Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby - Glee Spoilers

What is it with teen shows and the need for the sex ed episode? More importantly, aren't these characters a little old for it too? Perhaps but it did make for an interesting episode of Glee, cheekily titled, Sexy.

Santana Lopez, what can I say? You're a humongous bitch. Your treatment towards other people is terrible, your ability to burst into tears over the least thing is erratic at best and your attempts of going all ghetto when you're clearly a privileged kid make you look silly. On the plus side, you are also the best character on this fecking show and are increasingly becoming a rather multi-layered one too. Hats off to Naya Rivera in this episode as Santana finally admitted to Brittany that she loved her, only for Brittany to refuse to dump Artie for her. Santana's comments about Artie being a "stupid boy" might have been selfish but let's face it - a) she's said way worse, b) she's not entirely wrong about Artie, much as I do like him and c) it's been nearly five months since they hooked up and I still don't buy into Brittany and Artie as a couple. They lack spark, the same kind of spark that Brittany and Santana have in spades. This episode might not have brought Brittana together in the way fans would've liked but it definitely made the right steps, though it should've been them singing Landslide together rather than Holly. And Sam's obliviousness to the extent of Brittana's closeness cannot end well for him either.

With the bisexual segment of the episode dealt with wonderfully, the gay segment is also a winner. Unlike some fans, I can actually wait a while longer for Kurt and Blaine to come together because the groundwork is being set up nicely here as it has been in the last few episodes and it's nice just to be getting to know Blaine for himself as well as a prospective love interest for Kurt. Kurt's viewpoints on sex were pretty damn believable and I liked that Blaine had gotten Burt to have the dreaded birds and the bees speech with Kurt, if only for the fact that I empathised with Kurt for having to have that conversation with his father. Much as I can see the pros of parents having that conversation with their kids (and it was definitely an awkward one for both Burt and Kurt), I think I'm actually glad I never had that conversation with my own dad. As for that duet with Kurt/Blaine - Animal, um, more please? Because again, let's face it, they are literally the Warblers at this point. Through Blaine and Holly, this episode also made some pointed comments about the need for sex education from both parents and a school system in relation to kids without being overly preachy about it as well.

However one of several things I did find worrying in this episode was the naivety of the kids when it came to sex. It was definitely stretching credibility with Brittany believing that babies came from storks (and briefly believing she was pregnant when she wasn't), given that she more or less witnessed Quinn giving birth last season and why the hell would Mercedes think cucumbers would give her AIDS? I expect that sort of stuff from Finn but not Mercedes and why did Puck and Lauren think that a sex tape would do them any favours? It's moments like this where I can understand why the series gets criticised for it's consistency problems. Neither Rachel nor Emma were as rigid about sexuality last season as they seemed to be now in their celibacy club but the main thing here - Emma's still a virgin?

I might not have liked Holly's method of getting Emma to admit to Carl that she did have feelings for Will but at this point in time, Emma really does need to sort her issues about sexuality and sex out. I'm not condemning her for being a virgin and I certainly don't think there's anything wrong with asexuality either but if the message of the episode was that Emma is saving herself for Will, then that's kind of depressing. Especially considering that Holly made a move on him after spending most of the episode giving him the brush off. As for Holly, I liked her in this episode (but that version of Do You Wanna Touch? was so inappropriate) and while she wasn't always the most constructive in her advice or had one song too many, she was a bundle of fun and this episode sure as hell benefited from that. With seven episodes left to go and two relationships that are in need of taking to the next levels, can Glee actually deliver? Here's bloody hoping.

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