As anyone who goes to the livechats may have noticed, I’ve stopped watching Glee. There are a lot of reasons, and I was taking a break from writing an article on that (and what causes me to break up with shows in general) when last night’s Big Kiss (you know the one) happened. Immediately I was tweeted, e-mailed, and IMed with people going, “Oh my gosh, Julia, are you watching Glee?!? There was just a gay kiss! Did you see the gay kiss?!?”
See, anyone who knows me knows that if there’s one thing I love, it’s my gays. (Specifically, my gay boys. I can’t really help it, there’s something about the face of a boy in love that just gets to me, and then when there’s two of them looking at each other simultaneously in love? Be still, the pitter-patter of my heart.) And two boys kissing on national, prime-time television? Normally I’d be all over that like white on rice. But this time, I wasn’t, because I’ve broken up with Glee. But I did watch the clips relating to the kiss, and I have to say? I’m still not impressed.
Okay, time for brief caveats. There are some things I did like about the kiss. The kiss itself, if you ignore the surrounding circumstances, was a nice. Chris Colfer and Darren Criss have good chemistry and it was an objectively adorable kiss. I am a fan of both of the actors, even if I am not a fan of their roles or the show they are in. And I am thrilled that there is a highly visible gay couple on primetime television that’s gotten people this excited. Truly, I am.
That being said, I have a lot of issues with the whole thing. For one, the circumstances surrounding the kiss. Basically, I’m supposed to buy that while Blaine has been impervious to Kurt’s doe eyes and heartfelt solos before, there was something so fundamentally moving about his rendition of “Blackbird” (at a bird’s funeral) that it was enough to make him realize some sort of nascent true love when about two episodes ago he was madly in love with some random dude from the Gap. I mean, Blackbird is a magnificent song, but really? Second of all, Glee is not the first show to have a male lead mack on another dude, nor the first primetime show to do it, nor the first show aimed at teens to do it. (Ugly Betty, Greek, and 90210, just to name a few recent examples.) The only thing really new or revolutionary about this whole situation is the number of people watching. And the fact that it reached so many people is really great. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that, honestly? It’s an altogether crappy storyline with crappy characters.
To be honest, despite the fact that he is clearly the writer’s pet, I have never liked Kurt. Let’s call a spade a spade here — Kurt and Rachel are essentially the same character. Kurt is just as selfish and flamboyant as Rachel is. He is just as much of a diva. He is just as enamored with his own “specialness” and just as dismissive of others. Only Rachel, unlike Kurt, is on a near-weekly basis, called out on her flaws. She is berated for them or forced to confront them or asked to grow as a character, whereas Kurt seems to be granted some sort of get out of jail free card. And it’s pretty obvious why — he’s a shameless wish-fulfillment fantasy come to life. He not only can do no wrong, but he has perfect understanding parents and perfect understanding friends. When he gets bullied (and newsflash, Kurt, everyone gets bullied and pushed around in high school, and if you weren’t gay, I’m sure some jackass would find some other reason to shove you into a locker) he is not only whisked away to a magical utopia of a school by his understanding parents (after they have already pretty much dedicated their wedding to making it the We Love Kurt Festival, which still rubs me as deeply weird). And then, there’s who he gets for his love interest.
Considering the fact that Darren Criss is a fascinating, articulate, and by all accounts stellar example of a human being, Blaine is perhaps the most boring, wooden excuse for a character I have ever seen. He’s like a Ken doll. He’s like the boy every teenager who is into boys dreams up while doodling in the margins of their notebooks. I feel about Blaine roughly the same way I feel about oatmeal — it’s bland and boring and sits uncomfortably heavy in your stomach — even moreso when you’re hungry for something else.
So no, I’m not that excited that those two characters kissed. No, it does not fill my quota for wanting adorable gay boys on my television and no, it is not enough to get me to come back to Glee. I’m proud that the kiss happened, and I’m glad it made other people excited, but I’m not even close to satisfied. But for me, when two characters kiss, regardless of their sexuality, I want to care. I want to have a reason to care. And I want from gay characters what I want from straight characters — fully developed human beings who are treated the way they deserve to be treated based on their personality, not on their sexuality or because of some chip on a writer’s shoulder. And if Glee wants to get me back, and if they want to claim any sort of title as ground breakers or innovators, they’re frankly going to have to work a whole lot harder.
Clacked by Julia Hass 
on Mar 16, 2011 @ 15:38 EST5EDT
I do have to stick up for the circumstances surrounding the kiss. Over the past few episodes, there has been some connection between Kurt and Blaine which actually started at the end of the episode when Blaine was infatuated with the guy at The Gap. Then they went to Rachel’s party and after kissing Rachel, Blaine knew he was 100% gay. Sometimes it just takes on magical moment to realize something you’ve been denying all along, and Kurt’s song was it. Darren Criss sold the moment beautifully just with the expressions on his face. I thought it was a lovely moment. Heck, I fell in love with someone sight unseen after an online conversation for six hours. That was 11 years years ago and we’re still together!
As for the bullying, Kurt wasn’t just being pushed into lockers. It did get to a point where he feared for his life. That’s a little different than just getting picked on by the jackasses at school. That he had this magical place to run to was a little too convenient, granted, but staying at McKinley High could have been fatal (had this been real life).
I agree that there is little consistency from week to week as far as how a character behaves depending on what is needed for that week’s storyline and I can’t defend how they make Kurt (or Rachel or Quinn) behave from week to week, but overlooking all of the diva behavior I don’t think deep down Kurt is as awful a character as he’s been made out to be by the bloggers and commenters (and I’ve taken my knocks for that stance). I just try to look below the surface and empathize with him, because he is different than his former classmates. In high school, sometimes people do what they have to do to survive or even try to fit in. I think Kurt sometimes tries too hard and for that he is misunderstood.
Of course, I’m talking like these are real people so that just makes me feel a little crazy!
*POST AUTHOR*
Oh believe me, I have issues with the whole bisexuality storyline like you would not believe. I understand the intent to have a slow build, but to me it fell utterly flat.
On top of that, I understand that Kurt felt that his life was in danger, but I always thought that was ridiculous. How was he treated any worse than every other Glee clubber who was slushied, shoved into lockers, or thrown into dumpsters? What about Artie and Puck, who were both turned upside down and locked in a port-a-potty? Kurt easily could have stayed at McKinley – and I don’t doubt for a second that Rachel and Mercedes would have rallied Glee club members so he never had to walk anywhere alone and risk being cornered by Karofsky. But instead he’s so righteous and so selfishly convinced that it’s HIS problem and HIS cross to bear and it clearly is more important than anything anyone else is doing that he has to leave. That’s the other thing that bothers me about Kurt’s character – any time anyone made a remotely sensible suggestion, he’d always be like “you’re just trying to change me because I’m gay!” instead of actually considering if they might have a point.
It just… it makes no sense. I mean, not that anything ever makes sense on this show, but you’d think since this was their pet plot, they’d take care to have it not be a completely incoherent mess.
Yes, the “unsure of his feelings” story was silly and served no purpose and I have had massive issues with a lot of what goes on on this show (the alcohol and sex episodes being my latest headaches). I still stand behind Kurt’s fear that his life was in danger. If I remember correctly, Karofsky said he would kill Kurt if he ever told anyone about that kiss. I don’t think the other kids who have been slushied, and worse, have ever felt their life was in danger. We’ve seen shows forever that have featured kids being picked on in school (how many times did Chris get punched by Caruso during the four years of Everybody Hates Chris?). And in trying to reflect things happening in our own society today with kids who are incessantly picked on in school for being different and having it be so bad that they end up taking their own lives, I don’t think anyone wanted to have to go down that road on this show or at least have to feel that Kurt was constantly in danger. It’s just something that didn’t need to be hanging over the show week to week. I believe Kurt’s friends – and even Sue when she was principal – tried to rally and assure him he would be protected, but they can’t be with him 24 hours a day. I think if there’s any lesson to be learned from this is that parents need to pay attention to their kids and react if they feel their behavior has changed. I think it’s great that Kurt’s dad and step-mother felt strongly enough to have Kurt change schools instead of worry every day if he was going to be seriously injured or worse because of the bullying. Yes, there are ginormous problems with Glee’s storytelling, but having known someone who was “gay bashed” (not in school though) to the point that half his face had to reconstructed with metal plates and screws, I totally empathize with Kurt and this particular storyline.
I agree to an extent. I really dislike the Blaine and Kurt in love story line. But for alot of different reasons. I actually really like Blaine, and this is probably because as a real person, he would never exsist, but is totally the kind of person you would dream up and instantly make your friend. But Kurt has always struck me as overly dramatic, whiny, and selfish. No one ever calls him out when he’s acting like a brat (oh except that one time when burt… but really once?)
I’m not upset about “the kiss” and will honestly praise Darren Criss’s acting in blackbird until forever (or until something better comes along), but generally didn’t care for it, because i don’t care about the couple.
I stopped watching this show. I kinda fast forward through to see the musical numbers, but i don’t actually care about the show anymore. And it’s for the flaws you cite here, there’s no real consistent character development. Blaine is a good example.
Haven’t seen the episode. But i felt exactly the same way watching Brokeback Mountain. I watched it for the novelty, but once that wore off I realized that it’s a bad movie. The romance was just kinda bland and I didn’t care about the couple. But you’re right, novel/rare does not equal good.
I stopped watching the show after the first few episodes of this season, although Darren Criss did pull me in for a few extra episodes around the end of fall. I got tired of the characters being snapped back to their stereotypical selves even when they made big leaps forward towards maturity in a previous episode.
Is is sad that I keep thinking Darren Criss looks like a realllly good kisser? I don’t know if you ever saw A Very Potter Musical, Julia, but he (as Harry) shares a kiss with Ginny and even during a live show, the kiss looked effortlessly sexy. SIGH.
Kurt is a dick and Blaine, though flat, is still too good for him.
Frankly I think Glee needs to hire some of the Greek writers on how to handle gay romances, Greek did it perfectly and made them feel real, most of the time. Glee is horrible, Kurt is horrible, the kiss was nice, but completely insanely stupid. You sang a song, and now I love you? They sang together before and nothing, but this now? Ridiculous.