Saturday, May 25, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013

'Glee' adoption storyline draws some fire

Another day, another set of people who aren't so gleeful about Fox's "Glee." Not surprisingly, perhaps, this one consists of adoptive parents who don't think the Ryan Murphy show's reflecting their reality in a storyline in which Quinn (Dianna Agron), having given up her baby for adoption, is now vowing to get the child back. They're also not too pleased with how the show's treating the uneasy reunion of Rachel (Lea Michele) with her birth mother (who's played by Idina Menzel, whose character, conveniently, also happens to be the woman who adopted Quinn's baby). Personally, I object to these plot points more on the ground that like so much that happens on "Glee," they grow less out of the individual characters than out of the writers' increasingly desperate need to make stuff happen, however outlandish, between the song-and-dance numbers that are the only reasons many of us still watch the show at all. So far, more than 750 people have signed a petition, posted by adoptive mother Amber Austin at Change.org, to ask Murphy to produce a public-service announcement "that helps to separate fact from fiction about adoption, and points viewers to resources for finding out more about how adoption really works." Which sounds like a great idea, until you consider that they're asking the guy who made "Glee" and "Nip/Tuck" and most recently "American Horror Story" to explain how something really works. And then, of course, there's Change.org, which sent out a press release today to tout both the online petition and its own status as "the world's fastest-growing platform for social change." If this is an example, I'm thinking change will come sloooowly.

2 comments

'Glee' adoption storyline draws some fire

POSTED: Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 12:15 PM
Blog Image
Idina Menzel and Lea Michele on "Glee" Mike Yarish/Fox

Another day, another set of people who aren't so gleeful about Fox's "Glee."

Not surprisingly, perhaps, this one consists of adoptive parents who don't  think the Ryan Murphy show's reflecting their reality in a storyline in which Quinn (Dianna Agron), having given up her baby for adoption, is now vowing to get the child back.

They're also not too pleased with how the show's treating the uneasy reunion of Rachel (Lea Michele) with her birth mother (who's played by Idina Menzel, whose character, conveniently, also happens to be the woman who adopted Quinn's baby).

Personally, I object to these plot points more on the ground that like so much that happens on "Glee," they grow less out of the individual characters  than out of the writers' increasingly desperate need to make stuff happen, however outlandish, between the song-and-dance numbers that are the only reasons many of us still watch the show at all.

So far, more than  750 people have signed a petition, posted by adoptive mother Amber Austin at Change.org, to ask Murphy to produce a public-service announcement "that helps to separate fact from fiction about adoption, and points viewers to resources for finding out more about how adoption really works."

Which sounds like a great idea, until you consider that they're asking the guy who made "Glee" and "Nip/Tuck" and most recently "American Horror Story" to explain how something really works.

And then, of course, there's Change.org, which sent out a press release today to tout both the online petition and its own status as "the world's fastest-growing platform for social change."

If this is an example, I'm thinking change will come sloooowly.

2 comments
Comments  (2)
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:49 PM, 10/11/2011
    The worst part of the adoption story is it is giving a storyline to Dianna Agron who can't act or sing, instead of giving a decent story to Lea MIchele who can act and sing circles around Dianna.
    frank mcbee
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:03 PM, 10/21/2011
    Have they given the baby it's own musical number yet? The show wasn't bad at first, but now I just DVR it and watch the musical numbers.


About this blog
As the TV critic for the Philadelphia Daily News, I've always believed my job is less about thumbs -- up or down -- and more about the conversation. Because the more choices we have, the fewer people in our lives know what we're talking about when we say, "Did you see that?" And that's when television really starts to get interesting. Reach Ellen at graye@phillynews.com.

Ellen Gray Daily News TV Critic
Blog archives:
Past Archives: