The New Rachel

Glee is back! Tonight began season 4, and a bold new direction (ahem) for the show as it attempts to split focus to follow the graduated characters from last season even while continuing the story at McKinley High School. And if tonight's episode is any indication, Glee might just be on course to become better than it's been since it first began.

It has always been a struggle for Glee to incorporate all the characters in its huge cast, and the real threat of this new season is that the problem will only get worse. We got, what, half a dozen new characters tonight? But the advantage of the split format is that it gives a logical reason to not use some of the characters in any given week. No more split second cuts of Rory every week just to keep him in the mix... the show may now be in a place where a character only shows up if there's a specific use for that character. If so, that's a very good place for the show to be.

So this week, no Finn, no Santana, no Mike Chang, no Puck, no Mercedes, no Quinn, etc. etc. But what we did get were three of the strongest character driven plot lines Glee has served up in a long time.

Rachel struggled to be on her own in a new place. Besides having to deal with a harsh teacher, and not being the star of the show, she had to deal with being separated from everyone she knows and loves. And watching that slowly crush her felt powerful and true.

Kurt meanwhile was spinning his wheels in Ohio, another very honest take on what can happen to a high school graduate. This storyline served up no less than four fantastic scenes: him meeting Sue's new baby, and seeing her new slightly kinder, but still direct demeanor; Blaine finally telling Kurt how much it hurt him to see Kurt lost; another Emmy worthy "world's best Dad scene" (and named as such) featuring Mike O'Malley as Burt Hummel; and the final reunion with Rachel at the fountain in New York.

Lastly, there was the storyline of the remaining New Directions stars getting too full of themselves and experiencing the other side of the bullying coin. It provided a different tone to the bullying storyline of the past explored so powerfully with the Karofsky character, watching characters we already know and care about slip to the dark side. It also served well to introduce new characters. Even though we've never seen Marley or her mother before tonight, the scene between the two of them was still effective.

If any element of the show wasn't top notch tonight, it was the music. Not across the board, certainly. But I wasn't wowed by the opportunistic jumping on the "Call Me Maybe" bandwagon, the mashup of "Americano" and "Dance Again", or going to Adele yet again for "Chasing Pavements." On the other hand, the extreme choreography of Blaine's "It's Time" was pretty fun. And the way "New York State of Mind" was used to bridge the New York and Ohio storylines was really effective.

Holding a level of quality has long been a tricky thing for Glee. But if they can pull it off this time, the show will rocket back to the top of my current favorites list. I give this episode an A-.