Britney 2.0

Tonight's installment of Glee revisited the idea of a "Britney Spears theme week" first done exactly two years ago as the second episode of season 2 -- and across the board, this second take was superior. Where the previous episode was a loosely woven excuse to restage Spears videos and show kids getting high on visits to the dentist, this episode deftly juggled several character-driven storylines.

Brittany was having a meltdown over Santana drifting apart from her, and decided to funnel it into a full-on pursuit for rock bottom. It led to solid scenes with Sue and, oddly enough, Sam, and also ended on the nicely ambiguous note that while Brittany may have begun putting her life back together, it may not be a life that will have Santana in it.

In New York, Rachel's battle against her dance teacher continued. The past of Cassie's failed Broadway career wasn't surprising (though the details were fun), though I much prefer that Glee portray its characters with a logical internal consistency as opposed to trying just for surprise. The same goes for the growing flirtation between Rachel and Brody -- not surprising, but entertaining. Welcome, in fact. I haven't missed Finn in these two new episodes at all.

It was a bit of a stretch to have Puck fly all he way out from L.A. for a two minute talk with a half-brother he'd never met, but let's face it -- we'll have to accept some strained believability in moments like this, I think, to have graduated characters turn up on the show. Having got Puck there, they did at least give him a good scene with Jake.

Actually, I'm enjoying how much all the new characters seem to be working all across the board. Jake, Marley, and Brody are all proving interesting; Unique is an interesting fit with the group. I'm also digging the increased song time for underused characters like Tina and Artie

That said, I do think this episode still fell into the trap of past Glee theme weeks -- there were a few too many songs in the hour, crowding out the plots just a bit. Still, I'd be hard pressed in this case to suggest just which songs I would have cut. Every song this week hit on at least some level: they had great staging ("Hold It Against Me", "Oops... I Did It Again", "Gimme More"), fit fairly well into the plot ("Womanizer" and "Everytime"), or were arranged differently enough from the original to be intriguing (the surprisingly decent mashups of "Boys / Boyfriend" and "Crazy / (You Drive Me) Crazy"). Actually, many of the songs hit two or even all three of those categories, and all of the vocal performances were solid.

In short, I'm continuing to enjoy the newly revitalized Glee. I give this week's episode a B+.