Glee - "Original Song" Review

“All I know is you blew me off to be with Stubbles McCripple Pants.” -Santana

Glee is always most successful when it focuses on the stories and lives of the students as they push toward winning the next competition their Glee club comes across. This particular episode was a return form where Glee reminded of us the potential this show has. There are extremely talented kids on set so it baffles me when the show chooses not to highlight them. I knew we were going to be in for a solid episode when it appeared the focus was going to be largely on the students. However, I never quite felt like the episode fully delivered. It was as if was about to sneeze and then I looked at a light and the sneeze went away. Was my need to sneeze curbed? Yes. But it wasn’t in the most satisfying of ways.

Glee has always done performance episodes so well. But why was this one not as strong as the others? Quite simply, we’re not emotionally attached to anything going on in the club. Before we had so many different issues going on the performances were extremely cathartic. Whether it was Quinn’s pregnancy, Rachel’s love story with Jonathan Groff, or the fact that New Directions was truly an underdog story. I felt that rooting for New Directions was like rooting for Duke. No matter how average they’ve been, we still hear a lot about how great they are and inevitably they win. Now I realize this was New Directions first win at regionals, but did anyone have any real doubt? It just seemed like it would have been really really easy to beat Oral Intensity and The Warblers. They’re nothing compared to how great Vocal Adrenaline was. Yes it was interesting to hear them do original songs, but you can’t honestly tell me that performance was better than the other ones they did. This brings me back to my original point about being emotionally invested in the characters.

Glee realized that they had to play catch up with the Quinn/Finn/Rachel story so they threw it in at the end of last weeks episode and devoted a lot of screen time to it early in this episode. It all seemed so rushed. I just never felt *that* sad for Rachel when she was singing. Finn hasn’t done anything this season to merit that much attention from her. I will give Diana Aragon and Lea Michelle credit for acting the pants of their scene in the auditorium. I really felt honest emotions coming from Quinn as she admitted to Rachel that she was better and that she was going to be the one to get out of Ohio. It’s almost as if Finn was her consolation prize. I wasn’t so sure I was feeling the scene at first because I thought Quinn was being uncharacteristically mean to Rachel, but then she showed us that she was just being brutally honest and sometimes that’s going to sting a little.

Last week I really liked the Santana and Brittany story line because I felt it was came from a real place and presented some very challenging emotions for a teenager. However in this particular episode, they decided to crush all momentum that story line had going. It was simple, but all Santana had to say was “I don’t know what I was thinking.” And there we have it. Don’t be surprised if that story line never comes back. But this just highlights another problem Glee has. I know that emotions of high school students are subject to whims and passing fancies, but changing gears every two episodes really retards any forward momentum and thus we can never fully commiserate with any of the characters. Really the only properly written arc was that of Kurt and Blaine. The writers took their time and fully developed the relationship before culminating it tonight. However, because Dalton Academy is detached from the heart of the show, I felt this story fell flat as well despite the best efforts of Chris Colfer who continues to impress on screen.

It’s not enough to write one good episode, stick at the end and hope that all is forgiven. I think we can apply some lyrics from Rachel’s song to my feelings on the show: “How many times will it take to get it right.” Although I found this episode very enjoyable, I felt it never quite peaked. Glee has a lot of cleaning up to do and I’m not so sure they’re going to start the process anytime soon. I think we’re going to have to be ok with the lack of character development and choppy plot if we are going to enjoy the show going forward.

Other thoughts:

I was happy to see the show realize The Warblers really was just the Blaine show. Even Kurt realized it, and Kurt knows best. However, even though they acknowledged their problem, they sang a duet and went right back to it being Blaine singing Pink with the Pips.

I need to applaud Glee for letting the kids struggle with songwriting at first. One of my complaints with the show is that the students are so great at everything they do the first time around. So it was nice to see the development process for once. It allowed us to see Will do some real teaching, even though he blew it by telling the students to write a song based on a title they came up with.

Speaking of the songs in development, I’m going to have to disagree with Finn. I think “My Headband” > “Only Child.” If I’m rating some of these original songs, I say “Big Ass Heart” has the most potential. “Hell to the No” is poppy and catchy but comes off as a rip off of High School Musical. “Only Child” is emotional, but lacks depth. “Trouty Mouth” has a high ceiling but it could be too one note.

I realize Oral Intensity was terrible but I knew one of the dancers so I was strangely entertained. I worked with Ashley Galvan last year and I always get excited when I see my friends get work on TV.

Kurt’s line “There doing original songs” was extremely necessary, because I wouldn’t have been able to tell if Rachel’s song was currently a single or original.

Brittany line of the week: “My headband.” If you didn’t laugh when Brittany said her favorite was “My Headband” show yourself so I can shake my head disapprovingly at you.

Glee - "Sexy" Review

“Just remember whenever you have sex with someone, you’re having sex with everyone they’ve ever had sex with. And everybody’s got a random.” -Holly

Sigh. Glee. How you upset me so. Tonight’s episode “Sexy” highlighted everything I don’t like about the show. While there were a few bright spots, they were few and far between and no memorable songs to break up the mess that was tonight’s episode. Tonight we were given a theme episode. I can’t stand these poorly constructed episodes. Apparently every single person at the school, teachers included, is having a similar problem at the exact same time. It’s unrealistic. And then they have to weave songs around their point as opposed to going with songs that are right for the story and seem organic in the moment. Not too mention they decided to blast us with all sorts of visiting stars that we barely got any real time with characters.

Just so you don’t think I’m some ball of hate toward the show, let’s start with the positive. Tonight was an amazing episode for Santana and Brittany. Naya Rivera continues to amaze me. We’ve seen her sing and dance at high levels, but tonight she really flexed her acting skills. Her scene in front of the lockers with Brittany was elegant and understated just enough. It would have been easy to play extremes and it would have seemed disingenuous, but she played hurt and conflicted very well. These types of scenes and relationships are what make the show so great. So it’s baffling when they stray from such honest and real emotions for cheap jokes and forced situations. I’m not saying I need every scene needs to be a heartbreaking emotional experience tonight, but I think the show thrives when see kids in honest situations reacting in honest ways. There was a nice attempt with Kurt and his dad,but the Kurt story line seems so disconnected that it’s hard to muster up the same empathy for his situation.

My lack of interest in Kurt’s story line is a manifestation of a bigger problem on Glee’s hands: there are too many plots. It seems simple enough to fix, but Glee can’t help themselves. Every week there seems to be a new story or a new character that wasn;t there before that takes up large portions of the episode pushing stories we actually care about to the back of the line. This week it was the reintroduction of Holly Holiday. Gwenyth Paltrow is currently trying to reinvent her career as a total performer. While I very much enjoy Gwenyth’s peformances, I just feel like she robbed too much of the episode. High on the list of things I don’t care about is Will Schuster’s love life. At one point, I cared very much. I think he had a real nice thing with Emma, but then Glee decided to take Emma PIllsbury away from us to the point where it’s hard to think about their relationship in the way we once did. I enjoy the adults presence when they are their as guides for the students. Perhaps instead of so much time devoted to Will trying to get his freak on, we could have seen more of Quinn and Finn making their relationship strong again. This was the show’s original power couple! Yet their relationship tonight felt like an aside. And when was the last time anyone heard from Tina, Mike Chang, Brittany or Sam? Heck even the diva herself, Rachel Berry, took a big backseat tonight. The show needs focus and it needs to find it quick.

Themed episodes are also a plague on the show. Just think of certain stories we had to endure tonight that we wouldn’t have had to if the show hadn’t decided that everything had to revolve around “Sexy.” First in line is the Lauren and Puck sex tape story. First of all, gross. Second, how ridiculous is it that that’s even a suggestion. Lauren was originally painted as this sassy smart woman who was leaps and bounds ahead of Puck mentally, but now she thinks just having a sex tape will bring her fame and a fragrance? Ugh. The Dalton Academy’s “sexy” foam party was laughable at best. The show is just constantly trying to make sure we don’t forget about Kurt, but honestly, I wish they’d leave him out until regionals. The “Afternoon Delight” number was a nice and funny gag, but did we really need John Stamos to come back? I realize the show wanted everyone to see that Emma was conflicted with her emotions, but it was just yet another character the show had to share screen time with. My problems with Sue Sylvester have been well documented, but I actually her when she’s used correctly, so when she was used tonight in a realistic way to deliver the “sexy” news to Kurt, I welcomed the change of pace she brought.

So Glee? If you’re listening, will you please focus your show? Please. For those of us who loved what it once was and know that it still can be. Do it for us, because we were here first and we’ve remained loyal. Please, do this for us. Thanks in advance.

Other thoughts:

- Doesn’t it seem like every teenage male Kurt’s dad comes into contact with seems like they all have something he can relate too? Did they really need Blaine to know about cars? And for that matter, isn’t Finn Kurt’s brother? Can we see any of that story? Oh well...

- Kurt and Blaine need their own spinoff series in that coffee shop. It just seems like every scene takes place there. I think I might be able to order Kurt’s coffee for him before too long.

- Something about lead characters on network shows having crushes on girls named Holly. Michael Scott from The Office and now Will Schuster. Remind me not to name my girl Holly because it will lead to many unwanted crushes.

- One adult I do always like, but only in very small doses is Principal Figgins. Coach Bieste has her moments, but did we really need her one moment on camera tonight as just a reminder of another story we weren’t getting too?

- Glee always brings up social issues that I have forgotten existed since I’m no longer in school. Growing up in Texas, we didn’t have a sex-ed class. We had health class where we briefly touched on sex, but only as a means of reproduction. There’s a lot of people wanting to talk about the difference between abstinence only and safe sex practices. But what I thought was interesting was that Blaine brought up that there’s no real information for gay teens in sex-ed classes. Is this a real issue? I’d imagine so. I can’t imagine a gay teen sitting through class listening to everyone else get their questions answered but feeling to afraid or ashamed to ask theirs. Just never really thought about it.

Brittany line of the week: “ I get my information from Woody Woodpecker cartoons.”

Great Recent Dance Moments on TV

This past weekend Saturday Night Live aired perhaps one the finest sketches in recent memory. Their second installment of "Les Juenes de Paris" was a brilliant story told through dance. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love dance and am a sucker for watching great dance. (This is why Dancing with the Stars is excluded. The celebrity just brings down the performance constantly.) So I decided to put together a little compilation of some of my favorite moments in dance from the past few years.

"Les Juenes de Paris" - Saturday Night Live



"Bleeding Love" - So You Think You Can Dance


I just absolutely love the passion and release shown here. Great emotion.

"Tap" - Melinda Sulivan


I have the pleasure of knowing Melinda personally and know just how capable she is. Her early exit from last season's So You Think You Can Dance is not indicative of how great an artist she is. Look forward to more exciting tap dancing from her in the future.

"Quest Crew Finale" - America's Best Dance Crew


The athleticism, originality and musicality of Quest all culminated in this amazing dance.

"Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" - So You Think You Can Dance


Great imagination. Good playful dance.

"Freeze (Magic ball illusion dance)" - America's Best Dance Crew


Still can't figure this one out, but dang is it entertaining.

"Ruby Blue (The Robber Dance)" - So You Think You Can Dance


Wade Robson has a unique style and I'm in to it.

"Single Ladies Live"


This is important because it introduced the world to Heather Morris who was tasked with teaching the Glee cast the dance. The results:


Which led to Heather Morris being a full time cast member which gave us THIS:




"Fireflies Solo" - So You Think You Can Dance


Such an inspiring solo it moves Joey Dowling to tears. It also led to his crew appearing later in the season. Also fantastic:

"Remote Kontrol" - So You Think You Can Dance (The dance describes above. Start at 1 minute mark)



"One Step Process" - Barry Stagg


As a reward to those who have engaged me in this post, here's a solo that was choreographed for me at Texas Tech University by Andy Reed. I was an acting major who started dabbling in dance. It's great fun and I wish I could do more of it.

Glee - "Blame It on the Alcohol" Review

“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.”

Glee - "Comeback" Review

“Who’s more rock and roll than Justin Bieber? No one. That’s who.” -Sam

Glee walked a fine line tonight. It was able to touch on aspects of things I both love and hate about the show. This was by no means Glee’s worst episode, far from it, but it is still standing in it’s own way from being great.

Let’s start with one of Glee’s biggest problem: Sue Sylvester. Glee is searching for a way to use Sue. We love Jane Lynch’s portrayal of her, but all the jokes are becoming hackneyed and we know the Glee club will not be disbanded anytime soon and the abuse on the students is more implausible than the kids spontaneously breaking into song. The success of the show lies within the relationship of the kids and their quest for regionals. There was way too much of the adults in this episode and the show is going out of its way to make Will and Sue likable again. I’m not unhappy about the appearance of pediatric cancer patients. Glee has proven that it can use material like this very effectively, as evidenced by Sue caring for her disabled sister, but this came across as pandering. It just seemed like they were using them to build the likability of Will and Sue. I didn’t buy it and I didn’t like it. If we care about one adult relationship, it’s between Will and Emma and that appears to be off the radar.

Now credit given where credit is due. Aside from the obvious question of how did Oral Intensity get this far without a coach, I like the idea of Sue being the coach there. It will essentially allow the show to focus back on New Directions while still allowing Sue to be a road block that we don’t have to deal with week in and week out. Hopefully with Sue being out of the spotlight we can get more Kurt. The lack of Chris Colfer is inexcusable. I worried about the show’s split focus and tonight Glee suffered. Kurt is just to interesting and dynamic to leave out of any episode. We need him back at McKinley High ASAP!

As for what I did love about this episode, count me a fan of just about every number on the show tonight. They served a purpose and moved the story. The rendition of “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent was especially on the money. Here we have Rachel Berry singing another Idina Menzel joint. I think it would have been funny if when she was on the cast Rachel just one time said, “Has anyone ever told you you look exactly like Idina Menzel?” Maybe that’s only funny to me. I’m with Glee. Justin Bieber is an epic talent and I’m surprised it took this long to get some of the Beebs on the show. Sam could use a little more dance lessons if he really wants to be The Justin Bieber Experience. Maybe Harry Shum Jr. can teach him some things. It’s clear Tina is learning a little something from him as she booty bumped with Brittany during Lauren’s song.

I also really love anytime the show chooses to focus on the whims of high school students and how it effects their relationships. I really like the love triangle between Sam, Quinn, and Santana. Or is it between Sam/Quinn/Rachel/Finn/Santana? More of a love pentagon I guess you could say. I don’t find all the make up break stuff annoying because it emulates the real life of students. Further, anytime we get to see more of Naya Rivera, I’m a fan. I believe that she can be the answer to the show’s “Sue Crisis.” Santana should just embrace the full time role antagonist. It will focus the show and allow for tension in the group itself. Too many outside influences are watering down the narrative.

Other thoughts:

-Though I’m not exactly sure where the plot line began, I thought it was a nice bit of humor to have all the girls start dressing like Brittany who was just copying Rachel. It seems like it was all a set up for Finn to say that Rachel was the real trend setter. Which leads me to my next point....

-An original song is exactly what this show needs! We’ve heard all sorts of different covers of rock, rap, showtunes and this would really add a lot. I don’t know if I love that Rachel will be writing and performing her own song. I hope it’s more of a group effort.

-Sue’s voice over’s while she’s writing in her diary are annoying. Don’t talk down to the audience. We know Sue is going to try and take down the Glee club, just show us. Don’t tell us and then show us. Redundant.

-Did I see the words “Avatar On Ice” in print? I’d for sure watch that.

Brittany line of the week: “I wore a tank top today because I thought it was summer. No one taught me how to read a calendar.” -Brittany

Kurt line of the week: NONE BECAUSE HE WASN’T IN THE SHOW!

Glee - "Silly Love Songs" Review

“Sometimes you have to choose between love and talent. And as far as I’m concerned, we all need to fly solo for a while.” -Mercedes

Welcome back Glee! Relievers in baseball always talk about looking forward to avenging a bad loss the next day, but starters have to wait a whole five days. Glee was lucky it only had a two day turnaround from that less than stellar showing after the Super Bowl. This week Glee got back to the core of its show: The students story and relationships told through songs that add depth and meaning. Sue Sylvester and Emma Pillsbury did not appear in this show one time and Will Schuster was only present because he facilitates the class. This proves that students drive this show.

Glee really chose to focus on new cast members this weekend giving both Lauren, Puck’s new plus sized obsession, and Blaine, the smoothing singing apple of Kurt’s eye. I can’t say I’m overly interested in either of them directly, but because I care about Puck and Kurt, I’m curious how these relationships play out. Their introductions are similar to Sam’s. I didn’t particularly care about him at first, but he carved out a nice niche for himself as Quinn’s girlfriend(for now) and to a certain extent Finn’s foil.

The story of Finn and Rachel still seems like the central part of the show. So it was nice to see them develop this a bit more this week. Here we learn that Quinn and Finn still have feelings for each other and they act on it by making out in the auditorium after school. I wonder if Santana hadn’t infected them with mono, if they would have backtracked so quickly? We also see that Rachel is not over Finn and to a certain extent, Finn not being over Rachel. I always love it when Rachel comes across as a normal person. Too often lately she has become a type of caricature and so ridiculous and over the top that she’s unlikable. Not this week. Rachel delivered a fantastic rendition of Katy Perry’s “Firework” filled with a lot emotion and release. Her version was better than Katy Perry’s and it got me to wondering if any artists are afraid of being overshadowed by their covers? I’m guessing it can only help it out, but it’s just a thought. I think we’re in for an emotional ride between these three. Quinn asks Finn if he can love two people at once and he says that he can. I guess we’ll find out!

Other Thoughts:

-Mike Chang really is a great dancer, if you haven’t checked him out in The LXD, you should.
-I was particularly interested in Mercedes speech about becoming a star while you’re single. Looks like my career is about to take off!
-Would a kissing booth be sanctioned by a high school? I say for the exact reason that it was used by Santana. She kissed Finn and gave him mono who then gave it to Quinn. Unless Quinn was the last girl he kissed, a lot more people would have it.
-Would the Warblers really break 90 years of tradition just to satisfy the whim of Blaine and his school boy crush? Doubt it.
-There’s no way Jeremiah would get fired for a kid singing to him in Gap. But Jeremiah didn’t seem too upset about it, so I won;t be either.

Britney line of the night: “That’s my man and his legs don’t work!”

Kurt line of the night: “So it’s just like When Harry Met Sally, but I get to play Meg Ryan.”

Glee - "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle" Review

“You’re so afraid of getting called geeks, or losers, or gay, that you settle for being nothing.” -Puck

Glee is trying to ruin me. How is it possible for me to love and hate a show much? The show defies coherent story telling, but yet is somehow strangely engrossing. Why? How can this be? I’m not even sure if the show is self aware any more the way The OC was when it was on. Glee has several things working in it’s favor, and several things it needs to fix if it’s going to become a great show in my eyes.

Glee has heart. This can’t be denied. I applaud the show for sticking up for homosexuals and the bullying they receive. This is a rampant problem in high schools today and the show brings great awareness to that. The line about bullying being born out of ignorance is all too true. I applaud the show for it’s devotion to the fact that the arts needs to be supported. Theatre, dance, and music training and education in schools provides so many skills for a students success. The issues Glee is tackling are extremely important, but I feel it’s getting lost in the production.

Glee is splitting it’s focus entirely too much. There’s no way Karofsky(who did a mighty quick costume change after losing the Super Bowl to be on the show...still don’t get it...he looks like Ben Rothlisberger) should be getting more screen time than Kurt. The wirters are going to need to figure out a way to get Kurt back to McKinley. I do not think the show is as successful with him at the other school. It makes for sloppy transitions and silly reasons for members of both teams to get together. Is the show about high school issues, or is it about a Glee club trying to win Nationals. I know it can do both, but right now I think it’s failing.

The Sue Sylvester story line was wildly thrown together. Sue’s character works better when she’s operating as a regular individual who is evil, not a devilish cartoon character of herself. Sue would immediately be fired, and sued. Her story lines are played out. Sue hates the Glee club. Sue tries to sabotage the Glee club. Sue is unsuccessful. We are going to need her to do something important or else she will become useless in the plot. This is a huge problem, because the show can’t get rid of one its best stars and perennial award winner. Thus it will the water down the narrative. Though I was especially happy to hear a Dallas Cowboy burn on Glee. In case you missed it, Sue won “Loser of the Year” beating out a fairly funny list that included the Cowboys. Nice.

However, sadly, that was about the only thing the writers got right about football on this show. My suspension of disbelief only goes so far. I forgive the fact that we never see the Glee club rehearse and yet they deliver perfect musical numbers. I forgive the fact that Sue has assembled the most talented group of cheerleaders any squad has ever seen, but what happened in the football game was atrocious and was actually distracting. 5 guys and 4 girls, all in Glee club, lined up to play the championship game and were only down 17 at the half. Mind you, this is a championship game that you could lose the game before and still play in. Then there was the ridiculous play to end the game where the zombie football players started saying, “Brains” so much that it distracted the QB and he couldn’t handle the snap (THAT HE WAS TAKING FROM SHOTGUN?!!?!) to ice the game and McKinley picks it up and wins the game and all is happy, right?

Wrong. The football team and glee club still appear to be on the rocks. This plot point actually made me happy because it would be ridiculous to assume to that years of hate and bullying could be solved by one song and dance. So at least that felt genuine. Maybe Glee was trying to take advantage of being aired right after the Super Bowl and decided to go with a football heavy episode. Let’s hope this is never the case again.

The music in this episode was just ok. I’m always happy when it’s not a themed episode or one where it’s just one artist because I think the show works best when the songs advance the story. The first song “Need You Now” was a perfect example of that. However, “Bills Bills Bills” sung by The Warblers was a scramble to just get another song in that had Kurt in it. And it was glaring that the writers needed to remind us that there was a regional competition still at stake. I bet that since it aired directly after the Super Bowl there was a lot of first time viewers. Sadly after that episode, I don’t think a lot of them will be sticking around.

Other Thoughts:

-When did the football team get good?
-Chord Overstreet needs to get his roots in check.
-When Coach Bieste was telling Will Schuster how much winning means for a city and how it changes everything all I kept thinking about was Green Bay winning the Super Bowl. Well timed.
-The show needs to bring back Emma! The Will and Emma love story is one everybody enjoys!
-Interested to see the dynamic of Quinn still being in love with Finn. Those teens have been awfully forgiving up to this point. I don’t know if certain friendships could survive more betrayal.

Brittany line of the night: “I don’t want to die yet. At least not until One Tree Hill gets canceled.”

Kurt line of the night: ““Blaine and I love football. Well, Blaine loves football. I loves scarves.”

What are your thoughts?

Fast Times at Rushmore High

OK it's been almost a month since I sent out a tweet asking people to tell me their favorite teen/high school movies and I'm starting to fear that if I don't get this post written, my friend Doyle is going to defriend me on Facebook and cut the brakes on my car. First though let me say I prefer the term defriend over unfriend. I figure if you can befriend someone you should be able to defriend them or should it be disbefriend? Not definitely defriend.

Here's a fact. Sports talk guys universally love three movies The Karate Kid, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Hoosiers. Makes sense, right? All three have at least a slight connection to sports, feature a victorious underdog and/or make you nostalgic for your high school days. It should come as no surprise that listeners, readers or followers of sports talk guys also hold these movies in high regard. What I wondered though was do people really consider these favorite movies or are they easy comic references?

Anyway, while watching a crappy bowl game and flipping over to Teen Wolf, I decided to find out what are our favorite teen movies. Do you really love The Karate Kid or do you really love referencing Daniel's mom's car? Is Fast Times a movie you stop on any time you run across it or do you just love quoting Mike Damone?

I tweeted and posted a question on Facebook asking "What is your favorite teen/high school movies?" The parameters were that the movie had to happen sometime during the school and the characters high school age. My expectations were that Fast Times, The Karate Kid, The Breakfast Club, Footloose and Dazed and Confused would dominate. I wasn't close.

I was right about Fast Times though. It was far and away the leader in votes and that made total sense to me. Fast Times is very well written by Cameron Crowe. The cast is full of actors that would go on to greater stardom like Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicholas Cage, Eric Stoltz and Phoebe Cates. OK well maybe that one moment was the pinnacle of Phoebe's career. The characters are still easy to relate to. Everyone was or knew a Rat or Brad or a Stacy and Linda. Even though school has changed over the years, Fast Times holds up.

One thing I didn't anticipate was how much women love Sixteen Candles. It came in second without a single male vote. I think I've figured out why women love this movie so much. Every woman wants their boyfriend or husband to be Jake Ryan. They want someone they can push around. Someone they can make throw a party at their house, invite all her friends and get completely blitzed. She knows no matter how bleary eyed she gets, she can count on him to make a half assed effort to get her home safely.

Possibly the biggest surprise was Red Dawn coming in third. I never even considered Red Dawn for the list but I guess since the paratroopers attack during class the movie does qualify. Regardless of it's questionable qualification, Red Dawn was a great movie for its time. It starred the second tier of the brat pack with C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson and every brat packers older brother Patrick Swayze. The movie came at just the right time during the Reagan era cold war. We all knew the Russians and Cubans were coming and living here in Texas it was our responsibility defend against the invasion. Apparently Hollywood hasn't done enough damage to our childhood memories with terrible remakes of Bad News Bears, The Karate Kid and other favorites from our childhood, they have remakes of Red Dawn, Footloose and Fright Night scheduled to be released this year. Did all the writers in LA die? What's next are you going to completely rape my childhood by destroying Six Pack, The Double McGuffin or Star Wars? Oh wait George Lucas already did that.

The last of the top contenders was Heathers. Oh I'm sure studios are falling all over themselves to remake this starring someone from Disney or Twilight. Well fuck me with a chainsaw if that happens because I may have to burn a studio down in retribution. Heathers was the introduction to dark comedy for a lot of people my age and it doesn't get much darker than murdering your classmates and making look like a suicide epidemic. Christian Slater and Winona Ryder both had personal issues that derailed them from a long career as A-List stars but they both burned white hot in this film. Ryder brought her dark innocence fresh off her stint in Beetlejuice while Slater was just beginning his bad boy era and still mostly known for being the little brother of Helen Slater. The result was possibly the most quotable movie since Fast Times. I can still watch this movie today and find devilish gems that make me laugh.

Other contenders that came up just a little short included personal favorites The Breakfast Club and Napoleon Dynamite as well as a couple of movies I can't stand Varsity Blues and The Girl Next Door, a poor remake of Risky Business in its own right. To my surprise The Karate Kid, Teen Wolf, Footloose, Dazed and Confused, Hoosiers and Back to the Future barely registered.

My personal top 5 would have looked like this in no particular order Fast Times, Heathers, Rushmore, Napoleon Dynamite and Election. I've already covered the first two but here's a quick overview on the other three.

If I had to rank my top 5 Rushmore probably would be my top choice. Max Fischer is one of the truly great characters in any film not just a teen movie. Max is a 45 year old mogul in the body of a 15 year old school boy. He's also a poor kid and habitual liar making his name amongst the trust fund private school crowd. Mostly he's just awesome. Much like Tarantino did for Travolta, Wes Anderson kicked off a new era in Bill Murray's career with Rushmore. Murray had spent the previous five years playing goofball parts, appearing at Cubs games and cutting up at celebrity golf tournaments. Rushmore allowed him to show an understated comic genius he would later parlay into an Oscar nomination in Lost in Translation. When Max meets Murray's Herman Blume and they both fall for the same woman the film really takes off. The conversations between Max and Blume are hilarious and only rivaled by their rivalry and Max's insane theater productions.

Napoleon Dynamite was one of those movies that came out of nowhere to spawn a million catch phrases, t-shirts and if you had skills dance moves. The movie takes place in a world so far removed from what most of us are used to, it's almost as if we're watching an alternate universe. The 80's clothes, 70's cars and Kip rapping with chicks in chat rooms almost makes impossible to place the movie. The characters are terrifically outlandish and vividly memorable. Whether it's Uncle Rico trying to throw a football over a mountain, Kip hooking up with sweet chicks, Pedro running for class president or Napoleon getting some sweet air jumping Pedro's bike. The movie kills.

Anyone who is a fan of Glee owes a great deal of gratitude to Election. Glee takes it irreverent style and production straight from Election right down to the archetypal characters. The producers did a perfect job casting this movie. Chris Klein is the embodiment of a dumb popular kid and Reese Witherspoon was born to play Tracy a high strung, overachieving bitch. Matthew Broderick was still in his transition from Ferris Beuler to Mr. Sarah Jessica Parker so the film catches him at just the right time to play an enthusiastic high school teacher. The movie is full of crude sexual humor and does an tremendous job of finding the humor in teacher/student interaction.

A couple of movies that didn't quite make my list but deserve an honorable mention are Three O'clock High, Brick and Superbad.

Are you ready for some TV? pt. 3

On average, I lend about 95 minutes of my television watching attention to FOX per week. That's an hour of Glee, 33 minutes to watch the actual American Idol performances, fast forwarding through Ryan Seacrest and all judges comments and 2 minutes for the AI results show.

By all accounts, there are some pretty good shows on FOX; House, Lie to Me, Fringe. I've just never been interested enough to give them a shot. Not even the network stalwarts like The Simpsons or Family Guy have been able catch my eye. In the twenty or so years The Simpsons has been on the air,  I've only ever watched one full episode. I don't know what it's called but it involves pirates and a monkey named Furious George. Strangely, I've seen this same episode about five times. I never needed to check out Family Guy because when I worked at HP every fourth person there could and would quote entire episodes whether you wanted them to or not.


Let's see if Fox has anything worth me upping my viewing time to at least 2 hours a week.


Fall Roster

American Idol - ? - This isn't a fall show but it will make my viewing rotation when it comes back in January. I don't start watching until they get to Hollywood. I love a good train wreck but only when it's real. The audition rounds are just a bunch of goofs trying to get famous by being bad. No thanks.


Veterans trying to avoid being cut


Glee - Tue 7c - Glee was a lot like the Houston Texans last year. A great half followed by a terrible half. It came out of the gate dominating. It even looked like the show would run away with best new show of the season. The characters were good the songs were great and Sue Sylvester, was well, Sue. Then the holiday halftime came and it all fell apart. I guess once the show became a hit labels behind music artists became interested in getting their music featured on the show. The show started with the theme episodes, special guests and terrible musical numbers including Quinn's pregnant dance fiasco. The two special guests were the exception. Kristen Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris were both outstanding adding depth to Will's back story instead of being a distraction like the other guest stars. The story lines they had created and cultivated the first half of the season were derailed and the new story lines lacked the authenticity of the originals.  Even though Glee stumbled in the second half, it closed strong with an excellent finale.  I have high hopes for Glee this season but if the rumors of Britney and Justin Bieber episodes turn out to be true, I may be gone before Thanksgiving.

Rookies trying to make it
 
Lonestar - Mon 8c - I'm seriously considering suing the producers of this show for using my life's story without my consent. Lonestar revolves around a guy living in Houston married to a wealthy oil man's daughter, who leads a double life in Midland with a girlfriend and cons people out of their life savings. Now if that isn't me what is? If the premise isn't enough to get you to watch then maybe this will Adrianne Palicki. 

Running Wilde - Tue 8:30c - I can only think of two successful 30 minute sitcoms on FOX ever, Married with Children and Arrested Development. And the success of Arrested Development at least ratings wise is debatable. However, I can't resist Will Arnett. Whether he's playing Gob or Devon Banks on 30 Rock, Will Arnett kills. Honestly, I think he'd be the perfect replacement for Steve Carell on  The Office. I'll give it a shot but I'm not holding out hope for it to make a long run.