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I mean, I do think Will encouraging the students to parade in any kind of skimpy clothing is wrong. This goes back to the Rocky Horror episode, even, when Sam didn't feel comfortable wearing gold underwear in front of people. With the issue with suspending Marley, I have a different problem with it. He wasn't technically suspending her because she refused to wear a bikini; he suspended her because she wore the wrong costume. She dressed like Katy when she was supposed to be a Gaga. If she had found a less revealing Gaga outfit, I don't think he'd suspend her. 

However, like I said, I have another issue to the exact same problem (and it was a problem). It was Will reprimanding her in front of the entire Glee Club, humiliating her in the process, and the clear hypocrisy as he did so. Don't forget in the VERY NEXT EPISODE, Sue banned the stupid twerking. Will did it anyway, breaking the rules, so Sue fired him. But Will fought back and got his job back.

If you look at both episodes, they're rooted with a similar plotline; Will/Sue enacted a rule, Marley/Will broke it, so Will/Sue punished them. Except Will fought back. And it's not like this is the only instant of a member of Glee breaking an assignment and they weren't given much more than a side eye from Will. So why was Marley one of the very few punished while almost everyone else got away with shit? And if Will wanted to suspend Marley, he could have talked with her privately. Instead, he chose to punish her in front of everyone. He really let the Glee Club get away with a lot. So many of them were cruel toward each other and Will constantly turned a blind eye. Just another reason why he was not a good teacher. I mean, his very first episode had him planting drugs on Finn in order to get him to join Glee Club. 

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He wasn't technically suspending her because she refused to wear a bikini; he suspended her because she wore the wrong costume. She dressed like Katy when she was supposed to be a Gaga. If she had found a less revealing Gaga outfit, I don't think he'd suspend her

Yeah, but she didn't feel comfortable in the Gaga outfit, so she wore the less revealing Katy outfit, no? He should have articulated that point better, and maybe tried to help her out or suggest the other Glee members help her out by finding a Gaga costume she would have felt more comfortable in.

This isn't the only example of how Will sucked or was a hypocrite. Hell, Rachel sent another girl to a crack house on purpose, which was far worse, and wasn't suspended.

Yeah, Will was a horrible teacher overall.

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On 8/1/2020 at 10:12 AM, theschnauzers said:

At its heart, Glee was always described as a comedy-drama-musical. It was a unique combination of all three, and has never been copied. It’s important to remember the timeframe of the series as production began in 2008 and it finished five and a half seasons in 2015. Morals change, perceptions change, values change. Many comedies from earlier decades are, to me, virtually unwatchable because of that. Look at what had to be done with Gone With The Wind, in spite of the fact it won multiple Oscars in 1939, but the portrayal of black characters are offensive to modern attitudes, and even though the movie was faithful to the original novel. So that’s something you have to learn to do as applying current sensibilities to television and film made in the past distorts things. 

This is true, but I feel like 2013 when the episode aired wasn't *that* long ago, #metoo wasn't the first or even the 10th time these issues came to the societal forefront and IIRC there was a lot of conversation on TWOP and elsewhere about the appropriateness of the episode then and Shue's behaviour in general, even though Sue was the more obviously terrible teacher. Just as there was a lot of discussion/upset even in 2011 about Finn the straight white guy outing Santana the lesbian WOC "for her own good" and making it all about him. Not to mention discussion about whether Kurt being a walking stereotype was ok or whether it was supposed to be "hightened reality ironic"/satire and if that made it ok or of Chris made it ok, etc. Not to mention discussion about Artie and Becky and their portrayals.

Glee did a lot of things that were seen as potentially controversial even at the time and in the early seasons often made a good story out of them with occasional moments of absolutely amazingly awesome that carried it though some questionable storylines. As long as you didn't look too hard. 

Edited by Featherhat
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44 minutes ago, Featherhat said:

Glee did a lot of things that were seen as potentially controversial even at the time and in the early seasons often made a good story out of them with occasional moments of absolutely amazingly awesome that carried it though some questionable storylines. As long as you didn't look too hard. 

Yup. The Marley story wasn’t dated. It was as disgusting back then as it is now. There were discussions about what they made Will do and say on forums even back when the show was on.

Edited by Snow Apple
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I didn't realize this was even a debate! There have been many compilations of Will's "questionable" and "creepy" moments uploaded to YouTube within the past year. I remember him not being well-liked during the original airing, either.

I recently watched a nice video about Santana, and that YouTuber describes Glee's early strengths and later problems well (he explains that season one balanced the satirical elements with long, realistic arcs like Quinn's pregnancy and Kurt's coming out that had lasting effects on the characters, something later seasons failed to do). His is one of two good looks back at Glee that I've seen lately, the other being that long analysis from MicTheSnare

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6 hours ago, Hiyo said:

Yeah, but she didn't feel comfortable in the Gaga outfit, so she wore the less revealing Katy outfit, no? He should have articulated that point better, and maybe tried to help her out or suggest the other Glee members help her out by finding a Gaga costume she would have felt more comfortable in.

This isn't the only example of how Will sucked or was a hypocrite. Hell, Rachel sent another girl to a crack house on purpose, which was far worse, and wasn't suspended.

Yeah, Will was a horrible teacher overall.

If I remember correctly, she only had a problem with it after the whole Jake/Bree stuff happened and her not wanting to change for Jake/anybody because of Bree trying to seduce Jake away from her, but it would still never excuse Will's choices in that episode. Again, every single member has had a personal agenda and there have been plenty to break an assignment and Will never reprimands them. And yes, Marley probably did feel uncomfortable with the outfit regardless since...y'know, she had an eating disorder. Will just didn't seem to give a shit about the girls' body issues but jumped over hoops to accommodate the boys' body issues. 

This WAS the episode that decided to ruin Jake/Marley's relationship to begin with (no thanks to Melissa's ex husband, I bet) so it's why it's one of my least favourite episodes in general, despite the episode introducing Adam Lambert to the cast.

And it also had the yucky Penny/Sam kiss.

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On 7/16/2020 at 4:31 PM, Bill1978 said:

II've said it on other boards but Murphy shows work better on Netflix where he has to commit to an idea before it ever hits our screen so the story and generally the tone is consistent for a whole season. Even with all it's weirdness and downward quality I am grateful for all the musical performances it has provided me with.

 

Well I think so far RM's Netflix output has been mixed to put it kindly , The Politician Seasons 1 & 2 and Hollywood certainly don't seem to have generated all that much buzz nor critical accolades.

Glee certainly was different and  unique when it premiered, and certainly the first season had a  fascinating (if flawed) mix of black comedy, drama, satire and musical elements that's hard to compare to anything else.   Having a teacher plant pot in a student's locker to blackmail  him to join Glee club, or another student accuse the prior Glee teacher of inappropriate behavior (for comedy!) that was insanely subversive.     Just my spin, but I suspected the producers never expected Glee to survive beyond it's initial run,  much less become  the runaway hit it became , so Glee  had a crazy  "let's throw everything out there" spirit that somehow worked.    Alas it couldn't sustain that level of insanity.   

To paraphrase Casablanca:  " We'll always have that first season."

 

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On 8/5/2020 at 4:22 AM, caracas1914 said:

Well I think so far RM's Netflix output has been mixed to put it kindly , The Politician Seasons 1 & 2 and Hollywood certainly don't seem to have generated all that much buzz nor critical accolades.

ITA that the Netflix output hasn't been fantastic but at least, IMO, each season was tonally consistent and the episodes fed off each other. Shows like Glee, AHS and Scream Queen often showed signs that the scripts were written almost the week before the episode aired and reflected moments happening in real life or course adjusted due to criticism. Glee was especially guilty of this in trying to shoehorn the latest big song into a plot that it made no sense in. While the Netflix shows may not be brilliant, it is obvious that they have been mapped out from beginning to end without any crazy last minute adjustments because something became newsworthy.

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On 8/5/2020 at 1:18 PM, Bill1978 said:

ITA that the Netflix output hasn't been fantastic but at least, IMO, each season was tonally consistent and the episodes fed off each other. Shows like Glee, AHS and Scream Queen often showed signs that the scripts were written almost the week before the episode aired and reflected moments happening in real life or course adjusted due to criticism. Glee was especially guilty of this in trying to shoehorn the latest big song into a plot that it made no sense in. While the Netflix shows may not be brilliant, it is obvious that they have been mapped out from beginning to end without any crazy last minute adjustments because something became newsworthy.

"The people versus OJ " was probably the most  coherent of the RM productions, but then again it wasn't actually scripted by RM.  With Glee among the  maddening things  was the writers  included RM seemingly responding to fans criticism or feedback, almost like they had no actually vision of the show on their own.

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Jane Lynch's fond words about Naya Rivera.

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"I think that one of the things that kind of got lost when we were doing the show was what a force she was," Lynch began. "Because there were so many talented people, but she was one of those people, she wasn't in every scene, but when she was ... she just blew everybody away."

Lynch noted that while both she and Rivera's Santana Lopez would often find their characters doing "three-page monologues," it was an area in which Naya excelled.

"It took me a week to get mine. She would do them right off the bat," recalled Lynch. "They would be changing them and she had no problem with it."

 

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I was a Glee fan back in the days but lost track of it during S4 as my favorite character Santana just wasn't as present. The news of Naya's passing hit me hard. I felt a need to rewatch the old (good) seasons and it has taken me forever as I just break down after almost every episode. I honestly didn't know Santana meant this much to me until now. I'm on S4 now and I'm skipping the episodes she's not in tbh. I agree with what you write - the show really fails hard after S3 but I'll take whatever Santana scenes I can get right now. 

I've also seen the outpour of praise from her fellow cast mates (bar Lea's) and other ppl that knew her. I understand one don't put out negative stuff when someone has passed but she does seemed to have been liked by close to everyone around her. I'm so grateful she gave me Santana and my heart goes out to everyone that grieves her 💔

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Hi all - 

I just finished watching the series. Didn't want to come to the thread beforehand in case I got spoiled. The funny thing is when the show was originally on, I was SO against it. I don't know why - I think Community making fun of it and the place I was at in my life (college) made me think less of the show. I decided to start binging it because I needed a show to watch on the treadmill, and figured a show with songs would work well for that. I was right! It truly was the perfect treadmill show - that mix of funny, silly, and always easier to run to songs.

I think seasons 1-3 were great. I did feel the show started to go off the rails when Rachel went to NYC, and they were focusing mostly on that. To be honest, I just didn't care. What was so great about Glee for me was the dark humor in the high school setting and how they made fun of themselves. My husband and I are simultaneously watching Dawson's Creek and boy, the tone is so different. Those teens are so morose, they have no joy in life, and the show does not depict high school well or accurately all. I just loved the high school feeling of Glee. While I do think there's lines that wouldn't cut it nowadays, I think the show understood that at the time, and some of those "non-PC" moments...well they knew what they were doing and almost making fun of themselves. When I was watching the show, I was never really taking it all that seriously. During S3, I think - when all of them are graduating, and there's that song they dance to on stage all together in that "senior year feeling" - I just loved that moment. I can't remember what song it was now. And I just remember being sad at the same time being nostalgic about my own senior year experience and then thinking about all the kids during COVID who won't be able to experience that.

Clearly I am watching this years after the fact, so I don't get or know about any of the drama. I do think Cory Monteith, both on and off the show, seemed to be the heart of the show. Once he passed away, it couldn't be the same. I didn't really mind S6 but that was mostly because they were back in high school again. I do think that the S6 "new kids" were overall better and more interesting than the Marley/Jake/Ryder ones. Jake grew on me as time went on. Ryder was just there. Kitty was evil at the beginning, but I think she ended up being very entertaining by the end, and I guess that's why they brought her back for Season 6. I have to admit I wasn't really a fan of Marley - felt she was a Mary Sue and honestly just boring (and come on, her song-writing sucked). However, I didn't know all of that stuff about the domestic violence and Blake Jenner and wow, ok - that certainly would have colored my viewing of those episodes.

I sort of wish they had never done the NYC storylines because I do feel like that's where it went downhill. Oh well. Still watchable I guess.

It was weird watching the series finale...boy, they made the wrong choice in skipping ahead to Fall 2020. LOL Yikes. And with Sue's flash-forward, Jeb Bush being re-elected to his second term. I mean - if only!

On a shallow note, Sam/Chord with the long hair was IT for me. When he went to the hairdresser to chop it off in that NYC episode, I was like noooooooooo. His hotness went down at least 40% for me with that haircut. LOL On a similar note, that performance of "Applause" is one of the most crack-tastic moments of the show. Honestly it cracked me up with their outfits.

Anyway, now I've finished Glee and I am very sad. 

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On 10/30/2020 at 5:56 AM, princesspeach said:

I do think that the S6 "new kids" were overall better and more interesting than the Marley/Jake/Ryder ones. Jake grew on me as time went on. Ryder was just there. Kitty was evil at the beginning, but I think she ended up being very entertaining by the end, and I guess that's why they brought her back for Season 6. I have to admit I wasn't really a fan of Marley - felt she was a Mary Sue and honestly just boring (and come on, her song-writing sucked). However, I didn't know all of that stuff about the domestic violence and Blake Jenner and wow, ok - that certainly would have colored my viewing of those episodes.

I sort of wish they had never done the NYC storylines because I do feel like that's where it went downhill. Oh well. Still watchable I guess.

I honestly believe that the split time of S4 and S5 meant that we could never really latch onto the Newbies. Just as a plot point with them got going we jumped to NY and all momemtum was lost. And throw in the fact that most of the 'last song' of every episode was jumping back and forth between the two meant we were constantly being reminded of what we had but no longer have. S6 didn't do that, so the new newbies could develop more and we could connect better with them. Even if I think S6 is a hot mess, the newbies were pretty good.

Glee is one of those shows that I regularly think 'What If/If Only' the producers approached it differently. I think if they had mapped out the series from start to finish they would have had better luck with the new characters. I feel the newbies should have been slowly introduced while the OG were still all there, like how Sam and Blaine were introduced. I would have also split up each school year into 2 TV years. That way its 3 years on the show but it spreads over 6 real years. And it concludes with them winning nationals with all the kids we know and the OG graduating. But that's all hindsight and I'm sure there are flaws in my thinking. But I feel the Newbies get blamed for a decrease in quality when in fact I feel its the poor writing and decision to remove the OG from high school but still focus on them in NY. The show was always gonna be about high school and should have stayed in high school. 

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We were expecting an NYC spinoff for season 4, with kids gradually graduating and either disappering or moving on to the NYC show. If they were smart and staggered the HS kids more, TPTB could have brought in small numbers of new kids, integrated them and by the time they had to anchor Glee, they'd be familiar. Rince and repeat. 

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My problem with New York S4 was that it stopped the flow of what was happening in Lima and reminded us of who we had S1-3. I guess part of my problem was I was tuning in to watch a 'high school show' and even though it is ridiculous, I prefer when the kids of a high school show graduate, the whole cast graduates and they all miraculously end up at the same place except for those who want to leave the show. NY was also an issue for me because those who were featured I just didn't care that much about wanting to know what was happening in their life.

And I hated when Lima and NY shared a song.

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On 11/18/2020 at 1:07 PM, Bill1978 said:

My problem with New York S4 was that it stopped the flow of what was happening in Lima and reminded us of who we had S1-3. I guess part of my problem was I was tuning in to watch a 'high school show' and even though it is ridiculous, I prefer when the kids of a high school show graduate, the whole cast graduates and they all miraculously end up at the same place except for those who want to leave the show. NY was also an issue for me because those who were featured I just didn't care that much about wanting to know what was happening in their life.

And I hated when Lima and NY shared a song.

Or Lima stopped the flow of what was happening in NY.  : )

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53 minutes ago, marymon said:

Or Lima stopped the flow of what was happening in NY.  : )

I never felt NY had any flow from the beginning. It was stagnant the moment they got there and the final episodes in S5 really highlighted that for me. Maybe if they didn't have to have songs NY may have worked but it felt forced them singing all the time in NY, even at a performing school.

On 11/20/2020 at 9:56 PM, Bill1978 said:

I never felt NY had any flow from the beginning. It was stagnant the moment they got there and the final episodes in S5 really highlighted that for me. Maybe if they didn't have to have songs NY may have worked but it felt forced them singing all the time in NY, even at a performing school.

But the new kids were soooo boring, and they forced them having a "look at us bonding " song at the end of so many episodes.  At least NY had characters I was already invested in but NY could have used more build up with some tertiary characters.  A;so forced in season 4/5 was when the old ND kids kept coming back to mentor. 

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On 11/18/2020 at 2:07 PM, Bill1978 said:

I guess part of my problem was I was tuning in to watch a 'high school show' and even though it is ridiculous, I prefer when the kids of a high school show graduate, the whole cast graduates and they all miraculously end up at the same place except for those who want to leave the show.

I will never not be sad that the show didn’t take the 90210 route and either send them all to NYC post high school OR do a 4 year time jump after S3 and have them all end up in NYC after college/other post-HS life. To me, the ensemble of the OG kids + Sam & Blaine and the chemistry the cast had together was the best part of the show

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Not sure if anyone still looks at this sub. I just started another rewatch this week and it’ll be interesting to see how I view the show now that I’m in my mid 30s. (I was in my mid to late 20s during the original airing.) I got up through 1x4 and started 1x5, and I’m already annoyed that the kids quit and come back so much instead of being told to stay or leave. 

I also don’t get why Will specifically named Quinn as the pregnant student. I understand teachers talk outside of work, but there was no need for him to reveal the name of a high school student carrying such personal information.

And how is Will applying for an accounting job when (I presume) he has no work experience in accounting? 

Kendra’s kids are a fantastic reminder of how good a form of birth control my favorite shows have been over the years. 

I’m already not sure I’ll see the show the same way now that I’m older and have more life experience and also that Cory, Naya and Mark aren’t here anymore.  

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On 7/7/2021 at 11:55 AM, Cloud9Shopper said:

Not sure if anyone still looks at this sub. I just started another rewatch this week and it’ll be interesting to see how I view the show now that I’m in my mid 30s. (I was in my mid to late 20s during the original airing.) I got up through 1x4 and started 1x5, and I’m already annoyed that the kids quit and come back so much instead of being told to stay or leave. 

I also don’t get why Will specifically named Quinn as the pregnant student. I understand teachers talk outside of work, but there was no need for him to reveal the name of a high school student carrying such personal information.

And how is Will applying for an accounting job when (I presume) he has no work experience in accounting? 

Kendra’s kids are a fantastic reminder of how good a form of birth control my favorite shows have been over the years. 

I’m already not sure I’ll see the show the same way now that I’m older and have more life experience and also that Cory, Naya and Mark aren’t here anymore.  

Yeah. Will wasn’t the best teacher (understatement of the year). I am in my mid 30s too, and was in my early-mid 20s during the initial airing. I still love all the songs (and listen to them often, I own a bunch- the Christmas Albums are my fav), but I haven’t been tempted to rewatch. 
 

I was enjoying the podcast with Kevin & Jenna but I understand why they ended it. 

Still working my way through S1, and it made me sad (but kind of WTF) that Mercedes stayed on the Cheerios for another episode or two after Sue’s ragging her about her weight loss caused her to faint. Mercedes seems smarter than that; why would she not see that as a red flag and quit immediately? I guess it was her desperation to fit in and be popular but that’s what felt sad to me. She is being bullied by her coach but stays anyway so she can feel liked. I was glad when she finally quit, though.

I always love Matthew Morrison’s acting when Will finds out Terri is faking the pregnancy. I was happy he ends up with Emma even with her own problems. 

I thought it was funny when we see a drawing of a Grammy on the wall of Rachel’s room when it’s later said she wants to be on Broadway. Wouldn’t it be a drawing of a Tony then? Interesting. 

On 7/28/2021 at 10:23 AM, Lovecat said:

Amber has booked a Christmas movie, to air on BET:

Christmas Déjà Vu

A woman with a downtrodden life who hates Christmas longs for the life she could have had as a singer. She meets an angel who grants her wish.

Starring: Amber Riley, Loretta Devine, Blue Kimble

Written and Directed by: Christel Gibson

Oh this should be good! I am adding it to my Christmas time list.

Heartbreaking news about Darren. His brother committed suicide. He wrote a pretty lengthy post about it on IG.  You didn't even have to be a big Darren fan to know how close he and his brother were. This has to be gut wrenching for him.

Suicide is always so hard for those left behind. Because no matter how much logic will say, "it wasn't your fault", you know the loved ones always wonder what more they could have done. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CanA3DPul7T/

Amazing to think Glee was such a cultural phenomenon during that first season (primarily based on that pilot performance of Don't Stop Believing). Remember that concert they did?

I enjoyed the first three seasons for the flawed messes they were, but after they won Nationals I didn't really bother to watch the rest of it because there didn't seem to be any point.

I hope someday there's a proper behind the scenes look on that show. The fact that Ryan Murphy basically seems to be working with established actors and actresses after his glee days is very interesting to me.

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On 3/2/2022 at 6:10 PM, truthaboutluv said:

Heartbreaking news about Darren. His brother committed suicide. He wrote a pretty lengthy post about it on IG.  You didn't even have to be a big Darren fan to know how close he and his brother were. This has to be gut wrenching for him.

Suicide is always so hard for those left behind. Because no matter how much logic will say, "it wasn't your fault", you know the loved ones always wonder what more they could have done. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CanA3DPul7T/

I am so sorry to hear Darren’s brother died by suicide. My heart goes out to his family in their grief. How tragic. 
 

The YouTube algorithm sent me this video “The Case of Mark Salling”. I have not finished it yet, and I was a bit conflicted about watching, but so far it’s not exploitive or rubber necking or anything like that, I thought you guys might be interested. 

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I wanted to come back and say I finished the Youtube video on Mark, perhaps given all the discussions we are having in the Duggar forum the algorithm suggested it to me. The video was well done, and I do want to say thank you to the unidentified girlfriend who took what she knew to the police. That took guts. I am glad her name is still private. I also noticed that according to the video Naya wasn't surprised by the charges.

Knowing what we know about Mark, certain scenes just are not as fun to watch any more. I do still love the music though, but no need to rewatch the series.

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The show was very "of it's time" which already makes rewatching a little hard. Lots of references and jokes (and even songs) were tied to the current pop culture moment so it became dated very quickly. It also aired right in that small sliver of time when shows included a diverse cast of characters but still in the tail end of the "the Diversity is here to be the joke" era. There are some comments made that are played for laughs but make you cringe hard now, just 10 years later. Add on all the grossness around Mark Salling, the untimely deaths of Cory Monteith and Naya Rivera, a lot of the gossip around how Lea Michele was on set.... Oof. 

Weird to think how huge of a show this was (Singing at the White House! The post-Super Bowl slot! Sold out stadium tours!) when you consider how quickly it kind of crashed and burned.

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Doing a rewatch and it is so eerie watching s3 e10.  Finn the character, finds out his dad died of an overdose. Knowing that Corry will suffer the same fate in real life, hits hard. 

I know the show is getting ready to be a dumpster fire.  I didn't like the last few seasons the first time I watched it.  So I expect I'll be skipping through the parts I don't want to watch again.

I do blame the writing on several issues.  I do wish they hadn't gone with making it the Rachel show.  If they had expanded the time frame in the first few years, they could have easily kept the main characters for a longer period. 

Hindsight is easy to so many issues.  For me the songs are the parts that are still worth watching.The mashups are still fresh and hold up even though most of everything else doesn't. 

Finn's character really becomes a missing ingredient and the show never/could recover from it.

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