Well Shelby Corcoran’s back tonight. Burt might be making an appearance as well.
Well, this was MUCH better than last week. Really this seemed like what the second season should have been, especially Quinn’s storyline. I was also happy to hear a reference to Quinn having lived with Mercedes’s family while she was pregnant, something I and others brought up during the season two threads but that the show seemed to have forgotten ever happened.
I wasn’t expecting a major Kurt storyline this week, so I was surprised that he actually had two storylines. I’m not sure if this student council thing is really going anywhere, but with the West Side Story auditions plot it was interesting to see him back to being kind of a jerk and yet at the same time kind of heartbreaking. I felt really bad for him having to face the fact that it doesn’t matter how talented he is, there just aren’t many good roles for guys who look and sound like him. And yet he was really not being a good boyfriend, especially not after Blaine gave up being the star of The Warblers for him.
Incidentally, the revelation that Blaine is a junior while Kurt is a senior is possibly the least plausible thing ever on Glee, and this is a show that once had a character planning to marry herself. I can understand the show wanting to hang on to Darren Criss as long as they can, but there’s no way Blaine is younger than Kurt. My best fanwank is that Blaine isn’t actually younger but that he’s a year behind in school because he took some time off between leaving his original high school and starting at Dalton, or that the bullying at his old school affected him so badly that he failed all his classes and had to basically repeat a year after transferring to Dalton.
This is especially bad since last season Blaine even refered to himself as “a junior member of the Warblers”. True he could’ve meant that in the same way there’s varsity and junior varsity football, but come one.
Alternate theory: there’s a Time Turner involved somehow.
It looks like we may now be headed for a storyline I’ve wanted to see for a while, although I would have assumed it would involve Karofsky instead of Blaine: Kurt goes from being the only out gay guy at McKinley to being the less popular of two out gay guys at McKinley.
Speaking of Karofsky, where IS he? I was starting to wonder if the actor playing him had moved on to other projects, but I just checked the Web and he told E! Online that he will be back this season and that his return will happen in a surprising manner. My WAG: He’s transferred to Dalton and is now lead soloist for The Warblers.
Great ep – lots of plot, good songs.
Can’t wait to see what Blaine’s answer to the closing question will be.
I love love love West Side Story, but boy did I hate that arrangement of There’s a Place For Us. On the other hand, Something’s Coming is one of my least favorite songs in the show, but Blaine really made it great.
We continue the Star Trek odd numbered movie trend!
I mean, the trend of Glee episodes being great either musically or dramatically but not both.
The music was OK. I think I Feel Pretty was previously used and so unusable. The music was OK so the story was more compelling.
But the plots were interesting. So much so that I wonder if they mirror behind the scenes drama.
OTOH I had been kind of expecting Blaine to be Tony and Kurt and the judges to decide to do a gay/Kurt Maria (Mario?).
That would be cool. Tony hasn’t been cast yet, so maybe…? fingers crossed
I didn’t like it. I felt the show lacked its quirkiness in favor of “drama.” I thought I could not care less about Quinn and her whatever the hell that was, but now I see that I could care less as I care even less for Quinn and her baby drama nonsense.
I’m not really keen on Sue and her election stupidity either. I think I prefer the short eye-rollingly implausible shifts in story rather than beating a plot horse to death. At least Will didn’t make me cringe with “he needs to die” stupid antics involving glitter. I did like his tirade against Quinn and the subsequent “That’s hot” from Becky.
I was also not amused with the songs. I think every song was an audition. Boring!
Par for the course with Glee. I haven’t been able to prove it, but I swear in the first few episodes Quinn made some snarky comment to Finn about how he was going to join the glee club and hang out with “that sophomore” Rachel … clearly implying the football team’s quarterback/captain and captain of the Cheerios were upperclassmen in comparison.
Suddenly, they’re all in the same class! It’s magical! Unicorns!
Rachel’s comment to Finn about being nervous until the “audition results” were posted was really odd. Nobody waiting to see who’s cast in a show says “audition results” … you say CAST LIST.
Props to Becky … “That was pretty hot.” And Coach Bieste … “I was the forum.” “I eat a whole chicken at every meal.”
I love Coach Bieste. I’m glad to see her back in action – she was pretty much invisible the second half of last season.
Good mix of music and plot development. Granted, GLEE is not exactly heavy on serious dramatic plots, but at least they are trying to keep some storylines going.
If nothing else, it looks like they are getting back on track with the original premise (and promise) of this show, and not using it as a showcase for guest star du jour.
Last week, I was glad to see Rachel and Kurt get the rude awakening they are not the best in the world, and this week it was good to see Kurt realize he is not ever going to be the macho lead. Showing limitations, but still showcasing talent, is a great lesson for younger kids watching the show.
I thought Puck was sweet. The baby could be the making of Noah Puckerman. And good for Shue finally telling Quinn to grow up. He’s normally Mr. Supportive, so it was good to see him lose it for a change. (And Becky was cute).
I wonder who else Shelby will get for her show choir besides Sugar LaMotta? I wasn’t too thrilled with Rachel’s Somewhere - I’ve been listening to Jackie Evancho duet with Barbra Streisand. I did love the energy of Blaine’s Something’s Coming. Not bed for a 1500-year-old demon.
Did anyone notice the pamphlets in Emma’s office this week? I could only read one title - “I’m so depressed I can’t open this phamphlet”.
StG
I didn’t like it; this show was nothing but show tunes, and I could barely watch. Kurt doing the Babs number? I think I physically cringed at one point. The show used to have some kind of magic that held me in spite of my hatred for musicals, but the magic seems to have disappeared this year, and it just seems kind of stupid and overwrought. Hey, Kurt? Your boyfriend left his school where he was a star for you - do you think you can get over yourself long enough to be supportive of his success at his new school? And Quinn - another candidate for desperately needing to get over herself.
I did like the, “Possibly a bi-corn” line though. 
I wonder where’s they’re going with Sugar LaMotta’s character development. Right now she just seems like an insufarable spoiled brat with a rich daddy. Are they going to have her singing improve, or do will we see her publically humiliated at her first performance?
I thought the same thing; Finn, Puck, (& possibly Quinn) were all juniors in season one.
I hadn’t thought of that, but it sounds like a great idea. Kurt’s used to being an outcast at school because of his sexuality. But to have another out gay guy show up and suddenly be popular and accepted? Ouch. Especially given that he’s Kurt’s boyfriend and Kurt was the one who begged him to transfer to WMHS.
And in “New York”, when Kurt was talking to Rachel about moving to NYC after graduation and how he’d talked to Blaine and Blaine was “in”, it certainly seemed like he expected Blaine to be graduating the following year too.
Kurt’s subplot seemed to be based in part on actor Chris Colfer’s life. At some point he presumably had to face the fact that he was never going to look or sound like a conventional leading man and that this would probably severely limit his prospects as an actor. Burt suggested that Kurt turn to writing and create roles for himself, something Colfer has done – he’s starring in an upcoming movie called Struck by Lightning that he wrote himself.
Maybe Kurt will end up writing a new adaptation of West Side Story about star-crossed gay lovers?
Elsewhere online I’ve seen some debate about what Kurt was thinking in the closing scene. Was he angry about Blaine being offered the role of Tony, or did he think that Blaine deserved it but found it too painful to watch him (presumably) accept the role that Kurt wanted? I had honestly expected the episode to end with Kurt shouting from the balcony that he wanted Blaine to go for the lead, since he did seem pleased and impressed by Blaine’s audition.
This is the first episode I’ve liked in a while. I hate showtunes so I just drowned those out but it was at least enjoyable. And there was Brittany, who is my favorite character.
Per rumor Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics to Somewhere for a gay lover he couldn’t have a life with- both men were closeted and Sondheim’s mother was an unholy terror. I don’t know if Sondheim has confirmed or denied this, but either way when you think of that while listening to the song lyrics it makes sense.
Mannerisms/effeminacy v. macho/etc. are to the gay male community something akin to what skin tone is to the black community used to be (still is? no idea) in terms of being a potentially sensitive issue both about internal and external perceptions and sometimes self delusion. On gay singles sites you’ll rarely see anybody identify as ‘Nellie’ (effeminate) even when they totally are, and generally subtract one from what most identify as (i.e. “Macho” or “Straight Acting” means “identifiably gay but not flaming” while “All Over the Map” means “If the map is of Swishiland”). There’s a definite embarrassment of being the stereotype among many gays, especially the younger ones. Of course what p.o.s me is when “straight acting gays” trash the more effeminate gays- they seem to have no knowledge of their history among other things- but I digress.
There was a firestorm when that gay writer a couple of years ago suggested Sean Hayes was too gay to play straight and mentioned, and ironically hissy-fit-inclined Ryan Murphy totally lactated glitter and Perrier in righteous indignation when it was suggested that Jonathan Groff was too gay to be believable as a hetero romantic lead for Rachel (which was totally true: I took for granted his character is still in closeted self denial), but it’s true.
That said, I actually didn’t think Chris/Kurt was that bad when playing Romeo, and certainly not over the top. And glad to see him work in the sais.
I voter ‘loved it’ just 'cause they weren’t jamming characterization around the song selection, a la last year.
How best to describe Blaine’s fashion choices? Cabbage Patch Chippendale’s dancer?
Also, he worked in his real life ninja skills with the sai into this episode of Glee.
And of course, there are plenty of douchebags on Grindr that seem to be looking for straight guys to fuck. You don’t really ever see the reverse.
Ramin Setoodeh of Newsweek, in case you were wondering. He also mentioned in that article that knowing Rock Hudson’s sexuality made it impossible for him to believe him in straight roles. Or, basically, Ramin Setoodeh finds it very distracting to know that an actor is gay, so everyone else probably does too. Notwithstanding the fact that Jonathan Groff does kinda have gay face. That happens to straight guys sometimes.
And I didn’t think Kurt was that bad as Romeo, either. Not exactly believable in the role, but not laughably bad. In any event, I hear there’s a new guy being introduced in episode five to compete for Blaine’s attention.