First, what worked. I'm glad the writers have realized that not every episode of Glee has to have Rachel and Kurt in it. I thought the four episodes that kicked off this season did a pretty good job of juggling the New York and Ohio storylines, but I also think that sooner or later, there would come an episode where one plot felt overly distorted to match the other. Instead, they've embraced the approach that Lost came to use in its later seasons, with its divided cast -- some episodes, one of the groups is just going to have the week off.
Blake Jenner is definitely going to work well on this show. I never watched the first season of The Glee Project, but I did catch every episode of the second. It didn't take long for it to become clear to me, Blake was the one who should win it. Watching one of the first season's "winners" smile in the background as Rory throughout season 3 of Glee, the mistake that was clear to me was that Ryan Murphy and company never made sure their choice could act. Yeah, he had a great voice, and a different personal story unlike any of the other characters on Glee (he was from Ireland), but he couldn't act. I assumed Blake, though most deserving, would lose season 2 of The Glee Project -- he was rock solid in every performance, but had no big personal backstory to serve as a short cut for Murphy having to actually think up a character of his own. But I was pleasantly surprised that the Power(s) That Be on Glee made the right choice this time.
I was just as pleasantly surprised to see that choice then shine in his first episode on the show. The character that they created for him isn't exactly fantastic -- I guess they think the show just has to have a "Finn" -- but he was busting out dance moves better than anything he ever showed on the Glee Project, nailing his first big song (the "classic rock" song, ahem, Jukebox Hero), and in my opinion acting the part of "Finn" better than Cory Monteith ever did.
What didn't work quite so well for me was yet another unexplained (and unexplainable) contortion of Sue Sylvester into crazed villainy. Right there in this very episode, she reminded all of us what a supporter she was of Kurt, making it all the more peculiar how she reacted when dealing with someone who identifies as transgender. She was extra regressive in her attitudes, extra mean in her behavior, extra nasty in her insults. It really came to a head in for me in the moment where Finn reflexively insulted Sue's child. His slur was offensive, absolutely... and yet why, when we're meant to take that moment as awful, should we treat any of the equally awful things Sue was doing in the episode as humorous?
Still other parts of the episode fell into a middle ground for me. I'm glad to get more of the old cast back into the show, though I groan at the contrivance of Mercedes and Mike coming back from whatever lives they were trying to start to assist on a high school musical. I'm glad to have Finn in a plot that doesn't involve Rachel, but it's pretty ridiculous that he could just show up and teach glee club, that simple. I'm glad that we got a taste of Mike and Tina trying to work together after their break-up, but disappointed that we didn't see how they got through it; we just jumped straight to her being cast in the musical. I'm glad we saw Blaine still wallowing in the misery of his mistake, but the writing of it (and Darren Criss' performance) were a bit extreme. (Or maybe authentic high school?) I'm glad we saw Will and Emma resolve their differences without dragging out their problems for weeks, but mystified about their use of Coach Bieste as their "counselor."
Great musical performances this week. The gender reversal and slo-mo fun of "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was a good opener. (And seriously, go back and look at some of the things happening around Blaine on the football field. Hilarious!) Unique and Marley's treatment of Pink's newest single seriously rocked; no callback should have been necessary. As mentioned, "Jukebox Hero" was a solid introduction for Blake. The duet on "Everybody Talks" by Jake and Kitty had some seriously impressive dance moves. And "Born to Hand Jive," though ridiculous in Grease, and kind of silly its "dance off" presentation here, was still kinda stupid-fun anyway.
Overall, I'd call this week's episode a B+. Glee always asks some pretty big buys of its audience when it comes to plot developments. At least this time, it went to making a mostly fun episode.
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