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!