Written by Duana


I don’t have time for this, Glee.

I don’t. I can’t deal with you suddenly finding your footing now, at the end of the year, when I have a whole season of reviews that quite rightly rip you up one side and down the other.

I don’t have the taste for eating crow. So quit it.

But really, let’s be honest. Last night’s episode was good. Not lifechanging, not anything that resets the series. But a picture of exactly what this show can be when it’s actually focused on the people that matter – the kids – and the songs that help them express the emotions that bowl you over when you’re sixteen.

There’s a lot of good, so I’m just going to highlight a sampling.

“Friday” – honestly, who knew? Maybe the guys at Arc records did. They took the crappiest, most inane song released this millennium and made it into an anthem of utter joy. I was impressed, and its success is mostly because nobody did it ironically. “Friday” got the same enthusiasm and production values as any other song this episode, or any episode. I have to doff my hat. This is how you stay culturally relevant and maintain what your show’s about. Not that every show could have done it in the first place, but it’s not like they made the story about Rachel cutting a record with a discount-record-company. They just used it for what it was for – a fun song. I hope Rebecca Black made some money off that.

Gay themes at the Prom. I didn’t go to my prom, (What we did instead is so pretentious I can’t tell you). I didn’t care, I still don’t. But I know what a high-water mark it is for most kids and how much of a battlefield it is for gay kids. So I can accept that Kurt, Santana, and everyone else got so emotionally involved in how they were going to be perceived, who to go with, and what went down. I do NOT buy that a kid so entrenched in fashion and Alexander McQueen would be injured by the word “Queen” attached to his name – but the moment when he finally accepted the crown was nice and, for Glee especially, SO understated. It didn’t become a speech or a slow clap, it was just a 16 year old kid learning that sometimes you catch more flies with honey. I was impressed.

Rachel’s songs I had never heard this “Jar of Hearts” before last night and I want to know whether or not I need to care about it. But it was really neat, because the lyrics are supposed to be about how Jesse came back into her life but she can’t just let him in. Instead she sings them to Finn, who isn’t even trying (outwardly) to get to her, but they hit him in the gut anyway. I thought that was really subtle for this show, and kind of sweetly showing the complexity of teens. Loved it. Also, unlike many, I thought the “Rolling In The Deep” rendition was lovely in it’s harmony and lack of overproduction.

Oh – and I almost forgot – A BIG SHOUT OUT for Brittany not forgiving Artie’s assholish behavior just because he did one easy and cute thing! I had to rewind to make sure I was seeing it right, and Heather Morris’ bland delivery makes it that much better. She’s not making a big deal of it – she’s just not letting him off the hook, that’s all.

The bad of course, exists. The premise of the episode starts with Mercedes wanting a date, and then, when she does get a pity date, it’s with the most boring guy in the group who has no genuine interest in her. It’s pretty exhausting and I have to wonder whether Amber Riley ha given the producers any reason not to give her something meatier to work with, because she certainly knocks the emotions out of the park when they’re in front of her.

Quinn, in general. I don’t care, I never have, but she is so completely unlikeable and yet, as others have pointed out, never gets reprimanded. So what are we supposed to believe, that her behavior is OK? That you can slap someone if you’re pretty enough to get away with it? A bucket of pigs’ blood would have been a cliché – and so, so welcome in this scenario.

I haven’t changed, I’m not a different person. ‘Glee’ didn’t melt my heart, and I can’t stand that the most week-to-week continuity is that everyone remembers about a FORECLOSURE. How sexy.

But I’m not dreading next Tuesday night. Not like I used to.

Attached- Cory Monteith having breakfast in LA earlier this month.


Photos from Wenn.com