get enough!

3.     Suburgatory: TV is not meant to be realistic and this show definitely takes that idea to heart. If I could describe it in one word, it would be zany. Some of these characters probably could not function in real life because they are so over the top clueless, but the writers also give them some depth that makes the viewer care about them every week. Also, actress who plays Dalia is the most monotone person I have ever heard, but she still manages to be hilarious. It’s quite a commendable talent if you ask me.

4.     Glee: Now, before you just stop reading completely, let me defend myself. I am not talking about the Glee of last year that focused on a group of high schoolers trying to win Nationals, Sectionals, Regionals, and anything else ending in –ionals. I am talking about the fierce New York lifestyle of Rachel and Kurt. Fast-forward through the high school scenes and you have a show about two best friends facing the drama (obviously) of drama school together. It’s like a whole different show!

5.     Once Upon a Time: This is the only fantasy show I’ve ever watched. I don’t think you have to be a fan of the fantasy genre in order to like this. Basically the fairy tale world was all cursed to be sent to our time period. I don’t want to give too much away, but it is just so well done. Robert Carlyle and Lana Parilla each do a phenomenal job in their roles. They really both deserve awards for the acting that they do. Half of the episodes are flashbacks so there are times where they essentially play two different characters because their characters change so much over the course of time. I am usually not one to notice acting, but the two of them draw me in every week. 

Parenthood

FIRST POST! I can't believe it's taken me this long to start a blog on something I enjoy doing so much-- watching and critiquing TV! This blog is going to be more of a review than a recap, but I will still explain things so that those who do not view the shows will understand. Normally, I will do 2-3 shows per blog, but because this week was possibly the series finale of NBC’s Parenthood (crossing my fingers for another season!), I am going to dedicate my first post to this week’s tear-jerking finale. For those of you who have never viewed the show, Parenthood centers around four siblings and their families as they go through the trials and tribulations of life. I will go through each of the major storylines that were resolved in this finale.

Julia and Joel’s adoption of Victor- This was my favorite storyline this season. Julia and Joel have a daughter who is about 7 or 8 years old and because they could not get pregnant again decided to become foster parents to a boy who is about the same age as their daughter, Sydney. It was both beautiful and heartbreaking this season to watch them try their best to integrate this new child into their family, while trying not to hurt their biological daughter. The last scene of the entire extended family (at least 20 people) in the courtroom for the adoption ceremony was perfect. The grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all gave Victor a speech welcoming him into the family. I’ll be honest: it made me cry. And I may or may not have teared up writing this. It was just a really great storyline to view this season. So much more original than what you see on other TV shows.

Adam and Kristina’s breast cancer storyline- Kristina is cancer-free now! Yay! Monica Potter, who plays Kristina, did an AMAZING job with this storyline this season. Every scene she was in just conveyed so much emotion. She deserves an Emmy. The only thing that bothered me was she and Adam lied to their eldest daughter, Haddie, about how serious the cancer was so she would focus on her schoolwork since she is away at college. I hope that they show the repercussions of that next season, if it is renewed.

Sarah and her many men- Honestly? Every storyline involving Sarah Braverman feels like an insult to my intelligence as a viewer. Season after season, week after week, I am subjected to Sarah’s flavor of the month. Will she choose Mark, the young English teacher who wants to marry her and have a family with her? Will she choose Hank, the older, curmudgeonly photographer? Let’s keep the love triangles on the CW, where they belong.   

Crosby and Jasmine’s meddling mother in law- Thankfully, this storyline was resolved because I didn’t really care for it. I feel like it has been done so much. So, I will just focus on what I am more excited about—Jasmine and Crosby are having a baby! This will be interesting because now they will be dealing with not only her mother living with them, but a new baby. This adds some much appreciated originality to a overused plot.