#spencer porter meta

[ramblingaboutglee]

Season 6 - What Glee Should Be

Okay hear me out, I have a point I swear 

Glee was cancelled going into S6. A half-length season, everyone knew it was over. There was no need to hold back, no need to compromise - and what we got was a highly divisive season that nevertheless feels like it was what the writers wanted to be doing for the last five years. 

Note the focus on teacher-roles, Rachel instructing the New New New Directions, and Will and Sue’s rivalry taking the fore in later episodes. Note how none of the students get any more than one episode arcs, where even romantic subplots are constrained to single episodes unless it’s drama surrounding the teachers. It’s reminiscent of Season 1 of Glee, before the show was re-geared to be about the kids rather than Will and Emma. 

But now the original kids are the teachers having the romantic subplot, creating an interesting middle-ground. But all in all, this feels so much more like the show that Glee was intended to be, now that there were no consequences for unpopularity or low ratings. It’s easy to imagine that, had the fandom not focused so much on the students, this might have been what Glee would have always looked like. 

 Does this mean it was good? That’s always going to be down to personal taste. But certainly, it is interesting to see the thought process shift. 

Let’s look at them side by side

But seriously. There’s no escaping the fact that a lot of the heyday of Glee, and a lot of the things the fandom loves, weren’t part of the show’s original conception. There were always character arcs with the kids, a dash of acknowledging some real-world topics, but it was through the lens of, well, Will Schuester as the main character. Which is a sentence that feels so weird to type, but watching the pilot, watching the first season (especially 1A), it’s undeniable. 

The show is about a teacher who learns from his kids, and through doing so has their life improved and helps figure out what they want in life and in their relationships. It’s about the idea of wasting your youth, and trying to recapture that and live your dreams even after feeling like you let them pass you by. That’s Glee season 1, before they had any idea of the huge fanbase they had, and what that fanbase wanted. 

And Glee season 6? Rachel returns to McKinley, unsure of her place in life, and as she figures it out she chooses to become a teacher. She goes from hitting a low point, at the start of the season, to sorting out her priorities, finding romance again, and finding joy in helping others get the spotlight rather than being in it herself. And in much the same way, Blaine gets a comparable journey, going from a relationship that gets an alarming amount of vitriol, to finding himself with the Warblers, the school he went to originally, and having that help spark his development. Both of them have left behind successful performances to, well, teach Glee after something in their life crashed.

Rachel, Blaine and Will all get the same story. 

Plus, of course, the throwback to building the Glee club one member at the time. 

Parallel lines, who meet

You could complain about repetition. I’d argue that’s the point. Going to S1 again, it’s all about the parallels - right from the Pilot, Will and Terri and Emma are paralleled with Rachel and Quinn and Finn. There are a dozen tiny examples threaded throughout, like Quinn and Puck naming Beth and the immediate next scene being Shelby asking Rachel why her dads named her that - Glee likes to lay adult and teenage life side by side, and look at similarities and differences. 

We’d be here a while if we listed everything. In S1, 3 and 4 especially, the show loves to compare and contrast - so having the original teens live the same arc as the teacher, well, it’s not unexpected. (shout out to Final Countdown having Kurt and Rachel watch Will and Sue have their sing-off and “...We cannot end up like them.”)

The echoes are the point. And when Glee goes out, it goes for parallels between Will and the kids, just like it did when it began.

Ain’t we got fun?

I feel like humour is going to be one of the most divisive things about S6. For me, it was a breath of fresh air - S5 had definitely gotten a little stale with some of the jokes. It referenced for the sake of referencing sometimes, and had grand set pieces that were played up like they were funny, and... weren’t, so it just ended up feeling a little weird. 

S6, at least, is different. Love or hate Sue’s terrifying shipper-robot, it’s certainly not just a rehash of an old joke. Sue as an adversary is nothing new, but the dynamic she has in S6 as the over-the-top principal is different. There is imagination to a lot of the new quips, whether or not they work for you. 

Then we have The Final Countdown, which harkens back to Run Joey Run and Baby Got Back as an unabashedly comedic musical number. The season gets a couple of those, and while the genre seems despised by the fandom, the writers seem to enjoy them, so given the chance, they added more. 

It’s interesting. I’d probably say that one of the biggest issues Glee ran into was how it started to feel samey, and I wonder if that was a result of the same thought process that governed the show after S1 - trying to just do the things that the fandom reacted to. And when it’s too late to get the fandom back, they have the freedom to go for different things. There is genuine effort to do different rather than just do more - which inevitably runs the risk of alienating fans, but they were cancelled anyway so...

Lending a shoulder

So let’s talk about the social awareness side. How does S6 fare? 

Honestly, surprisingly well. It’s still Glee, so not perfect, but there were beats that I noticed while watching that genuinely felt like an apology. 

So let’s talk about Beiste. There is nuance here. Coach Beiste comes out as a trans man this season - I’ve seen this criticised, and I understand the criticism, that it undercuts Beiste’s arc in previous seasons. Originally, the depiction of a cis woman who was not conventionally attractive nor conventionally feminine still wanting acknowledgement and respect was, in its way, radical - then again, Beiste has had very little to do for a while. If the alternative was nothing, then I’m content with mere continuity wonkiness. 

So let’s talk about the quality of this depiction. Glee’s previous foray into trans issues is Unique, and right from her name you get that uncomfortable vibe that they were just writing a drag queen, and there is that distinct undercurrent to some of her appearances. There was some good, but there was also a lot of... well, just imagine a ‘you tried’ star here. 

Then comes Sheldon Beiste. I think this was the first time the word ‘transgender’ was actually said on the show. He’s explicit, upfront, takes a name that isn’t just ‘Badass’ or some such, and is otherwise presented and treated as just a guy, with other characters treating him without the transphobia Unique faced. Plus there is the off-handed scene where he mentions that he’s always been attracted to guys, and that’s probably not going to change - a mainstream show acknowledging that not all trans people are straight in 2015 feels bizarrely radical, especially after Unique.

Then there was Becky getting an episode that pretty much just existed to call out how she’d been consistently infantilised in previous seasons. Honestly that was one I had to google after the episode was done because there are a lot of things I don’t know about Down’s - the fact Glee of all shows got that reaction is kinda impressive. 

Certainly, there are bits that are handled with the usual lack of tact, but there is a surprising amount to admire here. Which then, again, makes for a season one comparison and makes me wonder - in S1, the major dynamics that went for commentary were Kurt’s relationship with his dad, and Quinn’s arc dealing with conservative-family expectation and pressures, and a lot of that is well-handled compared to what a lot of people might expect from Glee going forwards. 

There’s a lot of potential speculation there, but if nothing else, it indicates the season wasn’t low-effort. 

Being the kids, as well as the sitter

Glee is about growing up, and it’s about what that means. We have a season where the teacher takes centre stage, like was originally planned, only it’s teachers that more people care about - Rachel, Kurt and Blaine probably have more fans than Will. 

But what of the kids?

Given that they only have half a season, they’re impressive. It helps that they’re well cast - most only really get one or two big songs, but they’re able to nail them (if you haven’t, go listen to Roderick’s Take Me To Church, thank you), and all of them feel distinct from previous archetypes. There are also fresh dynamics here - Roderick and Spencer’s neat friendship, Jane fitting in with Dalton is brand new, Mason and Madison offer a sibling dynamic we surprisingly haven’t seen before given how rarely Glee has siblings (Kurt and Finn didn’t really act it, and Puck and Jake had few interactions). 

Again, there’s genuine effort and freshness put into them, but it’s effort with the understanding that they aren’t leads. They don’t get multi-episode focuses on any love triangles or romance plots, they’re unmistakable secondary characters but it’s in that role that they thrive. 

Is season 6 the best season of the show? No. And it’s one it’s easy to imagine being hated, because it is a departure from previous seasons. I could list flaws - there’s a lack of focus, a desire to bring back characters that can give a very scattershot approach, and some dynamics do feel definitely underexplored. There’s no arc to compare to, say, Quinn’s development in S1. 

But for a half-length season that’s also wrapping up past characters, it does about as well as it reasonably could. 

It really feels like this was the show that they meant to make, though. You can feel the extra effort that goes into it - plus the music that was selected sticks out. A Burt Bacharach episode, a Carole King/Alanis Morisette episode, these are definitely from the era and genres that the writers showed a preference for earlier on. We get another Queen song, we get Styx as the finale - bands that have both appeared before. This is a victory lap. There are certainly more modern songs included, but it’s reminiscent of, again, Season 1 thriving on the back of Journey and showtunes and Queen, before a younger audience made them insert more contemporary music. It feels as though the songs they’re including are the songs that the writers like, rather than leaning on chart-toppers - the Bacharach theme episode is one of the lowest watched episodes in the show’s run, which is kind of shocking given how easily artist-focus episodes could get a bump in viewership. For some reason though, fans of a songwriter whose heyday was in the 1950s/60s don’t cross over massively with Glee. 

And yet they went for it. Why? Because they wanted to, they liked the songs (Bacharach tends to be basically showtune-adjacent, you’ll find a wealth of musical singers who’ll do his songs for albums and concerts), as we can tell by S1 using his ‘I Say A Little Prayer.’ This is what the show would have been if there was no care about what the audience wanted. 

For me, the biggest flaw with Glee was the fact that they had no bloody idea what they wanted the show to be, or who the target audience even was. It goes from edgy teenage comedy, to teachable-moment kids’ show, to shockingly nuanced adult drama. 

Hence the title of this ramble - this is what Glee feels like it was meant to be, regardless of personal taste. How much a show should listen to its audience is a heck of a complex question, way too much to go into this far into an already too-long ramble, but it’s still interesting to see. When they aren’t trying to balance intent and audience, you get a fascinating lens through which to look at the show. 

There is effort here, which raises the question - if this is the show that they wanted to make, as it seems to be with how effective it is as a redo of the original season and original intent of the show and thereby the interests of the writers, what does that say of past seasons? Where are the compromises, where are the decisions made to feed into what the fandom wanted? And are the departures from this vision strengths or weaknesses?

I feel like everyone’s going to have a different answer to that question, and I do wonder if that’s why Glee fandom often seems so divided. Functionally, there are two shows going on here - it just depends which you were tuning in to see. 

[dannyreviews]

Cinema Legends Turning 100 in 2024

Even though there is one more month to go in 2023, I thought I would get a head start on this post. Without further ado, the centenarians for 2024.

Eva Marie Saint - actress (Update: Made it to 100)

William Russell - actor (Update: Died on June 3, 2024 at 99)

Robert M. Young - director (Update: Died On February 6, 2024 at 99)

Lee Adams - lyricist

Priscilla Pointer - actress (Update: Made it to 100)

Ann Vernon - actress (Update: Made it to 100)

Krishnaveni - actress

Mimis Plessas - film composer

Maria Riva - actress

Joyce Randolph - actress (Update: Died On January 13, 2024 at 99)

Ted Hartley - actor, producer

Nadia Cattouse - actress

Woody Woodbury - actor, comedian (Update: Made it to 100)

Meta Velander - actress (Update: Made it to 100)

Pia Velsi - actress (Update: Made it to 100)

Yatsuko Tan'ami - actress

Bo Bjelfvenstam - director, screenwriter, actor (Update: Made it to 100)

Jean Harlez - director

Madeline Anderson - director

Kang Cheng - director

Fada Santoro - actress

Walter Schultheiss - actor (Update: Made it to 100)

Donald Pelmear - actor (Update: Made it to 100)

Teresa Cunillé - actress

Ip Chun - martial artist, actor (Update: Made it to 100)

Rolf Schimpf - actor

Terry Gibbs - film score musician

Elaine Schreyeck - continuity supervisor

Eunice Christopher - actress

(no photo available)

Gloria Stroock - actress (Update: Died On May 5, 2024 at 99)

(no photo available)

Robert Porter - producer

(no photo available)

Pat Jaffe - producer, editor

(no photo available)

Norbert Terry - director, producer

(no photo available)

Alice Toen - actress (Update: Made it to 100)

(no photo available)

Richard Gilbert - director, producer

(no photo available)

Ronald Spencer - director, producer

(no photo available)

Ti Lu - actor

(no photo available)

[satellitesunset]

There are three characters on Glee who are REALLY constructed around their relationship to masculinity… Other characters get arcs around it, but there are three where it is a very central arc.

One is Spencer, whose story there is VERY explicitly a queer story. He outright talks about needing to be more masculine than anyone else so that people don’t write him off as “the gay one”… I really wish the show had given him more than two conversations about this. And I also get why the show drew his arc against Kurt specifically, but there are other characters who would have made more sense to connect with him… If Sam were canonically queer, maybe him, but I also think there’d have been something interesting in explicitly drawing Spencer against KAROFSKY in S6. If the show had been better about following through its themes.

One is Artie, whose story is about building an identity both incorporating and aside from his disability… I have issues with how the show portrays Artie’s relationship with his body and his masculinity, but I also think that the surface reading there — the disability one — makes enough sense on its own that I don’t think it NEEDS to be queered specifically… HOWEVER, there are certainly facets of my own queerness that I see in Artie, and I am on-board with queer readings of Artie’s arc here…

And then there’s Sam, and I just really feel like a queer reading of Sam’s body image, masculinity, and popularity stuff… It just makes too much sense to me to ignore. It’s not just about the internal stuff in Sam’s character, either… But it’s about who that character is drawn up against in those arcs… In Season 2, Sam’s drawn against Finn, and to a lesser extent Karofsky… In Season 3, it’s against Blaine and Shane…. In Season 4 and 5, he doesn’t really have a foil, but his body image and masculinity stuff is specifically drawn against Artie… but also tied into Blaine… Sam finds himself drawn into self-discovery arcs around every queer major character in the show, pretty much. He dates Santana and Brittany (… and Quinn)… he’s best friends with Blaine… there’s both Duets and Rumours with Kurt… He gets significant screentime with Spencer… He’s Kurt’s biggest defender against Karofsky…

the reply is a bit late, but there are so many great ideas that i wanted to articulate my response properly.

Spencer

Spencer, out of all the s6 newbies, is the biggest lost potential, because as you mentioned, from how Kurt and him, dare I say are opposite halves of the same coin, to how both he and Sam had to prove their own masculinity, but most importantly how his story is parallel to that of David's.

You have Spencer who, despite his surface acceptance of his sexuality, still has a lot of internalized homophobia, ( I rewatched some of his sense, and the line "we have nothing in common", stood out to me, because it reflects how he never sees himself fitting in with the community) and how interacting with David, a gay jock who has also gone through internalized homophobia, could clear up his insecurities.

Artie

Artie, unintentionally, is a very queer-coded character, he makes a lot of' jokes' about finding men/guys attractive (the writer's biophobia is showing), I don't think I'm qualified to expand on how he, as a disabled guy has to prove his own masculinity but another line that pops in my mind is in s3 ep5 the first time (my beloathed) when he talks about hooking up with Brittany, made he feel like a 'real man', which just further proves my point (toxic masculinity yay)

Sam

there's so much to unpack with Sam, what you said is so on point,

A lot of Sam's arcs are inherently queer, no denying that from how he's established to how he evolves, from s2 this well-meaning insecure jock who's going through the conflict of popularity serving as a parallel between him and Finn in S2, and I know from experience how going to a same-sex school influences how you view your identity, like it fucks you up, then into s3, from being a stripper AGE 16!! and feeling like being popular is the only way to get the girl, and how did having dyslexia make him feel lesser and like his worth lies only on his body, especially with, as you mentioned, being pitied against Shane and Blaine, and how he continuously interact with other queer characters.

if were also discussing the topic, we can expand on Puck (a deep dive into the hyper-sexual nature of his character and the deeper reasoning of why he hooked up with older women) Jake (the intersectionality of race and masculinity), and Kurt and Blaine both as gay men and how they affect each other but also individually, (for Kurt, on how he viewed masculinity and how it relates to his sexuality which is a topic I kinda covered the other day, and specifically both his arc in s3 and s5).

[spaceorphan18]

June Character Celebration: The New Newbies

Welcome to the June Character Celebration!

Each day, I’m picking a character or group of characters to celebrate.  Let’s celebrate Glee’s rich collection of characters by rec’ing fics, reblogging gifs, and discussing positive meta about them! It’s time to celebrate - c’mon!

June 9: The New Newbies

They might have shown up late in the game -- but they still made quite the impact.  And were quite enjoyable during Season 6. 

Roderick Meeks

Roderick was a truly different character than anyone else we’ve met before him.  Socially awkward, quiet, and reserved, Roderick was an oddball comparatively to the higher-strung forces of nature that came before him.  He was incredibly refreshing.  And he could also really sing.  

Jane Hayward

Jane was not afraid to challenge the status quo and fight for the things she believed in.  Her self-confidence was inspiring, as was her ability to not back down from a fight.  At the same time - her romance with Mason was sweet, and showed a softer side of her.  Also, she was a killer vocalist. 

Madison McCarthy

One half of the ‘creepy incest twins’ she was an absolute delight to watch.  She was hilarious and scene stealing with all her little one-liners and background moments.  She didn’t have much to do, but she was a joy when she was around. 

Mason McCarthy

Mason was the unbridled joy of quirkiness that is a metaphor for the show itself.  He is also just a pure delight to watch on screen, and I loved his little mini-romance with Jane play out.  

Spencer Porter (& Alistar) 

So, this is the interesting thing about Spencer... I’m not a huge fan of his character, but, I have a lot of respect for what they did with him.  He’s a gay character who embodies the traits of all the meat-head jocks that have come before him.  He wasn’t there to represent the apex of the LGBT community -- he could just be a character who happens to be gay -- be dislikable, do dumb things, and even have a romance with Alistar that was far more normalized than the characters that came before him.  I may not like who he is -- but I do like what he represents.  

Alistar, however, was pretty cool -- and I wish he had gotten more to do. 

Myron Muskovitz

Alright, so this kid was annoying but... damn could he sell a number.  

[internationbookhouse]

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Mansarovar lake

The people of Angel Island find a safe harbor and the gift of hope in this inspirational novel from New York Times bestselling authors Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer. Liza Martin and Daniel Merritt are closer than ever. She alone knows that he gave up his medical practice because he blamed himself for endangering a patient. But she is completely shocked to hear that Daniel is now considering returning to a medical career…which may mean leaving Angel Island—and Liza. Daniel struggles to make this decision, but they are both put to the test when a sailor wrecks his boat in a vicious storm. Liza witnesses Daniel’s medical skills firsthand and finally understands why she must let him pursue his career. If only that didn’t mean sacrificing the love of her life… The sailor, Nolan Porter, survives thanks to Daniel’s skill. But moments earlier he had considered ending his life due to losing his career and his family. Still, no matter how desperate he feels, the residents of Angel Island will not let him give up. Over the course of the summer, Nolan’s tragedy becomes a blessing. And what better way to celebrate than to share one’s blessings with others… [amz_corss_sell asin=”0425264289″] Harbor of the Heart The people of Angel Island find a safe harbor and the gift of hope in this inspirational novel from New York Times bestselling authors Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer.

[wesonerdy]

Everyone has the same idea on The Walking Dead: find as many guns as possible, by any means necessary. Here’s the preview for episode twelve, “Say Yes”!

  Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

  Well, this season of The Walking Dead has certainly taken a turn after last week. “Hostiles and Calamities” focused on Eugene and his place in the Sanctuary as well as Dwight’s. Could we be seeing an unlikely alliance in the future? My sincere hope is that Eugene is using his master lying skills on Negan and is planning a way to take them down from the inside. After spending this week thinking about it, I refuse to believe that Eugene would turn his back on Glenn and Abraham. When he says, “I am Negan.”, it hurts, but there’s always more to this show than meets the eye.

  Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

  Then there’s Dwight. His ex-wife ran away after she helped Daryl escape, and she left a letter for Dwight in their old home, explaining why she wasn’t waiting for him. Dwight isn’t a good man anymore, and she partially blames herself for that. It seems that the last of Dwight’s caring goes out the door with Sherry, because he promptly frames the Sanctuary’s doctor and Negan throws him into a furnace for thinking he helped Sherry leave.

  Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

  Thankfully, we’re away from there this week, and we have a whole new set of problems to deal with.

First up, Rosita.

  Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

  Rosita is on a self-destructive path and continues to barrel on full force. She wants revenge for Abraham and Glenn, maybe even Spencer, too, but she’s reckless. As Michonne said in season four, “Anger makes you stupid. And stupid gets you killed.”

Someone send that advice to Rosita ASAP.

  Next, we have our favorite couple, Michonne and Rick.

  Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

  We’re also getting a side trip with Rick and Michonne this episode. It’s date night and they’re hitting up a walker invested carnival. They’ve had some really awesome battle scenes together this season, from the cars slicing down the herd of walkers on the road to the junk yard walker. I have high hopes for the carnival of the dead they’re going into.

Plus, if you caught The Talking Dead last week, you know we’re getting a steamy Richonne episode, and I can’t wait. I love that the writers have managed to make these two a couple without compromising their characters, specifically Michonne’s.

Which brings us to the title of the episode, “Say Yes.” What exactly is the question that they want answered with a yes? Who’s asking it? Or is this a questions that multiple people will have to answer this episode?

You can check out all the sneak peeks for “Say Yes” below, and be sure to comment and tell us what you think the question is! Who do you think is asking it?

      Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

  The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 PM ET on AMC.

    PREVIEW: ‘The Walking Dead’ Season Seven, Episode Twelve “Say Yes” Everyone has the same idea on The Walking Dead: find as many guns as possible, by any means necessary.

[buzzbandsla]

Tonight in L.A.: Anna Ash, LP, Spencer Ludwig, Wilderado, Kristeen Young, Mapache, Jason Heath & the Greedy Souls, Dream Phases

Tonight in L.A.: Anna Ash, LP, Spencer Ludwig, Wilderado, Kristeen Young, Mapache, Jason Heath & the Greedy Souls, Dream Phases

Los Angeles concerts for Tuesday: ► Singer-songwriter Anna Ash celebrates ther elease of her sophomore album “Floodlights” with a show at the Bootleg Theater, joined by Andrew St. James and the Sweet Hurt. ► Singer-songwriter-trumpeter Spencer Ludwig plays the Echoplex. ► Folk-rockers Wilderado continue their Tuesday night residency at downtown’s Resident, joined by Jane and Zach Porter. ►…