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

[Ranwing]

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.

It's not only Finn that they do this with. Schu is a teacher only because all of his other dreams failed to come through (and because he had a harridan for a wife to support). And obviously being a soldier is the worst thing in the world, even if you want to do it for noble intentions. I get frustrated sometimes the way this show paints any career not involving the performing arts as 2nd best (and it feeds into my frustration about Kurt since I'm torn between him going to NYADA where success if iffy at best and staying at Vogue where he's already made a real impact). It's dishonest and insulting.

I've said it before, but just for a novel change, I'd love to see a character that participates in ND, enjoys it and is exceptional at it, but has no desire to go into a performance-based career. There are plenty of people like this. How much better would it have been for Marley to have no desires to be a recording artist, but instead to go into law or medicine? It would have allowed for a fresh outlook on a character instead of getting a rehash of Rachel yet again.

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.

I think that if the show did want to garner up some sympathy for Blaine following the breakup, it was an epic fail. Except for the Blaine stans, most of the comments I've seen on various boards involved an lot of eyerolling and the playing of the world's smallest violins for Blaine's melodrama. Blaine's pity party for one impressed no one. And I'm not at all surprised that no mention was made of the cheating at this points, since from Blaine's POV, the cheating isn't the big issue. Right now for Blaine, the problem is that Kurt has cut off communication and Blaine has not been able to reach him despite numerous efforts. It's really telling that Blaine's focus is right now on his own feelings (whining about his inability to gel on the weekends now) and not on how deeply he hurt Kurt and destroyed the trust between them. I'm looking forward to Kurt next week reminding Blaine very firmly on why he is not speaking to his ex and making it clear that Blaine has absolutely no right to make demands on Kurt at this stage. I don't think that Kurt's absence in this ep shifted any sympathy towards Blaine since the comment I saw most often (except, again, from the Blaine stans) is that all this is happening because Blaine couldn't keep it in his pants for two weeks.

[Jellyrolls]

I think that if the show did want to garner up some sympathy for Blaine following the breakup, it was an epic fail. Except for the Blaine stans, most of the comments I've seen on various boards involved an lot of eyerolling and the playing of the world's smallest violins for Blaine's melodrama. Blaine's pity party for one impressed no one. And I'm not at all surprised that no mention was made of the cheating at this points, since from Blaine's POV, the cheating isn't the big issue. Right now for Blaine, the problem is that Kurt has cut off communication and Blaine has not been able to reach him despite numerous efforts. It's really telling that Blaine's focus is right now on his own feelings (whining about his inability to gel on the weekends now) and not on how deeply he hurt Kurt and destroyed the trust between them. I'm looking forward to Kurt next week reminding Blaine very firmly on why he is not speaking to his ex and making it clear that Blaine has absolutely no right to make demands on Kurt at this stage. I don't think that Kurt's absence in this ep shifted any sympathy towards Blaine since the comment I saw most often (except, again, from the Blaine stans) is that all this is happening because Blaine couldn't keep it in his pants for two weeks.

Correction, the cheating isn't the big issue if Blaine is the one doing the cheating.

It will be interesting to see how they handle the face to face between Kurt and Blaine. I hope that they show Kurt telling him off for destroying the relationship.

Blaine continues to be an enigma. He's distraught and upset, doesn't think he should be the lead in a romantic musical, but then he goes ahead and auditions anyways?

They probably didn't want Kurt in the episode because they know that Chris can portray Kurt wallowing in depression or self-pity with such effectiveness that it would make Blaine's wallowing look pathetic. Then, Chris will portray Kurt boucing back, and being stronger. And Darren will still play Blaine the same attention-whore way he always does.

[coxfire]

^By lack of a 'like button':

Thank you

[Glorfindel]

^You deserved it, imo.


You know, I figured out why I enjoyed the Blaine pain and newbies episode more than I thought I would. Besides the awesomeness of Cory and the 'adult' actors (who saved the episode imo), the reason why I enjoyed 4x05 was the same reason why I thought I wouldn't like this episode: no Kurt.
No Kurt in the episode meant not worrying about what they were going to do with him, his relationships, his career, what he might say, if he would get enough POV. Nothing was happening for Kurt in this episode because he wasn't in it, but the anger for that fact was already spilled and spent about a week ago. So now I could just sit back and relax, because whatever happened in 4x05: they could not mess up (or with) Kurt.

There was a little anguish on my part (for Kurt) over how they would show Blaine's POV (and the 'recap' in the beginning was irritating by showing Blaine saying to Kurt that Kurt wasn't there for him, while skipping over the cheating real fast), but the dreaded HDTY was right at the beginning and so cringeworthy soppy and bad that I could relax after that and just let the rest of the performances of the episode wash over me.

While I care for Cory and Finn (and the way the fandom thinks about him), and therefore was irritated by RIB having him say the R word: Sue was way worse, and her going after Unique was so contrived and ridiculous that I hardly recognized Sue. Plus this storyline once again went against several canon facts and characterisations.
This episode was not written by RIB (it was written by Michael Hitchcock), and it showed in this storyline, imo. Glee is a badly written show when RIB writes it, and worse when other writers do, so who cares anyway?

Let them 'play' with the newbies and their boring love quadrangle (not much established canon to f*ck up yet), let them make Blaine look ridiculous and whiny whether intented or not, let them kiss Finn's ~hero ass and throw him under the bus in the same episode, let them give Tina the shaft again, let them bring back some old graduates for a silly reason without letting them say a word about their own lives, and let them make Sue OTT evil for the upteenth time.

I've enjoyed the song and dance of 4x05 one time, to never watch the episode again. Next episode I will care again, when hopefully the real interesting characters will get more than just a few crumbs (but crumbs they will turn into cupcakes with their sublime acting).

[Jellyrolls]

Cory and the adult actors definitely made the episode watchable, Marie.

One of the parts that I pointed out when I was doing my review while watching was the bathroom scene with Marley, Unique, and Sue. Marley and Unique exchanged a couple of lines, and then Sue went off on one of her rants with very little interruption from the others (I think Marley might have said something). I think I referred to it as the newbies should be seen and not heard. Give them quick one liners and let the real actors hold the meat of the conversation.

With the exception of HDTY, the musical numbers were entertaining enough to watch, but none of the songs made me want to buy them. I think I would have enjoyed HDTY more if I didn't have to watch Darren perform it because now when he does a song I find that I am too distracted by Darren's facial expressions and movements to enjoy the peformance (it seems to be getting worse and worse). Blow me had a lot of energy, the Jake/Kitty song was fun, and Jukebox Hero was probably my favorite of the week. Though I didn't think Hand Jive was a great song for Amber's voice, I thought the dancing and acting in the performance was effective.

I think the main problem with the newbies is that they are basically the same as other characters we have seen on the show (or in the case of Jake, Unique, and Kitty, a combination of two old characters), and the newbies just don't measure up. It's really not fair to the newbies in some ways. I wonder if we would be so critical of them if we weren't constantly comparing them to the original becasue the stories are all rehashed. Unique may be a bit more than a combination of Kurtcedes and he has a story to tell, but in his case we know he doesn't have the acting chops to tell Unique's story effectively.

[Divalicious]

Alex's acting chops have always been my worry for this storyline. Either they keep his interactions short and to the point, so his acting isn't as noticeable, meaning that the time this story deserves is also shortened. Or they give the story the time it deserves, but it becomes mocked because I just don't see Alex being able to carry this story. He can cry, not as pretty as Chris, but who can? Cory gave him a lot to work with, but it still felt like he was just saying lines, using soft voice instead of the normally Unique brassy one to try to convey how deeply he feels something. But he doesn't make me feel it. Sue's reactions are also a slap in the face of what she was willing to do last year to win, and now is all upset. Surely those baby hormones have settled by now?

The performances were entertaining, but I didn't buy one of the songs, usually I get at least one, or more. The Unique/Marley started off well, but later made my ears bleed. Some of the other songs I never liked, so made it even more unlikely I would buy them.

It was lovely to see the graduates, but if they bring them back, it needs to be more of a reason, and they should be used more. But I do think this episode was primarily to get Finn where he needs to be in his story.

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