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"Glee": Staff Writer Matthew Hodgson Impresses with First Script

Glee writer Matthew Hodgson, on Twitter@mhodgson207

The writers’ room now at Glee is now bursting with a great new group that has begun to help the show grow past its sophomore slump. Among the new writers is Matthew Hodgson, the talented writer of Glee Episode 307, I Kissed a Girl.

Matthew has worked on the show as script coordinator since the pilot. With that kind of access he's probably the ultimate Gleek, and with last week’s episode, he made an important and lasting contribution.

TV is a collaborative medium, with a lot of folks taking deserved credit, but I single out Matthew for praise because, I Kissed a Girl successfully re-jiggered most of the third season story arcs, invested some needed heart to nearly every character, held two elections and set up (finally) a genuinely suspenseful Sectionals competition that will bring back Trouty Mouth.

He managed – finally – to end the Puck/Shelby nonsense by just letting them have sex. Afterward, Puck uttered his forever line: “The advantage of a relationship with a younger dude is that I’ve still got four more rounds in me before I need a steak sandwich and a Coke Zero.” And because Puck never sticks around, Matthew broke them up!

I guess that’s what comes with laboring as script supervisor for two seasons. With an encyclopedic understanding of the show, characters, and their motivations, Matthew was the right choice to be assigned to write this critical, tables-turning show.

Let me sing more praises. Look at what he did with poor, dumb Finn, saddled in Episode 306 with a Santana slap for being so insensitive and outing her in the hallway. Matthew made Finn smart, and let him figure out his behavior. Finn to Santana: “You were my first. And that means something to me. You mean something to me. If something were to happen to you and I didn’t do everything I could to try to stop it, I’d never be able to live with myself.” Finn is maturing. In addition to exhibiting a newly-acquired lower register on "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," Finn grew beyond his core motivation, fatherless ignorance, and display a greater capacity for love.

Matthew didn’t stop there. He elected Brittany to the presidency, Bert Hummel to Congress, dashed Sue’s dreams, increased Coach Bieste’s sexual frustration, let Artie say, “Where’s Rachel? She never misses applause,” and finally, most touchingly, he gave us a glimpse of Santana’s mean, dark Abuelita, the woman who called little Santana “Garbage Face” before sending her off to school. Santana tentatively came out to her grandmother and was banished to illustrate the consequences of coming out to a homophobe.

Though there have been superlative contributions from the new writers, in "I Kissed a Girl" Matthew brought an authoritative knowledge of the show to the show, which frankly, has abused audiences in the past with frustrating and inexplicable story and character u-turns. He re-invested the episode with a little compassion, continuity and a few good funny phrases.

Tonight, there's lots of extra-curricular activity at McKinley High. Sam returns,New Directions compete against the Troubletones and the Unitards, and, in a sequence so hot that it’s already gone viral, Sebastian makes another try for Blaine and gets a big warning from Kurt. Then there’s just one more Christmasy show, followed by a long hiatus.

Now that there is proof of Matthew's scriptwriting ability, are you looking forward to more from him? Perhaps in the second half of the season, starting up in January, we’ll see more. Until then we'll always have Episode 307, where he showed us Sue Sylvester writing in her journal: “Truth is, Journal, I’m attracted to men. Sure, I can’t stand watching them eat or talk, but when it comes to getting sexy, this gal’s got a hole in her heart that only a fella can fill.” Truer words were never spoken.

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