Glee Season 2 - Page 2

Loved Brittany in this episode but now they really need to dial her back. They gave her a lot to do and it was really funny, but her oddity is gonna get real old real fast if they keep this rate up.

Other than that, I haven't been feeling these last two eps. I thought quite a few of the covers tonight were terrible. Especially "Baby One More Time" and "Toxic." At least the latter had it's own stage number. I'm really getting tired of this show throwing in as many songs as possible at the expense of story only to have the kids either simply stand around the piano or just flat-out reenact music videos. Brittany/Santana are hot and all, but if I want to watch "Me Against the Music," I could just go to youtube.

And I'm really confused about how we're supposed to feel regarding Rachel. The girl's a psychopath with almost zero redeeming qualities. That would actually be fine with me if the show wasn't trying so hard to get us to sympathize with her. It really tries to have it both ways on a lot of counts.

I dunno, maybe me and this show are just no longer meant to be. When it's funny, it's hilarious, but I'm just getting aggravated with the format. I know it comes across like I have an issue with the singing, which for a show about singing is really dumb, but I just think when they let the storylines develop and give the characters time to breathe between numbers it's a lot more fun.

This episode lays bare the secret to Britney Spears' career-- her hit-making producers. Yeah, it's obvious when you hear her singles. But the songs, divorced from their original production, never really take on a life of their own. The performances were there. I'm sure the Glee kids can sing was well as Britney. But without that minimalist low end filthy swank in I'm a Slave 4U, shit just don't sound right. That was the similar problem with last week's Jay-Z cover. Well, that and Alicia Keys belts that tune as if New York was the last place on earth.

Still, overall a funny ep that pushed the characters incrementally but in important ways (assuming they don't ditch the character development) and it was fairly tight. I swear though, I watch Glee for the girls writhing in bikini tops.

I disagree. The full version of "Empire State of Mind" sounds great from the Glee Cast. I like it better than the original.

What can I say? I have fairly mainstream taste for an aging hipster, but I've definitely got a bit of music snob in me. At least my arguments are sorta consistent.

Perhaps I'm just out of touch, but what 2010 teen really likes Britney that much? I mean, when I was a teenager, Hit Me One More Time was a big deal and then Oops, I Did It Again and stuff like the Madonna kiss. Her last really good pop song was Toxic and that was a few years ago.

I thought it was a very funny episode (Crackewd up at Finn enthusiastically nodding that Christopher Cross discovered America and later Kurt asking, in disbelief, "Really?" when Britanny asked if Finn could fly. Britanny was a scream through the whole thing.), but like Andrew said, they just copycatted her video's like the terrible Sue videos from last year and the one song they did on stage was terribly edited as it cut away from them too much. They've done such a better job showing audience reaction and the performance. They've done plenty of songs where I think they outshone the original, but they missed the mark here. (Quinn should have been in the Hit Me One More Time video. Thematically, it would have been better. )

Finally, I want the kid with the fro and the fat girl to die violently.

You already said that part! You could stand to say it again a few more times though. They make me feel like I have to take a shower.

I didn't really like this episode. Agree with Diva about the way the show just went into musical numbers based on flimsy threads.

Can Heather Morris actually sing? I think this was the first episode where she actually got a song to herself. I thought they kept her on because of her dancing and her kookiness. I do love it when she dances.

Heather said in an interview that she was instructed to sound like Britney Spears, so her singing voice in this episode is a Britney impersonation.

Ah thanks. So she does sing. I wonder why they've given her almost no opportunity to till now...

Well I think her voice is more suited to blending with the choir, or BGVs. It's hard to compete with Lea Michele and Amber Riley in the powerhouse department. Not even Dianna or Naya get featured that much. I personally think Naya has a great voice. And I still think they should be throwing more stuff to Amber Riley.

Glee has definitely been a little off this season so far. No really great emotional moments and the songs have just been so-so. The Britney stuff didn't bother me as much as the horrible closing musical number choices for these past two episodes.

However next week, what with Kurt's old man in the hospital and a Billy Joel number, could rectify that problem something solid.

I also feel like there's a few too many characters at this point, and in danger of going completely overkill. If you have to go an episode or two without seeing someone because there's no room in the storyline, maybe you need to consider scaling it back a bit instead of adding more.

Especially her big finale in the season premiere. She obviously screwed over that girl simply out of fear of losing her place as the star of the group, but she gets an inspiring musical number talking about how she did it "for love"? Come on.

But what teen cares about Britney? Because the show was all about teens obsessing over Britney Spears. Seemed a little strange. Lady Gaga, I get that, but Britney?

Really lousy episode (aside from the magnificent Heather Morris), I hate it when the music dictates the story and not the other way around.

Echoing others here, but I really wish the numbers had been better edited. When you've got folks who can really fricking dance, just set the camera down and let them go. Morris has such a joyful style, and the long walk with the snake is the only time you can really enjoy it.

Also. Tired of 'songbook' eps in general, but especially ones like this where suddenly everybody's a big fan and the covers are soundalikes. More unconventional arrangements please, and less "This singer uses being a sex object to express power and individuality".

P.S. Anyone notice last week that the AV geek got a name? Jacob Ben Israel... eep

He's always had a name. Had it back in the Sectionals episode and possible earlier.

Holy shit can Heather Morris dance. I read that she started off as a choreographer for the show and got drafted early for a small bit part. The downside: her insane skills just highlighted the lackluster ones of the other kids. As much as I love Naya Rivera, it was almost laughable when Morris was like CRAZY INSANE DANCE TIME and Naya goes Imma swing on this swing for a bit.
In related news, I continue to feel like a dirty old man whenever I watch this show.

So Jew Fro kid* was masturbating naked in the library. Seriously. Whose fucking idea was that? Horrible.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that iTunes sales drive this show, and not characters. And when they do give us characters, it's not say, Puck or Quinn, it's Rachel fucking Berry, the most insufferably selfish girl ever.

*WE GET IT HE'S JEWISH HOLY SHIT ASDJFLK;

Quinn's little moment "testing" Finn showed more grace and earned more sympathy from me than an entire seasons worth of Rachel's bullshit. I can't stand her, she is just an awful human being, and a ballad at the end of every episode doesn't fix that.

I thought this episode was a blast. (The more nerdy and awkward they make Will, the better.) Things seem back on track after last season's shitty last third.

Stop crying, Rachel.

Rachel is the centerpiece of the show. Deal with it. They are in the process of shaping her character, and her growing pains are obviously being felt by all of you and me as well.

As far as this episode goes, there will always be down episodes in a season. Other shows have them too. They wanted to spotlight Britney and did it. For me, I feel they have set up some great base points to begin launching into deeper storylines. The season will get better.

Teens do dig Britney. I took my then-17 year old sister to Britney's last tour, the Circus tour, and the crowd makeup was women in their 20s, gay guys, and teen girls accompanied by parents. Teen girls do like her, but the majority of her fanbase is people in their 20s who grew up watching her on MTV.

In Naya's defense, she did exactly what Madonna did in the "Me Against The Music" video. She's on the swing and playing with the cane while Brit is dancing her ass off. I get your point, though.

I'm not talking about in general. I know Glee isn't representing reality at all, but would those teens really care about Britney?

Eh... she wasn't that bad, and yes even kind of likable, in stretches of season one. But she seems to be regressing. I'm not demanding to like every character in a TV show, but I am demanding to enjoy them. Benjamin Linus is always a good example of this.

Unless this is all some meta-commentary on how vapid and idiot teen girls can be.
While I hope you're right, the second half of season one and these two eps suggest otherwise.

ETA: I'm with Cameron. I don't think an average 16-17 year old would know/care about Spears past her tabloid drama. Certainly not "Hit Me Baby One More Time", which came out when they were like... 5? Gawd that pink sports bra + exercise pants combo in that vid brings me back.

I think this is quite close actually. I do kind of think Rachel is representative of how teen girls can be confused with the rush of emotions and physiological changes being experienced. Interestingly, in contrast you have Jew Fro masturbating to Rachel. Not ironic at all.

And it is very possible I'm biased in my love for the show, willing to look past the bad. But I really am hopeful that there is some deeper emotional context that will end up being the anchor for this season.

I was a freshman in High School when Hit Me Baby One More Time came out(And looks quaint and innocent now) and that was a really big deal. The dancing, the kinky school girl outfits, Britney being jailbait. All the major things in her career seemed to happen during my time in High School. These kids wouldn't even be old enough to have seen the Madonna kiss live(They wouldn't even be in High School for several years). They're the right age for her breakdown, but people my age vividly remember her when she first started out, so the fall had a little more impact.

A Justin Timberlake episode could be fun, and even he's relevant to kids today for far more than a music career.

Yeah, Rachel and Quinn's actions can be understood and forgiven because they're kids. Same with Kurt more or less stalking Finn last year. It becomes something else entirely though when it's Terri doing terrible things, because she's old enough to know better.

The argument of what teen would be interested in Britney is laughable, considering the range of artists the Glee kids have covered. Sure some of them are from the teacher as a learning exercise but there are a ton out there that isn't, at least Britney is somewhat more current.

I was very disappointed in Rachel's Britney song, that was a cringe worthy performance that was just horrible. It was like the Quinn song from last season.. You Keep Me Hangin' On.

That being said... Loved everything about the dreamscape Britney S. Pierce videos! Nothing worth downloading but rewatching over and over again would be awesome!

One big problem with the songbook episodes is that it requires everybody on the cast to be momentarily obsessed with a particular artist, even if it's completely out-of-character. I'd understand one or two of the kids going through a Britney phase, but the enthusiasm seemed pretty across the board, and Emma was rattling off Britney's recent Billboard history.

The range wouldn't be all that weird if the writers were better about maintaining and developing the musical identities established early on (Finn's the classic rock guy, Rachel's the big Broadway buff, Kurt's into a lot of older stage artists identified with gay subculture, etc.). They should be using that stuff to inform the direction and song choices of the episodes, not "this song was really big this year" (nearly every song last week, the Paramore song - which I quite like, generally speaking - this week) or "we have the rights to use this artist's catalog this week!"

A nitpick in an episode that, due to its almost uniform awfulness, should be beyond nitpicking: Will's weird little Christopher Cross thing is completely anachronistic. Assuming the actor and character are the same age (31), Will's annoying forays into early 90s pop R&B and hip-hop make sense; the show choir kids I knew in high school (a few years before Will would have been) were fans of that stuff, much to my amusement at the time. Christopher Cross would have been big when he was about two years old. Here, Cross is a cute punchline that is, in no way, grounded in character.

No lie, I thought the whole Christopher Cross thing was going to turn into this, because I've never heard of Cross.

Ah, memories, in my elementary school talent show, I knew kids that performed Jump.

Personally, I think we should be proud of our ignorance of early-80s adult contemporary artists.

I was wondering how the hell Schu thought he could stage a kickass number to yacht rock.

And good point about keying the songs to the characters' personalities. That's definitely missing so far this year.

I'll admit it - it would be both out-of-character for pretty much everyone on the show and (typically, for TV) a few years behind on the whole Yacht Rock thing, but if they went whole hog on that concept for an episode, I'd be pretty impressed. Schu indulging in his gonzo Christopher Cross fetish, Puck or Artie going through a Michael McDonald phase, Finn making like token Yacht Rock "rock dude" Kenny Loggins...

So... smoooooth.

Hm. Guess Yacht Rock's kind of a boys' club, isn't it?

We can only hope for a Joni Mitchell songbook ep.

I just got into this show over the summer, and for the most part I've enjoyed it...this was the first episode where I fast-forwarded large portions of the episode. Mostly the musical numbers. Ugh...terrible. I think very little of Britney as an artist to begin with, and to have these musical numbers occur as dream sequences, and to have every character say "Britney Spears" at least 10 times each, as if they were contractually obligated to...again, ugh. Sue's few scenes were about the only watchable parts. If Glee does another one like this, I'm done.

Glee has a huge problem with their theme/songbook episodes. Whoever writes them feels they have to say their word/name of the week in every other sentence to make it work.

I'm willing to give the show another episode or two, but I've been losing interest since the latter half of season 1. I hate when people dislike something because it's popular, but Glee's taking off in the pop-culture may have been the worst thing to happen to it. It's an iTunes money-maker now as opposed to, say, an actual show.

They will do more theme episodes. In fact they have a Rocky Horror Picture show episode coming up. This is part of what Glee is, though I could do with a few more ensemble numbers as opposed to straight solos. I can't really condemn them for trying to make money and stay on the air. I don't feel as if the integrity of the show is gone. The focus is more the issue.

I don't mean to condemn them for it. It's just as far as my viewing goes. Hey, if they can find a winning formula and make money off of it, I don't begrudge them milking it. I just hoped for something a little different.

However you slice it, it's always entertaining in some fashion. Dunno how I feel about a Rocky Horror episode (how are they gonna make that work?), but we'll see.

Depends how they cast it. They don't really have a Frank.

The problem is, it's a different show than the first half of season 1. It just is. Instead of a light-ish drama with occasional songs that fit neatly into character's emotions or storylines, it's a cartoon filled to the brim with songs that either don't fit the story at all, or are shoehorned in so hard it's painful.

Kurt needs to be Columbia.

N-SYNC did it on their first album/tour... (hanging my head in shame and embarrassment).

This, and I'm worried that the writing will never catch up. Unless what we've been seeing here is filler while they pull the season arc together-- what's the current objective again, besides getting their budget back?

Nice. And the new blond kid is an obvious Rocky.

I think the ultimate objective is to win Nationals, or at least get there considering they finished last at Regionals. However not all of the individual character arcs have been explained for this season yet. In most cases, the are continuing from what was built in the first half of season 1 and are slowly evolving.

Yes the show has changed from the first half of season 1. But they were losing viewers plain and simple. The writers are the same, and obviously the production crew felt they needed to do something. The next episode is important at offering contrast from the last episode. I think "Grilled Cheesus" will be good.

No I haven't.

Characters spouting off moral lessons and statistics about the topic of the episode while others sending a rival to a crack house? Sounds like something I'd see on Nip/Tuck.