hi ok i don't really know how to phrase this but uhh... would you say that schue-centric plotlines constantly being included was like.. important? i'm a bit over halfway through my s1 rewatch rn and there's just so much of him already, not to mention the impending schue-carl-emma stuff in s2 (i'm dreading it so much u don't understand) etc etc and i was wondering if it ever was actually necessary to include all of that. like presumably it would've been to make us root for him as a "father figure" for the glee club or whatever but did we really need to see that much of him?
I'm no fan of Schue lol so my gut would immediately say no, it really wasn't that important.
But like, Schue was originally as important as Rachel and Finn. I've said it before that they were the three pillars of season 1, for better or worse, and Schue representing the adults was part of that. His love triangle/square mirrored that of the kids, with not so subtle parallels between himself and Finn, and Terri and Quinn in particular. So in a way I would consider it important. Schue gave the show another dimension and made the world feel more alive, and he did provide this parallel to the kids' lives that in theory should only make both plotlines stronger.
In practice, there's a reason why the adults' stuff is almost universally regarded as less interesting than the kids' and why they gradually fade into the background as the show goes on. For example, I think a better way to highlight his father figure tendencies would have been for him to actually help the Glee Club lol. Instead, when he's not busy with the Emma drama he's so far up Finn's ass he simply doesn't have the time to be a supportive figure to the others. Sure, he was a great mentor (and later best friend which was creepy lbr) to Finn but pretty much only Finn. He did fuck all about Kurt's problems, barely helped Quinn and later just resorted to yelling at her and other girls whenever they had issues, and I'm not even sure he didn't forget about Santana being outed even before the ad actually aired. And obviously this is a much larger Glee issue of prioritizing, hmm, certain characters but part of why Will came across as creepy instead of an oh so great teacher was because he only ever seemed to truly care about one (1) kid. So instead of the adult plotlines I wish Glee would have had him show up for the rest of the kids.
But even as far as the adult storylines are concerned, I'm convinced we needed way less of it. I actually think some of it worked, very early on with the Terri stuff. I'm biased because I find Terri (and Kendra) hilarious and like I said it does sorta work in tandem with the kids' story. I think it was all the extra Will stuff, like every freaking guest star woman being into him and him having these recurring identity crises that really weren't necessary. His role should have first and foremost been his relationship to the Glee Club and to Emma. I feel you on dreading the Carl love triangle stuff because that's where the show loses me and I assume a lot of others. We don't need relationship drama from the adults, we need them to enhance the kids' stories. I don't agree with how it's done in s1A (justice for Quinn 2k22) but it is at least done well purely from a writing perspective. So I surprised myself by how much the adults' stuff didn't bother me there. But it does later on, because the amount of times I wanna see women throw themselves at William is zero, and there are only so many times the Will and Sue fight and make up and fight again story works.
I don't whether I answered your question somewhere in there but let's just say that I see where the Will stuff was coming from and it wasn't inherently bad or boring. But as the show went on and the problem of framing became glaringly obvious, the Will stuff was exhausting and not at all interesting. To me, anyway. Maybe if he actually bothered to support all or, ffs, at least a handful of his students I'd feel differently. But you know there are lots of issues with Will's portrayal, which is why everyone hates him nowadays and thinks he was creepy.
That said, I think we did need more of the adults, just not of Will if all he was gonna do is be a slut and kiss up to Finn. Seeing more of Emma and Beiste with the kids, now that I would have loved.
