I thought they handled Kurt’s character very well.
His version of, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” was the first time a Beatles tune hasn’t just been over-hyped mediocre pop to me.
I love it when episodes have “Sue is Human” segments.
While I liked it for those reasons, overall it felt kind of forced to me; so I’m going to put it in the middle of the road camp.
I didn’t think they could top last year’s casting of the character of Rachel and her birth-mother, but they came damn close with Kurt & Mini-Kurt. This show has some of the best casting staff in the business.
The mini Kurt was a dam good likeness. I was impressed.
Overall I didn’t like the childhood sequence though. Kurt grew up in the 90’s. They made it look like the Wonder Years opening of the 60’s. The bike with the banana seat and the streamers. I give some leeway for Kurt’s quirkiness but I think they delved into their own childhoods rather then that of a modern highschool student’s.
Well, Kurt didn’t want them, but who knows what Burt wanted? The case could be made that while praying for Kurt after he asked them not to would be obnoxious.** But what right does Kurt have to say “Don’t pray for my dad.”
(**Personally, I don’t buy that argument. Constantly badgering an athiest about prayer is obnoxious (and Mercedes bordered on the obnoxious here), but I don’t see how anyone is hurt by someone praying for them. Still, the case could be made…)
This is Rachel we’re talking about. She’s not a typical high school senior (or junior, actually). She “manages to dress like a grandmother and a toddler at the same”. And she’s similarly very mature and very immature for her age, so I almost buy it. Though she almost had sex with Jesse last year, so one might assume that they’d made it to 2nd base. Then again, after that relationship imploded, she might have become more prudish as a backlash.
I dunno, with 5-6 songs a week, it’s kinda asking a lot for each one to fit exactly with every lyric. IWHYH is a pretty simple love song lyrically. There’s nothing really in there that can’t make it about father/son love rather than romantic love. And in 19 years of hearing it, (has it really been that long? yikes.) I still don’t have a clue what Losing my Religion is about. According to wiki, Stipe says it’s about “unrequited love”. That’s close enough to “loving a god who doesn’t love you back” that it works for me.
Seems to me like they are not being literal, but using songs that have the right general feel, and hopefully a few appropriate lyrics. And I like that. (See also Pokerface and I Dreamed a Dream. Not everything has to be as perfectly literal as Jesse’s Girl.)
His girlfriend isn’t live in anymore, they got kicked out when Finn dissed Kurt’s “faggy” lamps, remember.</oversimplification>
Anyway, yeah, I was also wondering just where Kurt was staying, home alone or what, because it didn’t seem like he was staying with the Hudsons and they’d be the logical choice.
It kinda killed any drama about “will Burt wake up or not” having Mike OMally listed as a regular this year. No one except Joss Whedon would be sadistic enough to add someone to the regulars right before killing them off.
Once again, Kurt came off as an Asshole (yes, with a capital A. That’s how much of one he can be sometimes) . It’s one thing not to believe, but he was downright mean at points, like walking into Mercedes church he had that line about genuflecting to the spaghetti monster. That’s capital A Assholery.
His song was really good, though, and yeah, that little Kurt was freakishly similar.
I was disappointed at how short the “What If God Was One Of Us” number was and how little of the song they really did. I like that song and when I saw a tiny part of it in the preview last week I was looking forward to seeing them do it.
Speaking of Jesse, he’s returning to the series after January (when Jonathan Groff’s schedule opens).
I thought it did a decent job of presenting both sides of the Faith/No Faith issue without being heavy handed in a series that’s essentially a comedy and has to leave room for other plots and songs. I agree that usually I’m irked at the “atheists don’t believe because bad things happened to them” but the non-believers were Kurt, who is 16 (or 17, whichever) and Sue, who is completely self absorbed and a personal slight would be the most likely thing to turn her against something. And again, it’s not like they had an hour or even 30 minutes to develop the intellectual arguments for it, and while it’s usually more complex than that for atheists the issue of “why is their evil?” really is often what begins people questioning faith.
Liked Emma’s comment about “God didn’t let you feel Rachel’s boobs, Rachel did, you won the game because you have a coach who pays attention to the plays rather than biting his toenails during the game, and [new guy] got hurt because a 300 pound 23 year old on steroids ran into him” (in some order and slightly paraphrased). Sometimes she’s actually pretty smart.
The new coach is going to have a musical number of some sort in an upcoming episode. It’ll be interesting to see if she’s hiding talent under the scary haircut and the whistle.
It was slightly odd to see a turban-wearing Sikh woman presented as an acupuncturist. And didn’t Kurt say something about he thought that the acupuncture would help? Were they trying to draw a parallel between his faith in the power of acupuncture and the others’ faith in the power of prayer?
Great episode. I want a grilled cheesus now though.
I wondered that same thing about the parallel twixt religion and alternative medicine. Acupuncture at least isn’t like crystals or psychics in that there are some doctors who advocate it and the NIH states that while there’s insufficient evidence it is greatly effective for all ailments there is enough evidence it works sufficiently well in some cases to warrant further clinical research (and there are alternative treatments that the NIH dismisses altogether). 13 year old report. It seems to be similar to chiropractic in how it’s viewed by MDs- i.e. some say it’s quackery, some say it works for some situations. (To forestall nitpicking or corrections, this is not to say chiropractic and acupuncture are remotely similar in what they are/how they’re practiced, just in the disagreement.)
Again I know that it’s just a show, it’s just a show, etc., but… is there any chance in hell that a candle (or any other open flame) would be allowed in ICU? Or that as many people would be allowed inside? Most that I’ve been in don’t even allow flowers (not that I’m saying flowers cause explosions [though they well might]) but just that ICUs tend to be strict about comings adn goings.
Um, the Hudsons weren’t actually kicked out. Burt threatened to kick Finn out over using the f-word, but Finn & Kurt came to an understanding.
I thought Burt said that on Friday evenings Finn and his mom came to dinner (implying they live elsewhere). I don’t think it’s been really firmly established whether the households mash up ever took place or not.
Plus, they showed Finn in his room when Rachel was there, the shoebox with the cowboy wallpaper, the same room he had at the old house. My opinion is that Finn and his mom still live at their old house.
StG
Now that I think more about it, I’m glad that we didn’t see much of Will last night. I guess I can easily see this him and Emma thing being very annoying. Plus, whenever he’s around there’s a chance that Terri will be also.
That sad part about that is he’s my favorite singer on the show (Artie is a close second with Puck a distant third).
Artie’s voice is interesting- has a whine and much deeper than you’d think. I could swear I saw him in the line auditioning for American Idol on one of the repeats but I’ve never read confirmation that he did and if he did he didn’t get to the Triumvirate.
I’ve created a thread over here specifically talking about favorite voices, songs, whatever.
My father had his second heart attack just about a month or six weeks after I started college, and just after I pledged my sorority. My entire pledge class came to visit him in the hospital, though none of them had ever met him and, really, few of us really knew each other. I’d known these girls for a matter of days. They didn’t sing show tunes, though.
Yeah, but did any of them touch his head?
Doubt it. Ewwww. No prayer circles, either.
I do like that GLEE doesn’t take itself too seriously or at least knows how absurd it is. I loved that when Rachel finished singing her powerful Papa Can You Hear Me? she immediately says “Who’s next?”.
Rachel and Finn are turning into Terry and Will: The High School Years. “Let’s talk about how your newfound love of Jesus affects me!”