Glee – Artie’s no longer dancing with himself
I have been saying from the very beginning that Artie and Tina needed better storylines, especially Artie, who I’ve wanted to have more singing from ever since I learned he used to be a member of the most wonderfully cheesetastic boy band ever. And then — this week. Oh, this week!
Sure, there were some other great moments — Puck with his special brownies and devotion to Quinn, Kurt and his dad, and of course, the Diva-Off which was the emotional underscore of the episode. But nothing — nothing! — can take away from Artie, the true star of the week.
Glee: Can a musical show work where others have failed? – Guest Clack
Elizabeth Gendler, today’s Guest-clacker, is another aspiring writer who came to LA from the Midwest after college. She’s worked as an intern, script reader, secretary, and shipping clerk (most of it even for pay!). Not having done much in the way of blogging before, she’s excited to be using her compulsive TV-watching for good rather than evil.
Probably the most interesting thing about Glee is that it’s already done so much better with the audience than anything else centered around music. As some of us are lucky — or maybe unlucky — enough to know, that pretty much consists of Cop Rock and Viva Laughlin (If you don’t know either of those shows, well, that’s my point.)
The unpublished journal of Sue Sylvester
Dear Journal,
It’s only been one day since bringing the pregnant She-Schuester on board, and so far no dice. I’ve always been told that I need to wait for my plans to unfold, but I’ve never trusted things that fold or take a long time to happen, which is why I’ve never trusted origami. If anything, half of the members of Glee club seem, dare I say it, chirpy. I don’t like chirping either. There was once a nest of baby birds outside my kitchen window and I shot the whole group of them.
Comforted myself by watching tonight’s Gossip Girl, but even that didn’t make me feel better. I used to really admire that Blair Waldorf and even wrote to her several times asking her to join my Cheerios. I assume I never got a reply because she was overwhelmed by the honor. Unfortunately, however, she seems to have chosen to date Chuck, whose clothing is worse than that little Liberace impersonator Schuester’s added to his flock of miscreants. I can only hope that Waldorf, along with the rest of the world, comes to her senses, and fast.
Glee – Vitamin D – Live-blog/chat
It’s the happiest night of the week: Glee night! Which means song, dance, and pure, unadulterated awesome.
Tonight we’re looking forward to the boys of the glee club versus the girls in a mash-up performance competition, plus some adult love stories that are bound to get pretty complicated when a jealous Terri takes a job as the school nurse. Check back here at 9 PM EST, where lots of us Clackers will be chatting with you guys. It was a big party last week, and you don’t want to miss out.
See you then!
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Glee – Not-so-hot for teacher
When I was still in school, if I loved my teachers, I loved loved loved my teachers. I’ve always been enamored with the whole profession of teaching, which I can trace directly back to my nerdy parents who raised me to believe that there was no higher calling in the universe than the education of youngsters.
So when we first met the character of Will Schuester (played by long-time Broadway vet Matthew Morrison) in Glee, I was convinced I would love him above and beyond anything remotely reasonable. He’s so earnestly in love with teaching and his kids! He reminded me of my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Kershenbaum, who I was deeply, completely infatuated with in that pre-hormonal way you can only be in elementary school that really boils down to devoted hero-worship. (The man made me think math was awesome! Clearly, he was a god-like figure.) Like Mr. Kershenbaum (whose name I am not changing in the off-chance hope that he finds this and knows, a decade later, that I still think he’s pretty much the man), he could sing and play the guitar, had a slightly broken-looking nose, and extraordinarily curly hair. Unlike Mr. Kershenbaum, he sang “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” which may be one of my favorite songs of all time.
Since the first two episodes, however, my feelings on Mr. Schuester have boiled down to one big, lumpy pile of what can only be described as “meh,” because I feel like the entire glee club — or, well, the entire show — is a giant exercise in playing into Will’s self-centeredness.
Glee puts a ring on it
Well, if there’s one thing you can never accuse Glee of being, it’s boring.
Sure, by now you thought you had the formula down. Finn and Rachel pine! Kurt comes to terms with his sexuality! Mercedes is sassy! Will has issues! Emma loves him from afar! We illustrate this through the cunning use of songs!
Well not so, with this episode. Not only were there a shockingly low number of songs, but there were more plot twists than… some pop culture reference that eludes me but implies a shocking number of plot twists.
Glee slows down, but still hits a triple
After hitting home runs with the first two episodes, Glee has maybe only hit a triple this week. No, I’m not a hater — yet — but I am skeptical now as to whether or not they can keep up the quality of the premiere episodes throughout this season.
I didn’t like the songs this week. There was nothing fun or special about the performances, and they seemed forced, whereas they fit so nicely into the storylines in the previous episodes. I also found that the episode dragged a bit, so I hope that this is just an “off” episode and not a new pattern.
That said, there was so much fun to celebrate with this episode — great guest stars, quotables, moments, facial expressions and amputations … did I really just write that?
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