The Kurt Locker

Day 27: The Rocky Horror Glee Show

I was scared to death of this episode. And not in a cool, shivery haunted house way, either. After the Britney/Brittany debacle, I figured this would be yet another excuse to push the boundaries of decency and good taste. I confess I am not a huge "Rocky Horror" fan.  I've only seen the show once in its entirety, and that was probably 20 years ago. Since then, I've never felt the desire to revisit Dr. Frank-N-Furter and his band of merry--whatever they ares. I remember the basic premise and watched a few clips on YouTube to refresh my memory in preparation for this episode, but that's about it. It's not really my thing, but to each his own.

You will be surprised to learn that I actually like this episode. Probably no more surprised that I was, though! The music and costumes are fun and a departure from the regular Glee fare. Finn is an utterly adorkable Brad. "Dammit, Janet" is pure delight. His awkward physicality actually worked to his advantage for a change! Kurt's Riff Raff is somehow both cute and creepy. And I thought Mercedes made a fantastic Frank-N-Furter. Yes, that choice raised some eyebrows, but it works for me.

What doesn't work for me is the continuation of manipulative Will. You're a teacher, man! Pull yourself together! Now, we all know he isn't above a bit of treachery to get what he wants. I mean, back in the day, he planted drugs on a student and then proceeded to blackmail said student into joining glee. He's certainly no saint, but using his students and endangering the club ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS to aid  his romantic pursuits seems over the top. Which is really saying something.

Personally, I think it's hilarious that every time an interviewer asks Chris about coming up with the idea of doing a Rocky Horror tribute episode, he says something along the lines of, "Well, I wanted to do 'The Time Warp' ",  like he doesn't really want to take responsibility for the whole thing. I guess I don't blame him. The material here is risque, and honestly, not really suited for an early, primetime show. The source is a controversial, R-rated movie that is steeped in sex and reeks of fetish from beginning to end. It was sort of a bizarre choice, actually, because it pretty much guaranteed that hardly anyone would really be satisfied with it. The purists would be infuriated by heavy content editing, and the general non-Rocky public would be severely offended at worst and at best, terribly confused. I guess I'm somewhere in the middle: aware of the show but not a fan. The potential for disaster was pretty high from the outset.

The whole thing might have bothered me more had it not been for the brilliant "Sue's Corner" near the end of the episode. Here's a portion of that scene:

Well said, Sue.

I'm both encouraged and confused by this speech. On one hand, I think, whew--Ryan Murphy and Co. actually do understand that they have a responsibility to the viewing audience. That pushing the boundaries of decency just because the network will allow it isn't a good enough excuse, and that kids find plenty of questionable material all by themselves without adults handing it to them. I want to believe that this is an apology of sorts for previous missteps and an assurance that we will never again be subjected to students publicly pleasuring themselves or references to scissoring. This is not to say I want the writers to eliminate all potentially objectionable material. Glee is what it is because of the boundary-skirting issues and dialog. What I would like to see is "pushing with a purpose": pushing done thoughtfully, with an actual goal in mind, rather than pushing for its own sake or for shock value.

On the other hand, I get a little nervous when Sue emerges as the voice of reason. Do the writers intend for her to sound reasonable, or do they think she's being stodgy and ridiculous? Are we meant to watch her little speech and reel in horror at the suggestion of censorship in any form, or the idea that adults are actually doing a disservice to kids by not monitoring their media exposure?

I'd like to say the first case is more likely, but I'm honestly not sure. I suppose time will tell. Or not. It's awfully hard to know with these guys.



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