hullabaloooo-o

I watched 2009 and Dreams Come True out of order (DVR disaster) — and I watched DCT not aware that 2009 existed (like I said, DVR disaster). Back in December of 2009, I watched all of the first half of that season during a 12-hour overnight in an airport in London, at a Costa Coffee with exceptionally fast wifi. Three days later, I found out that while I was watching Glee, my (er, at-the-time) boyfriend was hooking up with his ex-girlfriend at a party. This is to say that I have always had a weird, deep, and not totally understood attachment to Glee, as a partner of sorts for getting through the good and the bad and the emotional upheaval-ing. I basically sobbed through last week's episode - half "This show could have been on forever if they'd just made it awesome like this all the time and had that one kid singing Hozier" and half "What will this day be like? What will my future be?" All that said, I found Dreams Come True a disappointment. I mean, it's Glee, so I wasn't surprised to be disappointed, but I was still disappointed. By the end, these characters are, what, 25? I don't need to be assured of their happy futures! Let them struggle a bit! Or even better, keep it in the choir room! For me, anyway, Glee wasn't about the promise of success — it was about daring to try. Daring to try is so much more interesting, and affecting, than having success — even if that means beating Anne ("Anne!") Hathaway for a Tony. Parks + Rec — a show I thought was great but didn't mean nearly as much to me as Glee —just did the flash-forward thing three weeks ago, in a way that was no less optimistic — wasn't Leslie president by the end? — but still managed to feel connected to the show's core philosophy. Then I realized — going through the comments here — that I'd totally missed 2009. It wasn't perfect — in general, it didn't even get me to that same place of "OMG everything is wonderful and everything is terrible but if we try really hard, and never give up, maybe we can make something awesome!" that Roderick gave me with "Take Me to the Church" (um, I'm crying as I write that). But Lea was amazing as S1 Rachel (the frosted lipstick was delightful), I loved the return of Emma's pamphlets and Anthro necklaces, and I thought they did an admirable job of working around, and paying tribute to, Cory/Finn (er crying again). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trH2iiOxjRg I was prepared for the DSB ending. In fact, I spent a solid part of yesterday watching the various DSBs, especially the season 5 version where Rachel sings Finn's part, Kurt sing's Rachel's, and Mathew Morrison lifts his eyes to the sky when Kurt comes on stage. (Crying again!) Even though I knew it was coming, when I realized we were going to go from the hallway into the auditorium to see the first DSB, with everybody impossibly young again — I wasn't even crying, I felt like I was physically punched in the gut. Oh, Glee. When you were good, you were gold.