What I Want from Glee Season 3.

I love Glee, I do. Often against my better judgement. It has so much potential; it has a very talented cast and a core concept that allows for fun, depth and mass appeal. It has a ridiculous budget (I'm assuming) and no reason to be shit. And yet it so often is. Season two was confused.

Erratic in both its message and its seeming aims; characters were developed and then forgotten again, often seemingly at random. That's not to say there wasn't growth, but Kurt continues to be the only character with solid progression throughout the two seasons, with Santana getting a little towards the end. Part of the reason for this may well be the huge numbers of cast and characters it has. There are millions of them and given that episodes are only really 40 minutes long and a good chuck of those minutes have to be filled with song it's completely unrealistic to believe they can fill every episode with development for all. So maybe they shouldn't try- get a smaller group and focus on them. I know they try to convince us that the songs often count as plot and character development but that only really works in a couple of cases. Contrary to what Glee tells us not all life's problems can be addressed within the lyrics of popular music. Shocking I know.

So with season 3 starting this week I thought I'd work out what I wanted from the show. What I want from season 3

-Someone to mention Quinn and Puck's child again. Or perhaps more accurately Quinn to show any emotional response to having given up a child. Not to mention the whole "being chucked out of her family home and having to live with Mercedes" thing. Seriously, did they interact once in the entire run of season 2, I don't think so. You would think that Quinn would be eternally grateful to Mercedes and the entire Jones family. It seems unlikely to me that any 16 year old girl could go through what she did and not have some emotional issues to deal with. Issues that are bigger than not being made Prom Queen and cannot be solved by cutting one's hair.

-Karofsky to come out. Although I think the storyline has been well done and not rushed (as often can be the case) I'm now kind of tired of it. This is perhaps me being impatient because obviously the lengthy struggle is a more accurate depiction of what some young people go through when coming to terms with their sexuality. I still would rather he was out and happy.

This brings me (in a round about way) to my biggest issue with Glee; its inability to balance the serious and the whimsical. Obviously a show where everyone sings songs all the time can never be truly gritty but Glee does often try to deal with many social issues it's target audience have to deal with. I'm not saying it shouldn't do this, obviously it would be a terrible unrelatable show if it didn't. But It needs to do it better, with more subtlety or precision. It jumps to quickly from “Oh look how serious and deep and important this is” to “FUN FUN FUN everyone is singing!” It's a difficult transition to make and Glee so often doesn't quite make the jump well enough. A prime example of this seems to be episode 6 Never Been Kissed. The Kurt storyline meeting Blaine was subtle, emotional and a good balance. The other half of that episode was given up to the development of Beiste's character and the fact that members of New Directions where using her image to turn themselves off. This I thought was oddly handled. The script was saying how terrible these kids are for doing this, they shouldn't be laughing at her she has feelings too. But the direction played the scenes in which we saw her dressed in skimpy outfits where played for humour. It seemed to be setting the audience up to react in a certain way while simultaneously chastising the characters for behaving in that very same way.

Also from season 3 I want Kurt and Blaine to keep being awesome and adorable. They make me happy and sad in equal measure. Happy because they're so sweet, and sad because I am not that sweet. I do kind of want both of them to perhaps get called up on some of their bullshit more often but I don't really care. Although I'm concerned, as I always am when couples get together in TV world, that they will soon have to break up or go through major relationship trauma. Why do television people think we like to watch characters in emotional pain? I guess a more realistic, complete, un-punctuated, happy forever doesn't really ever happen but if I wanted to see that kind of stuff I'd watch real life. Just let people be happy, I don't find it dull watching that stuff! Part of the reason I don't watch Gossip Girl any more was they fucked too much with and then ended Chuck and Blair's relationship; I can't handle the emotional stress of watching them struggle. The other reason I stopped watching GG is, of course, because it's capitalist wet dream self indulgent bullshit.

Last but not least I want them to stop playing the “Finn loves his girlfriend but still has feelings for his Ex girlfriend, this causes trouble with his present girlfriend, he swaps women. Rinse and repeat”. Surely the two women in question should get tired of being treated like this. I mean I like Finn, but he's not that great. If it didn't work the first time, it probably won't work again. Neither of you have changed that much. Hint Hint Glee people- make them change/develop. Or stop them dating in this creepy alternating system.

Also is anyone else intrigued to see how The Glee Project winners are going to fare. I just can't see myself doing anything other than “Oh look INSERT NAME HERE. How cute, they're trying to act.” They're always going to be those people that won that competition not a real new character but a gimmick character. Perhaps I'll be proved wrong and be blown away. I doubt it.

So that is what I want, but am perfectly willing to accept less. Mainly because I'm just kind of assuming it'll let me down a bit. That's the strange thing about Glee- I should be so much more mad at it than I am.