August 20th, 2010 by soullldiva

I LOVE Glee. I was in choirs and show choirs and musicals my whole young life through Middle School and High School and we never did anything close to what they do on this show. What I wouldn’t have done to have a rock band available every day for choir practice (who wouldn’t).

Since the premise of the show is a glee club in High School, it’s easy to segue into the musical numbers. Most of them are super fun. But this one was extra special.

Towards the end of the second season there is a storyline about Artie (played by the lovely Kevin McHale) seeking procedures and therapies to help him walk. Now, Glee has taken heat for its famous “wheelchair episode” where they did “Proud Mary” with the entire cast in wheelchairs. I don’t pretend to know what a wheelchair bound person deals with every day. All I can say is that there are people in wheelchairs and they are people just like anyone else and should be treated with respect like any other person on this earth. I’m glad for Artie’s character because paraplegics don’t get enough screen time. TV just isn’t “real world” enough, and they sometimes don’t want to highlight the tougher issues that might just “bring us down”. How people deal with their confinement in the chairs and still express their art is what makes them unique. And everyone needs to play up their uniqueness, because there is only one YOU. (thanks Mia)

Artie talks with Emma Pilsbury (Jayma Mays) about the different experimental treatments they are doing to help people walk again. I really hate that her character discourages him from these, saying that they are in the first stages and would take years to perfect, let alone use. I actually don’t like her character all the time (now Sue Sylvester on the other hand I’ll take any day, considering how she treated the Down’s Syndrome girl, yea).

But then Artie is at the mall with his new girlfriend Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and tells her that he’s actually been doing the treatments, and he thinks they’re really working.

The dance is so completely awesome it makes you want to get up and dance with him. This is also the first time we see Kevin McHale out of the chair and moving. Hey–he can effin’ dance!! The song is a perfect choice for the scene as well, as 80′s one-hit-wonder pop tunes usually are (thank you Men Without Hats). You are so elated by the dance and Artie’s obvious joy that when the song abruptly ends and slams him back in his wheelchair your heart is pinched hard. Tears sprang to my eyes. You and empathize a bit more with Artie and his longings. If you were in a wheelchair, would you want to dance too? I would.

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