The Guilty Snob

While last week’s premiere was pretty much more in the same vein as last year of Glee, this week revealed some of the changes that the change in writing styles is causing for the show, and it’s definitely for the better. This show hasn’t paid proper attention to continuity since it’s original 13 episode run, often feeling as if the episodes were airing out of order, or important scenes had been cut out of the script, resulting in extremely jarring character development and storylines that would disappear and reappear out of thin air. No one is a better example of this than Quinn, a character that the writers seemed to know had to be a central character, but had no clue what to do with. Way back near the beginning of the first season she had one of the most emotional storylines and made an impressive turnaround from one dimensional villain to become a sympathetic and touching character. However, somewhere towards the end of the first season the writers lost the thread: Quinn barely appeared and we were never privy to any of the details of her life, perhaps because the writers thought her storyline would be too heavy and would bring down the otherwise frothy show. The finale at least wrapped up her storyline pretty nicely, with her giving the baby to Rachel’s mother Shelby, neatly tying up two important character threads. Nevertheless, the second season took things back to square one: she went back to being a bitchy cheerleader, started dating again, got back together with Finn (beginning by cheating with her current boyfriend with him), ran for prom queen, and ended up losing it all. All these events happened with hardly any reference to her baby, and without her and Puck even sharing a scene together (at least not that I can remember). The writers seemed pretty content to pretend none of it had ever happened, and I imagined the show would continue without any real further references to Quinn’s pregnancy.

So it was a pleasant surprise this week to see that Idina Menzel’s return as Shelby was mostly used as a chance to return to that aspect of Quinn’s character, and deal with what she was going through in the second season. This actually led to some pretty complex characterization which helped tie together the various Quinn plot threads of last season: she was just trying to go back to her old life and forget everything, so that she wouldn’t realize how much she missed her baby. I’m not convinced the writers had this in mind the whole time, especially since the whole storyline comes out of nowhere, but it was a good sign that Glee could be more reliable this season, and that it’s making an effort to make the characters more consistent and believable. There were even several pretty strong scenes with Puck, who’s making an effort to get back into Beth’s life, and urges Quinn to do the same. After a season of Mark Salling having nothing to do other than be Lauren’s tagalong boyfriend, it was refreshing (if a bit odd) for him to get such a large emotional role in the episode. There were a few false notes in the storyline: everyone’s insistence that Quinn needs to “get her act together” was a little over the top. She hasn’t actually done much other than quit Glee club and dye her hair, but everyone was acting like she dropped out of school to become a crack whore. However, there may be something to Shelby trying to get Quinn to turn her life around: something about her behavior in this episode gave me the impression that she isn’t planning on keeping Beth forever. We’ll see why that would be (my guess is that she’s dying, though that seems a bit intense for Glee), but this storyline could be one of the best that Glee’s pulled off if it plays it’s cards right. I also like the path it’s taking Quinn’s storyline: she’s already gone back to the Glee club and blond hair, but the writers aren’t resetting her character. She isn’t going back to her old life, but rather embarking on a new path.

But other things happened in this episode as well which were promising. Rather shockingly, the episode directly addresses everything that was set up last week: auditions for West Side Story begin, Brittany helps Kurt out with his presidential campaign, and that Sue running for Congress storyline is still happening for some reason. Oh yeah and there’s a reason that Shelby returned: Sugar’s dad has decided to start up a rival Glee Club, which so far only includes Sugar, and Shelby’s returned to coach it. As usual, the storylines involving the kids are pretty good, and the ones involving the adults are terrible and nonsensical. I realized something about the adult characters this week: it’s not that they’re bad characters in and of themselves, but rather that the writers have no idea how to write good storylines involving them. When they interact with the kids most of the adult characters work well, but when they’re saddled with their own storylines they become shrill caricatures. Luckily there wasn’t much of the adults this week, though it’s odd how Sue is now the worst part of the show. Will actually came off very well in this episode: his big moment was his speech to Quinn, which was probably inappropriate, but still felt like the comeuppance she needed. Matthew Morrison played the scene quite well, which helped, though it would have been more effective if Will was a better role model for the kids.

I also appreciated Kurt’s storyline this week, in which he realizes that the persona he’s developed for himself is detrimental to getting leading roles. It’s an interesting look at a common teenaged dilemma: when the personality you’ve developed to set you apart from others starts to get in the way of your life. Kurt is comfortable with who he is, but he isn’t comfortable for what that means for him. He’ll never get the great leading man roles because they all demand a kind of masculine presence that Kurt can’t hope to convey.  Glee tends to paint things a little white and black when it comes to dealing with these kinds of issues, but it doesn’t blame anyone for denying Kurt these kinds of roles. It also, nicely, doesn’t make Kurt’s sexuality the issue: Blaine, who will surely win the part of Tony, and is seen as more traditional and masculine, is also gay. I didn’t much like Burt’s insistence that Kurt just needs to write his own roles if there aren’t traditional leading men’s roles out there for him though. This show weirdly seems to think that in order to b though. This show weirdly seems to think that in order to be creative you have to act as author and performer, rather than one or the other. What indication has there ever been that Kurt could write? Or that that would even be something he’s interested in doing? It’s another example of Glee’s bizarre worldview, in which it treats unrealistic or strange propositions like they’re common sense conclusions. I’m also slightly afraid of where this is going. Is Kurt going to add a character to West Side Story that acts exactly like him? Because that sounds like the kind of embarrassingly stupid thing Glee pulled in some of their worst episodes last year.

Though I’ve mostly praised this week’s episode so far, it still has issues, as always. I’m becoming concerned by how disconnected from the action the songs on this show are becoming: this time around the songs are only motivated by plot, as all the numbers are performed as auditions for West Side Story. The show’s gone down this route before, and I don’t really like it: it feels like after more than two season’s worth of episodes this show still can’t decide whether it wants to be an honest to God musical or just a show where people perform songs every so often. The songs here don’t express what the characters are feeling or thinking, they’re just songs they’re performing because it showcases their talents. The musical numbers used to pack a real emotional wallop and the songs actually expressed the feelings of the characters: now they seem to be there solely to fill time and make money on iTunes. It can be hard not to feel like the songs are taking away time from crucial character development, even when they’re very enjoyable (as they were in this episode). Though all the songs were well performed, they killed the episode’s momentum each time, and felt a bit tacked on. Only Rachel’s “Somewhere” (the only song that even slightly connected the performance to what was going on in the episode) made a real impact. Many seem to be ecstatically praising Blaine’s performance of “Something’s Coming”, but it felt slightly lacking for me, perhaps because the show kept telling us how great it was. I’m tired of the show telling me that I should be impressed: it would be nice to be surprised by a performance for once.

This episode seems to promise good things in this season’s future, but I still have to remain very cautiously optimistic: there’s enough potentially stupid stuff promised here to undercut some of the emotional payoff. The “Sue runs for congress” storyline continues to be awful, and there’s no end in sight, as this episode seems to suggest that Will might run against her. I really hope this is one of the plotlines that gets randomly dropped in a few episodes, but it looks like the show might be committed to dragging this one out. But for better or worse it looks like this show is finally willing to commit itself to sticking with storylines and using what’s happened in the past as a basis for what will happen in the future (and not just by repeating former storylines). If this season can continue in this vein Glee might be due for a comeback.

Rating: ☆☆☆

Glee has a lot to answer for in its third season. The show is no longer a novelty, or a breakout hit: it’s become an institution. Everyone knows what Glee is: everyone’s heard the covers of hit songs on the radio or in grocery stores, and most everyone knows that the show’s been on a fairly steady decline since its breakout first season (really the first half of that season). The show’s permeated popular culture about as much as it’s going to at this point, and it’s main goal now is simply to retain it’s popularity for long enough that Fox maintains this kind of profit for three or four more years. On the one hand this seems easy enough: just keep giving the people crowd pleasing pop numbers, an upbeat attitude that embraces alternative lifestyles, and, of course, more Sue Sylvester. On the other hand, this approach tends to bring out the worst in the show, and there’s been a massive backlash against Glee over the last year. It’s no longer the critical darling: in fact these days, any critic that doesn’t at least have some serious issues with the show is an anomaly. Somewhere in middle of the second season this show stopped being quite the massive hit it once was, and the numbers steadily dropped over the course of the year. About 3.5 million more viewers watched last year’s premiere than this one: if that happens again, the next season could be the show’s last. Something will have to change if the show doesn’t want to keep bleeding viewers.

And, at least over the summer, it seemed like Glee was willing to mix things up more. Ryan Murphy had made statements that the show would be downplaying the constant musical numbers a bit and focusing more on character development. The theme episodes would be reduced: there will only be two this year. Most intriguingly, the show took on six more staff writers (previously the only writers on staff were the show’s three creators), including Buffy alum Marti Noxon (who also wrote for Mad Men in its second season) and former Big Love writer Robert Aguirre-Sacasa. Additionally the show’s second season ended on a relatively high note: the final four episodes were surprisingly strong, and the show seemed to be getting back to some of the things it had done well in its first season. On the other hand, there’ve been many patches like this over the last season and a half of the show: every time it seems to be getting better, it comes back with an episode that’s twice as bad. So the big question this season is: how good a show is Glee? Was the spotty second season just a result of the show being unsure how to reconcile it’s popular aspects with consistent quality? Had Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan just gotten too full of themselves and need to get grounded again by bringing in the fresh perspectives of new writers? Or are the show’s characters so inconsistent and unlikeable at this point that a full recovery is impossible? Is the show just content to be wildly inconsistent, lack any kind of continuity, and allow characters that don’t work at all run rampant on the show?

If the season premiere is any indication, it seems that the answer is a little of each. It’s too early to tell if this year will be a slight improvement on last season, or a terrible season that drives away all the viewers, but the premiere didn’t exactly promise a complete turnaround for the series. It’s definitely the same Glee we’ve known for the last season and a half: characters were abruptly written out, relationships ended and began off screen, and about half the main cast was completely sidelined. There was great stuff, and there was terrible stuff. It was basically what a person would expect from Glee in a nutshell: no better or no worse. I’m just not sure that the show won’t have to do better than this if it wants me (and everyone else) to keep tuning in every week.

If the new writers will shake up the show at all, it doesn’t show in this episode. The episode “structure” (or lack thereof) was typical Glee: throw around a bunch of plots at once and see if any of them stick. After a quick introduction that establishes an awful lots of new plot points: Sam and Mercedes dated, broke up because Sam’s dad got a job in another state, and now Mercedes is dating another football player; Tina and Artie are juniors, which makes no sense; Mike wants to go to an Ivy league school; Quinn’s gone punk and quit the Glee club; and Will and Emma became a couple over the summer but, of course, are having problems in the bedroom. About that last one, I may just have forgotten that Will and Emma had officially become a couple last season, which shows how little I care about them at this point. At the end of Sectionals it was thrilling to see their first kiss, but now any scene with them almost instinctively causes me to roll my eyes.

Kurt and Rachel are still best friends, as in last season’s finale, and want to attend a school in New York together and major in musical theater. They had their sights on Guilliard, until Emma explains to them that they don’t have a musical theater program (which you’d think they would check up on, but they are pretty flaky), and instead recommends another program to them, the best musical theater program in the US, and tells them about a mixer for it that’s apparently happening the next day. It’s weird how on Glee anything less than number 1 is deemed a failure. The club acts like it’s pretty respectable 12^th place position at Nationals is a complete failure, and Rachel and Kurt seem devastated by the possibility that they may not get into this school they just heard of. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

They practice yet another musical number from an Oz themed musical to impress the competition (this time “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”, as performed by Barbara Streisand, of course), but don’t even bother to perform after seeing what the others at the mixer have put together, a lively, well choreographed mashup of “Anything Goes” and “Anything You Can Do”. The leader of the group is a girl named Harmony, played by Lindsay Pearce, who makes a big impression in her sole scene. She fits in wonderfully with the cast and is an excellent performer with a great voice. Surprisingly she came in third place in the recent Glee reality show competition but was rewarded with a 2 episode stint on the show: frankly if she could bring the energy she brought to that scene she’d outshine most of the main cast members. Anyway, Kurt and Rachel are devastated, but resolve to try harder to build up their experience and credits this year: Rachel starts work to put together a school production of West Side Story, and Kurt decides to run for class president. All of this worked wonderfully: the songs were quite strong, Chris Colfer and Lea Michele have the best chemistry on the show next to Naya Rivera and Heather Morris, and the story shows some direction and a goal for the season to come. Of course none of it makes much sense when you stop to think about it (like why have neither of them been in a musical before?), but Glee runs on emotions rather than logic, and it managed to land the emotions well with this storyline.

Unfortunately the rest of the episode didn’t fare as well. For one thing, it sticks to closely to the last year’s premiere: once again we’ve got an impromptu performance in a public part of school (this time the cafeteria) to try to attract more people to the Glee club, Sue and Becky insult newcomers auditioning for the Cheerios, and potential new member of the club is introduced and dropped. The rest of the episode was taken up with really, really bad Will and Sue storylines. Sue’s now decided to run for Congress (huh?) and needs something to hate on, as that attracts more voters than lobbying for something positive. So she decides that all funding should be cut from arts programs at schools, which obviously infuriates Will. Will’s response to this is to take an increasingly insane course of action: first he just goes and yells at Sue, easily breaking down and whining about his sex life after a cheap taunt from Sue, then storms off promising revenge. Apparently his great plan is to “glitter bomb” Sue (is this a thing?), have Emma record it on her phone, and put the video up on Youtube. Of all the bad storylines Glee has had, this may be the worst. Well, okay, not worse than Will trying to seduce Sue. But close. Dumping glitter on someone’s head well screaming at them is not a sane course of action. But the show makes it out to be nigh heroic. Then there’s the scene where Emma tells Will “You glitterbombed Sue. At that point you stopped being a man of words, and became a man of action. And that was kind of hot.” I may be paraphrasing slightly, but this is pretty much what she says. So apparently Emma is only turned on when Will acts like a childish, mildly insane asshole. This explains why he thought that whole Rocky Horror scheme would work.

And oh yes, there’s the name of the episode: Will has refurbished a bunch of pianos from repossessed homes, painted them purple, and put them around the school. Whenever the Glee sees one they’re supposed to sing or something, in hopes of attracting new members. This is kind of strange, and nothing really comes from it, aside from that aforementioned scene where the club performs the Go Go’s “We Got the Beat” in the cafeteria, which is a ton of fun. Actually pretty much all of the musical numbers here work well, which is a big bonus for the show, there’s not a really jawdropping, tearjerking number. The focus on Broadway numbers and slightly older songs is very welcome though, and all the songs are perfect for the range of the singers, though Michele and Colfer totally hog the solos.

Then there’s Quinn’s overnight change into an “edgy” punk rock kind of gal, complete with hacked off pink hair, nose ring, and smoking habit. Seems that losing everything at the end of last season prompted a major change with her and she gave up pretty much everything that was important to her (Glee and the Cheerios). One the one hand I kind of liked this development: it was nice to see them not recycling the same Quinn storylines over and over again, and I enjoyed Agron’s new look and attitude. The show’s never given her anything to do other than the same material over and over, and it’s nice to see them make a change for a character for once. However, this is just too much off screen development, and feels completely unearned. You can see how Quinn could have gotten to this point, but it wasn’t developed onscreen at all: it really requires the viewer to fill in the blanks in their imagination. I’m also afraid about how this will play out: hopefully it’s not leading to a standard drug addiction storyline (which would be really painful on this show) or Quinn immediately making a 180 and going back to her old self (the most likely scenario). I just don’t trust Glee anymore, and it’s going to have to do better than this for me to put any faith in these writers again.

Still, this was an entertaining, largely enjoyable hour, and I hope that the season can improve from here on out, and keep the musical numbers on this level. This episode had at least one part of the equation worked out: if it learns to keep the focus strictly on the kids, not give Will, Sue, and Emma as much painful material and think outside the box a bit more and not just recycle past storylines, it could have a shot at giving us a great season. However it seems more likely that it will continue the series of diminishing returns, and halfway through this season I’ll be yelling at the screen again, wondering why I’m still watching at the show. Only time will tell.

The Purple Piano Project: ☆☆1/2

This is a really hard episode to evaluate: it hits all the emotional beats that it ought to, it features the best versions of all the characters, and it restores the power of a lot of story arcs that seemed irrevocably lost. But it also did a lot of the things that annoy me most about the show, and the more I think about it, the more problematic it is. Ultimately however, it really worked for me, so we’ll start with the good.

Like last season’s finale “Journey” this episode seems to come from a different version of the show, one of which only the Pilot, “Sectionals”, “Journey”, “Duets”, and “Special Education” are a part of (Brad Falchuk wrote all but one of these episodes, by the way) . The characters in all these episodes are consistent, the show’s funny without being over the top wacky, and it’s even filmed in a much more unique style. The characterization and acting have a hint of subtlety that isn’t usually present and the couples we’re supposed to root for actually have chemistry. The show remembers that it’s about unpopular kids living in Ohio that are frustrated by their lives in a small town, and dream of being a part of something much greater than some show choir, rather than a bunch of douchey cheerleaders and football players, who claim to be misfits, but around whom the entire world seems to revolve. It has an air of sadness about it, and suggests that it might not be possible to achieve our dreams, but that that doesn’t mean you should stop dreaming. It really recaptures the essence of the show: it’s clear by now that the show will never become this alternate reality Glee, but it’s nice when it drops in.

However I feel like in this Bizarro-Glee universe, in which the show is more heartfelt and consistent, this would have been an extremely disappointing finale. I picked these episodes, not because they’re my favorite episodes (though the Pilot, “Journey”, and “Duets” make the shortlist), but because they have a consistency between them that other episodes don’t, and the way the characters are written and acted have a similar quality. First we’ll start with the biggest issue of this episode: the songs. First of all, I really dislike the way that Glee’s decided to use original songs. It really shows that the writers have no idea why they were criticized for only using covers, or what the advantage of original songs is. Musicals use their songs to portray what’s going on in the mind of the characters, and usually both develop the characters and further the storyline: Glee was criticized for using unoriginal songs to sum up emotions in really trite and simplistic ways, rather than the deeper ones that songs written specifically for that character or situation can. Often the show’s songs stop the story dead in it’s tracks, rather than adding to it. The best musical episode of TV ever made is Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Once More With Feeling”: Joss Whedon wrote both the script and the songs, and all the important plot developments and emotional moments are a part of the songs, while the dialogue is mostly reserved for plot explanation.

Glee doesn’t use their original songs in this way at all, but rather integrate them into the plot by having the kids write the songs for competitions, which might be the worst possible way to use these. First of all, both the performances in “Original Song” and in this episode have been much weaker than any of the New Directions performances before they began using original songs. The songs themselves are impersonal and pretty generic, often sounding like songs Max Martin intended for Pink, but that got thrown on the backburner. This episode’s “Pretending” is the only song of the four big performance songs with lyrics specific enough to apply to these characters in a deeper way than the covers that they usually perform do. All of the other originals songs have been mere jokes, and while it’s fine to use songs for humor, it’s unfortunate that their not able to find more sophisticated things to do with these songs. The original songs are less satisfying than the covers musically, and add nothing more to the story or character development than the covers do. They usually don’t even feel like they were written with the show or the characters singing it in mind. While I don’t think the writers should give up on the original songs, I really want them to realize how badly they’re being used, and stop using them for the big competitions scenes.

There are three original songs in this episode (well, okay, four counting “My Cup”), and none of them are particularly impressive. Sunshine’s song was dull and indistinguishable from any number of Celine Dion ballads; weak as New Direction’s performance was compared to past ones, there’s no way that New Directions would have placed above them. Also what exactly was Vocal Adrenaline practicing all the time? Sunshine was the only one who had to do anything, there wasn’t even any choreography in that number. Compared to their “Bohemian Rhapsody” at last year’s Regionals, this was a huge step down: Dustin Goolsby should be out of a job. “Pretending” was a decent song, and I liked how it commented on what was going on in this episode with Rachel and Finn’s relationship, it was actually decently used. It was fairly forgettable, but I’ll give it a pass. On the other hand, I have little to say about “Light Up the World” other than that it was mildly better than “Loser Like Me”, though it followed a very similar formula. In a rare turn for Glee, I really enjoyed the scene in which “I Love New York” was used, but the song itself was just terrible, and the performance sounded like something off that would be on the Disney Channel. Matthew Morrison’s performance of his own “Still Got Tonight” was very brief and the scene was extremely corny, making it seem more like a plug for the solo album it came off of than anything else. “Bella Notte” should have been a good scene, but the performance was incredibly awful, and even the way they pronounced the title set my teeth on edge. And then there’s “For Good” which is an excellent song and wonderfully sung, but was certainly the most misused song in the history of Glee.

This dovetails with another point, so lets talk about the show’s episode to episode consistency. It’s been a bit better in the second half of this season than for a while, but it can still really derail some of the characters, and Quinn really suffered in this case. In the last scene of the previous episode, Quinn threatened that she had some great plan that could hurt the their chances of winning at Nationals. This was barely addressed in this episode, and it only came up in one scene where Quinn threatened to tell Mr. Schuester that Kurt and Rachel snuck off when they were supposed to be in the hotel writing songs, which would apparently get them suspended in the world that Glee is set in (more likely it would get Mr. Schue in trouble), and hence unable to perform at Nationals, a plan that she could not possibly have come up with earlier than a few hours ago even if it did make any sense. However, Brittany and Santana manage to talk her out of her devious plan with a couple of sentences about how Glee club is the only thing that makes them happy, and offering to give her a haircut. Really, this should have been exploited more: Quinn could have concocted some more elaborate plan that would prevent them from competing at Nationals, and nearly carried it out, until Rachel finds out about it at the last minute. There could be some scene when Rachel confronts Quinn about all the issues they’ve had in the past, and ultimately wins her over by singing “For Good” with her. The relationship between the characters in “Glee” and the ones singing the song in “Wicked” is so similar that it could have been a truly magical, emotional moment that would cap off her (poor) storyline this year, and pave the way for future character development. Instead, Rachel and Kurt sing the song simply because it’s from Wicked and they’re on the Wicked stage. The lyrics don’t mean anything for those characters and that situation, and the tremendous emotion of the song is completely wasted. Rachel and Kurt could have even simply sung it to Mr. Schue and the Glee club at the end as a way of parting for the summer and I would’ve been tearing up. It really seems that Glee’s song choices are getting more arbitrary as the show goes on, to the point that the writers are just sticking songs into scenes almost at random, with only the flimsiest of pretenses that the songs represent anything the characters are feeling.

Similarly, the writers have been building up Mr. Schuester’s potential departure to Broadway stardom for a few episodes now, and it really seems like he should leave Ohio to pursue his dreams, since the show hasn’t provided a compelling argument as to why they should do otherwise. But Matthew Morrison is a regular and probably signed on for years and years to come, so they can’t write him out. Apparently sensing the hole they’ve gotten themselves into, this episode’s writer, Brad Falchuk, doesn’t even attempt to come up with a good reason for Schue not to pursue his Broadway dreams: it’s what he’s always wanted, the kids support him and think he should, he’s made his goodbyes to Terri, Emma, and Sue. Yet he doesn’t because he has “unfinished business” with New Directions. Uh, can’t he just coach them at Nationals and then star in April’s show? Why is this an either/or thing? And isn’t it way too late to ditch “Crossrhodes” since it’s about to open in a week? It was obvious this storyline would end with something like this, but the way Falchuk doesn’t even attempt to make it dramatic, or seem anything less than pointless, is grating.

However I really liked a lot of this episode, and if it had had stronger musical performances and made better use of “For Good” it would have been one of my favorites of the show. It managed to revitalize the Finn and Rachel relationship beautifully, and I like the way the writers are reshaping the relationship so it’s between Rachel, Finn, and Rachel’s future, rather than bringing in some other unnecessary love interest for one, or both of them. I’m hoping the writers will show them in this comfortable, more drama free kind of relationship next season, and not create lame drama and obstacles like they did this season. The last ten minutes were absolutely wonderful as well: the scene where Kurt told Blaine he loved him was really touching, and the Brittany and Santana scene was nicely underplayed: there have been complaints about it, but I like that the two of them aren’t being forced into a relationship right away. There’s really a lot for both of them to work out before that point, especially Santana who is still uncomfortable with the idea of coming out, and the two of them staying close friends (presumably with benefits) was a nice way to leave that relationship. I also like how the writers have rethought Brittany’s character a bit more in the last half season, when they started to develop the character more, to make her less of a blonde bimbo, and more just a quirky girl who says whatever outrageous thing comes to her mind, and loves outfits and crazy dancing. It’s not like they’ve made her someone really intelligent suddenly, but they’ve made her into something that resembles a real person more than the Brittany of old, without taking away from what made the character so enjoyable in the first place.

I’m still not sure how I feel that New Directions lost at Nationals: I do think it was a nice touch that they didn’t even place in the top ten, but a loss was very predictable at this point, almost the easy thing to do. Winning Nationals next season will also be kind of a cheap way to create emotion for next year’s finale, after which the current characters will leave the show. Next season would be a bit more interesting if the characters had already achieved their goal, and had to look for other dreams and think of gaining bigger achievements. Still, it was nice that the episode emphasized that the experience itself was the real achievement and I liked how it underplayed the loss rather than creating more drama about it, like in last season’s finale. All in all I think this season, though weak and disappointing in a lot of ways, ended with a strong run of episodes that give me hope for next season. With any luck Falchuk, Murphy, and Brennan will rethink some of the things they’ve done wrong this season, and the additional writers that are being brought on board will help lend the show more consistency, and more satisfying dramatic story arcs. And if not, well, it will still be the same Glee we (or at least I) know and love, for better or worse.

“New York”: ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Season Grade: ☆ ☆ 1/2

Welcome to the Guilty Snob’s “Glee” blog! Unfortunately this season of Glee is about to wrap up, so I’ll be reviewing “Prom Queen” and “Funeral” this week, check in next week for the season finale, and then we’ll be on hold till Season 3 starts up in September.

Glee is a difficult show to review, because I’m never quite sure what sort of standard I’m holding it too. Even the worst episodes are pretty entertaining and do little to damage my fondness for the show. And the best episodes are still extremely flawed, since they are often poorly structured or have the kind of odd out of character moments that Glee is filled with. In many ways it is the anti-Wire for me: the episode structure is poor, the show has no idea how to build an arc over several episodes, and to say that the character development is all over the place would be extremely forgiving. Yet it is wildly entertaining: each episode is so energetic and frantically paced that the length of a single episode seems like no time at all. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty for enjoying it as much as I do, when there are other, better shows that are probably more deserving of my time. Yet I also think that Glee is doing some things that nothing else on TV right now is doing, and that the greatest moments the show is capable of make the show’s many terrible scenes worth watching.

Glee is nothing if not a show built around moments. I think the show’s so sloppily structured because the writers aren’t necessarily interested in having a strict beginning, middle, and end for each episode, much less the season. They just want to fill the show with as many big “moments” as possible. This can make the show feel a bit frantic and forced at times, particularly when the writers are clearly manipulating the characters and events in order to reach the payoff they’ve envisioned. I don’t think I have a huge problem with this: it ensures that the show is filled with scenes I want to return to again and again, but it ultimately holds the show back from greatness. Unlike “The Wire”, “Mad Men”, “Buffy” and “Angel”, and other great shows, there’s never a sense that the whole series has been building up to something, where knowledge of the characters’ histories and what’s come before contributes to the emotions. You have to live in the moment to appreciate the show, which sadly, entails forgetting what’s come before.

Though “Prom Queen” may not quite reach the heights of the very best “Glee” episodes, it certainly does all the things that I want a good episode of the show to do. It glides along so easily that by the time it’s over, you wonder how 45 minutes have passed. It does a suprisingly good job of highlighting a number of the show’s best characters, and features at least one great moment that can match up to the best ones that the show’s pulled off. Come to think of it, the finale of this episode is one of the few sequences the show’s done which is as powerful as it is because the writers have been building to it for nearly the entire season. The show hasn’t created such a memorable sequence so organically since last season’s finale, when Quinn gave birth to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

This episode overall  isn’t as great as “Journey”, which is probably my favorite episode of the show, but it is very funny and sweet, and has some of the best musical performances of the whole season (though, admittedly, “Friday” was obnoxious, obvious, and already dated). The episode pretty loosely follows all the couples, has-been couples, and fake couples as they get ready for junior prom. Finn’s tired of Quinn’s endless campaign for prom queen and misses the relatively low profile Rachel (probably the only one of these kids who is still actually unpopular), while Jesse returns just in time to get Finn to act jealous in kind of creepy ways. Artie’s pining for Brittany and desperately tries to impress her so they can get back together before prom, Kurt wants to take Blaine to the dance, though Burt and Blaine aren’t sure it’s a good idea, and Mercedes wishes she had someone to go to prom with her. The idea of bringing Jess back is pretty lame, since it’s just further proof that the show has no idea how to create new places for the Finn/Rachel storyline to go, other than to repeat storylines from last season, but the scene where he returns and performs a haunting rendition of John Legend’s “Rolling in the Deep” cover with Rachel is good enough for me to gloss over that one. Meanwhile the Sue Sylvester character reaches an all time nadir, as she resorts to torturing Artie during prom in an attempt to make him confess that Puck put him up to spiking the punch at prom (the less said about this storyline, the better).

But these are relatively minor gripes given how energetic and inspired much of this episode is. Aside from Sue and that performance of “Friday” the prom scene is absolutely wonderful: Lea Michele’s performance of “Jar of Hearts” is dazzling and perhaps better than the original (though it may be a little dark for the context it’s being used in), and Darren Criss contributes a fun, atypical number with “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You”. It’s really enjoyable to see the character’s reactions throughout the night, the dancing is a lot of fun, and the whole sequence really captures the atmosphere of what a great school dance with your best friends can be like. Admittedly that dance floor is way too empty and there’d be a whole lot more bumping and grinding going on, but it’s still a surprisingly realistic scene.

And then there are the final moments, in which Karofsky and Kurt are voted Prom King and Queen as a homophobic joke on the part of the student body. Kurt is hurt and storms out of the gym, and the rest of the Glee club follows suit. Here all the tensions of the episode play out: Quinn slaps Rachel for ruining her chances of becoming prom queen, Brittany comforts the frustrated Santana, and a heartbroken Kurt nearly leaves the school, before Blaine encourages him not to give up. Ultimately Kurt and Karofsky accept the awards, but Karofsky is unable to come out in front of the whole school, and flees the gym rather than dance with Kurt, and the school celebrates to Santana and Mercedes’ rendition of “Dancing Queen”.  These final moments are simply magical: Chris Colfer has always been one of the best actors and performers on the show, and he really nails Kurt’s vulnerability and frustration when the prom queen announcement is made. The moment between Brittany and Santana, probably the most consistent and well written characters, is surprisingly simple and moving. And Max Adler continues to prove that he’s worthy of becoming a full time cast member: in an early scene where he apologizes to Kurt, and the moment when he contemplates what to do after accepting the prom king award, Adler reveals much more complicated emotions playing out in his character’s mind than the script provides for him. And despite the fact that I can’t stand Abba, the “Dancing Queen” sequence is one of the show’s greatest: the song choice is obvious and corny, yet the scene is so joyous and full of life it hardly matters. Like “Don’t Stop Believing” back in the pilot episode, the scene proves that it’s not the song that matters, but the emotion behind the performance.

I thought “Funeral” was a similarly solid episode, if it didn’t quite reach the heights of the two episodes preceding it. The episode has been getting a lot of heavy criticism from viewers and critics alike, and I’m not really sure why. The criticisms probably lie more in what’s come before it than the episode itself, really. Throughout the season the show has slowly been destroying Sue, once the favorite of fans and critics alike, turning her into a Looney Tunes cartoon character who physically assaults her students, threatens to torture them, and even puts their lives in danger. In this episode’s first, and weakest, scene, Sue inexplicably reroutes the Glee club’s plane to New York so that it will land in Libya. I’m not sure why the writers included this, since the rest of the episode tries to make amends for how badly the writers have damaged Sue’s character. After Will finds out that Sue has kicked Becky off the cheerleading squad, he angrily confronts her about it, and discovers that she did it because she reminds her of her sister, who died of pneumonia the day before. Finn and Kurt, who have been affected by the deaths of their parents, attempt to help her out by making arrangements for the funeral, much to the chagrin of Jesse, who’s been hired as an advisor to help New Directions win Nationals.

The structure of this episode is very simple, featuring only two storylines, and appropriately sparse. Jane Lynch’s performance is wonderful, as she manages to show Sue grieving without softening the character too much. Even the often hilarious insults she doles out have a sense of loss behind them, yet aren’t made less funny because of it. It’s actually an unusually fine episode for all the adult characters, as Will and Emma are allowed to behave like rational humans that aren’t inappropriately cartoonish or creepy for an entire hour. Even Terri is given a little humanity in her last scene (which would seem to be her last appearance on the show ever, thank God). I really wish the show were writing Will out as well, since he’s been likable for several episodes now, and I know the show won’t keep up this streak next season. Besides, sending him to Broadway to perform with April would be the perfect end to his character. However, the writers are really banking on the assumption that we’ll conveniently forget everything these characters have done for a large portion of the season, and accept the way they’ve abruptly returned to their season one versions of themselves. Since Glee does this on a regular basis I don’t have too much of an issue here: I don’t really see any organic way the show can redeem these characters at this point, so they might as well force it on them. Killing off Jean to humanize Sue (again) may be incredibly forced, but then again, that’s been Jean’s function since she was introduced. She was never really a character in her own right so much as she served as Sue’s conscience: now Sue will have to find her own.

The other storyline, in which Jesse decides that the best strategy to win Nationals is for New Directions to build their whole routine around the best performer, and holds auditions to determine the star of the show, was also forced, but it was worth it for the audition scene, which highlights four powerhouse performances. Naya Rivera proves once again that she can do a hell of a Amy Winehouse imitation with her performance of “Back to Black” (one of my favorite songs); Chris Colfer does Gypsy beautifully once again with his “Some People”; Amber Riley gives “Try A Little Tenderness” her all; and, best of all, Lea Michele channels Barbara better than ever before with her incredibly emotional  rendition of “My Man”. It is a little strange to have all these back to back (couldn’t they have been spread throughout the episode?) and the show seems to expect us to be infuriated by Jesse’s pretty reasonable criticisms, but the performances themselves were stunning and (best of all) weren’t Autotuned to hell; though I’m sure some Autotuning was present, it didn’t distract from the songs like it often does. “My Man” was my favorite of the four, obviously, but I think my least favorite was “Try A Little Tenderness”, which seems to be a fan favorite. It certainly wasn’t bad, but I still find Amber Riley annoyingly self indulgent and any performance of this song will always compare unfavorably to Andrew Strong’s version in “The Committments” (1991), possibly the best performance scene in a narrative film.

The funeral scene itself also managed to be touching, rather than cringe inducing (which it easily could have been), mostly due to how well acted it was. Sue can’t finish her speech and Will reads it for her, and the kids decorate the funeral parlor Willy Wonka style (apparently it was Jean’s favorite movie) and sing “Pure Imagination”: this sounds horribly saccharine on paper, but is actually quite sweet (no pun intended), and the arrangement of the song that’s used is quite beautiful. The photo montage of Sue and her sister is a bit much though: I’d rather things were just focused on Sue and the performers.

Somehow the episode has ten minutes left to go, and these scenes seem oddly tacked on. Finn breaks up with Quinn immediately after the funeral for some reason: this scene is very well played, and feels pretty realistic, but the timing is just weird, like the writers are obligated to get them to break up before the end of the season and made it happpen out of nowhere. A close look at the promo for this episode reveals that some scenes featuring the two of them ended up being left out of the final cut, which may have kept this from seeming so rushed. There’s also some further scenes with Will and Sue, and Terri, and Emma which serve as a goodbye to these characters for the season, since they won’t appear in the finale; the Sue scene was one too many, as it had nowhere left to go aside from the incredibly sentimental route, but the scene with Emma is genuinely sweet, as she encourages Will to forget about her and Ohio, and follow his dreams. If this were the last scene between the two (which it unfortunately won’t be) it would be a nice capper on the relationship, and enough to make us forget how disturbing and creepy it became. As it stands, there’s probably many more years of psychosexual mindgames in the future for these two kids, before one of them dies of cancer or something in season 7.

As a whole, these last three episodes of Glee have done a lot of work towards saving this season’s reputation, and proving that there’s still lots to look forward to Season 3: here’s to hoping the streak continues with the finale, and we can go out talking about how that second season of Glee wasn’t so bad after all.

Prom Queen: ☆☆☆ 1/2

Funeral: ☆☆☆