Fox has finally begun airing the second part of Glee’s season two. Until the moment, the series has aired 33 episodes between both seasons, and I think it’s awful how the producers of the show have disregarded Jenna Ushkowitz’s (who plays Tina Cohen-Chang) talent that badly.
Glee is conformed by an ensemble cast of around 16 “permanent” characters. Add to that the fact that guest stars appear constantly, and many would think it’s hard to find screentime for everyone. But that shouldn’t be true, since everyone should get their time in the spotlight at some point, especially maincasts who have been there since the beginning. So, it’s really strange to realize everyone has gotten their chance to shine except Tina/Jenna, who, until the moment, has waited a season and a half and still hasn’t gotten any real spotlight in the storyline and musical departments.
In Glee’s pilot episode, the club was conformed by Rachel, Finn, Kurt, Mercedes, Artie and Tina. Those were the original “Dontstopbelievers”, and one would think, because of that, the producers of the show would really assure every one of them gets their deserved focus. But that hasn’t been the case. Everyone has gotten their chance to shine (Mercedes still lacking some love in the storyline department, but she got her spotlight in “Home” and “Laryngitis”), except for Tina.
In the first couple of episodes, she didn’t say much because of her (then revealed) fake stutter. The first time she got a sort of pseudo-plotline was in episode 4, “Preggers” where she sung “Tonight” from West Side Story, but the song was cut down drastically to less than a minute of singing, it never got a release, and she had to blow the last note on purpose due to the script. A possible storyline could have developed at moment concerning her extreme shyness, but it didn’t. Instead, the “Tonight” subplot was mainly used to give Rachel a reason to finally quit New Directions as a way to demonstrate her character’s ambition.
The next time Tina got a little bit more screentime was in episode 9, “Wheels”, but yet again, she was used to improve other character storylines instead of getting herself one, tendency that has repeated itself until this day. This time around, she was there to worry about Artie’s disability, his character finally getting his centric episode. At the end of the episode, out of the blue, Tina revealed her stutter was actually fake, revelation that could’ve been developed into a deep storyline, but it got reduced to a couple of lines of messed up explanation, and an extremist reaction from Artie. Moments later, Tina got to sing a couple of lines in “Proud Mary”, which she delivered greatly, but still, the song’s main leaders were undoubtedly, Artie and Mercedes.
And that was it in the storyline department for Tina in the first 13 episodes. In the remaining four episodes, never again was her fake stutter or extreme shyness discussed. She got to sing her first and, until the moment, only solo in 33 episodes (over a year): “True Colors”, which is considered by many one of the most beautiful renditions ever done in the series, but yet again, the song had no direct connection with her character, and the scene instead was used to demonstrate the tension surrounding the Rachel, Finn, Kurt, Quinn and Puck characters.
Still, the season hadn’t ended yet, and one would assume she would get her chance to shine in the “Back 9”, wouldn’t she?
How wrong we were.
In the “Back 9” Tina got even less attention, if that’s possible. Everyone got their chance to shine, or an episode focused around them with songs for them to sing. Rachel had to face her biological mother, Finn had to cope with her mum getting a new boyfriend, Kurt still faced problems with his sexuality, Mercedes struggled with her weight, Artie had to face the fact he would never be able to walk again, Quinn was still facing pregnancy problems and Puck had to step up as the father of the baby. Even Santana and Brittany, non-maincasts, started getting more screentime and storylines than Tina. Santana, and even Sue, got to sing more than Tina in the Back 9. Jenna was originally going to sing a solo mashup in “The Power of Madonna” (Erotica/Justify My Love), but not surprisingly it got cut. In episode 19, “Dream On”, yet again she was used to support Artie’s character, doing nothing more than trying to help him, and got badly treated in return, which went against her strong feminist attitude in the Madonna episode. One would’ve thought “Dream On” would’ve been the perfect episode for her and Artie to duet, but instead Kevin got two solos, (making it three for him in the Back 9 along with “U Can`t Touch This”), and none for her in the back nine.
Then came Theatricality, episode which Jenna was really expectant to air because, as she stated, Tina was one of the main characters then. But she wasn’t really. She got the “C” storyline, when the episode was really focused around Rachel, Finn, Kurt, Burt, Shelby, and even Puck and Quinn. Tina’s fashion-sense-storyline was merely used as an excuse to include Lady Gaga’s songs in the episode, and that plotline was totally forgotten throughout the episode until the very end when it got resolved in a funny, but unnecessary, vampire-dressing-up scene. Even “Bad Romance”, the song most likely for her to get the lead in (since it was supposed to be her episode), was mainly given to Kurt and Santana, who got the larger roles in it.
And a couple of episodes later, the season ended. There was no doubt about it: Tina was the most underused maincast of them all. To give you some statistics, in the TV episodes she only got to sing in 6 ocassions: the cut down “I Kissed a Girl” and “Tonight”, a couple of lines in “Proud Mary” and “To Sir With Love”, and in “Bad Romance” and “True Colors”, while Santana got to sing in 5 occasions, and characters like Artie and Mercedes 15 and 17 times respectively, while Rachel sung around 36 and Finn 34 times. Even her solo in “My Life Would Suck Without You” got cut out of “Sectionals”.
Season two began with high hopes for Tina since it was revealed at ComicCon that she would begin a relationship with Mike, which would form a love triangle with Artie. But it really didn’t, since there’s never been any drama between the three of them. “Getting to Know You”, her solo in “Auditions”, got cut down, being the second time this had happened, along with “Tonight”. Two episodes later, already Rachel, Finn, Kurt, Mercedes, Artie, Puck, Sunshine and Britanny got solos, and Tina only got to sing the opening lines in “One of Us”, in an episode that didn’t have anything to do with her.
In “Duets”, episode which’s official description hinted it would focus her, was mainly focused on Sam, Kurt, Quinn, Artie and Brittany. This time around, Tina was used mainly to showcase more about Mike’s character and his inability to sing. Their duet, “Sing!”, though cute, didn’t showcase her broadway singing material at all, since she only got to sing a couple of words after Mike’s talking lines.
She got to participate more in group numbers in Season 2, but still, those songs never seemed to relate to her character. She got to sing a couple of lines in “Time Warp” and “Marry You”, but even in the latter one, her voice was kind of drowned by the general singing. Afterwards, in the Sectional’s episode “Special Education”, a shadow of a storyline began, since Tina started worrying Brittany and Mike were kissing each other during rehearsals, but, yet AGAIN, that plotline was used to enhance Artie’s and Brittany’s relationship, and it never really showed any tension between her and Mike. Jenna got to sing “Dog Days are Over” along with Amber, which she did beautifully, but then again, the song didn’t relate to any particular storyline about her. It´s also interesting to note that, in the first nine episodes of season 2, Britanny, not an original maincast, got 3 episodes surrounding her (“Britney/Brittany”, “Special Education” and “A Very Glee Christmas”) while Tina still hasn´t.
Arguably, Tina’s best scene, at the moment, was in the Superbowl episode, when she got tackled during the game. It was short but sweet and it got to showcase her characteristic feminism that was explored once before in “The Power of Madonna”, but yet again, it seemed contradicting than in the next episode, she was shown as really dependant on her relationship with Mike when she got to sing “My Funny Valentine” which, surprise surprise, was cut down by her crying and didn’t get an official release. That makes three solos cut down for Jenna (or four if you consider “I Kissed a Girl” as well). It´s also important to point out that, most of the time, her storylines revolve around her boyfriends, and never does she get a plotline involving just herself.
And that’s about it. Many people have been criticizing lately that Jenna doesn’t make a very good work in the series, but that assumption is completely out of line considering how very little (and ridiculous scenes) she has been given to work with. Do you think Chris Colfer would be nominated for an Emmy if, instead of his storylines, he had got Jenna’s scenes instead? No.way.at.all. The producer’s disregard for Jenna is absolutely ridiculous. Until the moment, she hasn’t gotten any serious storyline, when it isn’t difficult to write her one. She was on Broadway, for Christ’s sake! They could explore the story about her fake stutter, or the real reasons behind her gothic style. Even Jenna had the idea of Sandra Oh (Cristina Yang in “Grey´s Anatomy”), to guest star as her mum (which would make much more sense than random characters like Bryan Ryan or Kurts-lesbian-aunt appearing), but it’s very doubtful Tina will get a family background at some point. But I wonder, if Chris can ask for specific songs to sing, why can’t Jenna ask for some respect in both storylines and musical departments?
So, people who dislike Tina’s character, please, stop attacking her. It’s senseless. You can’t criticize her that harshly when she hasn’t gotten anything to work with. I just hope someone in the Glee world reads this (I assure you I´ll tweet about this text to everyone who works there, and I would love for any Tina fan out there to do the same, tweeting a link to the following page: http://www.defendingtinacohenchang.blogspot.com/).
JENNA DESERVES A TINACENTRIC EPISODE, AND TINACENTRIC SONGS. I WON’T STOP REPEATING THIS UNTIL THE SHOW ENDS.
Thanks for reading.
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