Well. I mean, the polarizing starts well before the show does. If you care about Rocky Horror, you've seen it done better. If you don't, you're waiting, tired, for the show to get going.

So. They start the show and of course, of course Rachel and and Finn are going to be Brad and Janet. Like really? We think that they are the best for this? Or just the same old boring Rachel and Finn in a straight couple situation? This is a down.

John Stamos - we are UP!

Have we ever actually seen what Will likes in Emma? Do I have to wait to find out? Bored already, please. Major down.

So all these kids know Rocky Horror pretty well,huh? Except for Finn who is quite adorable with all his worries about his junk in his underwear. Of course Rachel would steamroll him and all his worries. So that's an up.

Okay, the return of Sue on tv. Not my style - I always like these scenes the least - but I get why it's necessary. She looks competent and in charge. For my part, I will admit that the absence of Sue has, for me, made the show regain its footing. And in doses, she's useful. So - a pretty big up.

And then we are in her office, listening to Meatloaf and Barry Bostwick bitch about the "secular, progressive agenda" that is allowing the show to be produced. Now, here's the thing. I know this may or may not be accurate. It may be exactly the reaction that shows like this get in high schools across the US. But they're playing it for comedy, in this case to go for an expose Emmy. And so while I buy it, it's not making me worry yet for the freedom of expression of the poor little kids in the show. Also, I'm looking forward to how it goes down. Let's call this one a draw.

Insecure Finn and the girls commenting on his body kind of felt fresh. Am I crazy? Big up. Also big up to Quinn and Kurt being utterly unrecognizable in their costumes. Look at the cheekbones on Chris Colfer!!

But Rachel would lead the charge against getting objectified. I don't think she would be this oblivious to what they're talking about. I'm back down. Why do girls with boyfriends have to be dumb?

Cory Monteith's singing has gotten way better, or they've figured out how to mix him better. I'm up!

Sue tells Will she wants to play with him on the play and he should be more worried than he is. I'm down.

This exploitation of new kid Sam's eight pack is a little much. Let me rewind and look at it again. But seriously, a kid like Finn is letting himself get fat? Doesn't he run around all the damn time? And I know they're trying to subvert this from being the girls who fuss about how they look, but these are the parts that pull me out of this being anyone's high school experience, ever. It's a down for me, and I wish it wasn't.

Will and Emma. Yep, she would love to do costumes for the show! Yay! Boring...and then Mike Chang is out. His parents don’t want cross-dressing. Finally the plot moves! I'm up.

A down - Sue's relationship with the Down Syndrome girl on the cheerleading team is cheap, and it assumes I'm stupid. I don't need to see her in a scene with someone differently abled every week in order to believe she's human, and you can't show her with a Down Syndrome person as insurance for whatever horrible thing she's going to do next. Quit it.

An up - I will always look at John Stamos holding up a corset.

A down - did they only name him Carl to cut the hotness?

A major down - My closed captioning doesn't work and I cannot play back the naughty thing Santana says that makes Emma snap at her when John Carl is trying to be in the show.

An up - he is just so entertaining when he sings and dances. It is really too bad he was too young to be John Travolta instead, and there's an extra up because Schuester's smirk is just exactly perfect.

Major, major up - Mercedes volunteering to be Frank N Furter. It's a great idea but why did it have to fall to a fifteen year old? I know I yell at people for not realizing this is a fictional show - but really if I were a 10 year old watching, I'd be going, why doesn't he realize his girls are great? So it's also sort of a down.

An up - the word nuttage. Also the director's psychotic devotion to 'not stopping' during dress rehearsal.

A big down - even though Amber Riley is singing the crap out of this song, she so clearly is not comfortable with the "touch yourself"-type actions and it's taking away from her performance. Sad.

The costumes are Amazing. Brittany in particular is unrecognizable.

A down - okay, here we go. Who is this show for? Because if people are all up in arms that their eight year olds are watching and so how dare Agron and Michele pose in sexy magazines, then how do they get away with a show in which the teacher screws over the students for his own personal gain - and he's supposed to be the good one? I have no clue who I'm supposed to root for each week, other than Kurt, and even he is bad sometimes, which is good, but I have no sympathy for Schue here and so begets a lack of caring about the whole show, you know? Sigh. Moving on... Schue has taken the role from Sam and will play Rocky on his own.

A major up - these songs, if you're not over familiar with them, are certainly sing-along-able.

How long do you think Morrison knew the shot of his abs was on its way? (Lainey: sweet potato diet!)

A down - Sam is insecure enough in his body to want bigger shorts, but he knows that you should "just be you and the sexy will flow through"?

A down - at least Sue has a reason to be a cartoon. Figgins is just annoying in his sameness

An up - Finn's puffy vest is hilarious.

A down - the Stamos/Schue thing playing out onstage doesn't make it any more palatable, it’s still boring.

And another down. Becky the plot device shows Mr. Schue what Sue has been doing in her office? Why? She doesn't know better? That undermines Becky as we've known her. She secretly wants to take Sue down? Then why don't we know that? And why the hell is Will surprised by any of this?

A really surprising up, though - Sue's rant is understated, not over the top. It makes Will look worse, which I'm into.

A continual down is that Emma, the character, not the actress, will never not bore me.

A curious up - why is Tina smirking, all the time, in every shot? I kind of think it’s unexpectedly realistic.

Okay, Time Warp is never not fun but I'm not sure it needed to be as long as it was.

A final, unexpected down - I really like Lea Michele. I think she's cute and she is a really true type that would appear on this show. But she is so incredibly studied, it freaks me out. When the camera pans past her in a group shot, she always has the most earnest face, like "am I doing it right? I am, right?" It's not ego, which she is so often accused of - it's anxiousness and it's somewhat disconcerting.

So once again, a show about the adults is absolutely exhausting, no matter how much, no matter how utterly entertaining the music is, it is flat flat flat when they aren't the ones emotionally involved.

Now, the up and the down that is this episode, that had Elaine and I talking last night: would this happen? Is Rocky Horror such an abomination that it would elicit this kind of reaction if it were put on in high school?

I do think parents of teenagers today are much more mindful of the cork that can't go back in the bottle. Years ago, if your kid caught the last half of Rocky Horror on TV or something, well, then, they did. But they wouldn't have been able to go on the net, research, and learn everything about everything to do with transvestism, sexuality...there's none of the drubs and drabs that (yes, I'm going to say it) happened when we were young. Back then, you could see something, do something, learn something about growing up, then have it fade into the bliss of half remembrances until something else happened. This is what it used to be like (for a much better explanation of how this story can unfold beautifully, pick up Mary Karr's 'Cherry', about which I am evangelical).

So I do understand, in theory, why there is more restriction on what kids are exposed to. And I don't totally know the way around that because there is much more out there to protect kids from, unquestionably. But we don't yet know what the effects are of kids who are brought up in a bubble. Or...do we? How do you know when enough is enough and too much is too much? I do know that kids hate to be pandered to - and that they will, for the most part, self-select what they need - but Glee would have you believe that they need to be told, spoon-fed even, by adults who, as we've seen, truly don't have their best interests at heart.

Attached – Glee cast shooting outside yesterday.


Photos from Bauergriffinonline.com and Flynetonline.com