One tiny problem: Mr. Schuester did not actually witness Kurt being hit by the football player. He arrived just after the fact, so that the show could let him off the hook for not actually dealing with something that, after all, he hadn't personally witnessed.

Gee, I'm sorry that that bully shanked you with a knife, but kids will be kids, y'know. Could you, er, stop bleeding all over the floor? You are making a terrible mess for the janitor.

And while Mr Schuester didn't do anything to discipline the bully being violent to another student, he did read the riot act to the kids for thinking about an ugly teacher so they wouldn't be so horny because it hurt her feelings. The real evil is what teenagers think, not what they do. The episode was incredibly, culpably stupid.

I agree wholeheartedly that it could have been handled differently. It was a prime opportunity to show how the ADULTS in schools need to put a stop to bullying. I also believe, however, that we have to stop relying on TV shows to show us the way...

That kid should have been arrested and prosecuted for assault and battery!

I thought it showed a very real interpretation of what does happen at schools: Kurt gets shoved into the lockers, and a girl stops to see of he's okay, to everyone else, he's invisible. And Mr. Shue reframing the bullying as his fault--that IS what happens, or used to, at any rate. I don't know enough about Glee to know if this was intentional, or not...perhaps it's part of a larger arc that will play out in future episodes. As far as Blaine's advice goes, obviously asking Kurt to confront a huge football player was potentially dangerous, but sometimes you do need encourage kids to stand up for themselves (in same size confrontations.) I would like to think (hope) that something will change, and the administration will begin to address the problem of bullying on the show...we'll see.

The whole complexion of the show changes when you realize that Mr. Schue is the biggest asshole in the entire universe, who is mostly just using the kids to relive his own tawdry high school days.

The episode was utterly redeemed by Kurt's performance and by the jaw-dropping singing of the boys school, and the virtually unprecedented sight of a boy singing a teenage love song to another boy. It was utterly charming, and, as the only commenters on "Glee" on the entire internet who are worth a good goddamn, Tom and Lorenzo at "Project Runway", said,

We know other things happened this episode and other songs were sung. We know you're expecting a recap of those moments, but for us, and we pray to God for thousands of gay kids out there too, there was only one moment in last night's show and it left us a little breathless and on the verge of tears.

If you didn't see it, you really shouldn't be talking shit about it. http://tomandlorenzo2.blogspot.com/2010/…

In a weird way, I'm glad that Schuester was so unsypathetic and ineffectual. That was certainly true of the faculty in my high school, and I'm certain that it's still true in many (probably most) other schools. Despite professions of good intentions by the adults, the kids are still, all too often, left on their own. Kurt didn't solve any problems, and the situation wasn't brought to any resolution, suggesting that in the series (as in life) Kurt will either continue to "climb the hill" on his own, or he'll have to wait for his father to take on the battle his behalf. If that happens, I sincerely hope that Daddy rips Schuester a new one.

The scene in which Blaine advised Kurt to refuse to be a victim struck a much falser note. It is very easy for him to tell Kurt to fight back, insulated, as Blaine is, in a very expensive, very luxurious, tolerant private school. And the whole "be a stronger person than I was" line was incredibly unconvincing.

The redeeming trait of this episode was when Blaine sang "Teenage Dream" to Kurt. Unrealistic? Sure. But realism isn't a category that applies in a series in which people continually burst into perfecty orchestrated song. All those Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musicals were also unrealistic, as were the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon beach movies. And then there's the teen fantasy that was High School Musical!

At last, though, gay kids got to live the fantasy of two boys falling in love as one sings a song to another. I hope the Hulu video goes viral!

In addition to the ground-breaking depiction of gay teen romantic love (and not just a couple of doctors or whatever making sexy eyes at each other or whatever, it just seems to me that the sight of Kurt slumped against his locker after the football player smashes him AGAIN, after the kiss, and the bewildered look on Kurt's face as he sits there contemplating the fact that the only boy who's ever kissed him is the boy who beats him up, is a lot more relevant to actual high school kids than Hillary Clinton's "It Gets Better" video, as valuable as that project is in its way.

"Glee", not unlike high school, has always been a mish-mash of these moments mixed with bucketloads of cheese food product, marginally offensive idiocy, and wholeheartedly offensive idiocy. The kiss that Schue gave Bieste was truly horrible. I hope it gets him fired.

I agree with Fnarf. If you're going to comment on a show, you should at least watch it. It's on Hulu, and would take about an hour of your time. No one's asking you to LIKE it, but lots of cultural commentators have to watch stuff they hate just so they can make intelligent commentary.

When I criticized the episode along similar grounds, all I got back from Glee fans was, "SHUT UP! A BOY SANG TO A BOY! AND A BOY KISSED A BOY! GOD!"

Since when does a TV show have the obligation to present life as we wish it were, rather than how it is? That would actually make for rather boring TV - no fighting, no drama, no confronting real life issues. Did Mr. Schuester do the right thing? Of course not. Was his reaction realistic? Of course.

And #2 is right - Mr. Schue didn't see the actually abuse taking place, which in high school (at least this is how mine was) means he can't do anything. If a teacher didn't see it, it didn't happen. I once watched, along with ten other girls, a girl rifle through another girl's purse (while said girl was in the bathroom) and take $20. We all told the teacher when she got back to the room, but she didn't see it, so she couldn't do anything. And, yes, a lot of what Mr. Schue and Blaine says isn't exactly the right thing to say. I think too many people have confused Glee with an afterschool special.

When I watched Wishbone or Arthur as a kid, I knew that the creators of the show were setting up a model for how I behaved. But when I watched Law & Order at the same age, I knew that the creators weren't trying to give me good morals and behavior - they were just trying to entertain. And that's what Glee is doing. A character's behavior is not tacit approval of that behavior by the creators - it's just a depiction of life.

@ 8 and @ 12, Dan's quick on the trigger about a lot of this stuff. While he coined the phrase "The internet is a race and you won," I think he's actually in a competition with whomever to be the first to comment about something.

Dan, let me add my voice to the chorus: If you didn't see it, then save it, alright?

Yay for posting the Tom & Lorenzo link, Fnarf. I first read it when commenter "elm+1character" linked to it in yesterday's Glee thread.

Their point about the, whatchacallit, mythic power gay kids can take from the romantic serenade is spot-on. They admire IGBP (somewhat archly perhaps) and are tickled that Glee channeled that energy into its uniquely powerful popular art, giving gay kids a fantasy touchstone they can turn to for hope and comfort time and again, online forever....

That aside, I am just loving the shade Dan keeps throwing at that show. Maybe someday he and Ryan Murphy will claw this out together wherever celebrity gays cross paths, but for now it's just delightful.

I'm guessing this is going to be a continuing plot thread that will eventually lead Kurt to call bullshit on the hypocrisy of all teachers and adults who "care about him" so much that they won't stand up for him. Until this plot resolves it self I am gonna withhold judgment.

I, like a lot of commenters here, am a little perplexed at the bad reaction to this episode. It seems like the vapid, hatedom community of the internet is going after it for being a "Very Special Episode" and people on the left are going after it for not being Special enough. People seem to want the world that Glee portrays to be perfect. It's not.

For me, being gay in high school was an utterly lonely experience. I find the way Kurt was portrayed to be very accurate. I found the reaction of teachers and administrators (that is, doing next to nothing) to be very accurate too. A kid whose being tortured in high school will not watch a show where the administration LEAPS into action at this stuff and say "Oh, that's how my life is."

The shining light of the episode is Blaine's support for Kurt, a boy he doesn't know at all, because he's "family" and because he knows what Kurt is going through.

Being queer in a heterosexual world can be cripplingly lonely, and the only way any of us are going to make it through is by sticking together. We CAN'T rely on straight people, and we have to have courage both for ourselves and for those who suffer from bullies.

That's the "lesson" of the episode, and it's a damned good one.

I say this with all the love in the world for Dan. Dan is the Andrew Shirvell to Glee's Chris Armstrong. Get a room you guys.

This is making me remember how upset many people were after seeing the next episode of "Ellen" after she came out. The episode were she came out was GREAT, but in the next episode she tells her parents. Her dad is momentarily upset and leaves, but the next day he strides into a PFLAG meeting and yells "She's here, she's queer, get used to it!" Ellen and her parents hug and all is well.

People were upset because this SO DID NOT represent what most of them had gone through. Sure, most parents get okay with it, but usually not 100% okay in a day. And some never do.

Remembering this, I think It would have felt similarly false if Schuster had suddenly dealt with the bullying in the best possible way and suddenly Kurt was never bullied again. I think the show represented what most kids do in fact go through (except, maybe, the part about getting kissed by their bullies).

@17 In this very episode, Kurt tells Schuester that he and everyone else at the school lets homophobia slide.

@Dan The fact that the characters are shown to be flawed is what keeps Glee from being A Very Special Episode / After School Special. Glee is uneven, but I don't get how you can praise South Park (!) on gay issues and rip Glee without even seeing it.

Also, what @2 said.

Or, Dan could be having us all on. Maybe instead of drinking in the hotel bar, he did, in fact, watch Glee, which is his guilty pleasure when on the road. Clutching a tissue and absently moving his feet in time to the dance numbers, he cheered Kurt on. Then, to throw us off the scent, he says, "Yeah, so while I was *drinking*, and watching the *news,* I hear this show called Glee was on...what happened??"

Canuck, you've made me start wondering if Dan isn't distracting us because he's already filmed a super-secret guest appearance this season, like when Snoop Dogg appeared on One Life to Live (or, to translate to Canadian, when Skid Row's Sebastian Bach guested on Trailer Park Boys).

Agree with some of the sentiments above- don't be so quick to condemn until A. You've watched it. B. You see how it's played out throughout the rest of the season.

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/11/1…

What I found interesting about this episode of Glee was the way one of the perpetual bullies was outed as a closet case. I found that relationship very real and, unfortunately, heartbreaking for Kurt.

Unrestrained bullying has been a theme of the show (e.g. the slushies to the face, Sue Sylvester, etc.), so Shue's lack of response was very much on script. I did like his reference to the fact that bullying has ramifications into a adulthood.

I found Shue's kissing Bieste to be incredibly condescending and demeaning for her. Let's hope a pity fuck isn't in the cards.

I think we may be onto something, gus...curiouser and curiouser...
And thank you for translating, as you reminded me of a Canadian blogger who used to drive her son crazy by calling Jay Z "Jay Zed"...heh. (My 22 year old son in Vancouver has a Trailer Park Boys poster in his bedroom, sigh.)

I've got to agree with Fnarf on this one.

Mr. Schuester screwed the pooch. But the show, surprisingly, didn't. The adults reactions to Kurt's pain was presented as the wrong weakness. The way that most of the adults react to Kurt's bullying is 100% accurate to what many kids feel today -- that those who are supposed to protect them talk the talk but never walk the walk. When Kurt met the cute gay kid from the other school, he said just that.

I'm not a huge fan of Glee.... or at least I'm not a huge fan of calling Glee a good show... but that episode had a lot more happened that was right than was wrong.

I thought Tom and Lorenzo at Project Rungay's comments were actually pretty ridiculous. They speak slightingly of the It Gets Better project and somehow think that one brief clip of a boy singing, purportedly to another boy, on network TV, is more valuable to impressionable young minds than hundreds of people offering heartfelt words of support.

First of all, I think it was unnecessary to compare the two things because it is not as if they are in competition to see what works best, and secondly, the presentation of the song was exactly what it was, a "Teenage Dream." There was nothing remotely realistic about it, so it's hard to pretend it has any real application for anyone's real life suffering. But if you're content with a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes, by all means, go for it.

@29, if IGBP videos didn't give you a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes, you're doing it wrong.

@30, I am defending IGBP in my post. I was criticizing the bloggers who spoke slightingly of IGBP in their post in favor of the GLEE episode. I have nothing but the purest admiration for Dan and the people who have taken the time to post on IGBP, and am irritated by people who have done nothing to make the bullying situation better but still feel comfortable in disparaging IGBP.

For the record, I think the following commentator hits the nail on the head about the GLEE episode.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/…

One of the thing I find perversly fascinating about GLEE is how unlikeable most of the major characters are. Rachel is selfish and vain, Sue is a Machiavelli in search of a meaningful cause (in the meantime, any cause will do), the principal is ineffective, Schuester ranges from being condescending to being ineffectual, to being a washed-up performance wannabe who peaked in high school and has been desperately trying to recapture that moment ever since (and who is willing to sacrifice the best interests of his students to do it). Quinn, Puck, and Scheuster's wife are all lying, amoral cretins. Practically the only decent people are Sam, Finn and Artie--two dimwits and a kid in a wheelchair. Brittany is dryly funny (I wish more episodes would feature her), and I empathize with Kurt while recognizing that he can be...well, he can be curt!

Perhaps the fact that all these people are so intensely fucked up is what keeps the show from devolving into the saccharine-fest that was High School Musical.

@31, and I'm twitting you for being too literal-minded and litmus-testy. You correctly point to IGBP's tremendous fact-lading power. But if you can admit part of the power IGBP has is to move viewers emotionally, offer catharsis, you have to admit that to the extent the Glee song moved people it's valuable, no matter how you may think Tom and Lorenzo unworthy to speak of it.

Say all you like how stupid people are for being moved to tears and joy by the sight of TV boys united by a lipsynch, but the very fact that they're moved means it's a good goddam thing. And no amount of o-pinion can change that.

If Glee was like real life, Kurt and the bully would have ended up in bed together, the bully with his legs in the air.

I think the point that TLo were making is that the moment in Glee was representative of something rarely seen on TV - a cheesy romantic moment aimed at gay kids. When those moments become unremarkable and common, that's when we know there's a difference. They weren't slamming IGB, but making the point that seeing gay romance portrayed positively in the media in a similar manner to how straight romance always is, that's a palpable change for a gay kid to actually witness - no waiting, no hoping for better in the future, but an in the moment experience of the show runners of a popular prime-time show actually bothering to present an idealized romance that appeals to me.

It was a moment that showed kids hope and change, rather than just telling them that hope and change will eventually happen.

Not a rip on IGB, a project I love, but just a clarification of their point.

The episode very obviously counterposed Kurt's isolation and solitude with the two story lines of The Beast, who found help from Mr. Shue, and Puck, who also accused the adult hierarchy of not caring about him but did find help from another student. The last scene shows Kurt watching as Artie coaxes Puck to accept his aide and friendship just before once again getting slammed into the locker by his nemesis and left there on the floor alone. The unfairness of Kurt's treatment was the entire point.

Kurt made the point verbally to Schuester that neither he nor anyone else in authority cared what was happening to Kurt.

@31 Re: your NPR link.

I agree with one of the dissenting commenters to that article. The episode shows that Blaine's advice isn't magic: the closeted gay jock continues to bully Kurt at the end of the episode.

@36 Eureka, Erica!

I think the fact that Schuester handled the situation badly was intentional and unfortunately realistic, and Kurt called him on it right there in the moment. It's showing the reality of how many adults there are out there or pretend to care but can't be arsed to do anything about it.

Schuester is shown pretty frequently to be a clueless dick who makes bad choices. This was just one more of those times, and it served a purpose. People making imperfect choices that lead to conflict, action, and exploration is called "drama."

Gloomy Gus, you have reading comprehension issues or you just like to twist words to be contrary. I'm not even going to argue with you except to point out that I never called anyone stupid for liking the GLEE scene.

I am contrarian sometimes, sure, but when you wrote of the Glee scene "it's hard to pretend it has any real application for anyone's real life suffering" I thought, oh get her.

http://www.myspace.com/musicfromglee/mus…

I sent this to Dan and Joe. Joe posted it but I'm not sure Dan will.

Enjoy Glee fans! Kurt and Blaine fans too!