I seriously cannot believe it’s already mid-September and time for a new season of television. Yet, here we are.
My enthusiasm for Glee has been fading somewhat, but now some of the Gleesters have graduated, I’m a bit intrigued to see exactly how they handle the multiple plotlines of Rachel and Kurt in NYC/new additions (as opposed to New Directions, ha!) at McKinley High/whatever the heck Frankenteen is up to. I hear Kate Hudson, as the NYADA dance teacher, gives Rachel a harsh welcome to the big city.
You can tell because Blaine is doing his annual dance on the steps outside the school.
The episode just ended, and while it was better than I expected I feel like I can see the trainwreck ahead. I really, really wish they’d done the Rachel-and-Kurt-in-NYC storyline as a separate spin-off as was rumored more than a year ago, because I think that aspect of the show has promise and could have stood on its own.
Unfortunately, back in Lima it’s already painfully obvious that the writers don’t have a single new idea for this setting. They’ve already replaced most of last year’s graduating seniors with characters more or less explicitly identified as being their replacements, there was a retread of a season two storyline (kindly but large and unattractive female staff member is mocked by glee club members, who later feel bad about it), and the teaser for next week revealed that the second episode of this season is basically going to be a tribute to the second episode of season two.
Some of the Lima material just plain didn’t make sense to me. Why was Kurt working at the Lima Bean instead of managing his dad’s tire shop? Why did New Directions only accept one of their many new applicants when, by my count, they’re well below the 12-member minimum needed for competition? Even when Puck 2.0 joins, which is inevitable, I think they’ll only have nine people. And are we seriously stuck with Sugar and Dreadlocks for another year?
I did find it oddly touching how grown-up Kurt looks now. For anyone who’s forgotten, here’s what he looked like back in the pilot. Actor Chris Colfer was the youngest in the original cast and I believe the only actual teenager (still 18 when the pilot was shot, 19 for the rest of season one), and since he was also apparently a bit of a late bloomer he’s the only member of the cast we’ve seen literally grow up onscreen.
I was pleasantly surprised by much of this episode… not great and not groundbreaking, but mostly fun. Kate Hudson and that whole arc was pretty poor and pretty been-there-done-that, but I enjoyed the Marlee character quite a bit, and there were some great Sue and Britanny lines. (A subtle one that entertained me greatly was Britanny referring to Blaine as “Blaine Warbler”.)
Was actually better than I expected.
Also glad to see the split NYC/Lima storylines…I think this will force the writers to be concise and stick to plot and songs and not stray off into nonsense. This could be a good thing!
I thought the episode was fun, but I didn’t expect that the new characters would be such retreads of the old ones. Couldn’t we at least gotten a moody kid with temper issues who wasn’t an unknown brother to Puck?
In the end I expect the New York sub-plot to turn into a bit of a train wreck, and yet I’m totally glad they’re doing it. The last thing the TV world needed was another group of high school kids who either take 7 years to graduate or all miraculously end up going to the same college. Best case scenario, New York turns into a way to funnel characters and storylines through graduation. Worst case scenario it falls flat on its face, but at least wasn’t the same garbage we usually are told to accept.
Glee lost me after the Christmas episode of the second season. It wasn’t like a breakup precipitated by an event, more like “he just stopped calling”. The characters are written so inconsistently that I stopped caring about any of them.
But I was bored and season three was added to Netflix streaming so I watched everything I had missed in time to be caught up and watch the new season and participate in threads. No, really, that’s why I bothered.
And I did get back to enjoying the show, but this latest episode was of the sort that made me lose interest before. I know it’s never claimed to be realistic but eight members graduate so we’re going to hold auditions and select one new member for the “most popular club”? Wade doesn’t have to audition? Really, surprise Baby Puck? Did Becky graduate? Is Burt not in Congress anymore?
I do want to say that Burt is one of my favorite TV dads ever. He’s just such a nice guy.
I am interested to see where they take Sue’s character. I will miss Coach Biest if she’s written out.
I was surprised that Sue had her baby already. Births are normally sweeps month bait.
Also surprised that Marlee mentioned that the woman the others were mocking was her mom. I was worried that would drag out for weeks.
It seems to me that after dealing with Sue Sylvester’s nastiness, Cassie July would seem like Mr. Rogers to Rachel.
Speaking of Cassie, YMMV, but I wasn’t all that impressed by her dance. It didn’t seem as difficult as some of the things I’ve seen on other shows. OTOH, is Kate Hudson really known as a dancer?
I really don’t get what they’re trying to do with this character (is Wade actually transgender, or just a femmey gay guy who wants to be a drag queen? Are the writers even aware that there’s a difference?), and this third person thing just makes Wade seem like a nutcase.
There are reportedly plans to occasionally feature the characters who have graduated over the course of this season, and I’d expect that we will see Finn, Puck, and Santana again because of their connections to characters at McKinley now.
I spaced out during that number (I didn’t recognize the song and it failed to impress me), but it looked to me like Kate Hudson had a dancing double. There seemed to be a lot of shots of Cassie from behind, from above, or with her hair in her face intercut with shots where you could see Kate Hudson’s face but not her legs.
The opening credits listed Naya Rivera and Amber Riley, so yes, we’re going to see Hollywood and College settings, not just Broadway.
I thought Santana gave up on the U. of Louisville idea, but Brittany mentioned her cheerleading practice. Oh well, doesn’t matter. Brittany must have failed summer school too, but then in the real world she’d have been sent to GED Land instead of returning.
Finn, Puck, Quinn, Mike Chang, Santana, and Mercedes were all referenced in the opener, but none were featured on screen. Will each of them return in some capacity this year, or are some gone for good?
The show’s creators have said they’d be happy to have any of the graduated characters back, so I think this would be largely up to the actors and whether they wanted to return. Finn and Santana will reportedly both be in the fourth episode of the season (cite: TVLine interview with executive producer Brad Falchuck – link contains some spoilers for the episode).
As far as storyline opportunities, I’d say that out of the remaining four then Puck and Mercedes seem the most obvious choices to return and Mike and Quinn the least likely, but who knows?
I have an opinion about it, though not an informed one, as this was the first episode of Glee that I deliberately refused to watch. The idea of a Britney Spears tribute is unappealing enough to me in and of itself, but I was willing to give it a chance…the first time they did one. Since that turned out to be one of the worst, and probably THE absolute dumbest, episodes the show has ever done, I was not inclined to watch the remake.
I’ll probably be back next week, but if it turns out to be a tribute to the music of Kesha or something then I’m quitting this show.
