# Glee: 3.09 "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113 "2011-12-14T00:58:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/21 "2011-12-14T18:23:00Z")
Just finished watching as much as I could without hitting FFD. Probably my least favorite episode ever. Of course at this point the only real hope for the show is a graphic group sex scene. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/22 "2011-12-14T18:29:45Z")
This may make the episode a little funnier for you: > **[Judy Garland Christmas Show (1963) pt.4/6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBhACO0klw4...tailpage#t=232s)** > > Part Four:10. "Holiday" Medley - Judy, Liza & Jack11. Here We Come A Caroling - Mel & Chorus12. The Christmas Song - Judy & Mel ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/23 "2011-12-14T18:30:58Z")
I admit I fast forwarded through part of it, but thought I saw most of it. Where was Chewbacca? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/24 "2011-12-14T18:35:00Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Is making a single trip to a homeless shelter basically like absolution in Hollywood? Yes, yes it is. > [@JeffB](#): > > \ > Bell-ringing for the Salvation Army? Odd choice for such a gay-friendly show.\ I wondered about that, too. > [@randwill](#): > > This may make the episode a little funnier for you: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBhACO0klw4...tailpage#t=232s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBhACO0klw4...tailpage#t=232s) Countryblocked! Oh well. I didn’t love this show, but Christmas episodes are usually a mess, so whatever. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/25 "2011-12-14T19:04:35Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I admit I fast forwarded through part of it, but thought I saw most of it. Where was Chewbacca? A VERY brief shot when Artie was telling the station manager that his plan for the Christmas show came to him in a dream. Lasted for all of about seven seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/26 "2011-12-14T19:28:46Z")
[QUOTE=Cat Whisperer] Countryblocked! Oh well. [/quote] Weird. All these years and Judy Garland is on the Canadian Embargo list. Google “Judy Garland Christmas Special”. [QUOTE=jayjay] A VERY brief shot when Artie was telling the station manager that his plan for the Christmas show came to him in a dream. Lasted for all of about seven seconds. [/QUOTE] All that hype and that was it? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/27 "2011-12-14T19:40:19Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Weird. All these years and Judy Garland is on the Canadian Embargo list. > > Google “Judy Garland Christmas Special”. > > All that hype and that was it? That and Finn and Puck’s costumes were pretty much the only actual connections to the SWHS. They could have at least sung the Life Day song… Incidentally, a real PBS station in Tinytown, Ohio, would probably have had their switchboards light up like a Christmas tree (how appropriate!) with angry calls about showcasing a house of sin and depravity (a gay couple’s “bachelor pad”?). ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/28 "2011-12-14T19:58:59Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > All that hype and that was it? Pretty much my reaction to this season of Glee. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/29 "2011-12-14T20:03:31Z")
> [@Noelq](#): > > Pretty much my reaction to this season of Glee. The West Side Story songs are about the only takeaway from this year. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/30 "2011-12-14T20:34:56Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > A VERY brief shot when Artie was telling the station manager that his plan for the Christmas show came to him in a dream. Lasted for all of about seven seconds. The closing credits included, “Also Starring CHEWBACCA” - they don’t list who was in the costume, any more than they list the anonymous dancers in the Cheerios number. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/31 "2011-12-14T23:30:33Z")
> [@Stauderhorse](#): > > Darren Criss has a great voice, so why can’t he sing without being autotuned to death? He did seem way more autotuned than usual on his duet with Rachel. My impression from cast interviews is that their production schedule is so tight that they sometimes have to record the vocal tracks in a single take just a few minutes after seeing the sheet music for the first time, and that it’s in those cases where the autotune gets most heavily used. > [@](#): > > I’m beginning to think he can do better than this show. Most of them probably could at this point. I sometimes feel like I’m only sticking with _Glee_ out of pity for the cast, who generally seem like a talented and hard-working bunch and who I hope will all go on to projects where they’re not so frequently given awful material to work with. I’m sure they must sometimes take a first read through of their scripts and think “WTF?” Todd VanDerWerff over at The Onion AV Club [gave this episode a rare F](http://www.avclub.com/articles/extraordinary-merry-christmas,66462/), declaring it the worst episode of the show to date. I still think “I Kissed a Girl” and the Britney Spears episode were worse, but I went into “Extraordinarily Merry Christmas” with very low expectations while VanDerWerff seems to have foolishly hoped it would be good. I fully expected a bunch of forgettable covers of lame Christmas pop songs and a storyline where nothing important would happen. So I was okay with that being pretty much what I got for the first 2/3 or so of the episode, and was pleasantly surprised by a few bright spots. A Sam/Rory friendship also seems like a good idea to me, as it could give two underused characters something to do. But the more I think about the last 1/3 the worse it seems. I rated this one a “Meh” last night, but would probably go with a “Didn’t Like” today. Early in the episode there was a brief shot of Santana looking depressed, and I seriously thought they were going to have a storyline about how she couldn’t go to her grandmother’s house for Christmas the way she usually would. Wouldn’t that have been better than the boring, stupid Rachel/Finn gift-giving plot? Even a gift-giving plot involving any of the other established couples would have been more interesting. One of the things that can be so frustrating about _Glee_ is that it seems like there are so many things that could be done with these characters that the writers ignore in favor of “Rachel and Finn’s romance is threatened by one or both of them behaving horribly!”, “Mr. Schuster’s love life is complicated and disturbing!”, or “These characters are now in a love triangle for no good reason!” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/32 "2011-12-15T00:07:52Z")
> [@Stauderhorse](#): > > Darren Criss has a great voice, so why can’t he sing without being autotuned to death? I’m beginning to think he can do better than this show. I wish they’d tone down his Disney World Main Street style “Happy dance”, which I blame on the choreographers rather than him. Most numbers have him recycling Carlton’s _It’s Not Unusual_ moves from _Fresh Prince_; for a relatively big budget show they know surprisingly few moves. As for doing better, he’s about to appear on Broadway for a limited run (replacing Daniel Radcliffe, who he had a professional gig parodying in the Potter musicals) and he’s got [a movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1698648/) coming out with Kristin Wiig and Annette Bening, so he’s probably on the rise. If the show ended tomorrow I think he’s one of the ones who’d do just fine career wise, though I think Naya Rivera will probably be the one who goes really far in the next few years. Not as rosy prospects (though I could be wrong obviously): Corey Monteith and Mark Salling (he’s hot and talented but not “out of this world” hot or talented and his album didn’t exactly set records). The actress who plays Quinn could be big with the right roles. While I like Chris Colfer (great voice, okay actor, seems like a nice guy) he’s going to be really hard to cast outside this show unless he wants a career as “gay best friend”, though he seems to be using his fame to get a foot in the production side of TV shows as well, as Kevin McHale is with music. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/33 "2011-12-15T01:13:43Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Todd VanDerWerff over at The Onion AV Club [gave this episode a rare F](http://www.avclub.com/articles/extraordinary-merry-christmas,66462/), declaring it the worst episode of the show to date. Just read that review, and it is epic. I think my favorite part might be: > [@](#): > > This episode also aims to develop Rory’s character beyond “Irish”—it’s why he always wears green!—but at this point, we already know that the show will just pick whichever characterization of Rory is most convenient for the episode in question (and, again, if you doubt me on this, look at the treatment of Rachel in this episode), so it’s hard to care all that much about how he’s alone for Christmas or how he’s building a friendship with Sam, who’s now some sort of magic stripper spirit guide. (I’m half convinced it’ll turn out he was dead this whole time and giving people the advice he could only get from the perspective offered from being beyond the grave.) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/34 "2011-12-15T02:35:09Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > You didn’t recognize “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses? Totally awesome song. It’s a story song, though, so it makes no sense to only do a snippet. Yes, that was the only song I liked from the episode, and they cut it short. Darn. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/35 "2011-12-15T02:44:38Z")
Regarding the **Glee** cast ‘doing better’, remember, Lea Michele started out on Broadway (after an Off run) in **Spring Awakening** which won 8 Tonys (including Best Musical) among other awards and accolades. One could argue that **Glee** is not really ‘doing better’ than that. Unless you’re talking about the fame and fortune kind of ‘doing better’. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/36 "2011-12-15T03:27:17Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > Regarding the **Glee** cast ‘doing better’, remember, Lea Michele started out on Broadway (after an Off run) in **Spring Awakening** which won 8 Tonys (including Best Musical) among other awards and accolades. One could argue that **Glee** is not really ‘doing better’ than that. Unless you’re talking about the fame and fortune kind of ‘doing better’. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here, as people have been saying that some cast members could do better than _Glee_, not that _Glee_ is better than starring in a Broadway show. Lea Michele is also one of the few younger _Glee_ cast members who had a significant acting career prior to _Glee_. Most of the other “kids” had appeared in minor roles on TV shows, if that. Heather Morrison and Harry Shum were successful professional dancers but had not done much acting. Kevin McHale was in a boy band. Chris Colfer had only appeared in community theater and school plays. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/37 "2011-12-15T04:45:52Z")
That was not impressive. The best part was the part that was intentionally bad. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/38 "2011-12-15T14:55:54Z")
I was disappointed mostly because last year’s Christmas special had the most amazing Kurt and Blaine duet ever, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” which I downloaded and listen to all the freaking time. Their duet this year, whatever the fuck it was (I’ve forgotten already) was utterly, well, forgettable. I voted “meh,” and I don’t usually bother to vote. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/39 "2011-12-15T15:04:20Z")
> [@Darth\_Sensitive](#): > > That was not impressive. > > The best part was the part that was intentionally bad. Unfortunately, the intentionally bad faded into the unintentionally bad at being intentionally bad… ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113/40 "2011-12-15T15:04:42Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I was disappointed mostly because last year’s Christmas special had the most amazing Kurt and Blaine duet ever, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” which I downloaded and listen to all the freaking time. Their duet this year, whatever the fuck it was (I’ve forgotten already) was utterly, well, forgettable. It was “Let It Snow” and I agree. My husband pointed out that the Star Wars Holiday Special was shown just once, before Artie was born. Did he see a bootleg copy? I am glad that they explained why they never mention Artie’s artificial legs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-3-09-extraordinary-merry-christmas-open-spoilers/606113.md?page=3)