Glee is back! This season has been really interesting so far, because it has gotten both better and worse at the same time. Better because there are actual character arcs and storylines that carry through from week to week instead of plots just shoehorned in to whatever that episode's theme is; and worse because some of those storylines are kind of dull and the music selection has been mostly bleh. Sometimes it's not even the selection, but the execution - "It's Not Easy Being Green" is actually a beautiful, poignant song that I love, but putting the Irish kid in a bunch of ugly green shirts and then having him warble (not particularly well, I might add) along to a tinny backing track and totally, gruesomely murder my favorite line ("And green can be cool and friendly-like") is not the way to win me back after three weeks of an excess of musical theater numbers. In fact, I might as well be upfront and say that the only song worth anything (and the first song this season I've thought about downloading) was the Troubletones' "Candyman". That shit was fantastic, and I really like where that storyline is going. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Ok, so Mercedes left last week after Mr. Schue was a complete jackasshole to her - everybody is getting fed up with his excessively obvious favoritism and it should have been clear to anybody with ears that Mercedes did better at the audition. But Schue clearly has some fat prejudice issues - you can't expect a fat girl to be able to dance like Brittany if she doesn't want to, and it's rude to expect it. Sue's really annoying congress campaign forced Figgins to cut the musical budget, so Kurt has to go hustle to his dad (who is for some reason friends with all the local funeral parlors? I did not get the joke there, if there was one.) and bam, the musical is back on. Phew. I was worried for a second there. And then Schue goes to Burt to try and convince him to run against Sue but Burt was already planning on it? What??? I love Burt Hummel but I definitely do not agree with this turn of events, I think it is really dumb and ill-thought out (you're going to run for congress and choose William Effing Schuester to be your campaign manager? No.) and also I think it is sad how low everyone's expectations are for Finn. Poor Finn - he's the one whose character development has suffered the most this season. What happened to all his hopes and dreams of leaving Lima? Utterly forgotten.
Ok, with that weird storyline out of the way, let's move on. Quin and Puck are trying to get custody of their baby back. Yay, I like this one! Quin is real crazy and thinks that by putting botox and books on baby sacrifice in Idina Menzel's house and calling CPS that she will then get custody of Beth. What? On one hand, that is exactly the sort of specious reasoning that teenagers have. On the other hand, maybe Quin should stop watching so much Maury and instead talk to a lawyer and see what her options are. Right? Just saying. Anyway, Puck isn't very cool with it but really loves his daughter and so is all whatever. Then we see him cleaning pools and when the cougar mom he used to bone finds out he has a baby (and I have to point out that Puck looks ANCIENT in this scene) then she decides she wants to bone the 12-year-old kid instead? Gross. Confusing and gross. But it turns out that was all groundwork for what I predicted as soon as Shelby started talking about being a lonely single mom, namely Puck/Shelby mackage! This I like. This I like a lot.
Have I not made it clear that Artie and Tina and Mike Chang are my favorites? They are all being woefully under-used this season. Ok, I liked that Mike Chang got a lot of focus in the last episode, but that doesn't mean they can just forget about him for the rest of the season! And more Artie, please, he has the best male voice and that should not be forgotten. Speaking of male voices, Finn is very jealous of Blaine, because Blaine is the worst and I hate him and please stop singing forever and also please stop making dumb speeches and being rude to Finn. We love Finn. We do not love you. (And yes, I know there are plenty of people who do love Blaine but I never have and I am extremely over his uninspired pop covers and his temptingly punchable shit-eating grins that he pulls all the goddamn time. Ughhhhhh, Blaine.)
So then there's Brittany, Santana, and the leprechaun. I liked the Irish kid (Roy? Ray? Something Finnegan.) until he started singing. I mean, who dedicates their glee club audition to their family? Asshats with mediocre voices, that's who. I don't know why Kurt was looking all concerned when he started his falsetto, Irish is nowhere near as talented as Kurt. But okay, Santana and Brittany are together but that doesn't mean that Santana won't manipulate her to get what she wants. At first I was very against the idea of the separate group as a concept, but I like that it's all girls and I love how amazing their voices sound together. Schue should be worried! His group is falling apart and it's all his fault for thinking that Rachel is the only one worth featuring. Poor Finn. No one believes in him, and he's getting the shaft from all sides. I smell a bold and dramatic statement from him in the near future.
I will say that Glee has gotten back some of the quippy hilarity that last season was sadly short on in many episodes. But it pains me to say that Sue's character is tired and has started to run out of things to do...or at least funny things to do. The writers have done a good job of drawing me in to the Puck/Quin/Shelby and Troubletones plotlines, but they've dropped the ball on Finn (especially the Finn and Rachel relationship), keep giving Blaine too many musical numbers, and haven't brought Kurt back from the insufferably insufferable place they pushed him to last season. And if I (who loves Irish accents the best of all the accents) am unimpressed by the Irish kid, then it does not bode well for the future - though I will stick around to hear him say "Grand" anytime. Anyway, I'm glad baseball is over because these recaps are fun, and I do admit that I'm excited to see where things are going from here...and to hear more awesome girl-group singing. Troubletones FTW!
Notes & Quotes
I totally called Sue's "My rage" line. You're getting predictable, Glee.
"Two thousand and four dollars. That's a year's salary for a public school math teacher"
"ANGRY"
"I love everything about America, especially NASCAR, your half-black president, and Victoria's Secret catalogues."
"Yeah, she's kind of like Rainman with boobs."
"Baby sacrifice makes me sad."
"Is that like a boob milk thing?"
I want Kurt's hippo pin.
What is up with Puck's weird voice-over narration out of nowhere? That was a trope they used all the time in the first season, and whenever they try to bring it back, it just seems incongruous. Let the first-person narration go, guys.
"I think that might be a better use of school funds than flying the Glee club to New York without a set list, only to lose at nationals with a song they made up the night before." THANK YOU. What kind of crazy BS was that? I hope that means they're done writing their own crappy songs.
"Say U2's overrated. Say it!"
"Never." (Always. I say that always.)
Image via TV.com
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