So this is more of a Darren Criss related blog, but it relates to Glee in a huge way, but also how Glee has affected my life. Let us begin shall we? So, we have received a sneak peek of “Fashion’s Night Out” with the Glee Cast. This is the directors cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fRRUTHAVSI version over on youtube, not the one that premiered during the re-airing of Glee’s “Born This Way” episode on August 23.
Where this is headed are over to the comments in which a slight argumentative conversation has started, yes, I realize that arguing on youtube comments is really stupid, but I also have this incessive need to defend my opinions and those of others. I don’t know why I do it through youtube comments, but sometimes I can’t help myself, especially when some of the comments are ignorant and are just downgrading.
I will not list the user names of anyone, in order to protect their identities. One user commented that, “Seriously, Darren Criss is so much bigger than the show.” I agree, because even though he is representing a certain genre of people on the show, it’s also something he takes seriously off the show, because it’s something that he firmly believes in and supports wholeheartedly, and if he didn’t support it, he wouldn’t be able to represent it realistically and his performance as Blaine would fall flat, and it doesn’t. Blaine is a relate-able character and is represented by a talented individual who is throughly invested in his character, which if you’ve seen his interviews he has said many times and he has supported the LGBT community his whole life.
This comment is followed by a different user, who is replying to the comment above, “He would be nothing without the show....” Of course, I disagree, which leads to me commenting to this person’s comment saying this, “Um, no he would be something. He was already making something of himself before Glee. And I'm not referring to Starkid although, I did know who Darren was because of Starkid, which the first productions was posted in July '09, and that fall he was on a recurring character on “Eastwick”. But also released an EP on iTunes July '10, all of which was done before “Glee.” Yes, Glee may have made him more of a household name, but to say he'd be nothing without Glee is naive of you.”
Yes, I posted that, and there were several likes on that post a day later. However, it doesn’t stop there, this same person posted the next day this comment, “and how many eps did he sell BEFORE glee? how many people saw him in this other show? .... yeah
ALL of the glee cast are now somebody because of GLEE! even lea michele who was an broadway before.” Of course, I couldn’t let it go there I had to comment further, with two more comments, because there wasn’t even room for my comment. Resulting in the following two posts, “Darren was quite well-known by the Harry Potter community for "A Very Potter Musical" and "A Very Potter Sequel", and loads of people watched him on "Eastwick" because he was in it. In fact, that show wasn't promoted very well and I only knew about it because of his youtube video and twitter accounts. And lots of his fans began watching "Glee" when they found out he was going to premiere in episode 6 of Season 2. I have friends who did this.” And this, “Furthermore, they are "Glee" and they aren't somebodies because of Glee necessarily, but they have made "Glee" something, because it's something that everyone can relate to in some form, no matter the age of the audience. Being relate-able is what makes "Glee" not who's casted as those characters, but how those characters are portrayed. I think if they would have picked well-known actors (which they didn't want to do), the show would have less meaning.”
What more is there to say? That is the show the characters, not the actors. The actors make up part of it, but it’s the way they represent the characters, making them realistic and making them one of us. It doesn’t matter your age, race, gender, religion, sexuality, etc. to be a Glee fan and relate to the characters. I would like to think that Glee has helped me to be more accepting of everyone and be able to be more myself. It’s something that I would like to think I was able to do before Glee, but Glee gave me that final push, and it had nothing to with the actors, but the characters and how they relate to my life. It’s not just one character, I can relate to several of the characters and it has helped me re-evaluate myself and views, although I’ve been accepting of everyone for all my life, but when you’re not around certain groups of people and suddenly you’re in a world surrounded by different genres of people, you never quite no what to expect and being around those people for a while and then Glee happens, and seeing a wide aray of people being represented on Glee, has been so helpful and I view my friends in a different way and we’ve been able to have more serious conversations on topics that have always been touchy. So, it’s helped me reconnected on a more intellectual level and be more open with my views, and even if our views on these topics are different and vary, we are able to respect each others reasons for the way we think. Glee has done this for me, and it had nothing to do with the actors, but their portrayal of their characters.
Yes, arguing in youtube comments is lame, but for me it’s sort of personal, and to say somebody is someone because of Glee, their characters made them someone, because their characters are who we relate to.
