The Glee finale has come and gone, so it’s time to reflect on the best and worst parts of the series.

After six years of Glee, there’s bound to be a mix of high and low points. There were times we wanted to turn off the television, and other times when we couldn’t get enough. It was a love-hate relationship between viewers and the show, and oftentimes what we loved was simultaneously what we hated. Let’s start with the bad and end on the good.

What We Won’t Miss

1) The Characters

Most of the characters were diamonds, but there were definitely a few roughs stones, too. Can someone explain what the point of Sugar was? Aside from being irritating? Oh right, she was rich and her dad bought her into a glee club.

Jacob was no shining star either. It’s true he was supposed to be creepy, but it was too much for TV and too uncomfortable to watch.

Will Schuester might take the cake though, for reasons explained in full below.

2) The Performances

Glee did an unnecessary amount of performances each episode, so it’s no surprise many of them turned out poorly. There also seemed to be common themes amongst the bad ones. Many featured Tina whose performances unfortunately became punchlines or jokes, despite Jenna Ushkowtiz having a terrific voice. After the beautiful “True Colors” first season, it mostly went downhill from there (“Gangnam Style” anyone?). In addition, Will Schuester’s performances were quite cringe-worthy. The rapping was never cool and his sexual performance in “Toxic” with his students was wholly inappropriate.

Of course there were plenty of others that we wish we could forget that didn’t feature Tina or Will. Brittany’s “Dinosaur” during prom left a lot of question marks above people’s heads, and Blaine and Kurt’s “Candles” is certainly a tough one to defend (and listen to). If a performance will be as basic as the entire group standing, the vocals have to be spectacular, and they weren’t. The arrangement was so strange and didn’t suit either of their voices.

And although many people hated “Run Joey Run,” this author thought it was fantastic.

3) The Relationships

There were some relationships on this show that were utterly forgettable, pointless, and boring. Does anyone remember Quinn’s fling with Joe? Does anyone remember Joe? Or what about Puck’s relationships with Rachel, Mercedes, and Shelby (which was also plain creepy)? No, we’re better off leaving those in the past.

What’s worse, some relationships were really toxic on Glee, and sadly, some of them were at the forefront of the show. Will and Emma’s relationship was rocky, to say the least. He cheated on her, he tried pressuring her into sleeping with him, and he tried seducing her while she was in a happy relationship with someone else.

Then there’s Kurt and Blaine, who started out adorable and turned downright unhealthy. Cheating on each other, influencing life decisions for selfish reasons, poor communication, and not enough give and take. If you really need convincing as to why this relationship just didn’t work, let us direct you here.

4) Inconsistencies

Initially it was funny when Glee would acknowledge their inconsistencies, but it became so frequent it was as if Glee just didn’t care about plot or character continuity. They wouldn’t take it seriously, and considering the characters are the heart of the show, a lack of consistency there really hurt it.

Tina changed every season, Blaine changed drastically the moment he transferred to McKinley (and no, not just his wardrobe), Quinn went through a weird time somewhere in the middle (before having a rather beautiful development), and Sam also had some odd moments (how does he not know who Indiana Jones is?). Glee did what it had to do to advance the plot, even at the expense of continuity and character likability.

5) Bad Messages

Perhaps worst of all were the moments when Glee would have storylines that displayed or made light of a terrible message. Here are some examples:

In season 4, Kitty encouraged Marley to have an eating disorder, a serious issue that wasn’t taken particularly seriously in the show. Not to mention, it didn’t make a lot of sense. How could Marley actually believe she had gained weight when all her clothes fit normally apart from one outfit that was ridiculously tight? Bit of a stretch.

Sexual relations were sometimes questionable. In the early stages of Will and Emma’s relationship, Emma wasn’t ready for such close intimacy, so what did Will do? He hooked up with someone else. Even later on, the circumstances under which they became intimate were dubious. Having it happen immediately after winning Nationals for the first time made it seem like she was rewarding Will with sex. Hopefully it’s needless to say that your first time should not be as a reward to someone else; it should solely be because you want to.

Rachel’s first time also poses some questions, as initially she wanted to as preparation for her role in West Side Story. Somehow, by the end of the episode, she suddenly realized it’s actually because she loves him. It’s hard to believe her reason would change so quickly.

The now infamous vaporape scene deserves a mention. Very deliberate non-consensual touching was made light of, despite being canonically dubbed with the term ‘rape.’ Those offended by this moment were not being sensitive; they were socially conscious of how inappropriate this moment was and how poorly it was handled.

Despite Brittany failing high school, she ended up at MIT. There is no amount of ‘hidden genius’ that makes this plot line acceptable. She had a GPA of 0. You don’t just get into any university, let alone MIT, with a GPA of 0.

Lastly, for this list at least, Sebastian and his fellow Warblers got into a sing-off with New Directions in season 3. It ended with Sebastian throwing a slushie in Blaine’s face, resulting in surgery for a scratched cornea. Turns out they put rock salt in the slushie. Of course though, in true Glee fashion, there’s no punishment for abhorrent behavior. Even after getting Sebastian’s confession, they decided not to report him, but to duke it out at Regionals. Because when someone physically assaults you the best thing to do is pretend it never happened.

On page 2: What fond ‘Glee’ memories are we left with?

What We Will Miss

1) The Characters

Some characters are forgettable and some we definitely want to forget, but the core characters of this show will be dearly missed. We watched them grow for six years, we saw them go through hardships and we saw them achieve successes. We laughed with them, we cried with them, and sometimes we wondered what on earth they were doing.

We’ll miss Rachel’s drive, Kurt’s strength, Mercedes’ confidence, Santana’s honesty, and Finn’s compassion. At times it was hard to watch and we wished for an end, but ultimately, it was a fun ride because of these amazing characters. The glee club will be missed.

2) The Music

Even though there were some low lows, there were also some very high highs. “Don’t Stop Believing” set a wonderful tone and was probably the moment many people fell in love with the show. There are far too many great songs to name them all, and much is a matter of opinion anyway, but some definite highlights are the early favorites “Don’t Rain On My Parade” and “Defying Gravity,” the Adele mash-up, and “Cough Syrup,” just to name a few.

3) The Choreography

There were plenty of performances that left you mesmerized and thoroughly entertained from the dancing. Any time Heather Morris and/or Harry Shum Jr. were able to show their talent was a treat. “Valerie” in particular was fantastic, to see the two of them dancing together.

Another great dancer was Kevin McHale, but unfortunately he was stuck in a wheelchair. Those precious dream sequences that allowed Artie to actually dance were incredibly fun. “Safety Dance” was the first and probably the best of Artie’s dancing dreams.

“Single Ladies” deserves a mention as well. It may not have been original choreography, but there isn’t a person on this planet who didn’t find that dance number a complete delight.

4) The Funny Moments

When Glee would decide to be a comedy instead of a drama, it had some really funny moments. The party at Rachel’s in “Blame It On the Alcohol” was hysterical, and “Grilled Cheesus” also provided some unforgettable laughs.

Brilliant one-liners were also in abundance, most notably from Brittany and Sue. Santana’s brutally honest quips shouldn’t be forgotten either, nor Sam’s silly impressions. Emma’s pamphlets were always clever when they made an appearance, and there were even some funny performances. Blaine singing “You’re My Best Friend” with puppet glee club was so random, and Sue doing “Vogue” was equal parts ridiculous and amazing.

5) The Heartfelt Moments

Glee definitely had some ridiculous times, but it also had lovely, touching moments that pulled at your heartstrings. When Glee did heartfelt right, they really did it right. Many of those scenes were between the glee kids and their parents. In particular, most if not every scene with Kurt and his dad were done beautifully. When Kurt and Burt parted ways as Kurt left for New York, when Kurt got beat up and was hospitalized, and arguably the best moment, when Kurt came out, all of these scenes felt real and raw and were among the standout moments of the whole series.

Not all moments were happy though. Season 4’s “The Break Up” was distressing even for non-shippers. Lea Michele in particular did an excellent job portraying Rachel’s heartache. The Adele mash-up mentioned above, while a spectacular song, was also the climax of another emotional moment in which Finn outed Santana.

Happy and sad alike, Glee delivered some tearjerking times and we will certainly miss the emotional roller coaster.

What will you miss most about ‘Glee’?

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