Re: Glee season 6 discussion and spoiler thread--Part 3

[fantastica]

blah blah blah...

yuck yuck yuck...

'nuf said.

[Ranwing]

There is so much wrong with this that I don't know where to start...

1) Rachel getting to chose between NYADA (basically because she asks to be let back) and Broadway (after attending one fucking audition that someone else sets up for her). Heaven forbid that she has to actually suffer from any real consequences for her actions or have to really work to move past them. No, golden opportunities continue to fall into her lap.

2) Kurt and Sam's concern - I don't mind them having concern since Kurt is Rachel's best friend and Sam is her boyfriend, but is she so completely incapable of making any decision on her own? Isn't she supposed to be an adult? And I am sick to death of Kurt focusing on Rachel's career at the exclusion of working on his own.

3) Jesse arrives to try to convince Rachel to return to Broadway. While I love Jesse and welcome his return (if only so I don't have to stomach Samchel), again it's a guy having to tell the helpless girl what to do for her own fucking career.

There are no words to express just how idiotic this whole season has become.

[Buenos]

Previews for "2009" just 4 songs after all:


https://us.7digital.com/artist/glee-cast/release/glee-the-music-2009/

Song Previews for 2009
1. Popular (Kurt/Rachel)
2.I'm His Child (Mercedes)
3.  I Kissed a Girl (Tina)
4 .Pony (Artie)

[Jellyrolls]

I'm glad we are getting one last proper Hummelberry duet. It's been so long since we've had one.

[dimpledchris]

Popular sounds great. I missed hummelberry singing together. I hoped he'd take the Glinda parts, but they sound great. Not as much Kurt as I wished, though. He's almost just singing backup.

Yay at the originals having the songs in this episode.

I'm just so disappointed we don't have a Kurt solo at all this season.

[Jellyrolls]

I just listened to the full version of Popular, and it is good. I'm sure the scene will be hysterical. It's definitely more Rachel than Kurt (maybe a third Kurt, two thirds Rachel), but their voices do sound good together. Hummelberry duets are definitely one of the things I'll miss most about Glee.

[Ranwing]

Well, Popular is going to be a hummelberry duet, but Lea gets the overwhelming majority of the song and Chris gets the supportive second voice. Not overly surprising. But there was one thing that I found interesting... they have Rachel singing as Galinda while Kurt is Elphaba. And that is how I've always seen the two of them. Rachel is the shallow, self-centered know it all who ends up causing destruction to those around her, while Kurt is the outcast who learned to find his own power in his uniqueness. It fits their characters rather nicely.

As far as the quality of the song goes... Lea is no Kristen Chenoweth. She lacks the brightness of tone and the quirky qualities that give the song character. Chris did much better because he does have the bright tone and is better than Lea in giving character to his song performances. It would have come out better as a Chris solo, but then it probably wouldn't have worked with the character storylines.

Still, the odds are that this is Chris's last big musical number since I hold out no hope of him getting a solo in the final episode. So it's becoming clear that after getting only one proper solo last season, he won't even get that this time around. And given that he's a primary lead this season, whereas Amber has had multiple solos this  season and will get another in 2009.

[Glorfindel]

I'm very upset by this. All the other originals get their own (deserved) solo while Kurt gets to play second fiddle to Rachel again. 

I can't even get any enthusiasm going for this being a last Hummelberry duet. I wanted one last Kurt solo, goddammit.
Or at least I had hoped Kurt would be Galinda in 'Popular', first of all because being a fashionista fits his personality much better than Rachel, and secondly because Rachel is getting enough focus and songtime in the finale episode.


I thought RIB would never get to dissappoint me again, but here you go.
Way to thank your breakout star and only (kid) Golden Globe winning actor, Glee. This disrespect and contempt from the writers for Kurt/Chris has to be deliberate.
Jeez, even Tina/Jenna gets a last solo in the last season. 


And Lea is blatantly imitating Kristin Chenoweth here: she really doesn't seem to have a voice of her own as a singer.

Bah, I'm pissed.

[ColferInspired]

I won't be listening to these songs as I so wanted a Kurt solo.

I am sure RIB resent that Chris does not need them.  

I am sure Chris's friends in the industry might find a way for Chris to sing as a character.

There's Todd Mullinar.

Bryan Fuller is maybe not a friend but has said numerous times he would like to work with Chris.

For all we know there might other showrunners as well.

And of course Noel.

[ColferInspired]

Caved in and listened to Popular.

Thought it would be all Rachel, but at least Kurt does not get just one line.

I think this will be a fun scene.  

I am starting to think Kurt finds his success in fashion is were they in the end head to.

Probably they will use this as an excuse not to give him a solo as Klainers would say if Blaine was given a solo.

[Jellyrolls]

i guess my expectations were low this season that I'm not disappointed.  Kurt may not have a solo (though we don't know about the last episode--though if he gets anything, I'm thinking it will end up being another Klaine duet), but at least we have one last Hummelberry duet (which is a hell of a lot better than a Klaine duet).

And let's face it, Kurt isn't the only one that hasn't gotten much to do song wise this year.  Hell, even Blaine only has like four duets and parts of a couple of group numbers.  Who have thought that would be the case this season?  

Ryan spouted off like an idiot about how he was giving the fans what they wanted this year, but ultimately, Ryan is just forcing his concept for Glee on us.  He doesn't care about the ratings.  His ultimate idea was to rotate out the kids every couple of years, and bring in a new crop, and clearly, that is what he has done.  He tossed away the old newbies, and brought in new newbies.  He only found a way to keep Kurt, Rachel, Blarren, and for some reason Chord around because Fox wouldn't let him can them. This season isn't what the fans want.  It's about what Ryan always thought it should be.

Giving countless songs to VA, the Warblers, and the newbies are his way of getting back at the fans for not worshiping his precious concept for the show.  Remember, he was ready to toss Chris, Lea, and Cory from the show three years ago.  He was forced to keep them, and all of their characters have seen reduced screentime because of it.

It will all be over in a couple of weeks, and we have a bright future to look forward to for Chris.

[Ranwing]

I'm very upset by this. All the other originals get their own (deserved) solo while Kurt gets to play second fiddle to Rachel again. 

I can't even get any enthusiasm going for this being a last Hummelberry duet. I wanted one last Kurt solo, goddammit.
Or at least I had hoped Kurt would be Galinda in 'Popular', first of all because being a fashionista fits his personality much better than Rachel, and secondly because Rachel is getting enough focus and songtime in the finale episode.


I thought RIB would never get to dissappoint me again, but here you go.
Way to thank your breakout star and only (kid) Golden Globe winning actor, Glee. This disrespect and contempt from the writers for Kurt/Chris has to be deliberate.
Jeez, even Tina/Jenna gets a last solo in the last season. 


And Lea is blatantly imitating Kristin Chenoweth here: she really doesn't seem to have a voice of her own as a singer.

Bah, I'm pissed.

There are so many things that just don't make any kind of sense this season...

Mercedes hasn't any any kind of on-screen storyline except that we are told that her recording career is going well. Still, she's gotten multiple solos this season, including two in the final double episode. Now I love Amber and I would rather hear her sing than Darren, but it's been major overkill and she's been getting the jukebox treatment. Part of me wonders if she made it contingent on returning to Glee that she would get a certain number of vocal performances (in order to bolster her chances of getting an album released).

And the overload of VA performances (again, I think that guy in the lead has a development deal with FOX so they want to feature him a lot) doesn't make sense because none of the members of VA have any kind of storyline beyond being faceless antagonists for ND. The fact that characters with no storylines are getting these featured spots ahead of characters that had storylines is really infuriating.

And seriously... we've had episodes with a lot more than four vocal performances. They couldn't squeeze one more song in so that Kurt could get a solo? I find that very hard to believe. They just chose not to and Chris, I believe, was so over Glee at this point that raising a stink just wasn't worth it.

As for as the character breakdown in Popular, with Rachel and Galinda and Kurt as Elphaba, I'm really okay with that (except for the fact that it didn't allow Kurt to sing his proper share of the song. While Galinda might be the fashionista in Wicked, personality-wise she's a lot closer to Rachel than she is to Kurt. Galinda thought she was a good person, but ended up doing a lot of terrible things and hurting those that she said that she cared for. Elphaba, on the other hand, was a more caring individual, and a lot stronger than Galinda. So it fits that Rachel would be the know-it-all (who really knows nothing) while Kurt is the outcast who has to struggle to find his own place because he's not like everyone else.

Vocally, I agree totally that Lea is trying to imitate Kristin and not doing it at all well. I found her part of the song very unengaging. What made Kristen's version so fantastic was the quirky character that Kristen gave, where she was setting herself up as the punchline rather than the one telling the joke. You're supposed to sympathize with Elphaba here, but Lea's version keeps the attention on herself as the one to be admired. And As I said before, Rachel can't match Kristen's voice. I think that Chris's few solo bits were much stronger and I would have loved to have seen what the song might have been had they made it a Kurt solo.

I can find no justification for Kurt not having even one solo this season, but if you want some outrage, hit the Darren tag on Tumblr. They're absolutely fuming about Darren not having any big songs on his own over the last half of the season and apparently no solos or even duets in the final episodes. We're not the only ones pissed (but we're the ones who have far more grounds to be upset).

[Glorfindel]

Maybe I wouldn't be so f*cking mad if Kurt's last significant chance to sing this season in '2009' wasn't him singing second fiddle (because Hummelberry's 'Popular' is not a proper duet) on a song with anyone else but special snowflake Rachel.
(And if we're 'lucky' we'll get another Klaine ~duet in the finale, yay.)

Rachel, who's getting the only individual storyline this season, who's career is the only career that seems to matter, who's getting handed golden opportunities left and right without even her acknowledging that it was herself who majorly fucked up her former golden opportunities, who has already sung multiple solos (4), duets (4), most leads in the group numbers not NNND, VA or Warblers, and will sing at least another solo in the finale and who knows what more (St. Berry duet?).
This last season most definitely is the Rachel Berry show, and it's pissing me off. So no, I'm not happy or grateful to have to share what was most likely Kurt's last song on Glee with her, even if it's fucking legendary Hummelberry (which relationship RIB thoroughly ruined like they did all relationships on the show).

And yes, other characters got shafted this season too, Blaine surprisingly being one of them. But I don't give a rat's ass about Blaine (and he still got a lot more to sing this season than Kurt, even though he's not even at McKinley), I only care about the originals and Will. 

Of those originals:
- Will has gotten some decent individual focus in season 6 (at least a lot more than he got in the last 3 seasons), 2 duets, lead on at least 1 group number, and we know he'll also get a solo and another duet in the finale. 
- Mercedes will have had 3 solos and a duet, even when she's only in a few episodes.
- Artie will have had 2 solos, a duet and some solo parts in a few other songs, and like Mercedes he's only in a few episodes.
- Heck, even Tina will have had a solo and a duet, and I'm sorry for her and her fans, but she's been a minor and neglected character for a long time now.
- Sam, not an original, has had a solo, 2 duets and some parts in group numbers so far.
- even Brittana had their wedding and some songs, plus a solo for both of them.

And what does Kurt, a regular since season 1 and one of Glee's male leads since season 2-3, portrayed by award winning breakout star Chris Colfer, get? 
Two Klaine duets, an unequal Hummelberry duet, only a line or so in 2 group numbers, and singing a bit backup here and there.

The only ones of the original season 1 cast getting less than Kurt are Quinn, Puck and Mike, but we know RIB have given up on them.

I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but this is fucked up.
I'm not in the mood to just swallow our dissapointment in this season again, stoically accept we weren't expecting anything for Kurt from RIB this season anyway because they stopped caring for him a long time ago, and be grateful for the crumbs we get because "yay!" there's a last Hummelberry ~duet. 
Hell to the no.

[Glorfindel]

Mercedes hasn't any any kind of on-screen storyline except that we are told that her recording career is going well. Still, she's gotten multiple solos this season, including two in the final double episode. Now I love Amber and I would rather hear her sing than Darren, but it's been major overkill and she's been getting the jukebox treatment. Part of me wonders if she made it contingent on returning to Glee that she would get a certain number of vocal performances (in order to bolster her chances of getting an album released).

I wished Kurt would have gotten the Mercedes treatment: lots of songs, and besides her gracefully handing Rachel not only an audition but also her old beau no individual focus at all, which in Glee land means no time to fuck her up, both career-wise and character-wise.
 
But I'm glad for the Mercedes fans for what they got, although I'm sure they'll be grumbling too about some things in season 6, and probably rightfully so.

And the overload of VA performances (again, I think that guy in the lead has a development deal with FOX so they want to feature him a lot) doesn't make sense because none of the members of VA have any kind of storyline beyond being faceless antagonists for ND. The fact that characters with no storylines are getting these featured spots ahead of characters that had storylines is really infuriating.

It's infuriating, but otoh it's just songs which got mostly less than 2 minutes screentime in the episodes. Same goes for the Warblers. So yes, they get unnecessary solos, and on paper it looks completely fucked up, but I don't think it matters much in the song distribution for the other characters.
The story they want to tell this year is the NNND rivaling with those 2 other choirs, and therefore VA and the Warblers are just props, like most of the characters are this season, save for Rachel and maybe Mr. Shue (and Sue, who Fox must have ordered to get focus in season 6).
If you take the VA and Warblers factor out of the song distribution issue, and arguably you can even take out all the NNND songs as they are also mostly props to Rachel, Ryan's beloved choir room trope and Sue/Mr Shue, then there's still the fact that some characters get more songs than warranted while others are purposely neglected.
And lbr: that's not exactly brand new information, though it's still frustrating.

In other words: imo it's not the VA solos that fuck up the song distribution this season.

And seriously... we've had episodes with a lot more than four vocal performances. They couldn't squeeze one more song in so that Kurt could get a solo? I find that very hard to believe. They just chose not to and Chris, I believe, was so over Glee at this point that raising a stink just wasn't worth it.

  This.
They managed to magically shoehorn Blaine into 3 McKinley performances in the Burt Bacharach episode, while completely ignoring Kurt.
As you said: they chose not to.

As for as the character breakdown in Popular, with Rachel and Galinda and Kurt as Elphaba, I'm really okay with that (except for the fact that it didn't allow Kurt to sing his proper share of the song. While Galinda might be the fashionista in Wicked, personality-wise she's a lot closer to Rachel than she is to Kurt. Galinda thought she was a good person, but ended up doing a lot of terrible things and hurting those that she said that she cared for. Elphaba, on the other hand, was a more caring individual, and a lot stronger than Galinda. So it fits that Rachel would be the know-it-all (who really knows nothing) while Kurt is the outcast who has to struggle to find his own place because he's not like everyone else.

Although I agree with you as a theatre and musical lover, I really don't think RIB thought this through that far, or that the Elphaba/Galinda comparison is what 99% of the viewers will get from the 'Popular' duet.

Giving Rachel the Glinda part in 'Popular' allows her to sing more than Kurt (and it would have practically been a solo if they hadn't given Kurt at least a little bit more to sing in the Glee version than Elphaba in the original). And giving Rachel the Elphaba part in 'For Good' allowed her to sing the extra intro and the higher harmonies in that song (which they amped up even more by the unnecessary key change at the end).
It really isn't more complicated than that imo.

Vocally, I agree totally that Lea is trying to imitate Kristin and not doing it at all well. I found her part of the song very unengaging. What made Kristen's version so fantastic was the quirky character that Kristen gave, where she was setting herself up as the punchline rather than the one telling the joke. You're supposed to sympathize with Elphaba here, but Lea's version keeps the attention on herself as the one to be admired. And As I said before, Rachel can't match Kristen's voice. I think that Chris's few solo bits were much stronger and I would have loved to have seen what the song might have been had they made it a Kurt solo.

Exactly, and this is the major reason why I hardly ever can appreciate a song Lea sings these days.

It's all about her displaying her fabulous voice, but not the content/meaning of the song.
And on top of that Lea doesn't even has an individual voice anymore, as she's only imitating and unfortunately always coming up short in comparison to the original singer (whether that's Kristin, Idina or Barbra).

Chris is fantastic in 'Popular'. His "...lar" has excellent comedic timing, his harmonies are strong, and the few solo lines he got are in character (of Elphaba and Kurt).
Dammit, this really should have been his swan song solo.

I can find no justification for Kurt not having even one solo this season, but if you want some outrage, hit the Darren tag on Tumblr. They're absolutely fuming about Darren not having any big songs on his own over the last half of the season and apparently no solos or even duets in the final episodes. We're not the only ones pissed (but we're the ones who have far more grounds to be upset).

I don't care about Darren or Blaine, nor his fans tbh, but I actually agree that for once they have reasons to complain.
With all the songs he got in the past few seasons Blaine has been shortchanged in the last season. And though I personally hate seeing his face pop up in McKinley group numbers when Blaine has no reason to be there, and I'm no fan of his voice, Blaine should at least have gotten a solo this season too.

Plus Blaine lost a lot too, being paralelled with Rachel in 6x01, and now Dalton will burn down, leaving him without a 'home' like Rachel with her dads divorcing and selling the hous, and also without a job and career prospect.
And yet, he gets nothing, not even a song it seems, while Rachel gets propped up from all sides. At the most Darren writing 2 original songs will mean Blaine becomes a songwriter, but I'd be surprised if this will get some decent screentime.

Having said all this: Kurt fans still have more reason to complain, but yeah.....
This season really fucked up everyon not named Rachel Berry.
(And even Rachel gets unintentionally fucked up by RIB's specialest of special snowflake treatment, which has turned many viewers away from her.)


Can this show finally end and die now?

[Jellyrolls]

The truth of the matter is, Kurt did have a multi-episode storyline this year.  It was a crap one, and it was horribly told and completely out of character for Kurt, but it is the one that was the ultimate ending for Kurt since the day he stepped into Dalton.  It was the one that Ryan foretold years ago when he said he wanted Kurt married by 21.  

So Kurt did get his storyline this year, it just wasn't the one all of us here wanted for him, nor was it the individual triumph we wanted for Kurt.  But it was the one Ryan always intended to give him. Kurt's triumph for Ryan is that he got legally married.

[Buenos]

I just don't get the outrage over Rachel getting songs and story line focus.  I mean, like that hasn't happened before in over a  6 year period?  One might as well complain that the ocean is wet.   

What is more surprising to me is the focus and songs with VA, Warblers and especially Sue, random folks like that Myron,  and of course, the New Noobs.  Those in combination have gotten the bulk of the songs this season, not Rachel/Lea. 

If anything Lea has been the least utilized since Season 4 and Max George will probably have the most solos by far of anyone this season.  I do think that this is Ryan's final "fuck you" to the fans who disagreed with him.

[Ranwing]

It's not even so much that Rachel gets the primary role in this "duet" (which has been pointed out is more of a Rachel solo than a proper duet). It's that Chris/Kurt has not had a single solo or song where he was heavily featured this entire season. Glee has always had issues with song distribution, but this season really takes the cake.

Amber getting multiple solos for the few episodes that she appeared in was as pointless as all the Darren redundant solos in seasons three and four. She's got no storyline, and what little screentime she had was to take over from Kurt as Rachel's chief cheerleader. Why this necessitated multiple solos is beyond me. Kevin also has had absolutely no storyline, but he's gotten two solos and prominent placement in a few group numbers. I don't begrudge Jenna her solo in 2009 since I think she's been treated very badly by the show. And all the Jane songs were really beyond justification.

Kurt has gotten nearly nothing. He had a few duets, most of which he ended up as second voice, and a few lines in one group number. That's it. Guest stars popping in for a single episode have gotten more.

[Glorfindel]

^Exactly.

And I just don't get being surprised that people still can have feelings about things despite them knowing darn well what the obvious facts are, without others having to point that out to them.
Knowing something, even accepting that as par for the course, doesn't mean we still can't be angry or sad about it.

Especially when it directly concerns probably the last song for our favorite: Kurt.


As for VA and the Warblers: as I explained before, they are also only props to RIB and Ryan's delusion that his writing and the choir room was the succes of Glee. Plus I don't think any songs for them take away songs for other characters, besides the whole rival choirs storyline taking up too much of this season's screentime to begin with of course.

Sure, I'm also mad RIB had to go back to the tired choir competition storyline for its last season, and I hate it.
But when you take that storyline out of the equation there's still the fact that the song distribution of the rest of the songs, in connection to the rest of the storylines, still is extremely uneven and fucked up, even when we're already well aware that Rachel Berry is the 'star' of the show (arguably imo, certainly not for 6 seasons imo).

[Ireth]

While I'm upset that Popular is a very unequal duet with Chris singing much fewer lines and sometimes being drowned out by Lea (they're messing with the volumes to showcase Kurt's duet partner more...Klaine-style ), Chris sounds really good and I enjoyed him singing this song.

They may have given Lea horrible storylines that screwed with her character, but she's been getting a lot of songs (solos) out of it and a lot of screentime. She may be the main lead but she's not the only lead, Glee has been very much an ensemble show. I agree that VA has gotten too many songs, but I don't begrudge the ND newbies their songs as they're mostly likable/interesting characters even if it's too late to get invested in them, and they sing well too. Plus they don't annoy me the way Rachel does now, this "Special Snowflake" business has gone too far, and it's at the expense of many other characters (she's become like Blaine in this aspect).

Some of the other originals have been getting unnecessary songs (Amber/Mercedes comes to mind since she's mostly on the show to sing it appears), but again, it's not that I dislike them getting these songs as they're all original characters who've been treated unfairly in favour of Rachel/Lea. What I'm upset with is that they didn't bother to extend this to Chris/Kurt, since the other originals all have solos.

So I'm not upset with what the others have got this season (except for Rachel and VA), but I'm upset Kurt didn't get anything on par with the rest.

[Buenos]

It's not even so much that Rachel gets the primary role in this "duet" (which has been pointed out is more of a Rachel solo than a proper duet). It's that Chris/Kurt has not had a single solo or song where he was heavily featured this entire season. Glee has always had issues with song distribution, but this season really takes the cake.

Amber getting multiple solos for the few episodes that she appeared in was as pointless as all the Darren redundant solos in seasons three and four. She's got no storyline, and what little screentime she had was to take over from Kurt as Rachel's chief cheerleader. Why this necessitated multiple solos is beyond me. Kevin also has had absolutely no storyline, but he's gotten two solos and prominent placement in a few group numbers. I don't begrudge Jenna her solo in 2009 since I think she's been treated very badly by the show. And all the Jane songs were really beyond justification.

Kurt has gotten nearly nothing. He had a few duets, most of which he ended up as second voice, and a few lines in one group number. That's it. Guest stars popping in for a single episode have gotten more.

I get that, but that's not due to Rachel/Lea spotlight.   Without Rachel around, I doubt Chris/Kurt would have gotten songs/solos regardless.

Maybe I wouldn't be so f*cking mad if Kurt's last significant chance to sing this season in '2009' wasn't him singing second fiddle (because Hummelberry's 'Popular' is not a proper duet) on a song with anyone else but special snowflake Rachel.

Hey I'm entitled to my opinions, and it seems the ourtrage is directed to the character Rachel specifically.  Fine, you have right to be fucking mad and I have the right to be surprised.

So maybe we both better quit before it dissolves again into bullying others opinions, being rude,etc, etc.

[Ireth]

It's not even so much that Rachel gets the primary role in this "duet" (which has been pointed out is more of a Rachel solo than a proper duet). It's that Chris/Kurt has not had a single solo or song where he was heavily featured this entire season. Glee has always had issues with song distribution, but this season really takes the cake.

Amber getting multiple solos for the few episodes that she appeared in was as pointless as all the Darren redundant solos in seasons three and four. She's got no storyline, and what little screentime she had was to take over from Kurt as Rachel's chief cheerleader. Why this necessitated multiple solos is beyond me. Kevin also has had absolutely no storyline, but he's gotten two solos and prominent placement in a few group numbers. I don't begrudge Jenna her solo in 2009 since I think she's been treated very badly by the show. And all the Jane songs were really beyond justification.

Kurt has gotten nearly nothing. He had a few duets, most of which he ended up as second voice, and a few lines in one group number. That's it. Guest stars popping in for a single episode have gotten more.

I get that, but that's not due to Rachel/Lea spotlight.   Without Rachel around, I doubt Chris/Kurt would have gotten songs/solos regardless.

That might be the case, but there's no denying the facts that a) there's been too much Rachel spotlight, and b) in a song that would have been a perfect equal duet (let's ignore the fact that it would have been a perfect Kurt solo), they chose to give Rachel unnecessary focus again, and this time it was directly at Kurt's expense.

[Glorfindel]

So I'm not upset with what the others have got this season (except for Rachel and VA), but I'm upset Kurt didn't get anything on par with the rest.

Exactly.

Rachel/Lea has been out of anyone's league this season (still don't agree she was always the only lead on Glee), but Kurt should at least be getting as much as the rest.
If not even more, as he's a regular and in almost every episode (and the others only in 4 or 5), involved in 2 storylines (as props for Blaine and Rachel, but still) while the others have had no storylines at all.

Not that I begrudge those other characters the song focus they got (well, except for Blaine, because I just hate him, lol).

That might be the case, but there's no denying the facts that a) there's been too much Rachel spotlight, and b) in a song that would have been a perfect equal duet (let's ignore the fact that it would have been a perfect Kurt solo), they chose to give Rachel unnecessary focus again, and this time it was directly at Kurt's expense.

Yup, if we're not supposed/allowed to partly put the lack of songs for Kurt on Rachel getting so much this season (and JFI: I think this season Rachel has gotten too much, even for Glee standards, in comparison to the rest of the old cast), then we still can pretty fairly partly put the lack of Kurt in 'Popular' on him singing with Rachel in this instance.

Although in the end all the blame goes to RIB of course.

[Buenos]

That might be the case, but there's no denying the facts that a) there's been too much Rachel spotlight, and b) in a song that would have been a perfect equal duet (let's ignore the fact that it would have been a perfect Kurt solo), they chose to give Rachel unnecessary focus again, and this time it was directly at Kurt's expense.

This episode that hasn't aired or this entire season?  Because I would agree that Rachel has one of the few storylines, and she does get spotlight.  I'm very upset that her storylines have been utter crap, but these Glee writers, incompetence is their middle name, Lazy is their first name, and bullshit is their last name.

[Ranwing]

I agree that what little they gave Chris in Popular was lovely. Which is why it's a total crime that he didn't get more to sing (or have it to himself). We've had episodes with six or more songs (depending on the storyline). That they couldn't put five solos in this episode is indefensible. If they wanted to use Popular so much, then they should have squeezed in another song for Kurt to have a solo. I cannot imagine it hurting the flow of the episode since the writer's room is apparently filled with dyslexic monkeys.

There has always been some debate over Glee being a proper ensemble show or not. All ensemble show have lead and supporting roles which is what Glee had done for most of it's incarnation. And characters can flow in and out of placement, depending on the needs of the storyline (or more usually, whoever RIB had a boner for that season). Lea was female lead by default (though I believe that Jane should have been the main female lead if they did plan to keep the show as being anchored by the adult characters), but that didn't negate the fact that there were other characters in the show who existed for reasons other than just to support her storyline. St. Elsewhere and MASH are great examples of shows that could balance the storylines of leads and supporting players. Even in shows built around a primary character, like The New Girl, the supporting characters would have their own storylines that didn't always default to supporting the lead character.

[Buenos]

Yup, if we're not supposed/allowed to partly put the lack of songs for Kurt on Rachel getting so much this season

Nobody is stopping you , others are disagreeing with you.

BIG difference.

Saying I"m surprised doesn't mean anyone else can't still express their outrage, being "fucking mad", etc.   I still retain the right to be surprised.

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