Download Love & Pies here: pixly.go2cloud.org/SH3iV Thanks to Love & Pies for sponsoring!

Don't apologize for that Mercedes rant! The disrespect of her character is always swept under the rug. She was a core character, for crying out loud!

Glee made many many mistakes but it also gave us Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester and that’s something I’ll forever be grateful for

As an Autistic person, I always interpreted Britney as Autistic. She thinks in a very black and white way, can often speak in monotone, doesn't always understand what's okay to say in the moment and is incredibly intellegent with numbers despite not always being the most socially intellegent. It's never brought up because she's classically pretty and popular, autism often goes Undiagnosed in girls, especially those who are able to excel socially and have special interests that are deemed socially acceptable for girls ie. Cheerleading or singing.

marley is honestly a real depiction of a highschooler. I loved her sm, because of how relatable she was. She was the least problematic character in this show, the only reason she’s “boring”.

When Mercedes auditioned for Maria and said "why does nobody ever want to hurt her feelings?" That was SO real

I feel like any actor can be your favorite singer on the show (Naya for me), but Amber Riley is, bar none, the best singer on the show.

I love this breakdown so much and I completely agree with your rant on Mercedes don’t even apologise , I hated how they pretended that she was lazy when she was able to keep up with the dancing in the show and had an amazing stage presence and voice . They just used her as the stereotypical black girl and didn’t build on her character after that don’t even get me started on how they threw away her friendship with Quinn after they lived together . I also hated how the writers treated Quinn they would write development for her and when they needed drama they would regress her character . The first season of glee was honestly the best season to me , I know a lot of people say it’s the second season which I also love and how they built on Santana but the first season in my opinion had this charm to it that they were just kids trying to build this club where they could express themselves. It’s true what they say nobody hates glee more than glee fans istg😂

On Mercedes: First she's a hardworking character who knows what she wants, then they... contradict her completely and then say she's lazy?? COME ON, she deserved to be number one

I definitely agree on the Mercedes part, she deserved way more storylines and songs and just a lot better in general (so did pretty much every other female character except from Rachel). The bit about Quinn and Puck was interesting too as not nearly enough people talk about the fact that he took advantage of her as their encounter wasn't fully consensual and he put her health at risk, got her drunk, wasn't truthful about protection and pretty much coerced her so it's quite uncomfortable and wrong that it tries to present them as a 'cute' couple later on.

The more I think about glee, the more I wanted Emma as the glee teacher. Her episode where she substituted for Will at sectionals made me question why she was not. She stood up for them. She motivated them and encouraged them. In another episode, she is the one who told Will that he overlooked many members in Glee which led to more of them participating in competitions. Trebltones should have had more performances and their mashup of I will Survive and Survivor was a waste of their talents. There were so many songs that fit their iconic ranges better. I had a bog crush on Rory and he needed more screen time. Sugar had potential. She did become nicer and I loved her loyalty to the Glee club. I always wanted Blaine to be bisexual. His kiss with Rachel was not just because he was drunk. He looked like he enjoyed that kiss. I pictured him maybe not liking Rachel romantically, but she was still a bi awakening for him. I also shipped him with Tina. Their chemistry and friendship was iconic to me. People say they pictured Sam as bi and I could see why, but now after hearing how Sam was originally supposed to be Kurt’s love interest, it is making come up with more head cannons. To be honest, I did not see the issue with him doing a duet with Kurt. Girls can duet without being seen as gay. The guys did duets that weren’t romantic. Why was it gay for Sam and Kurt to do one. It felt hypocritical to me. Oh great, I am picturing a Heartstopper story with them now. Don’t at me.

Amber Riley and Jenna Ushkowitz deserved so much better.

Finally someone speaking out how on they did Mercedes DIRTY! Also I’m so tired of the sassy loud black girl stereotype. This stereotype negatively affects black women in real life. Mercedes Jones deserved better.

Blaine was a catalyst for Kurt’s growth and it’s upsetting that the writers never bothered to give Blaine a catalyst for growth. I mean they gave him layers which they could’ve delved so well into but they didn’t. Also in my opinion, Blaine was one of the most realistic characters especially after the seasons went on. I understand why people think he’s whiny and annoying but I thought his character always had a strength behind it and a kind of curiosity that should’ve been handled better. He had so much potential too, with the family drama and the depression (mentioned god knows how many times) and all his other shit. But they didn’t explore him because deep down it was Blaine’s purpose to make Kurt look better and to be this superficial happy character. Which is a bummer.

Thank you for standing up for Mercedes!!! I felt like they leaned into black stereotypes WAY too much. Thankfully that didn't overshadow her gifts as a vocalist!! Some of my favourite Mercedes songs are: "Jump" "Disco Inferno" "Rumour Has It/Someone Like You" "Spotlight" "How Will I Know" "You Make Me Feel Like A (Natural Woman)" "Aint No Way" "Shake It Out" "TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS" "Human Nature" "I'll Stand By You

tbh out of quinn's romantic relationships, I loved her with sam alone. Yeah, they were kind of boring compared to her other relationships, but I liked how mundane they were (I mean painting coasters as a date? I love that) and I wished they were given issues that challenged quinn's personality as well as sam's in their relationship rather than cheating that seemed to be a constant in the glee club. On the other hand, I did love samcedes in season 3, tho i am a die hard quinn and sam shipper

i will NEVER forgive the writers for calling mercedes lazy. she worked her ass off and almost never got her dues, despite being imo, the best singer in the club

I remember hearing Michael Buckley explain during one of his gleecaps that in “The Quarterback” Santana breaking down and running out of the classroom was Naya losing it during filming it.

I’ll never get over the fact that they didnt develop more of Blaine’s story with his parents.

i never knew that fact about chris not wanting kurt to go to nyada. it definitely puts a better spin on the argument.

I didn't know people hated Marley. I always liked her character, it's just the way the writers treated her that made me mad

I would like to note that if Wemma happened in season one we never would have gotten Artie driving face-first into a pool🥲

The way you described Mercedes is what I thought the entire show. Thank you!!! The stereotype of the ghetto loud black girl needs to stop. We are people just like everybody else. Give us more substance.

wow a 3 hour video? do you do all the editing by yourself bc that is DEDICATION

blaine's character getting ruined felt like something they did to keep him with kurt. kurt's character development feels like one of if not the most natural character development on the show, so they just kept changing blaine so they could keep klaine together. in season 2 he was confident with himself and helping kurt get to the same point, but once he did and kept gaining more and more confidence they started making blaine more and more insecure, possibly to keep their original dynamic? i dont know, either way, i hate it season 2 blaine was my favourite character and im so mad that they didnt keep him at dalton or at least send him back when they did that goofy ahh superhero episode

This made me realize that I like Ian’s writing better, followed by Brad then Ryan’s in last place

YESSS finally seeing someone who hates beistes transition. like... she already had a trans narrative!!! being perceived as masculine when all she wanted was someone to treat her as a woman... thats a transfem narrative, even though it wasnt intentional. if anything, her being made a trans man just felt transphobic lmao, like ohhh the masculine womans actually a man⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️ then what was her introductory storyline😩

As a kid struggling with addiction Cory’s story really resonated with me. Was sad to see him lose his battle. Rip

Carol and Burt are parent goals! I loved them so much and even though it took him a minute to accept Kurt, I love how much Burt was in his corner but also willing to put him in his place when he needed it.

I remember being a 13 year old American Idol stan when Glee's pilot was CONSTANTLY being plugged on commercial breaks. I was totally captivated by it (it felt like "high school musical but juicier" lol) but my parents wouldn't let me watch it so i had to sneakily watch clips on youtube for the first couple seasons before I got a laptop and could access Netflix. 😆 This video was fantastic, this show really was a cultural touchstone for its time.

A couple of thoughts here: Thanks for breaking down the writing. Even though the first two seasons were cohesive, you could sometimes feel tiny shifts between episodes, and now it's connecting that "rib" had different writing styles. The seasons break down. Wow. Just Wow. People always just say "this season was good, or this season was bad" but never go into depth when they're breaking down the show. You really have an eye for detail. (I also enjoyed your Gilmore girls breakdown, especially the seasons part). I didn't notice how the color palette changed. Season 1 was so real and grainy; I don't understand why when shows get bigger budgets, they decide to make everything look so fake and plasticky. Last thing thank you for talking about the band, that part really made me chuckle. The Matt part too. BRAVA BRAVA. I'd love to see you cover One Tree Hill and older 2000s and 90's shows too.

"prioritizing twerking over the safety of a trans kid" is a hell of a sentence lol well... that's glee for ya😭

1:37:37 another will crime people don’t talk about enough: singing ‘fix you’ by coldplay to his mentally unwell fiancé who’s in the middle of an episode after a very triggering event. like bro she’s not a broken doll you can fix with your showtunes, she’s a person with issues that need to be treated by a professional. carl supremacy for life.

So happy youtube decided to recommend this video to me! I love how clear everything was and I definitely agree with you about most things. I’m glad to see someone mentioning Coach Beiste’s transition as it has also always striked me as weird. As you said their whole character development in the earlier seasons revolved around how much they struggled with people not viewing them as a woman because they didn’t present in a traditionally feminine way so having them transition really felt like backtracking. Also happy to hear someone mention how old the crackhouse debate is, like we get it one person in a show about horrible people did something horrible can we please move on 😭. Anyways, this was a lovely watch, can’t wait to check out your other videos :)

I absolutely love your breakdown, especially when you mention your experience in the Glee fandom and the audience reactions while it was airing. I first watched Glee in 2018, so I never got to experience it live and I didn't enter the fandom until 2020. Something I've noticed in the fandom is the difference in hate that season 4 gets depending on the viewer. A lot of the people I've spoken with who didn't like season four were people who watched the show live and didn't enjoy the sudden changes and fell off the show during the week to week airings. On the other hand, a lot of the people I know who love season four didn't watch it live and instead binged it. Obviously this doesn't apply to everybody on both sides, but I think the hate of it could have been affected by the fact that people were having to tune in weekly to watch these obvious changes rather than the other group who can just get to the next episode and not have to be annoyed that they waited a whole week for an episode they found underwhelming. I'm not sure if this is coherent or not but hopefully it makes sense. Also loved your Marley segment, I never know if somebody is going to like her to not. I know the fandom used to hate her, but at least as far as Glee twitter goes it seems like people like her for the most part.

I actually just started rewatching Glee yesterday and I got recommended this video. This video is absolutely amazing and you did an amazing job breaking down all the intricacies of the show and the characters. Despite it flaws and how I don't really like the later seasons, I do love Glee and it'll always hold a special place in my heart. It really was just such a pivotal part of my growing up and I don't think it can ever be repeated, it was literally lightning in a bottle.

I definitely like Emma with Carl better than her with Will but the way they ended that relationship.

I absolutely love this, and this video deserves all the likes. I still stand by what I said in your Tina video in that her character should have grown into being a fashion designer and that her arc should have revolved around her realizing that even though she isn't the star her role is important. I mean, wouldn't that be such a great message, that you can find a new dream after realizing your first one may not work out for you? I'm a card carrying adult and I'm still trying to figure out my dream lol Also, Blaine in my opinion eventually felt like the writer's self insert, and once you look through that lense you can't unsee it

This was a beautiful love letter to a show that impacted my life in more ways I care to admit, you are completely right in saying no one loves/hates Glee more than Gleeks. Thank you for all the time and energy this must’ve taken. This was fantastic work.

I don’t think Blaine necessarily SHOULD have been bi, but I wish they’d at least continued that conversation. It’s fine for someone to be unsure of your sexuality. Just because Blaine didn’t end up liking girls, doesn’t mean that Kurt’s biphobic comments were okay, and I feel like they could have showed that message, they just… didn’t.

I‘m only 25min into the video but I gotta say upfront thank you so much for actually doing a deep dive with background info and real ANALYSIS instead of just recapping each episode with no further details for 5 hrs and calling it a day

They did Mercedes so wrong throughout this show. She was super talented and honestly the strongest female vocalist next to Rachel. She did have some of the best singing moments 🙌🏽🙌🏽

Brittany is totally ADHD coded or maybe even AUHD shes not stupid her mind just works differently

Santana's father was a doctor, right? she said ''my dad is a doctor, not a tooth doctor, a real one''

Marley's character always rubbed me the wrong way. I remember when she was introduced, I thought she felt a lot like a self-insert character. The shy, nice, innocent girl who is amazingly talented and gets a lot of attention from guys. Even a love triangle! It felt very wattpad. I'm sure, at some point, some character describes her as being "different." It was very out of place for a show like glee.

I used to think season 6 was the worst season simply cuz I didn’t care for the new kids, but they really brought the show back to what the seasons after 1 always should’ve been. Rachel got humbled and her success was more deserving. And Sue especially was a highlight, that Klaine stuff was perfect

i agree so much with your analysis about Beiste! Having them ending up as trans didn't really make sense with their previous storyline and development. The whole point was, that it's ok to be a woman with stereotypically masculine traits and a masculine build. That was her journey of self love and self acceptance. It felt like the showrunners wanted to show off how progressive they were by adding another trans character but ended up not doing either trans ppl or the character of Beiste justice.

3 hour glee video i was starved for, thank you for your service💅

Oh dear God,the day has finally come...

All the dedication you put into this is phenomenal. I could never. Love your work, keep it up!

This was SUCH an excellent Deep Dive!! You really did the show Justice and delved into what made it such a cultural touchstone. You highlighted both aspects that made it great as well as some of the less flattering parts.

Oh I’m READY for this!! Amber Riley we ❤ you!

As someone who comes from a small town the 2 Asian characters on the show having the same last name is pretty realistic. I just finished coaching swim club in a small town and I had 3 Asian athletes, who had no relation to each other, with the same last name. That same thing also happened a lot throughout my high school years.

I love Kurt he develop so much he is one the most likable characters

Just started watching this video but the Glee pilot feels like a standalone little movie. In fact, every Ryan Murphy tv pilot feels that way, I watched many of his pilots back to back a few years ago and they all had this cinematic feel to them

The biggest problem for me was that the pilot made me excited for a television show about a showchoir, and more than a decade later, I'm still waiting for it. I don't think almost anyone involved in showchoir (or even who watched their friends in showchoir) could look at _Glee_ and say that *any* part of that experience was captured on the show.

I wanted to see more of season 6 group because I actually like them more than the season 4 group.

All they had to do in season 4 is decide if the show is about the core 6 or the Glee club. They tried to have their cake and eat it too.

thank you for the long up load !! so hyped to watch when i have the time !! :)

This video is awesome! My new favorite glee retrospective! Totally agree with a majority of your opinions! Thanks for this great video! 😃

this was such a great breakdown!! thank you for taking the time and energy, we appreciate it so much

I never watched the show but I will happily watch your 3 hour video explaining the show to me. Great job as always 💛 P.S. I admire anyone willing to edit a video the size of two movies lol.

All minorities on glee are portrayed in a stereotypical way for example Mercedes - sassy white girl Santana - spicy Latina

A 3 hour and 30 minutes video about GLEE? dont mind if i do

FI.NA.LLY… I’ve been waiting for this!!!!!!!!!

Glee was so good in the first three seasons. It's sad so many Glee actors met tragic ends.

YAAAASSS IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS

This makes me want to rewatch Glee(but only like the 1st 3 seasons).

Quickest 3h of my life, well done that was a really good listen!

They said Tina was going to have a solo storyline about her being adopted but they shoved it

Oh this was so good, pls do more of these❤️

oh my god i've been waiting for a video like this for such a long time WAHHH YAYYYYAYAYAYYAYAYA

My personal favorite season is 4 and it’s funny for me to hear people be like “Everything after 3 was horrid” I honestly thought that season 4 brought back a level of chaos seasons 2 and 3 didn’t have. It felt much more satirical. Even through it’s ridiculously horrid romance plots and etc it had chaos. Season 4 was so frankly unneeded that it’s great. I didn’t love the new characters but like the chaos of even like Tinas quotes are so funny. I think it’s the fact they were scrambling so hard which makes me like s4. Also in my opinion, season four had the best covers of the entire show (maybe it’s because I love Blaine and Santana).

Wow.... This is amazing. You put so much work into it. You deserve way more subs and views when you put out this kind of quality.

I loved Sue. Yes, she could be brutal at times, and she pushed too hard at times, but she also cared about the kids. And if they had given Sue her own spin off, I would have watched it. Jane Lynch is brilliant. I also loved Rachel, even when she was being horrible; she was honest when she told Mercedes that she wanted to be a star at all costs, even if people hated her and she admitted that was not healthy, but it was who she was. One thing I loved about Glee was how they didn't go the route of having Burt reject his son flat out. No, he didn't always understand but he loved his son, and he stepped up and adjusted his world view and he fought for Kurt time and time again. I also like Lauren. I think part of the appeal she had for Puck was the fact that she didn't just fall at his feet the way other girls did. I missed her when they wrote her off. I would take her over Kitty any day. I know Rachel did horrible things, hell, they all did horrible things to one another, but Kitty had no redeeming quality whatsoever.

I'm 30 minutes in and omg thank you for feeding my gleek heart 🤤🥲😍!!!

Hard agree on Sam. Like, they had whole storyline about his homelessness and having to wirk at a strip club to suolort his family, showing that he had to grow up way faster than the other members. Then season 4 he suddenly became the most childish of any of them. Not to mention it feels like any idiot could've seen a storyline popping up from his bidy image issues and modeling being linked to the aforementioned stripping. Also, honestly while Samcedes was great I actually kind of wish they'd given him an Tina a shot.

This is amazing thank you for all this work

This was an incredible deep dive!!

This video was absolutely brilliant! It took me daysssss but worth every minute ! Definitely a new subscriber!

I just watched your glee videos and i’m so happy you made this :)

This literally just made me want to watch all over again for the millionth time 😂😂😂

A couple of things I will say: I believe it was brought up during the Brittany segment of this video about how she’s one of those characters that kinda dodges accountability based on the nature of the character itself. I would argue that the same could be said for some other characters as well in the context of the fandom, even if they aren’t portrayed the same way as Brittany was. re: the Kitty/Marley storyline in season 4, but around the time that year’s sectionals happened - and this may be an unpopular opinion but I’ll say it anyway - I personally didn’t buy Santana, a character who has body-shamed others on multiple occasions (namely Finn), standing up for Marley around that time period. Yeah sure, she was originally introduced as one of the mean girls who speaks her mind, but it got to the point where it felt like the show was almost targeting the actors’ physicality through her character (even Naya herself disapproved of the infamous speech/rant Santana made against Chris Colfer’s Kurt in season 6). It would have made more sense if Quinn or even Mercedes stood up for Marley in season 4, especially knowing what Sue put the Cheerios through in order to achieve a sense of perfection. That way, season 4 could make a simple yet effective callback to season 1’s Cheerios storyline for Mercedes + season 2’s Lucy storyline for Quinn, especially with characters who have obviously experienced what Marley was going through. And since Quinn was also Kitty’s mentor (and idol), that would have been a perfect way for Quinn to open her eyes to who looked up to her (and how) so she could teach Kitty how to properly conduct herself, despite being one of the popular girls.

in my opinion (as an autistic person) brittney shows a lot of autistic traits even if they didn’t mean to do that (i’m pretty sure they didn’t) like she’s very socially unaware, gullible, easily manipulated, blunt, no filter, often has a flat affect, gives off airhead vibes but is a mathematical genius (many autistic ppl tend to have an affinity to numbers/math) like,,, idk it makes sense to me 😭 it’s sad that ppl make autistic traits often a punchline tho without calling it autism

ONG A GLEE DEEP DIVE I LOVE

This was such a perfect breakdown of both the characters and the seasons of the show!! I was a huge Gleek at the time, but season 4 and then Cory's passing made me step away from the show. I came back for season 6 because it was the final one, and I loved how it was a back to basics season. This made me so nostalgic that now I have to watch the pilot again. Congrats on such an amazing video!!

Great video! The effort put into it will pay off, this will blow up!

I haven’t even started the video but I know it’s gonna hit ❤

3 hours about glee? yes pleaseee

Thanks that was sooo good!

Goddamn this is like.. the best analysis I have seen of any show. Probably ever.

Yes I was on tumblr when this show first came on. And I was apart of the Mercedes Mafia still a proud member. I checked out after s3. I loved this analysis of the show seeing I only watched Mercedes/SamCedes scenes of s4-6. I loved how Alex and Amber have won a Tony and Olivier for their work after gLee/treatment. I’m with you on how disappointed I was in the Glee Concert movie. I wanted those skits in there not the how it is to be a gLeek. It’s why it underperformed at the box office was because of that imo. I’ve been feeling nostalgic for the show the past few days watching old songs and my favorite SamCedes scenes. I wish they had just followed the core group after s3. I mean Degrassi was another of my favorite shows at the time with a cast bigger than them and managed to give attention to all. Though we did have a core few. And they did it with 30min (20-22min) episodes compared to Glee hour (40-46min). It was just incompetence in consistency and storytelling. Which is why Ryan only successful show is AHS. But I digress great video. S6 looks fun I may have a watch. But so far haven’t been able to watch an episode since Naya’s death.

This video is awesome!

Your rant about Mercedes was so true! Don’t apologize! But also I’m a firm believer in the idea that the writers (not just RIB) underutilized a lot of the things they wrote into the show. For example, Blaine and the familial/general mental health issues, Beistes issues (instead just making Beiste trans), Kurt having “ocd” types of issues, etc etc

Girrrrrrl you said a mouthful about Mercedes and i really wanna add on cause you hit the nail on the head but now I've gotten lazy lol so i might just have to comment later on.

I fucking loved amber rylie and she deserved so so much more. She was their biggest asset. Period

Did I sit here and watch this video over the span of like 3 days? Yea I did! Thanks boo

Can’t wait to send this to my coworker that kept up a glee calendar on the workspace all year, xoxo

oh my god i never finished season 6 i never knew blaine dated kurts bully or that coach beast transitioned WHAT 😭😭

It's easy for Brittany for me. It's that overall innocence she displays and she always keeps hope. Where there is dark story's, Brittany was the one Ray of light.