Glee

Glee

I am on the fence about Glee and its disabled character, Artie.  I continue to watch the show, but after three seasons I still don’t know how I feel about the character’s portrayal.  Certainly, this show is not realism and is not meant to be.  It is absurd and over the top, the characters are not realistic, they are caricatures.    And that’s the fun of the show.

The Good

1) Artie is treated just like all the other kids, as much of a loser and social outcast as the other gleeks

2) Artie is given romantic relationship plotlines

3) He is now part of the dance routines.  In the first few episodes he was almost always with the band, over on the side, playing guitar.  Eventually, though, they started putting him into the dance routines with the other kids.

The Bad

1) Artie is played by an able-bodied actor.  There’s a dream sequence with him dancing, but that’s the only time they’ve needed him to not be in a wheelchair and it wasn’t at all a necessary element of the show.  This really bothers me, as I’ve mentioned before.

2) It bothers me that the other characters are always pushing Artie around (literally, moving his wheelchair).  That’s a serious violation of personal space.  It’s like someone walking up to you, picking you up and throwing you over his shoulder and walking away with you, not appropriate at all.

3) I can’t get a handle on his character.  Sometimes he seems overly whiney (like why was he all upset about Tina not stuttering or Britney sleeping with him?), sometimes he talks like a tough guy, but he wears these awful sweater vests that don’t make any sense with what he says.  I don’t know what is going on here and I’m waiting for more episodes featuring him to clarify what his character is.

4) The “wheels” episode has the major characters all using wheelchairs to gain sympathy and understanding.  It made me cringe when they used them in order to play on people’s emotions and manipulate people (Finn getting a job because the hiring person thinks he’s disabled, Puck getting drugs the same way).  It has been shown that these using-a-wheelchair-for-a-day stunts don’t really teach much.  It has to be more long term than that and also supported by teaching, such as the awesome 30 Days episode.

 

Not sure of my conclusion, I’m still waiting and watching on this one.  They’ve had some good moments, so I’m not writing them off yet.  I hope that more Artie-focused episodes are coming soon.

 

Posted by on Mar 15, 2011 in Movies | 3 comments

3 Comments

  1. Celeste
    Apr 21, 2011

    My two closest friends and I were watching a commercial for Glee not long after the show debuted, and as soon as we saw Artie I gave an approving “YES!” and they got excited for me, suggesting that we watched it right away.

    Let’s just say Glee didn’t live up to my expectations. First, I hate musicals, so my interest in the show was doomed from the beginning. But you know, for that rare disabled character in television, we’d watch anything! Then there was the able-bodied actor thing. I guess I don’t mind it that much… but I’d still much rather see someone with a disability getting the part. I understand that in Glee it was more about getting the best possible singers, but still, there aren’t any singers with paraplegia?!

    From the very first episode, other people pushing Artie’s chair made me cringe. Just get the hands off the chair, and back away! And if anything, maybe ask first? It especially annoyed me when Finn did his whole, “I’m going to go SAVE the disabled kid” thing in the first episode. Yeah, I would help anyone if bullies locked them in a portable toilet, but the whole, “I’m just going to be a nice guy and push you away from those mean bullies…” thing was kind of annoying. Even more annoying was the fact that Artie didn’t say something like, “Thanks, you don’t have to push me though,” or something like that.

    Then there was the Wheels episode. “Oh, it was so inspiring!” No, it was not inspiring. It just showed a bunch of teens using wheelchairs to be manipulative and not learning anything from the experience. And if any change happened, it was that they pitied Artie more.

    Needless to say, I stopped watching after a few episodes.

    • RuthMadison
      Apr 21, 2011

      Yeah, the way the kids used the wheelchairs to manipulate people’s feelings made me feel sick. Ugh.

      For me Glee is a fun way of linking songs together, but not good plot, not good story writing. I do like the music and it is where I find out about new music from now!

      You know there was an episode with a quadriplegic character, and that actor was really disabled and singing. Couldn’t they have hired him from the start? (Instead of having him lay in bed for just one episode)

      • Celeste
        Apr 22, 2011

        I remember that episode, and it just upset me that he didn’t have a better part.

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