Glee-cap

It’s time to check in on student favorite Glee. We’re three episodes into the new season and reactions have gone from, “Oh, I’m so glad it’s back,” to “This is absolutely amazing,” to “What the hell is this” (episodes one through three, respectively).

Personally, I found the show started to get obnoxious by the end of season one. And yet I continue to tune in, mostly to release aggression on my nemesis, Will Schuester, and to watch Puck be attractive. Actually I’m mostly attracted to Artie but no one would have believed that ending of my sentence unless I was being sarcastic. Which I’m not.

And so here we are, the Glee-cap: a tri-weekly recap of all things Glee season two. Let’s take it from the top.

FOX's Glee promotional photo

Episode 1 – “Audition” – Season two opened with a pretty decent episode, slowly bringing us back into the fantasy world fans had been missing for months. Student reporter Jacob opens with an onslaught of hallway interviews with the glee club members (a lot of which seemed to poke fun at internet rumors formed over the summer about the actual cast). Then we are introduced to everyone’s favorite new character, Coach Beiste (pronounced “beast”). Now I may be biased because this actress appeared in a promo ad for Conan, but I love this woman. She made a solid first impression and I hope to see more of her.

The rest of the episode was business as usual: Finn and Rachel are annoying, the only two Asian cast members are now dating, Artie is jealous, Brittany quietly mumbled hilarious one-liners (“People thought I was on vacation, but I spent the whole summer lost in the sewers”). Some new developments, however, were the addition of prospective new glee member, Sunshine, played by up-and-coming pop star Charice. But surprise surprise, everyone hates Rachel for sending her to a crack house (seriously) because she’s threatened by her talent. Same old story, different crack house. Also new is Mr. Schue and Sue Sylvester teaming up to bring down Coach Beiste, whose arrival has cut funding for both the glee club and the Cheerios. Mr. Schue wimps out by the end of the episode because they made the Beiste cry and “That isn’t cool, guys” (said with puppy dog face while creepily touching a child’s shoulder).

Musical numbers included “Empire State of Mind,” “Telephone,” “Listen” from Dreamgirls, and of course Rachel’s weekly self-indulgent ballad, this week’s being “What I Did for Love.”

Episode 2 – “Britney/Brittany” – This was easily the best episode so far, maybe even of the whole season. The much anticipated Britney Spears episode did not disappoint. Heather Morris is the actress who plays lovable, dumb cheerleader Brittany Pierce. However, before Glee skyrocketed her to fame she’d never even dreamed of, Brittany was a back-up dancer for Beyoncé. BEYONCE. So if you kept rewinding her dance numbers and wondering why you couldn’t take your eyes off of her, it’s because she’s amazing. Now I’m not trying to deliberately hate on Rachel throughout this blog post (maybe a little bit), but her Britney performance was kind of painful. Stick to belting out the show tunes, babe.

Plot wise not much went on because, come on, they had to fit in as many Britney numbers as possible; it’s the Britney Spears episode people! John Stamos, still looking as handsome as ever, guest starred as Emma’s new boyfriend, the dentist, whose anesthesia causes the students to see Britney Spears. Hook me up with a fix of that!

Of course, this episode brought out some of the creepiest Mr. Schuester moments since that time he tried to seduce Sue with his nauseating, self-indulgent singing and, ew, grinding? He won’t let the students do Britney Spears music at first because he’s a total drip and because he didn’t pick it. But then he has to prove to everyone that he can be fun and edgy too (it’s kind of his thing). So OF COURSE he has to be in their assembly performance of “Toxic”! Of course! Not creepy at all! The only thing creepier than his dancing was Jacob and that random chick gyrating in the bleachers while watching. I’m surprised that made it past the censors.

Musical numbers included, obviously, “Toxic,” “I’m A Slave for You,” “Baby One More Time,” “Me Against the Music,” and my personal favorite, Artie performing “Stronger.”

Episode 3 – “Grilled Cheesus” – What the crap? I appreciate some of the well-written dialogue equally expressing both sides of the religion argument. It is a touchy subject and I think they handled it with respect and I like a lot of the points they got across. However, this episode was crap. The idea of Finn discovering religion in a grilled cheese and then making wishes as prayers as if God were a genie was kind of cute, but holy over-acting! Kurt’s dramatic scenes were as painful to watch as Rachel’s! (I’m sorry Lea Michele, I don’t mean to keep being so harsh. You’re wonderful, you’re super talented. But I’ve had enough of your facial expressions).

I love Kurt’s dad even more than I love Kurt (what?) so I was upset as anyone about his heart attack this week. And I actually agreed with a whole lot of Kurt’s points made about religion. But I don’t want to watch him act anymore. Although his rendition of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was good. If the composition was familiar it’s because it was done by T.V. Carpio in Across the Universe a few years ago.

Other songs in the episode included “One of Us,” “Losing My Religion,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and Rachel’s ballad of the week, “Papa Can You Hear Me?” The girl’s got pipes. But how did she get from that creepy date by the lake with Finn to Mr. Hummel’s hospital bed so quickly? Was she transported by the power of her spirituality or did she sing it once and then go, “That was really good, I bet my voice has healing powers, I’ll sing it again to Kurt’s dad!” I think we can assume the latter.

Check back in a few weeks for another recap, Gleeks.

About Lauren Wiegand

Lauren Wiegand (COM '11) is a television writer for the Quad.

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6 Comments on “Glee-cap”

  1. I totes agree about Rachel. I think she has a fantastic voice, but seriously girl. We know you’re expressive. You don’t need to show us how flexible your face is.

  2. In my opinion, no one can really act aside the one who played Sue Sylvester. But she got her match Coach Beiste. Lea Michele is sometimes overdramatic, but I think she is OK considering she doesn´t have any acting experiences before and goes to the others too. Actually I think it´s really the songs who carries the whole show. Without those beautiful songs, it´s quite a boring series. It seems to me they don´t have script to the story, my guess they are writing the actual story and dialouges depending upon how the plot and songs will be fitted for the scene, it seems like it especially in Britney episode. Well, anyway it´s just a guess, I´m not a writer, what do I know?

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