"Glee" Episode 2 Review

"Glee" Episode 2

Television Review

By our guest blogger, Catherine Fuentes

Tuesday night was the long-awaited Britney Spears centric episode of "Glee," and for the most part, it was another great episode. While there was little to do with Sue Sylvester and Coach Beiste (a story arc I imagine will be one of my favorites), tonight seemed to focus on the next best thing – dim cheerleader Brittany and the Cheerios.

Last season, Brittany was responsible for some of the most memorable "Glee" lines, most notably, “Dolphins are just gay sharks” – so I was almost as excited for a Brittany episode as I was for the Britney episode.

Pretty much everything that came out of Brittany’s mouth made me actually laugh hard out loud. She sang well, but her dancing was impeccable. Heather Morris, the actress who plays Brittany S. Pierce, has been a backup dancer for Beyonce’s world tour, and she absolutely killed it as Britney in her videos. Britney Spears should be proud that someone did her choreography just as well as her, if not better. Here’s to hoping there are more episodes that feature Brittany’s ditzy one-liners and her serious dance skills.

What made this episode so stand out was how they incorporated the Britney Spears routines into the plot of the episode. I was worried "Glee" producers would use the tired approach of having dream sequences, but their interesting spin on the dream sequence was very welcome.

Using the show’s other guest star of the night, John Stamos playing Dr. Carl, a dentist dating Emma and Will’s new rival, the two plot lines merged. All of the glee club members got dental treatments with laughing gas done, and in their unconscious state, they were reenacting Britney Spears videos. I’m not sure what this says about the state of Britney Spears, but I’m sure a critic can read into it. However, I thought it was great.

My two complaints with the episode not surprisingly have everything to do with Lea Michele’s Rachel Barry. While her rendition of the iconic “Baby One More Time” video was totally accurate, I didn’t think it was very good. The singing was off, and I just think Lea Michele overacts with everything she does. However, because of the uncanny accuracy with the cinematography – was she using the exact filming locations from the original video? – I considered this performance to be significantly better than her show ending "Paramore" number. I wasn’t even certain it was "Paramore," but I’m not a fan. Lea Michele singing "Paramore"? There’s no way I was liking it.