This show used to be universally loved by people of all ages and genders. Now liking it is considered pathetic unless you're a teenage girl. I haven't heard the term "Gleek" in ages. But that's entirely the show's fault. Seasons 1-3 were smart, funny and touching. Seasons 4-6 were just a terrible and cliched high school comedy musical like High School Musical.
shareI never quite got the simultaneous love for s3 and hatred for s4... s4 may have gotten off to a rocky start, but for me it had quite a few more moments that I really loved than season 3. Season three hit an AMAZING high with the episodes right around Nationals, but a lot of the lead up the that was on the weaker side to me. Not that I ever DISliked it, but... I dunno, season 4 was super enjoyable from Dynamic Duets onward I thought, whereas I felt season 3 was more so-so up until the last few episodes
I feel like some people may have just been SO attached to the original characters that they were always going to say the show went downhill when new characters were introduced.
I totally agree that the introduction of the newbies in s4 was weak for a bit (they handled bringing in newbies much better in s6, which is unfortunate because I really wanted more time to get to know those awesome newbies!), but after those first 6 episodes or so the writers stopped trying to have the characters be carbon copies of the originals, and the new ND actually ended up developing a wonderful dynamic as a group that felt much more genuinely like FRIENDS than the original ND did :)
Basically, I always felt like with the original ND, they were people who wouldn't have been friends but developed a specific bond from their love of performing. That's not a bad thing (in fact I think it's what made the story work so well to begin with), nor does it negate the relationships that grew from that bond, but it did mean that there was usually some big drama going on with people fighting/mad at each other because, outside of performing, the personalities could clash quite easily.
With the s4-5 ND, it felt like they all would have ended up becoming friends anyway just because they liked each other (even Kitty came across like a girl who THOUGHT she had to be the 'mean girl' and so tried to play the part at first, but really felt a lot more comfortable just having friends... it didn't take anything near her having to get pregnant for her to come around). And after all the drama of the original ND, it was really nice and refreshing to have a group where a lot of the drama was more external, and for the most part they genuinely seemed to have a great time together.
Oh Bambi, I cried so hard when those hunters shot your mommy. - Kurt Hummel
Show should have ended after Cory died and they did the Quarterback episode. Since they had a few episodes to prepare before airing that episode, I would have liked for them to add Rachel talking to him on the phone occasionally (one sided of course). Then instead of the whole speech of how Finn knew how she felt, it implied they spoke, but not how often. Then maybe instead of all the drama they could have done the ff to Finale episode.
shareseason 6 was good
shareThis show set itself up to fail. It established a few characters who are essentially bad people, but with a few good traits (Rachel, Will, Kurt, Finn), and gave us little to nothing on the others. Then it forced itself to walk a tightrope, trying to balance what vocal fans wanted with trying to keep its few characters from became too unbearable. It tipped more toward the former, which is why all the characters became unbearable. And we still only got a little on most of them.
People who still loved it after season 1, I feel were being generous, and only enjoying parts of it.