"Glee" Episode 7 Review

"Glee" Episode 7

Television Review

By our guest blogger, Catherine Fuentes

In the wedding themed episode of "Glee" (come on, every good sitcom needs a good wedding episode), Finn and Kurt’s parents got engaged right away. All I could think when they announced the news to their children was that I hope this means Mike O’Malley will appear in more episodes, and that I really wanted Kurt’s ski hat.

I also immediately love an episode where the B-storyline is all about Sue Sylvester. Here, Sue turned to online dating after being scorned on-air by her paramour. The one match for Sue is, naturally, Sue, so she planned an extravagant wedding with Sue postage stamps (I could surely use some for my holiday cards) and immediately, I was hooked.

However, this was an episode that I felt skewed way more toward plot than it did music. I felt there were less songs in this episode than I’ve grown used to, and the performances were just of a lower quality than I was hoping for. Perhaps it’s because this episode was really sentimental and special, but I certainly feel that they could’ve found plenty of musical options to use in a "Glee" wedding.

Sue’s mother, a Nazi-hunter wonderfully played by Carol Burnett, joined her daughter in a duet of “Ohio.” Sue isn’t really a singer, and it showed in this performance, which was very theatrical. Usually I don’t care for the theatrical "Glee" numbers, but this one featured two hilarious, talented women, and I didn’t seem to mind. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible.

The full cast sang Bruno Mars’ song “Marry You,” which is another song I was entirely unfamiliar with. It was fun, and everything seemed to work well, but I was more pleased with the whole togetherness of the episode, and everyone looking so excited to celebrate the wedding.

The other big ensemble number was led by Finn and was another Bruno Mars song, “Just The Way You Are.” I felt that this was a great song choice vocally for Finn and he sounded really in command of the song, but I felt that the music was overshadowed by the gravity of what had just happened. In an episode where the bullying of Kurt reached a scary high and all the guys in the glee club took a stand aside from Finn, Finn finally showed his support and solidarity with his new step-brother, coining the name “Furt” for them. His wedding toast was moving, it was surprising, and it was the perfect capper of an episode that was filled with overwhelming support of Kurt.

The musical highlight of the episode was Mr. Schuester singing Michael Buble’s “Sway.” His voice was perfect for the song – for a second, I thought Michael Buble was actually singing it. Moreover, whereas the other songs didn’t really fit for me, this song is absolutely perfect for a wedding episode.

Of course, the shocking end of the episode is that Kurt declared that he be leaving McKinley High to attend the more tolerant Dalton Academy. Music-wise, I can only hope this means that there will be plenty more songs by the Warblers.