After a holiday hiatus Glee is back on TV. Last night was the Valentine's Day episode. What did you think?
I thought it was boring.
But what do I know? The world will never agree on what makes a good Glee episode so I'm just gonna tell you what I liked, what I thought didn't work and crowdsource a few opinions. Just like every week! Welcome back!
A lot of last night's commercials had the stink of money and desperation that usually accompanies Superbowl ads. I'm guessing that's where that Chevrolet commercial with the Glee cast debuted, right? Not part of the show but still: dislike.
Anyways, we open at Gay Hogwarts where it's immediately clear where this is gonna be another one of those Kurt the Martyr episodes. Blaine (AKA Eyebrows) tips Kurt off that he's gonna be singing to his crush which Kurt (stupidly) thinks is him. That's not how surprises work, Kurt! This means the Warblers break decades of nonsensical tradition to sing Robin Thicke's Beethoven jam "When I Get You Alone" in aisles of the Gap to Blaine's real crush, Jeremiah. It's kinda fun and kinda embarrassing and Kurt gets to change his expression from weepy to smug cuz Jeremiah gets fired. Then there's some cute stuff between him and Blaine about never having boyfriends and ending up like Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, yadda yadda.
Meanwhile there's this kissing booth business where Finn - whom the writers are still trying to pass off as a high school Adonis - and Quinn smooch (at Sam's bizarre request) and they literally see fireworks. Really, Glee writers? You're going to show us clips of fireworks during their kiss? Oh no wait! It makes sense because Finn mentions them to Rachel and gives her a reason to sing Katy Perry's "Firework". But that doesn't make sense. That song's about healing cancer patients with your boob sparklers not about your ex-boyfriend having better kisses with his cheerleader ex-girlfriend than he had with you. I guess when Leah Michelle's contract is for one song an episode things are gonna get thrown together sometimes.
Lastly, Puck alluvasudden has the hots for Lauren. The decision to have Puck sing "Fat Bottom Girls" and have Lauren take offense at it felt kinda cake-and-eat-it to me, though the show could've took a worse route. In true Glee tradition I support what I think their message is with the Lauren storyline but the handling was weeeeird. This show really has a problem with taking characters that were seemingly developed to be two-dimensional and sticking them in the middle of a message episode. "I look the way America looks"?? What was that? There was no work done by the writers to make Lauren a believable person outside of her telling Puck not to objectify her. And this is after episodes with gags based around the silliness of Lauren objectifying guys like Puck. Then they stick in lines like "I don't think you're ready for this jelly" and expect me to take it seriously and I just don't know what to say.
Ah, but there was also Artie and Mike Chang performing "P.Y.T." with aplomb (nice to see Glee choosing a kinda sorta deep cut from the MJ files) and the Warblers laying on the cheese with McCartney's "Silly Love Songs". As a McCartney apologist I can't help but notice that a show like Glee is really the perfect vehicle for a lot of his output.
But that's what I thought. What did you guys think? About fireworks? About Lauren and Puck? About the love quadrangle between Rachel and Finn and Sam and Quinn? About Will Schuester getting one reaction shot in the episode and Sue Sylvester being totally MIA? About Finn exclaiming "Tenderoni!" when he gets excited? What the fuck did you think?
Stray notes and quotes
Finn looks like a gassy infant when he's guilty.
It takes more than a song to get Lauren's juices flowing.
Tina's "My Funny Valentine" rendition. Funny? Unnerving?
Finn got Rachel a star necklace. Cuz she's a staaaaahh!
Santana had the best lines this episode:
"I try to be really nice to people but I just think they suck!"
"I've had mono so many times it's turned into stereo."
