Series Regular TV Show Reviews and News

Glee I Am Unicorn

Sadly, Glee has already seemed to fall back into its modus operandi of unlikeable characters all trying to backstab each other as they try to meet all their own agendas.

Glee The Purple Piano Project

In tonight's third season premiere of Glee, we jump into the Senior year (with assorted Juniors) of the club. There are a few changes (notably casting), but a lot of the same as years' past.

Glee Original Song

After several weeks of arguably mediocre episodes, Glee's third to last episode of the season brings the show back to a place that fans can appreciate, an episode focused on not the drama but the music itself.

Glee Grilled Cheesus

In tonight's Glee, we are treated to a very rare, and very compelling hour of television that I had great reservations about initially. Usually on Glee, stories revolve around some odd quirk that one of the cast members is currently having, but this episode deals with the very serious near death of Burt Hummel, Kurt's father, and Kurt's spiritual crisis and how his lack of spirituality comes at a great worry to the rest of the gang.

I rather enjoyed the fact that the writers decided to cut out all of the typical Glee neuroses when dealing with such sensitive subjects as death and religion. We can attribute a lot of that fact to the plethora of musical numbers in the episode tonight, almost all of which had some serious emotional power behind them. Kurt's rendition of the Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was by far the biggest surprise of the night, and it was definitely the biggest stylistic change from the original that the show has done. The original Beatles's standard was by far a happier and lively song, but tonight's version by Kurt cuts deep into the soul by a radically melancholy styling. It should be taken as a prime example of how chord progressions and tone can completely change the feeling of music, even if it's using the same words.

Originally, I was worried that the writers would play very heavily on the religion aspect of the episode, or more specifically, adhering to a Christian religion. In today's ever increasing secular world, the writers take a great risk to impose any type of religion upon an unwilling audience. Fortunately, the Glee writers recognized this and treated the subject with great respect by not imposing any one religion upon it's viewers, but rather the concept of spirituality as a whole, and the need to "believe in something...because life is too hard to go though alone without something to hold on to." This entire idea manifests itself in the interactions of Kurt, and his desire to push away from those with faith and to push all concepts of faith out of his life. It's a view that, sadly, is shared by too much of the modern world, but in tonight's episode, we see how the serenity offered by faith, whether in God or family, can turn even the most hardened hearts.

Other Thoughts

• Kurt makes a joke about the Flying Spaghetti Monster
• The Grilled Chessus is similar to an actual event that happened.
• "I need to know that my children will be free to worship the way I decide they should" - Rachel
• The cast version of "One of Us" is my second favorite song of the night (as it's always been one of my favorite songs in general), with Kurt's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" being the favorite.
• "Heart attacks are just from loving too much." - Brittany
• Emma might be the only other person period who knows about Sue's sister. It was also interesting to see her march in and take Sue down a notch. Even though Sue wasn't even phased, you have to wonder if she gains a small bit of respect for her afterwards.

Music

• "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" - Barbra Streisand (Rachel Berry)
  
• "Losing My Religion" R.E.M. (Finn Hudson)
  
• "I Want to Hold Your Hand" The Beatles (Kurt Hummel)
  
• "One of Us" Joan Osborne (New Directions)
  
• "I Look to You" Whitney Houston (Mercedes Jones)
  
• "Only the Good Die Young" Billy Joel (Noah Puckerman)
  
• "Bridge over Troubled Water" Simon & Garfunkel (Mercedes Jones)
  

Glee Britney/Brittany

The famed Britney Spears episode of Glee has come and gone, and overall, I felt it was a decent episode with good music. The story aspects of Glee in general, though, leave a lot to be desired.

Tonight's glee revolves around the introduction of Dr. Carl Howell (John Stamos), Emma's new boyfriend, and the interactions between Will and Emma as they continue to work though the remnants of their relationship after last season's breakup. While Carl doesn't have much screen time, he does accent the fact that Emma still has a lot of feelings for Will, but Will's stressful situation is starting to get the better of him.

In the parallel story, we have Finn trying to work though his personal life as he tries to return to the football team with Rachel worried that she will no longer be important enough in his life to continue being his girlfriend. I'm getting a little tired of Rachel's insanity personally. I hate the fact that she's so down on herself and is always trying to bring down Finn (and everyone else) just so she can be either superior or just plain not alone.

As for the rest of the club, there is a sudden desire to do a lot of Britney Spears covers though Will is trying to impose a number of old 80s songs on them. I did love the fact they enhanced the musical numbers with Britney inspired costuming and sets as all the songs were fantasies as a result of Carl's hallucinogenic anesthesia.

Overall though, the songs were merely plugged into the show in what felt like another cookie cutter episode. It starts with some class assignment that parallels some personality issue that the cast is facing. There are a number of songs interjected between bits of dialog where one pair or small group of characters is working though some type of issue. Then there's a group based song where the issues seem to just resolve themselves, ending with a final comforting song by some cast member to bring the viewer to an emotional catharsis. Unfortunately for me, I've gotten tired of a lot of the drama between the generally unlikable characters, and I really only care for the musical numbers.

Addendum: Upon rewatching it, I have to conclude that Heather Morris is an amazing dancer and the "Me Against the Music" cover might just be better than the original.

Other Thoughts

• Brittany's full name is Brittany Susan Pierce, or Brittany S.Pierce.
• They made a reference to two YouTube videos this episode. First there was an off comment "Leave Britney Alone!" Second there was a "Is this the real world?" comment taken from the "David after Dentist" video.
• Britney Spears appears in Brittany's fantasy as herself. She also appears in Rachel's fantasy as the school teacher. Finally, she appears as a cheerleader at school in Artie's fantasy.
• I don't quite get why Biest suddenly allowed Finn and Artie on the team. Did she feel a little bad for the way the others were treating them due to her overreaction?
• "This room looks like the one on that spaceship where I got probed." - Brittany. Say whaa? I think some of the best lines in the show come from the consistently insane things Brittany says.
• This is the first time Brittany has a solo, and there is very little work done by the cast as a whole this episode. Most of the musical numbers involved other performers.
• Disappointingly, there was no music from Circus, which I find to be my favorite of her albums.

Music

• Baby One More Time (Brittany)
  
• I'm a Slave 4 U (Brittany)
  
• Me Against the Music (Santana and Brittany)
  
• Stronger (Artie)
  
• Toxic (Glee Cast)
  
• The Only Exception by Paramore (Rachel)