"Glee": Episode Four Television Review

"Glee": Episode Four

Television Review

By our guest blogger, Catherine Fuentes

After reading some immediate reactions to Tuesday’s episode of "Glee" on Twitter, I felt like I watched a completely different episode. To many, it seemed that Tuesday’s episode was an instant classic and the best of the season. I thought it was easily the worst episode of the season. Last week, I was thinking I could one day become a Gleek--now I realize why that hasn't happened.

It started out fine for me--until I realized that the great anecdote of Puck stealing his mom’s Volvo and driving it through a convenience store window just to steal the ATM meant that he wouldn’t be appearing on the episode. Already one of my favorite characters was down for the count, not a good start for the show.  Still, throwing some great lines to Santana and Brittany was definitely great.  I think the Cheerios are the funniest people on the cast aside from their leader, Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester. But, of course, the reason I tune in each week is because of Lynch and she was nowhere to be seen. I’ve complained in recent weeks about minimal Jane Lynch screen time, but seriously, anything is better than nothing.

As for the music, Tuesday’s theme was duets, and I liked how they chose duets that I wouldn’t have immediately guessed. Keeping the show fresh and original is why "Glee" has been so successful, but recently it’s become a little too cliché. Even when the show went somewhere expected, with newcomer Sam singing Jason Mraz’s “Lucky” with Quinn, I found it to be welcome.  Sam’s voice is incredible and as long as he’s playing guitar, I will always love his performances.

The best performance of the night came at the very end of the episode and it shocks me to admit it, but it involves Lea Michele. I loved the muted jazz accompaniment of her duet with Kurt, and I loved that everyone was just sitting and singing around a classroom. There were no phony theatrics--it was simple and beautiful.

Lea Michele’s other performance, where she sang a duet of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with Finn, was totally cliché and expected, but shockingly, it wasn’t annoying. I actually kind of liked it.

Another high point was the Mercedes and Santana duet of Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High.” The energy was high, the performance was cute, and as to be expected (thank you, Mercedes), the vocals were powerful.

My least favorite performance of the night was Kurt’s duet with himself. I appreciated his justification to do a duet alone, and I liked his heart-to-heart conversation with his recovering dad, but the whole performance was lost on me. There was too much drama, too many theatrics and not enough heart. I loved Kurt last week, and he didn’t come close to topping it here.

The music saved the episode for me. It was unexpected, it was sweet and it let new voices be heard. I liked that.  It’s nice to break up the monotony of Rachel-Finn-Kurt every single episode. I think Sam's character will do big things for the glee club as they move toward nationals.  I also just like him. But it was also nice to see Mike and Tina sing lead for a change--and they were great.

The episode as a whole lacked heart and emotion for me.  Last week was  powerful, but this episode?  It didn’t do much of anything for me.  I didn’t find myself caring about a single character, when I have been so happy with them this entire season.

In two weeks, "Glee" returns with the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" episode. I don’t see a middle ground possible with this episode, but I have high hopes and the promos look great (okay, okay--Jane Lynch is back).

Line of the night: “I’m like a lizard – I need something warm beneath me or else I can’t digest my food.” – Santana

Scene of the night:  Brittany pushing a meatball with her nose “Lady and the Tramp” style.