You're my river running high, run deep run wild

16th May 2012

Quote reblogged from Cute, kinky Asians reside here with 35 notes

What works about “Props” is that Glee didn’t try and give an answer as to why Tina hasn’t gotten many glee club solos. It’s not because “oh, you didn’t work hard enough,” or “oh, you didn’t want it bad enough.” The show went out of its way to remind the audience that Tina has been the ultimate team player and hardly ever rocked the boat. She’s an original member, even when Puck and Finn were still tossing slushies their way, and yet she’s never really had a chance to step into the spotlight. Basically, Ian Brennan took all of our collective thoughts about Tina’s marginalization by the writers and channeled into the storyline. But where he deviated from pattern (aka, made it good) was that Tina was actually afforded a chance to shine, both on the stage, and in storyline - without making her a bitch, a pity case, or a selfless yet passive benefactor.

Weirdly, the zaniest part of the episode helped tremendously to make this storyline work: Tina bonks her head, and comes up Rachel Berry. Naturally, as Rachel Berry, Tina gets a solo, and it’s easy to be pissed at Glee for this. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the way the body swap played out. I like that in this construct, the writers are basically admitting that all Tina needs to get a solo is to literally be Rachel Berry. It’s a refreshing admission of the problem all along without trying to excuse it, and simultaneously gives Tina the screentime, solo, and standing ovation she deserves. Because it’s clear that Tina-as-Rachel is still Tina. She’s hesitant when handed over the performance, and even needs a talking-up by Kurt-as-Finn to drum up the gusto for on-the-fly performing. And she nails it. She doesn’t nail it because she’s Rachel Berry, she nails it because she’s Tina Cohen-Chang. She only needed Rachel Berry’s platform to get the standing-O.

What’s even more refreshing about the body swap is the lesson Tina learned: she’s just as good as Rachel Berry, which she knew all along. Yes, Tina-as-Rachel got all sorts of pressure from her peers, but the point of the “crazy dream” wasn’t to show Tina “how hard it is to be Rachel Berry,” which was set up as something from Rachel’s POV but luckily not enforced by the narrative. It was one of the best choices all episode to avoid rubbing Tina’s face in her own self-confidence by showing her how difficult it is for Rachel - and an even greater choice to swap that directly out with a reassurance of Tina’s talents and abilities. The good choices continued further with Tina-as-Rachel going to Rachel-as-Tina to tell her she appreciates her - something Rachel-as-Rachel never really does. In return, Rachel-as-Tina encouraged Tina-as-Rachel to not give up on her NYADA dreams, and in another great choice, said that Rachel Berry giving up is “not the Rachel Berry I know.” The idea that this body swap also inadvertently addressed Rachel’s post-failure identity issues with a wry smile is actually rather fantastic. And it was all capped by a great piece of light-hearted snark from Tina-as-Rachel that reiterated the main conflict: “I can’t believe how supportive you are when I can’t even be bothered to thank you for your tremendous supporting performances!”

From here, the storyline manifested in Tina trying to help Rachel convince Carmen Thibodeaux to attend their Nationals performance in Chicago, and the fact that this was a positive lady-lady interaction was basically enough for me to give it a solid checkmark without any other info. Tina and Rachel were allowed to work their stuff out together, without anyone else interfering! But even the particulars of the dynamic were pretty great. I loved the idea that this episode raised the question: “what makes Rachel Berry so special?” - first from Tina, then from Carmen, both rather facetiously. And the idea that Tina was the one to appeal to Carmen makes so much sense, because Tina is able to communicate to Carmen that yes, Rachel is a pain in the ass, but she’s the best. It makes Tina likeable, but not a martyr, and ultimately tips the balance between these girls back towards the center. Rachel now owes Tina a huge debt on the road to her success, and that construct actually helps the situation tremendously - Tina was able to do something that Rachel could not do on her own, and Rachel finally realizes the importance of having a supportive teammate, and neither “lesson” was hammered in.

Source: asianfusion