Three years ago I was visiting
one of my friends and found myself at a party when the Time Warp started
playing. Many of the party-goers seemed
to know all of the moves to the dance, but me and another friend were
completely perplexed about what was happening.
As it turned out, we were at a marching band party, and the Time Warp is
one of the songs the band plays regularly, but as a 20 year old movie fan, I
had no clue what it was.
The problematic thing about Glee doing a Rocky Horror Picture Show episode is that Rocky Horror isn’t really
as ubiquitously known as the movie's fans seem to think. While episodes devoted to Madonna and Britney
Spears make sense because those are two of the biggest stars of their
generations, the majority of Glee’s target
demographic probably hasn’t seen Rocky Horror, let alone know the movie/musical
well enough to appreciate an entire episode of the show that is paying tribute
to it.
Personally, I was barely aware of
Rocky Horror Picture Show before I
read The Perks of Being a Wallflower
a couple summers ago (a book that includes a subplot about going to midnight
showings of RHPS). Intrigued by the
midnight showings with high levels of audience participation, I went to one
that summer. It was bizarre, involved a
lot of high school-aged kids running around in their underwear (and some older
guys that were creepily there as well), and featured a plot that barely made
any sense (which Sue Sylvester points out in the episode. I was completely immersed in something that I
did not understand at all.
I suppose that this is the basis
of a Rocky Horror experience, and if this is what the Glee writers were trying to achieve, then I suppose they
succeeded. I believe that they failed
miserably because the whole episode seemingly assumed that their viewers not
only have a basic understanding of Rocky Horror, but have a great appreciation
for the movie/musical.
The Glee writers/producers seem to think that fans of the show (the Gleeks, I suppose) are this small group
of outcasts similar to people that love Rocky Horror and regularly attend
midnight screenings. While I’m certain
that every Rocky Horror fan has probably been watching Glee from the start, the audience of the show is SO
MUCH LARGER. This is a top 20 show
on the TV!! Behind Modern Family it is the second highest rated show (not including
football) for the 18-49 demographic. To
make an episode that assumes the viewers are intimately familiar with a cult
movie is almost insulting to the broad audience of the show.
I understand that the cast and
crew probably had a great job filming this episode, but in the grand scheme of
things it turns people off from the show.
I’m sure millions of fans like myself begrudgingly watched and then
found themselves barely paying attention by the end (or flipping over to
Celtics-Heat). In the grand scheme of
things, episodes like the Britney Spears episode earlier this year (or even
using Empire State of Mind in the
premiere) help to bring more people to the show, but having an episode that can
really only be fully enjoyed by an incredibly small percentage of fans that
happen to be a part of the Rocky Horror cult just doesn’t seem like a great
idea to me and was a disservice to the show.
Quick Thoughts:
-As a whole, the episode did a
pretty good job of limiting the number of storylines, and keeping characters
unrelated to these storylines (Kurt, Mercedes, Tina, Artie, Mike, Quinn,
Santana, and Brittany) in the background of the episode. Unlike some people, I like that the show is
starting to do this to keep their episodes clearer and better organized.
-Will deciding to put on the
musical to impress Emma was a satisfactory storyline, but I have mixed feelings
about how they are dealing with their relationship. Emma essentially giving Will a lap dance in
the middle of the episode was ridiculous (even if it was parodying RHPS), and
the final scene between the two where they talked about how they loved each
other but needed to stay apart was completely unrealistic. I understand how they want to keep these two
characters apart for pacing reasons, but maybe it is time for Will to get a
girlfriend so that he isn’t coming across as a complete asshole.
-I loved the John Stamos
appearance.
-Finn and Sam being ashamed of their
bodies is absurd. These two are supposed
to be football players and the “cool” kids, I think they’d be ok with walking
around with their shirts off.
-Did the Barry Botswick and Meat
Loaf cameo serve any purpose other than to reference Rocky Horror? I don’t think so.
-I suppose it was nice how at the
end of the episode Schuester acknowledges that Rocky Horror night showings are
for the people that are outcasts (like they continue to describe the Glee club
as), but this also highlighted how mainstream audiences wouldn’t really
appreciate the episode.
Songs:
All the songs in this episode
were pretty much satisfactory, considering that I’m not really familiar with
any of them. Because they were pretty
much covering songs from a musical, they didn’t do much in the way of
reimagining the music, but it was well done for what they were doing.
Read my review of episodes 3 and
4 Here
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