Re: 4x05 "The Role You Were Born to Play" Watch & Discussion thread

[sheny]

Blaine’s solo was horrible. Not only the singing, but the derp faces, the football field scene (really, what’s up with that?)

This may answer your question why Blaine was on the football field.

[sahhar]

LOL at the almost series low ratings for last night. All the trolling on Twitter didn't fool the Glee audience, and the ratings are speaking for themselves now. Just further proof of how much of a mess they've made the show. I'm so glad Chris has his book and SBL news coming out now, so that I don't have to deal with him being stuck on a show I once used to love and now hate because of it's pathetic treatment of it's best cast member/character and lazy, uninspired writing this season.

[Jellyrolls]

OMFG! The faces that he's making here! It's even worse in a GIF!

Darren just can't act upset. They need to keep him away from the emotional stuff.

[Divalicious]

I think the only reason they had Finn use the phrase "retarded" is to bring in that PSA that Jane and oh, what's her name that plays Becky are involved in. They need to give Sue a reason to be relevant, since they don't seem to focus on Cheerio performances much anymore.

I also like Kitty. I know I complain about Santana being a bitch, that that is solely because she is bitchy to her friends, and they take it. Kitty doesn't like the Glee club, she isn't pretending to be friends, her agenda is clear. She brings spice to the scenes with Marley, who because of her sheer perfection is bland to me. She is getting the Rachel treatment even more than Rachel did, IMO. The same happy surprised face when she was the only person in school selected to join ND was there when she also got the prized Sandy role, even though Kitty's dancing was superior and her singing was very good as well. She also already has two guys interested in her. They are piling on the accolades, I guess to make impact on her possible eating disorder storyline. Not even Sue can find something bad to say about them, and Sue finds bad stuff about everyone. I don't dislike Marley, but I feel Marley's situation is a lot like Blaine's, an expectation that they will get what they want, all the time, with the occasional bump in the road. I didn't like that about Rachel's story, I don't like it about Blaine's and I am not changing my opinion for Marley.

They do give Blaine big performances, and usually outdoor ones, I don't know why. Kurt usually just gets a stage, that is all he needs, I suppose, a place to sing, and no distracting bells and whistles. You wouldn't be paying attention to them anyway.

I wish I was invested in Wemma, because they are both such good actors, but the structure on this show really only allows them personal drama, which I find kind of boring.

It was great to see Mike and Mercedes, and that they graced Mike with one tiny line with Tina. I am getting more the impression that Mike broke it off, whether from pressure from his parents, or feeling they couldn't manage a LDR, the way Tina is acting. It was lovely to see her smile at the end. Too bad they focus on caucasian girl pretty on the show, and don't realize just how lovely Tina is.

Alex still does not impress me with his acting, and it was a little galling that NOW Finn is so supporting of LBGT when he pushed Kurt away from opportunities in the past. NOW he has to learn his lesson?! I liked the song she and Marley sang, at the beginning, but do agree it became kind of grating about half way through. None of the songs really cried out to me to buy them, the performances were nice, for the most part.

As for Kurt dressing sad, I think he is helping Rachel with some sort of performance, is wearing comfortable clothing, and like Rachel, is wearing dark colors. He is a considerate partner, and would never clash!! Plus he is sad, but not broken. I hope he gets to dance a little for Cassie, just because we know Kurt is a good dancer, especially compared to Rachel, it would be fun to see. It would also be marvelous to have Cassie give Kurt a compliment, when she doesn't Rachel, hehe.

I do have to go back and comment on Marley at this point, she does move a lot better than Rachel, so it will be interesting to see if the ND performances are changed to have a little more than just running about the stage, like so many times in the past at competitions.

Ryder is ok, he is like a puppy, girl crush on Marley and boy crush on Finn. It is kind of cute, his dorky dancing in the end zone. I like that he isn't just a macho, all about my image stud. I am willing to give him some time to gel. Not really believing Marley with either guy. Chemistry is subjective, but I do think some good actors just don't convey romantic chemistry well, and I am not feeling it with Marley. Perhaps I will change my mind over time, I am sure I will be given mega opportunities to see guys hitting on Marley over the season.

Kitty eventually will need a taming of the shrew storyline, with a strong guy as her partner. That could be hilarious, but I know both Ryder and Jake are slated for Marley, it would probably be a next season thing. Sigh, I really think she has potential.

[tanita_mors]

i hope they keep kitty as a villain to be honest. i like her rudeness and complete disregard of peoples feelings. and it's not jokey at all. she hits where it hurts (look at how she attacks jakes insecurities about being black and poor or marley's fear of turning into her mother). she is sue's vision of what quinn was suppose to be like before she got involved with the glee club.

also her line to jake "what is that perfume you are wearing. jealousy by you." i can swear i heard that exact phrase in another tv show or a movie recently.

[Adamina]

And you are so right: Chris internalizes the feelings of his character, and as a result it pours out of his whole body without even doing something external.

This is funny, because I remember Chris saying (in his Piers Morgan interview) that his acting was about 20% emotional and 80% physical (I assume that "emotional" corresponds with internal and "physical" corresponds with external). I wonder if his external acting is just so good that he fools us into thinking it's mostly internal?

[Glorfindel]

^I think that it's mostly good concentration of Chris and empathy for his character. That is still 'external', as in Chris still being consciously removed from the real emotions of Kurt (when eg. method acting is an actor going through the real emotion himself). So it's something 'outside' of Chris, but he then uses his body to express wat his character is feeling.
Oh, it's hard to explain. It's using your body and empathy to 'act' an emotion, instead of feeling that emotion yourself. So still 'external' instead of 'internal'.
The difference between Chris and Darren is that Chris uses his whole body to 'embrace' that emotion and it shows in his eyes and I'd almost say his 'aura', when Darren keeps it all on the outside: it's only muscles and skin, hand gestures and facial expressions, but it's not in his eyes or his posture.

This may answer your question why Blaine was on the football field.

Yes, it was pointed out on GF as well. Apparently it was a nod at Kurt's IWHYH. Skilfully done from a cinematic point of view, but in this song, with these supposed emotions, it felt odd and fell flat. I expected a football player to tackle Blaine at any moment, lol.
Plus it makes the difference between the flawless, raw emotional IWHYH and this..... masterpiece theater very obvious.

BTW: there are people thinking that comedic drama was the exact angle Darren was going for with HDTY.

It was great to see Mike and Mercedes, and that they graced Mike with one tiny line with Tina. I am getting more the impression that Mike broke it off, whether from pressure from his parents, or feeling they couldn't manage a LDR, the way Tina is acting. It was lovely to see her smile at the end. Too bad they focus on caucasian girl pretty on the show, and don't realize just how lovely Tina is.

Jenna is looking extremely beautiful and lovely lately. She is also starting to 'pop' whenever she's on screen, imo (more then the newbies for sure). It's a waste they don't give her more to do.

Alex still does not impress me with his acting, and it was a little galling that NOW Finn is so supporting of LBGT when he pushed Kurt away from opportunities in the past. NOW he has to learn his lesson?!

My Kurtsie heart hurt when Finn was so supportive of Unique. Kurt could have used that when he was in high school. My head canon is that Finn learned from Kurt, because they are brothers now (and I lament the lack of seeing this development on the show).
As for the bolded: Alex's acting is cringeworthy, but I found his tears genuine and quite touching, tbh.

As for Kurt dressing sad, I think he is helping Rachel with some sort of performance, is wearing comfortable clothing, and like Rachel, is wearing dark colors. He is a considerate partner, and would never clash!! Plus he is sad, but not broken. I hope he gets to dance a little for Cassie, just because we know Kurt is a good dancer, especially compared to Rachel, it would be fun to see. It would also be marvelous to have Cassie give Kurt a compliment, when she doesn't Rachel, hehe.

But in canon Rachel is the better dancer, when Kurt was sent to dance booty camp.
I'm also secretly hoping for Cassandra to give Kurt a compliment on his dancing (maybe commenting on his loose hips? ).

Kitty eventually will need a taming of the shrew storyline, with a strong guy as her partner. That could be hilarious, but I know both Ryder and Jake are slated for Marley, it would probably be a next season thing. Sigh, I really think she has potential.

I also think she has potential, but at the moment she is too mean and getting away with it for my liking. I like her staying a villian, but some things she should not get away with, because they are bullying and image damaging. She may not shove kids into lockers, but she is as undermining and evil as Karofsky and Santana.
If they keep her evil like that without her becoming 'friends' with the ND kids, than I guess I'm fine with her, as long as RIB don't make it look like she's simply telling the (ugly) truth. The last thing I need is someone else on the show who is as bullying and damaging like her being put on a pedestal as someone who is nasty but basically right, and a character you just 'love to hate'.
RIB have this sadistic tendency to glorify bullies.

[ColferInspired]

OMFG! The faces that he's making here! It's even worse in a GIF!

No wonder the rest of the fandom are laughing their heads off, and the idiot Blaine stans think this the best acting on Glee they have ever seen is what I am guessing, though I did go on Ontd-Glee and one fan said she was in a room full of Blaine stans and they thought it was cheesy and pathetic.

So what they have done is probably lost this character some of it's fanbase. Nice going RIB.

[CloveGlee]

In Darren's defense - Don't kill me! - I think this is deliberate. I think he's wallowing in self-pity, the writers know it, and they had both Sam and Artie comment on that. I think Darren did exactly what he was supposed to do. Maybe they wrote an episode in which his particular acting style works.

It took me all day to figure this out, but I think Blaine was supposed to be ridiculous.

[brisallie]

...
That HDTY scene, especially the lines Blaine said to Artie and Finn, was undoubtedly the worst acting of Darren I've ever seen (and that is a high bar ).

It was. When I saw that scene I thought "Should I feel sad for him?", because I was giggling actually . I mean, how to take seriously a scene like that? I couldn't. However, as Clove Glee said, what if he did this deliberating? ... umm still thinking that.

Going back to the rest of the episode, which it was unexpectedly decent , because the storyline it was developed, still thinking it wasn't the best.

To be honest, and though Finn is still one of my favs, I'm tired that he's considered a 'hero' by everyone. I know he has good qualities as a leader, for instance, in last night episode he was so supportive and open- minded with Wade/Unique. But he also has failures,and sometimes he is unable to control his emotions and loses it, as happened when he said that Sue has a 'retard' daughter. I don't think so saying that about Sue's daughter was the best way to defends his points of view of allowing Wade to play Rizzo. He need to control himself.

I have to confess that I'm someone who wanted that Blake were the winner of TGP, so yeah I liked to see him and I found enjoyable to see his dancing or non-dancing skills in the football field lol. And for me is doubtless that RIB or well only Ryan, want him to be the 'new' Finn and even Finn said that he was like him some years ago. But unlike it happened last year with Damian, probably this time it gonna work because the guy can act at least and sings well and is nice and what teenagers care most about: he's handsome.

...However I still prefers Jake's voice and one of my favorite performances from last night it was 'Everybody talks', because I think both he and Kitty were good at dancing and singing, in addition the song was catchy. Slowly I'm started to bear Kitty, though I'm still thinking she likes to be bitchy only because she likes to be nasty toward other people, mainly with Marley but if weren't for this, I'm not sure what it would be Marley's storyline. Ok the girl is nice and sings well but she's plain and not interesting. Not for me.

I don't know what else to say about this ep. because I didn't put more attention to other things. I laready said it decent, but still I wanna see my Hummelberry Oh yeah, I forgot to say that I liked 'Born to hand a jive'

[Glorfindel]

I think that Artie's line ("masterpiece theater") was more damage control than anything else, maybe a little 'funny' dig at the way Darren normally acts.
They are probably slowly waking up and realizing that Darren can't act the drama and the fandom and critics know it, and they threw in the Artie line to excuse the bad over-acting of Darren. It's not like they haven't done that before, eg. with Cory's singing and acting skills.
They want to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted Blaine to be a blubbering mess we are supposed to sympathize with, and they had to hide or excuse the fact that Darren cannot bring it. So they made fun of it by the Artie line. But I firmy believe that Darren acted it as if it was serious Blaine ~pain.

Plus I also think that they know very well that 'Hopelessly Devoted To You' is the wrong song for Blaine to sing in this situation. They had to shoe-horn the 286th Blaine solo into the episode, and with what happened to Klaine, HDTY was the only Grease song that came near the mark of any emotional state that Blaine is in right now.
Of course: coming near to the mark is still not a hit, and it was painfully clear how wrong and melodramatic it made Blaine look. The writers tried to hide most of that behind the usual bells and whistles, and a 'witty' remark to make fun of their own incompetence to resist the temptation to kiss Blaine's butt and give the right song to the right character (Kurt). They have done that before too.

If it was intentional meant to be cheesy and funny, it would show a lot of disrespect to the Klaine break-up and what kind of impact the cheating had on Kurt, and Blaine. Ignoring the severe hurt of a character to squeeze out a laugh. Of course: that has been done on Glee before too, but I believe that Blaine is the special golden boy who they do not want to mess around with too much.


What was quite telling to me, and it ties into whether Blaine's break down was meant to be genuine or not, is the beginning of the episode: the "Here's what you missed on Glee".
When they showed the Klaine break-up scene they chose the part when Blaine says to Kurt "I needed you around and you weren't there".
That to me tells that they so want part of the blame of the break-up to fall on Kurt.
Kurt not returning Blaine's phone calls and him not accepting the dvd box is putting more blame to Kurt. Blaine is the one being upset here, because he's not eating or sleeping because of his ~pain, not Kurt. Kurt is the one that prevents Klaine from being together again (not Blaine's own cheating). Kurt "pushed Blaine's love aside": that was the loud and clear message in this episode.

So however they portrayed Blaine's feelings in this episode, dramatic or comic (and I think they just did do with Darren's dramatic over-acting and tried to mend/excuse it a bit by Artie's remark), we are to take Blaine's feelings and droopy mood for very real either way, and not simply see a kid being overdramatic.

[tanita_mors]

the thing is, was that moment really appropriate for farce. i mean, just an episode ago, the break up was titanic/end of the world heavy. and now they are making fun of it. it's not like pavarotti perished. that was a clear wink-wink moment for kurt, using the birds death to dress nicely and sing a solo. if that was meant as a farce, blaine comes out like a total male rachel, milking even his personal tragedy and misery for a solo. the whole, "i'm not in the right head space for danny, but i'm good with teen angel", just rubbed me the wrong way. weather it was darren's acting, bad directing or a lazy writing, or all three, i wasn't particularly feeling that moment i'm glad it was over when it did.

one thing is sure. darren criss keeps proving the fact that he CAN'T DO DRAMA at ALL. they should just stop it already. i've given up on the fact that he will never not look in total pain when he is singing. he looks like he is passing a kidney stone in the auditorium and like he is moments from swallowing that whole mike. his whole performance style is just grating me more and more. i get that some like it, but that was william shatner material there at certain moments.

also, what is blaine's obsession with lighthouses. is he compensating for something or what.

[Glorfindel]

^Hey, comparing Darren to William Shatner is an insult to captain James T. Kirk.


I guess the 'lighthouse' references were supposed to be tongue-in-cheek 'funny'.
Really: if they break characters' hearts like they did Kurt's in TBU just to make fun of it in the next episode..... to quote one of this episode's songs: "How low can you go, how low can you go?"

[MissSoniaPP]

I think they wanted the scene to be sad, and that we felt sorry for Blaine.
But Darren is not good in dramatic scenes.

Some critics talked about whether the scene was to be taken seriously or not, because many of them have "fear" to criticize directly Darren, so they arranged a way to indirectly criticize Darren.

[Ireth]

i hope they keep kitty as a villain to be honest. i like her rudeness and complete disregard of peoples feelings. and it's not jokey at all. she hits where it hurts (look at how she attacks jakes insecurities about being black and poor or marley's fear of turning into her mother). she is sue's vision of what quinn was suppose to be like before she got involved with the glee club.

also her line to jake "what is that perfume you are wearing. jealousy by you." i can swear i heard that exact phrase in another tv show or a movie recently.

If I'm not mistaken Kitty said the same perfume line to Marley in The Breakup?

[Ranwing]

After watching Sam and Blaine's interaction in The Role You Were Born to Play, I'm not nearly as bothered by Sam claiming Blaine as his gay "bro" (as opposed to Kurt, who helped him while his family was homeless and who opened up his home to Sam when he returned to Lima) since Sam clearly has absolutely no clue what being a friend is. Blaine is his bro because they have a few superficial interests in common, but coming to help one another when they really need it? That obviously means little to Sam.

I'm not feeling at all sympathetic towards Blaine at the moment since it was his actions that ultimately lead up to his apparent breakup with Kurt, but damn... how shitty is it when your self-proclaimed "bro" just tells you that you'll get over it. Blaine is angsting (in his typically over-dramatic fashion) about screwing things up so badly with Kurt and afraid that he's broken things too badly between them to ever fix, and Sam could not seem less interested in comforting his friend.

I'm now thinking that Kurt was right to focus his attention on developing relationships with the girls, because they're the ones who'll really rally about the ones who are hurting. The guys... collectively they are all idiots. I don't blame Blaine for feeling very alone and sorry for himself right now since Sam just made it apparent how shallow that relationship really is. I think I'd like to see Tina (who's clearly still hurting over her breakup with Mike) reach out to Blaine since she might understand how he's feeling.

[Ranwing]

Well, the reviews for the ep are in and they are, to say the least, harsh. Biggest general complaint - no NY focus and no Rachel and Kurt. Darren's performance was generally panned (and more than a few pointed out that inappropriate song was inappropriate). Hopefully once the show gets Grease out of their system, we can get back to more interesting storylines... like getting Kurt's pert little backside into NYADA where he belongs (while keeping Vogue as a part time job since he's got to pay rent).

http://ontd-glee.livejournal.com/2386185.html#comments

[ColferInspired]

Well, the reviews for the ep are in and they are, to say the least, harsh. Biggest general complaint - no NY focus and no Rachel and Kurt. Darren's performance was generally panned (and more than a few pointed out that inappropriate song was inappropriate). Hopefully once the show gets Grease out of their system, we can get back to more interesting storylines... like getting Kurt's pert little backside into NYADA where he belongs (while keeping Vogue as a part time job since he's got to pay rent).

[url=http://ontd-glee.livejournal.com/2386185.html#comments

http://ontd-glee.livejournal.com/2386185.html#comments[/quote[/url]]

I saw those reviews and the negative ones outweighed the positive ones.

New York stories are definitely more original and I feel better written. And the ones coming up, definitely sound more interesting than the McKinley ones as they will be more recycled ones.

[ColferInspired]

Finally got a download for this episode.

I don't know when I will be watching it. But I like Finn, Emma, Will and Sue, so I will watching it for them only.

[CloveGlee]

My whole recap is now up here:

http://recappersdelight.blogspot.com/2012/11/glee-episode-recap-role-you-were-born.html

This show officially has too many characters. They can't do anything effectively anymore.

[Delight]

Can't comment much on the episode, since I'm boycotting it. Maybe when I'm in a particularly masochistic mood one day (to subject myself to more bad acting, bad writing and character assassination), I'll watch it. Alternatively, I can just read your recap, CloveGLee, and spare myself the pain.

[Catt24]

From the all the recaps and reviews, I didn't miss anything much. Strike that, I saved myself an hour of tourture watching 2.0 newbies and Blangst. Speaking of Blangst, I don't understand how RIB expect me to root for "Everything is Klaine" when the more they seem to explore Blaine's POV, the more I find him to be extremely immature, self-absorbed, and in need of a counselor for his dependent personality issues. He really lacks insight into his issues & how his behavior impacts not only himself, but the one he claims to be "hopelessly devoted to."

[tanita_mors]

My whole recap is now up here:

http://recappersdelight.blogspot.com/2012/11/glee-episode-recap-role-you-were-born.html

This show officially has too many characters. They can't do anything effectively anymore.

I see no lies.

[coxfire]

I have mixed feelings about the episode. It wasn't as horrible as I thought, and I see why Rachel and Kurt weren't in it, squeezing them into it wouldn't have felt right. So I guess I can handle a NY-less episode, but to me it wasn't the right time to do it, not after the last episode. We should have had at least a semblance of closure for K&B, and next week have a McKinley only episode, that would have felt better.

That said, I didn't hate the newbies as much as I thought, and found the dancing number of Jake/Kitty and Jake/Kitty/Marley/Ryder quite enjoyable.

It's a pity Alex isn't a great actor, because Unique's situation is for once new, and the dialogue was good when he said he didn't feel right as a boy, and struggled to find his place.

Now, the show was bad on several points that brought it down if you don't watch Glee for the music, but the plot. Plot-wise, it was ridiculous. First, Sue's characterisation: after S2 and S3, and particularly her wanting Kurt in a dress as Porcelina for Nationals, her stupid rant about Unique not being able to play Rizzo was ridiculous. Secondly: Finn. The amount of praise he receives from everyone is as stupid as Rachel's pandering was last year. And was it even needed to have him fuck up with the retarded comment? He was, for once, putting Sue in her place on a very adult and mature way, until they had him say this for whatever reason. Having him affirm himself and stand up for his ideas was enough, what was the point of replaying (a bad version) the basement scene? Still don't get it. And don't get me started on his dismissal of Burt's job. This show is just an insult to anyone who doesn't work in the entertainement industry, but has an honest job. Fuck you, writers.
The excuses why Ryder was needed as Danny were all lame. Equally, the reason why Tina didn't sing was stupid, and her attitude with Mike was even more. All they had her do is bark, why couldn't we get an actual dialogue between them? And why can't we hear Jenna sing, her voice is lovely, goddammit!
Finally, Blaine. My inner Kurtie was pissed when the spoilers revealed we wouldn't see any of Kurt's POV in this episode, but my rational side tried to downplay my biais, and I was ready to see Blaine have character development, since it's true he cruelly needs it.
And why did I get? 5 minutes of "woe-is-me, I-am-so-depressed-look-at-my-manpain" Blangst. No character development, but a puke-inducing bundle of self-pity that made me want to slap him repeatedely in the face. I still don't know if they were trying to make the scene sad or comedic, don't know if it's bad writing/directing, or bad acting from Darren (although after second thought I really think he was asked to be pathetic in his last scene), but it was awful. I don't know for others, but in real life, I can't stand people who wallow in their own misery and ask you to commiserate with them. The fact that they had Blaine himself say "I don't sleep, I don't eat" do not make me sad for him, but makes me want to take him by the shoulders, shake him and yell "You fucked up, so now suck it up, get a grip and start own up to it!". I wouldn't have minded him having self-actualization and try to understand why he did it, but instead all we got was Blaine being an attention whore "See!! I AM SO DEPRESSED!! SO DEPRESSED I CAN'T SING!! NO, NO, DO NOT INSIST, I CAN'T, LET ME DIE ALONE...Unless I play Teen Angel, because, you know, Glee wouldn't survive without me being in the play, so just hand me the role that I want...". Not once did he adress how badly he hurt Kurt and the pain he caused him, he just whined about how he destroyed HIS relationship and how HE was feeling bad. Wanker. He should really sing "Hopelessly devoted to you" to himself, cause that's who he is really devoted to.
I hope next week Kurt will give him a run for his money and cut him with the snappy-snarky remarks that he deserves. But I fear it will all be in favor of Blaine's woobifying and that Kurt will be pegged as an horrible human being with no heart being so MEEEEEAAAN to Blaine.

Anyway, the lack of Kurt and Rachel would have been less blatant if this episode hadn't followed the heavy one that was The Break-up. The show can handle itself without NY, I think, and sometimes has to because with too many characters you can't have a right focus, but the timing has to be better, and we have to have a compensation with an NY-oriented episodes afterwards.

[Glorfindel]

^By lack of a 'like button':

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