DJariya

Synopsis:

The members of New Directions tackle their musical indulgences - the songs and groups that everyone is too embarrassed to admit that they love - in the all-new "Guilty Pleasures" episode of GLEE airing Thursday, March 21 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (GLE-417) (TV-14 D, L)



Episode 17 of 22

wahlers

Last night's episode wasn't bad, but I definitely felt the message was flawed and I had a few issues with it.

1. They show the girls bullying Jake into being ashamed of liking Chris Brown's music, emphasizing that you should not separate the person from their art. This is a message coming from the same entertainment industry that continued to nominate and award Oscars to Roman Polanski who, until just recently, was still free and hiding in Europe from his child rape crime.

2. They also showed the girls criticizing Rihanna for getting back together with Chris Brown, correctly placing some of the blame on her for victimizing herself. But later they criticized Jake again for performing a Bobby Brown song because "he got Whitney hooked on cocaine". What, did he hold her down and shove the cocaine up her nose? Some of the blame was her own, and she could have got out of the situation any time she decided to. She also could have helped herself during any of the number of rehab visits she went through. Mixed message?

3. Also, why was it that everybody revealing their guilty pleasure was met with cheers of "Hey, we all love that too"? How about having someone like something that the others didn't know? This could have had the e ven more positive message of showing some of the other students liking it and becoming fans, thus broadening their horizons and encouraging people to try something new.

It was a nice attempt, but ultimately a fail in my book. It did nothing to really add any character development or move the story forward. In the end we spent an hour to just have Sam tell Blaine that he knows he's got a crush on him (and it's okay) and for Rachel to officially become single again.

DRG

Not to mention they've done several Ike Turner songs, including one this season I believe. Granted, they're doing it for the Tina Turner part, but those songs are credited to 'Ike & Tina Turner'. Also in season one they did 'No Air', his duet with Jordin Sparks. This was just 6-7 months after the incident happened.

Although I sort of get where they're coming from. I just read something about Chris Brown and J Lo doing a song together. In the comments section of the page the responses were mostly cheering it on, with a few even saying Chris seems like a real nice guy in real life (! - even without the Rihanna incident he seems like an asshole in every way). Except one person who simply said "Love J Lo, but don't like Chris Brown". Nothing like "I won't support that woman beater" or anything like that. Just that they didn't like him. The next few follow-ups went after this poster with snarky comments along the lines of "It's 2013, stop hanging on to ancient history, get over it."

boogieman03

I think you mixed up Jake and Ryder.

wahlers

Oops. You're right. Fixed.

EdTheRipper

I really enjoyed all of the performances from this week's episode. I'm a sucker for Wham, Manilow and Phil Collins, haha.

Pizza

Yes! Loved all the songs. Wish they did a special CD of the music from just this episode.

EdTheRipper

I'd love an EP of all the songs from this. They haven't released anything in a while. It doesn't look like there is anything lined up at the moment, so I guess they're waiting until the end of the season.

mwbmis

My problem with the Manilow is them doing Copacabana. That's such a cliche karoake Manilow song. If Sam is such a big "Fanilow" wouldn't he want to do something else just to show that there is more to Barry Manilow than Copacabana.

rfduncan

That may be the only song he'd LET them use. You never know.

Pizza

It had a self contained story they could utilize in the dance number by giving kids roles to portray. It gave them cheesy props to play with and it's a naturally stagy number. Perfect choice for Glee.