Glee - "Pot O' Gold"

Season 3, Episode 4

Can Glee realistically handle a political subplot? Actually, let’s back that line of thinking up just a bit? Can Glee handle any storyline that’s supposed to reflect the current situations of its real world? Now, television as whole requires a healthy suspension of belief, as all shows work in their own little worlds that function differently than real life, to varying degrees. (Well, expect The Wire, but that’s just the exception that proves the rule.) Glee has embraced this element to the extreme, and while it can stretch the limits of believability, it tends to work as long as it stays within its magical la-la land where emotions swing like clock pendulum and there’s always a backup band to score your random musical number.  The problem then comes when the show shatters this illusionary world by bringing in real-life problems, and it’s a problem that “Pot O’ Gold” highlights in a big way.

Let’s return to that political subplot that I mentioned above. Now, we’ve already established that the real reason behind this plot is so that Ryan Murphy can position his show as some sort of safe guard against the imagined threat against the arts. It’s a move that reeks of hubris on the show’s part, and has grown old fairly quickly, but if you can dismiss it as such, it’s fairly innocuous in comparison to the show’s larger problems.

Yet tonight we saw the political storyline embrace what had originally been just the sole impetus for the storyline – Sue running on the platform of cutting the funding to the arts. As a way to kick off the story, it works; but as a continuing plot point, it quickly loses its steam. The problem is that while the line about arts stealing funding works as a (not all that funny) joke, as an actual plot points it sort of falls apart. In Glee’s little fairy tale land, outrageous things can happened with very little consequence, but in the real world political campaigns – and Sue’s is meant to be referencing those of the real world – wouldn’t make it that far on such a grossly trivial issue. I get that her run is meant to be satirical, but satire is best done through subtlety, and this ain’t it.

Or to put it another way: Burt, who’s always been a normal character, not just for this show, but for the standards of television, is running a far-more believable campaign wherein in he tries to defend the arts. Yes, it’s yet another extension of the show’s unnecessary defense of the arts, and it has gone on for too long, but at least Burt’s stance comes from the believable place of love for his son, as contrasted to Sue’s irrational hatred for the glee club. Sure, maybe Burt’s down-home-aw-shucks attitude for his campaign probably isn’t flashy enough to win a real election, but at least it’s not alienating the way Sue’s is, and it’s something I could see somebody in real world trying, even if it wasn’t the best idea.

(And while we’re on the subject: Not only does Special Education get federal funding in every school already – seriously, there are laws and everything – but using your dead sister to win a cheap, petulant campaign, it’s “honoring her memory.” It’s just tastelessly crass.)

It helps to contrast with another major plot that started tonight’s episode, that of the glee club’s supposed money issues. While this could have been a strategic place for the show to talk about the tough economy – and did indeed seem to be heading there, given that the students were supposed to ask businesses to buy ad space – it was really just a set up for Burt’s new arc, and ended when he raised money from the rotary club/local crematoriums. Sure it’s a contrived and overly easy and robs the show of what could have been a nice plot, but it also follows the show’s insular world logic, and it felt more at ease in the show’s universe that Sue’s plot does, by the magical fact that it actually avoids real world problems, even if the alternative is to just pull a miracle out of your ass.

Oh look, a segue, right into another problematic issue, the introduction of Rory, played by The Glee Project winner Damian McGinty. (Yes, he’s really Irish, and yes he’ll be sticking around for a while – 6 more episodes to be exact.) Now, I’m admittedly going to stretch this theme a little far here, but having McGinty forced into the cast is a more literal example of the problem as it’s an instance of the actual real world being forced to confront the fake world of Glee. (Yes, this is a metatextual concern, but stick with me.)

Because McGinty won some BS reality show whose only real point was to expand the Glee brand so that more money could be made and that being why he’s on this show is bad enough. But what makes it truly deplorable is that they had to give him such a shitty story line, and one that drags down other characters as well. It’s not just that Brittany had to achieve really high levels of stupid to believe that Rory was a leprechaun (which has been an ongoing problem) or that she had an about face in the last few minutes where she suddenly wasn’t all that stupid (although that was jarring). No, what really bothered me was the he was such an obvious plot device for the rest of the episode, as if the writers are just spiteful about having to include another character at McKinley High. And Irish accent and a crush on a hot girl doesn’t make for complete characterization, and that’s underscored even more when it’s clear that these things are only put into play so that Rory can be a person to facilitate Brittany’s (and I guess Santana’s) defection to the Troubletones (really?).

(And don’t even get me started on his ridiculous musical number, which apparently also had to happen tonight, and it was a really obvious to boot. If I may channel my inner Chandler Bing: Could it be anymore on the nose?)

Now, this all could turn around now that Rory is part of New Directions, but something tells me that he’s had his story, and now the show’s just going to have him ride out the rest of his contract in the background. (I assume. I haven’t actually seen the contract, nor did I watch The Glee Project, so I have no idea what the specifics McGinty’s victory entails for him.) At least, I hope that’s the case, because one forced storyline was bad enough, I would hate to have to see more, and there’s another winner coming up the works, plus a runner up who has one more appearance, plus the other runner up has two episodes at some point. (That show has destroyed this one is what I’m saying.)

There was one other major subplot tonight, which unfortunately interacted with Rory’s (and I like dovetailing plots), but which I liked more than the others for the simple fact that it specifically dealt only with the internal actions of Glee-world and didn’t remind us of how all of this would seem stupid in the real world. (Nothing shatters a manufactured reality like calling attention to it.) Yes, this plot falls apart by having everyone being mean to each other except when the music suddenly takes them over and then they’re all happy again. And yes, making the Troubletones (man, I cannot get over how stupid that name is) an all female group reeks of false feminism that will probably once again highlight the show’s misogyny, though it’s not like they need any help with that.

But here’s the thing: I’ve long held unto the belief that Glee is actually about the sadness inside all of us, the sadness that we try to hide away with song, and even if the show looses that train of thought more often than not it’s big, happy go lucky world, it’s one that always makes me excited whenever it pops up. It’s also an idea that’s going to require darkness from time to time, like the show did so well in “Asian F”, and I think group infighting, as angsty as it is, could be another good outlet for that idea. And though the show the show probably isn’t going to treat it in a logical fashion (by the show’s logic, that is), I’ve got to hold on to what I can, because there wasn’t much that I found pleasing in this episode.

Next Week: Sex! Sex everywhere!

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Right, that whole Quinn and Puck and Their Baby and Shelby plotline: There was a lot of stupid things going on, and it ended in a weird direction (are they really trying to ship Puck and Shelby?), and while there are a lot of problems that I could criticize, I’m wiped from this episode. (Plus, it doesn't fit the rest of the theme I'm spinning here.) I'll deal with the necessary problem whenever they pop up again, which given the show’s recent interest in continuity very well may be next week.

Calling someone an idiot may be mean, but it’s not bullying, at least not in the context that Finn said it. Finn was right to apologize, but the show didn’t need to turn that into another obtuse lesson about how bullying’s wrong, mmmkay. We got enough of that last season.

This was the first episode not written by one of the creators. Discuss.

Two episodes, two vaguely racist titles. You have a problem, show.

I liked that the protestor’s sign just said “ANGRY”.  It was stupid, but enjoyably so.

 “Wait, other people can see you? But only because you let them see you?”

“Next: The opera, and brunch, and Tom Bergeron.”

“Somebody’s got to look out for Brittany. That special place where she’s lives? Yeah, it’s beautiful, but somebody has to help her cross the street.”

“Yeah, she’s like Rain Man with boobs.”

“Baby sacrifice makes me sad….”

“Well, mine is a crematorium, so we also bake and deliver delicious pizzas.”