Category Archives: TV

TV: Glee—Santana is Forced Out of the Closet.

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What was a fairly mediocre episode of Glee, trying to capitalise on the Republican Presidential nominee debate by staging a class presidential debate of McKinley’s own, seems to be leading into the second multi-episode story arc about bullying, homophobia and acceptance.

While Santana says some really horrible things to Finn about his physical appearance, he decides to out her, saying the only reason she’s so horrible to everyone else is because she hates herself for her sexual orientation.

I don’t think this is completely true (it’s high school in a small town; you do the math), but word eventually makes its way to a campaign video of one of Sue’s Congressional opponents and, thus, the whole of Lima. Finn poignantly says that yes, everyone knows, but no one cares.

Glee’s next episode is entitled “I Kissed a Girl”, so we can only imagine it’s going to deal with Santana’s lesbianism/bisexuality/non-straightness and perhaps her relationship with Brittany. I hope it handles it in a caring and understanding way. But then again, it is Glee…

Related: The Underlying Message in Glee’s “The First Time” Episode.

Glee: T.G.Inappropriate.F.

The Underlying Message in Glee’s “Asian F” Episode.

The Underlying Message in Glee’s “I Am Unicorn” Episode.

Glee Back in Full Force.

The (Belated) Underlying Message in Glee’s “Never Been Kissed” Episode.

The Underlying Message in Glee’s “Born This Way” Episode.

The Underlying Message in Glee’s “Furt” Episode.

Image via VideoBB.

TV: The Underlying Message in Glee’s “The First Time” Episode.

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Blaine, Kurt, and Rachel’s first times were surprisingly tender; taking place in front of the fire after Blaine, Kurt and Rachel had given the performance of their lives in West Side Story, and Finn had realised his college football dreams won’t come true—but not before Glee had effectively prude-shamed Rachel and Blaine.

The idea that an actor can’t truly portray an emotion or a situation unless they’ve felt it or been involved in it flies in the face of the theory of acting. That everyone else involved in West Side Story (except Coach Beiste, who finally gets her man. And is Emma Pillsbury still a virgin…?) has lost it except its two main characters, whose sexual awakening the play focuses on, further emphasises the virgin-shaming going on.

I’d like to point out at this juncture that these kids are 17 YEARS OLD! I have friends who are nearly 23 and 26, respectively, who are virgins—not to mention those who don’t air their sexual history (or lack thereof) as freely—and I don’t think it hampers their ability to do their jobs, enjoy life and make meaningful connections with people. I really resent the fact that not just Glee, but society in general, likens virginity to a handicap. Even handicapped Artie (who insensitively makes a joke about Chaz Bono being stuck inside a woman’s body, and is then subsequently picked on by the college football recruiter, asking if Artie wants a handicapped spot on the team. Been there, done that.) targets Rachel and Blaine for their lack of relatability to their characters. What happened to the days when virginity was a virtue? But, please; let’s not go back there!

Now that Rachel, Kurt and Blaine have lost their virginities in the dream-like way that Hollywood so romanticises, can we please go back to normal? Not everyone experiences their cherry-popping romantically in front of the fire. And the sooner this is drummed into young adults, along with the debunking of the “hopeless romantic” idealism of modern relationships, the better.

Related: Glee: T.G.Inappropriate.F.

The Underlying Message in Glee’s “Asian F” Episode.

The Underlying Message in Glee’s “I Am Unicorn” Episode.

Glee Back in Full Force.

The Underlying Meaning in Glee’s “Never Been Kissed” Episode.

Glee “Sexy” Review.

Elsewhere: [MamaMia] Why Being a Hopeless Romantic is a Crock.

Images via Megavideo.

TV: Charmed—Making a Protest Statement… With Cleavage!

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“Hook-nosed hags is what we’re celebrating on Halloween. Personally, I’m offended by the representation of witches in popular culture.”

“Right, which is why you dressed as the Mistress of the Dark [Elvira]?”

“This costume happens to be a protest statement.”

“I am so impressed that you can make a protest statement and show cleavage all at the same time.”

That’s what costumes are all about, aren’t they?!

Related: Charmed: “It’s the 21st Century, It’s the Woman’s Job to Save the Day.”

“What? A Woman Can’t Rescue a Man?”

Witch Trial: Burning at the Stake on Charmed.

’Tis the Season…

Images via YouTube.

TV: True Blood—It Gets Better.

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“All my life I’ve been afraid… [of the] dead people muttering in my ears, making me deliver your messages. Making me into a freak! A creepy, pathetic, terrified mess, muttering to herself in the corner.”

“Oh Marnie, can’t you see? Life is pain. But soon all you’ve suffered and feared will be meaningless. You will be a peace. But them [the vampires]…?”

“… they’ll be stuck here forever.”

“And there’s no victory in that.”

Death and vampires are pretty bleak metaphors for putting an end to bullying and its perpetrators. Or it’s one clever way for incorporating the It Gets Better message into a show laden with cultural undertones: Marnie (despite becoming the bully herself) gets to move on and put her hellish ordeals behind her, while those who victimised her, the vampires, are doomed to repeat the same cycle of hatred, facing karma at the end of the day.

Related: Wiccans: Born This Way.

The Meaning of War According to True Blood.

Male Rape on True Blood.

Images via VideoBB.

TV: Is Jersey Shore Anti-Abortion?

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For all their gender-stereotype-busting, Jersey Shore equally upholds the sexual status quo.

They slut-shame, “cock block” and are anti-abortion, apparently.

On last night’s episode, Deena thought she might be pregnant as she’d missed her last period. Instead of weighing up her options and realising she’s too young and irresponsible for a child, she got upset about how angry her family would be and lamented that she didn’t know how to take care of a baby.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if the stigma of abortion were removed, Deena would have realised that she had an option other than going through with the pregnancy, and wouldn’t have hesitated to schedule herself an abortion if she had in fact been pregnant. Because, yes; having a baby is a huge responsibility, and with no job, no partner, no family support (from the way she describes how upset her parents would be), and a party-hard lifestyle—not to mention the binge drinking her and Snooki had partaken in during their time in Italy whilst Deena might have been growing a bun in the oven, thus endangering the health of the foetus—she certainly isn’t ready for it.

The fact that these Jersey Shore guidos/ettes relish their single, carefree, eternal alcohol-fuelled childhoods (“Don’t fall in love at the Jersey Shore” is their motto) makes it all the more likely that they should view abortion as a guilt-free, necessary and legal procedure to make a woman not pregnant.

Thoughts?

Related: Snooki & the Jersey Shore Girls as Feminists?

Images via Megavideo.

TV: Glee—T.G.Inappropriate.F.

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Last night marked the return of Glee after a month of baseball-related hiatus.

While the show is continuing it’s new tradition of actually following its storylines (Shelby’s new glee club, Santana and Brittany’s lady love, Quinn and Puck’s quest to get Beth back), it’s also following its long-held ritual of being wildly inappropriate and offensive.

The offensiveness was dialed down to low, with a couple of racist (nationalist?) remarks directed at Brittany’s leprechaun, also known as Roy Flanagan, but the hypersexualisation of the New Directions and the Troubletones* (the name of Shelby’s glee club, consisting of Mercedes, Sugar, and the newly recruited Santana and Brittany) was at an all-time high, singing Katy Perry’s (does she have an agreement with this show or something? “Firework”, “Teenage Dream” and “I Kissed a Girl”, the title of the episode in which Santana comes out to her family in a few weeks’ time, have all been featured.) “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” and Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman”, respectively.

I’m not so sure lyrics like, “We took too many shots… Got kicked out of the bar… Had a ménage a trios,” and, “Makes my panties drop… Makes my cherry pop… With a real big cock,” are really appropriate for fictional 17-year-olds to be singing, as several of them are twelve kinds of illegal!

But then again, they’re probably not as bad as this…

*This post originally named Shelby’s all-girl glee club as the Treble Clefs.

Related: The Underlying Message in Glee’s “Asian F” Episode.

The Underlying Message in Glee’s “I Am Unicorn” Episode.

Glee Back in Full Force.

Disturbing Behaviour: Terry Richardson Does Glee.

Is Lea Michele Too Sexy?

Image via VideoBB.

TV: Charmed—”It’s the 21st Century, It’s the Woman’s Job to Save the Day.”

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In season two of Charmed, Billy Appleby, a character from Phoebe’s favourite old school horror movie, Kill It Before It Dies, makes it off the screen and into the sisters’ technicolour world, along with the Demon of Illusion, Bloody Mary and the slasher from Axe Husband.

When cornered by the Axe Husband, Billy chimes in, saying, “It’s okay: the man is here to save the day.” In true feminist-y Charmed style, Prue retorts with, “Billy, it’s the 21st century. It’s the woman’s job to save the day.”

Related: “What? A Woman Can’t Rescue a Man?”

Witch Trial: Burning at the Stake on Charmed.

Image via YouTube.

TV: The Slap & Men Who Cheat.

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Three episodes of ABC’s The Slap down, five more to go.

While initially the first episode left me with chills, each subsequent installment has been less exciting than the last, despite the show’s anticipated debut.

But one thing that really shitted me about last week’s “Harry” narrative, in addition to cousin Hector’s story, was that despite having beautiful wives, nice homes and healthy kids and money, the men of The Slap are cheaters.

Sure, just having all these things doesn’t prevent someone from straying in an unhappy marriage, but it seems almost every depiction of middle aged married men these days also includes infidelity.

Don Draper, for example. Tony Soprano, Tom Scavo of Desperate Housewives and Dr. Chris Taub of House, to name a few more. Fatal Attraction’s Dan Gallagher. Bradley Cooper’s Ben in He’s Just Not That Into You. The list goes on.

Sure, cheating occurs IRL. But where are all the representations of good men? One’s who are secure in their marriages, in their masculinity, and who love their lives. Surely those men exist in real life, although you wouldn’t know it if film and television are supposed to imitate it.

Not only is this damaging to married men, but also to married women. Are they really as none-the-wiser as fiction makes them out to be? Do they never cheat? Unlikely.

And what about sexual health? Surely, if protection isn’t used, these fictional cheating men are spreading disease. Watch how Harry and Hector pursue relationships with other women, then come home and make love to their beautiful wives like nothing’s changed. But it has. Am I deluded in thinking you can’t have the best of both worlds?

Image via A Connected Life.

Rapture—Greens as Doomsayers.

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From “A Philosophical Q & A”, spoken by Gerard Henderson:

“… If you’re talking about bizarre views, have a look at the Green movement. Once upon a time, when people said, ‘The end of the world is nigh’… they were all Christians walking around in odd clothing. Now, people who walk around in odd clothing and say, ‘The end of the world is nigh,’ vote Green and often work at the ABC or somewhere else. It seems to me that anyone who thinks the world is going to end within the next six months or six years or 60 years or 600 years is pretty bizarre to me and they’re not religious at all.”

In the words of the Facebook group, “I’m not bragging, but this is the fifth end of the world I’ve survived” (Rapture 2.0 was supposed to happen on Friday), and I identify as a Greens voter.

Related: It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Latest Trend in Discrimination.

Apocalypse Now: 2012 Come Early?

Elsewhere: [ABC] A Philosophical Q & A Transcript.

TV: Wiccans—Born This Way.

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The actress who plays the disturbed Wiccan Marnie Stonebrook on True Blood, Fiona Shaw, is a lesbian herself, so her character’s diatribe about being a supernatural outcast on last night’s episode has several layers:

“[People] are cruel. They’re bullies. They treat you like a pariah. They’re just mocking and judging and… shunning me. Well I didn’t ask to be what I am.”

Related: The Meaning of War According to True Blood.

Male Rape on True Blood.

Image via VideoBB.