Glee finale disappoints: It's time for better writers

Glee, the last episode of this season, arrived with a thud. Is it time for Glee directors to put a little less attention on the music, and a little more on the script?

Jane Lynch & Ian Brennan at the Ceremony for Jane Lynch after being Immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds - Hollywood.

ZUMA Press/Newscom

May 25, 2011

On last night’s season finale of GLEE, the gang from New Directions took Manhattan. Unfortunately, they left logic and reason back in Lima Ohio.

Note to writers Ian Brennan (pictured above), Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy : When it comes to your hit Fox show, we’re willing to forgive an awful lot. So if we’re expected to believe that New Directions — which has spent the better part of two seasons trying to make Nationals would leave it until the VERY LAST MINUTE to write, not to mention choreograph and costume an original song — so be it! If you want us to buy into Mercedes and Sam as a couple — who at last count have shared, what… two scenes together — fine! That said, we have to draw the line somewhere and what we are completely and unwilling to look past is last night’s absurd opening scene that had Rachel Berry — who we’re fairly confident could hit a high note before she could take her first step — buy 13 tickets to Broadway’s Cats, a show that even Quinn knew closed 11 years ago! Suffice it to say, it’s precisely that type of lazy and mindless writing that has us wondering if penning 22 episodes of GLEE per season has simply become too much of a burden for three people to bare.

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Look, we get it. As anyone who follows Kevin Williamson’s Twitter feed can attest, writing a season’s worth of television is a soul-crushing, time-consuming and sleep-preventing exercise. So much so that we’re not even going to pretend to imagine the amount of time demanded by a show that doesn’t just involve incredibly complex production numbers, but a seemingly never-ending parade of memorable one-lines as well.

What we will do is ask the slightly awkward albeit painfully obvious question: Has the time come for GLEE to hire an actual writing staff? Are writers Ian Brennan, Brad Flachuk and Ryan Murphy too busy approving those special edition gold-plated GLEE lunchbox to take the time necessary to dream up coherent plots and believable characters? If last night’s lacklustre season finale, coupled with an equally uneven sophomore season has illustrated anything, the answer is a resounding yes.

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