The Gleecap: “The Purple Piano Project”

The Gleecap is a brand new column dedicated to recap and review the zany antics that occur in each episode of the television show Glee. Blog posts will be released each Wednesday following an episode. Beware, there will be spoilers.

Story Overview

Glee’s much-anticipated season three debut begins in a manner very similar to that of season two, with Jacob “Jewfro” Ben Israel interviewing the Glee club for exploitation on his blog. In a short few moments, the audience meets Mercedes’ new beau, Shane, learns that Artie and Tina are juniors, and gets a two-second explanation as to why a major character, Sam Evans, has suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth.

The episode continues to show us that Will and Emma are living together, Kurt and Blaine have surpassed “Hello Kitty” status level of adorable, Quinn has completely lost her mind (that tattoo), the Asian jokes will never stop, and Sue is running for Congress on the platform to end funding for school arts programs.

Oh, and the Glee Club is down three members. Sam moved, Lauren quit to preserve her street-cred, and, once again, Quinn has lost her mind.

As par for the course, Will tries to re-invigorate the Glee Club through a specialized lesson that he has dubbed the “Purple Piano Project.” Whenever a student sees a purple piano in the hallways, he or she must belt out a song in order to attract people to the club. Foolproof!

Unfortunately, like most of these plans, it ends in disaster. Only one person tries out, and she’s terrible. Sugar Motta, played by Stick It actress Vanessa Lengies, needs to learn from Ke$ha to abuse the power of auto-tune. This forces Will to break the girl’s dreams by plainly telling her that she stinks.

The other major story of the episode is Rachel and Kurt’s desire for stardom, and their plans to achieve it by attending the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts. At NYADA’s open house, Harmony, played by The Glee Project runner-up Lindsay Pearce, and her crew deliver a face-melting performance square into Kurt and Rachel’s now melted faces. Don’t worry, Kurt and Rachel re-group and move forward after many tears and cliched gay jokes.

By the end of the episode, Blaine has transferred to McKinley, Santana gets kicked out for dealing with Sue, and the members of the Glee Club, although initially demoralized, join happily together for a musical number.

Characters

Rachel – This week, the writers chose the version of Rachel that shows a lot more humanity than other incarnations tend to. Her tender moments with Quinn and Kurt combined with her typical ambitious insanity struck the ideal balance of character in this episode. It was nice to like her again.

Blaine – I, personally, do not like Blaine. When he entered the show last season, he was Gay Darren Criss the Stepford Husband. No flaws, no characterization, just male covers of Top 40 songs complete with funky hand gestures and cute poses. His character has improved but it still has a long ways to go. His interactions with Kurt are slowly helping his cause. Mostly because they are too adorable to be fathomed.

Will and Emma – It baffles me that Will is living with Emma, yet he still can’t handle that Emma, shockingly, is still Emma. And what happened to her getting her OCD fixed?

Quinn – (see below)

The Newbies – So many new people in this episode. Shane, Sugar, Harmony, the Skanks, and, possibly, a new bully on the block. Luckily, none of these characters really stole from the pre-existing characters who still need their own stories. Of them all, I am most looking forward to seeing more of Sugar.

Continuity

Glee’s biggest problem last year was continuity. Friendships would be formed one episode and forgotten the next. Will would teach the Glee Club a lesson, they’d forget it, he’d forget it, and they’d all re-learn it again after Sweeps Week. In season one, Quinn had a baby, became best friends with Mercedes, and learned that her parents separated. In season two, it’s like it never happened.

I can’t grade a lot for continuity yet, since it has only been one episode. There was hope, however. The writers remembered the Kurt-Rachel friendship, the Rachel-Quinn antagonistic friendship, and even the “Unholy Trinity” of Quinn, Santana, and Brittany.

There’s just one cause for pause.

Don’t screw up Quinn again. In season one, her character went from Queen of Mean to one of the most empathetic characters. In season two, she was given ridiculous story lines (Lucy Kaboosey? Psycho Prom Queen? Cheater 2.0?) that trumped obvious ones like dealing with her life post-pregnancy and with separated parents.

Now she’s Hipster Punk the Pyromaniac. I want to scream “Jump the Shark!” but I’m going to wait. At least the writers have acknowledged that the girl has gone through more heck than anyone else in that Glee Club, barring Kurt. As long as they don’t treat this phase like a cheap gimmick and end it next episode, I will have hope.

Songs

“We Got the Beat” by The Go-Go’s: Shockingly, they didn’t open the episode with a Katy Perry song! The number was cute, fun, and it did what New Directions does best: updating old songs into something fun and new. The song also broke precedent since Rachel was not the only vocalist.

“Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz: Still no Top 40! This performance highlighted exactly why the Kurt-Rachel friendship works. They’re fun, quirky, and great at musicals. Rachel’s accent was a riot.

“It’s Not Unusual” by Tom Jones: Once again, this wasn’t Blaine performing. It was Gay Darren Criss. Don’t get me wrong, it was an exciting number punctuated by Criss’ enthusiastic dance moves and solid vocals. I just like poking fun at the object of fangirls’ affections.

“Anything Goes/Anything You Can Do” from Anything Goes and Annie, Get Your Gun: I will say it once again. Face-melting. It made Rachel’s flustered reaction very believable. I just wish the number could have been even bigger.

“You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray: The Glee writers sure know their audience. The television edit featured vocals from Rachel and Mercedes, but the full version adds Kurt and Artie’s voices as well. Rachel altering the song by starting slowly was a great move that added a Glee spin to a well-known song. An excellent way to end the episode.

One-Liners

“Why is that T-Rex eating the Jew?” – Kurt Hummel

“We’re going to make beautiful cocoa babies.” – Shane

“I have self-diagnosed Asperger’s, so I can pretty much say whatever I want.” – Sugar Motta

“I know you recognize me, because I’m the Gerber Baby!” – Harmony

“You make me want to be your boyfriend.” – Rachel Berry

Overall Score

An optimistic start to a season I wasn’t initially optimistic about. As long as they focus on character development, steer clear from too many Top 40 songs, maintain continuity, and not butcher Quinn, this season could be an exciting one. So far, “The Purple Piano Project” lends a lot of hope for the future.

“Purple Piano Project:” B+