Glease

Tonight, Glee took on the musical Grease with mixed-to-good results.

Rachel's storyline, involving her continued rivalry with Cassandra, was a bit mixed in Cassandra's crazed machinations; it's hard to believe that that someone so easily rattled by a young student would still be teaching, as she'd surely have had a career ending meltdown before this. (She had one in her past career, after all.) But the story was good in that it was about toughening up Rachel some more, forcing her to face how condescending she comes off at times, and moving her closer toward the end of defining herself in terms of the man she's with.

The Marley storyline was mixed in the way Kitty's villainy was as extreme as Cassandra, Sue Sylvester, and anything Quinn ever did, all rolled into one. Yes, I suppose there really are teenagers in the world who would try to drive a rival to bulimia as a way of getting revenge, but what misfortune is going to have to befall Kitty down the road to redeem the character and pull her back from the brink?

The small storyline for Wade/Unique was mixed and good for the same reason. After several seasons of seeing Burt Hummel, "Best Dad on Television," in his interactions with Kurt, here we got another texture of parents who were trying to be supportive, but lacking the courage of their own child. It's too bad these characters were weaker in their convictions, but it's also true and interesting. Whether to give in to fear when you have a legitimate reason to be fearful is a moral conundrum that could have easily filled more screen time. I hope the show will explore it more.

The musical numbers themselves were also mixed-to-good. Some were staged exactly as they were in the film version of Grease, and that made them rather boring and uninspired in my book. "Greased Lightnin'" at least had some energy, but as Blaine was supposed to be wallowing in depression, "Beauty School Dropout" was pretty boring. But by contrast, the final two songs of the show, "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" and "You're the One That I Want," were quite interesting. These songs blended multiple singers, multiple locations, dream sequences, multiple storylines for each of the characters -- and solid vocal performances too. And the episode's plot didn't feel too distorted just to get the songs to fit, as is often the case when Glee does a theme week.

Overall, I'd call this episode a B+, right about the respectable bar Glee's been reaching recently. I'll leave with this one parting thought. Grease is really a pretty poor musical for a high school to perform, when you think about it. Besides the fact that more puritanical minds would object to the depiction of teen sex (I have no qualms there), I think it sends a really bizarre message in its grand finale, the transformation of Sandy into leather-clad vixen. It seems to me the musical is saying: change everything about who you are and what you dream to become the fantasy of the man you think you want. That feels to me like a message that should be left behind in the decade this musical uses as its setting.

I don't think Danny and Sandy lived happily ever after.