“I brought some bloody marys y’all...It’ll help your hangover. That’s what bloody marys are for. Hair of the dog that done bit your ass.” -Artie
I think it’s time to realize that Glee will never be a perfectly crafted show. While there are glimpses of its potential to do so, it seems to be settling a bit in the middle between what I love and hate. I love the relationships of the students with Will as a type of guide in their paths to success, with a little bit of Sue and Emma sprinkled in. On the outside, this episode seemed to have everything I’d want in a favorite episode, but their exists one problem now: too many plot lines!
We can’t get any continuity with this show. How are we supposed to care about Kurt and Blaine when they weren’t even in last week’s episode? The same goes for Emma and Will. I think we could feel empathy towards Will and root for that relationship if they gave it consistent airtime. With focusing on Will and Bieste this episode, we lost out on the Lauren and Puck story line and they barely touched on Santana and Sam. It’s like if one character isn’t featured that episode, they seem completely useless. I love all the characters in their own respect, so I like to see them working together as a unit, celebrating their wins and being heartbroken by each other’s actions. They have a problem that Hollywood seems to struggle with a lot in that happy couples aren’t interesting. We don’t see much of Artie and Brittany or Tina and Mike because they’re happy. Instead we only see characters that are constantly making up and breaking up. It makes it hard for us to root for couples to succeed in the long term.
I do like the episodic feel of this episode. We got some over arching story arcs, what with Rachel and Blaine, Kurt and his dad, Sue and Will as well as the Glee club tackling a specific issue independent to this episode. This is a strong recipe for success in network television. Shows like House, CSI and NCIS play to killer ratings every week using this formula. It’s a bit hidden with this week’s episode, but just think of accomplishing the task of an alcohol awareness song at assembly like a medical mystery on House. I think Glee can be successful in this respect. As long as we move towards to regionals and we spend some time developing important relationships, I’ll be satisfied.
But is being satisfied enough? Think back to the first half of the episode. The Rachel Berry Extravaganza had real potential to illuminate so many truths about these kids. I would not have minded a bottle episode where we stayed in that party the whole 44 minutes. We could have had a unique introspective look at all the characters relationships. Finn and Quinn could have talked about everything, Blaine and Rachel could have figured out he wasn’t straight by the end of it, Sam and Santana could have connected on another level that’s not purely physical, Puck could have shown more kindness to Lauren, you get the picture. Not that I hated the episode as a whole, on the contrary. I very much enjoyed it. We’re just so close to capturing it’s former greatness, yet so far.
Other thoughts:
Heather Morris continues to amaze me as a performer. I’ll take all the auto tune and Ke$ha in the world if it means getting more of her fronting the Glee club. This also on the heels of her being the “Stripper Girl Drunk” makes for one her finest episodes.
30 plus episodes for an original song and we get “My Headband.” Love it! I know the Rachel Berry original will no doubt help propel the group to nationals, but still, “My Headband” will forever be the first original song on Glee.
The evolution of Artie is probably one of the biggest successes of the show. No sympathy for his being in a wheelchair. Instead they let him flourish as a person.
Kurt is arguing on the wrong side of teenage gay rights. He has to realize that there is something different about him having a gay guy sleep over. Even if they are just friends, a parent of a high schooler is usually not ok with people of the sex they’re interested in sleeping over. Where I normally find Kurt and his father’s arguments about tolerance and homosexuality, I was left a bit angry with Kurt on this one.
I laughed way more than normal at Becky playing the xylophone.
This episode featured just the right amount of Sue and used her in a way that seemed believable. Hopefully we get more of this.
Where was Cheyenne Jackson supposed to fit into all of this? How about the girl he stole from McKinnley? Are we just supposed to forget about that?
Sam saying they haven’t had enough rehearsal is ironic because we never really see them rehearse for any numbers in class, yet they deliver knock out numbers. Like “Blame it” in this episode.
Brittany line of the week: “You guys I’m really nervous. Ke$ha has been a cultural icon for weeks and I really want to do her music justice.
Kurt line of the week: “Bisexual is a term that gay guys in high school use when they want to hold hands with girls and feel like a normal person for a change.”
No comments:
Post a Comment