YouTube sensations for very different reasons.
I’ve decided to start recapping Glee with the same amount of effort I think the writers put into the storylines. So, something a little more detailed than bullet points.
I was nervous about this episode since when you think disco you think the Bee Gees, and sadly one of the Gibb brothers is very sick right now. A Bee Gees joke would not be well received. So, let’s see how the episode went.
Opening Number: This is good, since it contains three glee club members I still enjoy. This show has been seriously lacking in the Brittany S. Pierce department lately.
Of all the seniors Will Schuester is concerned about, he chooses Finn, Mercedes and Santana? Just how many of these kids are seniors, anyway? Because I mean, we can start with the fact that Brittany has the level of intelligence of a kindergartner. And Puck is planning to move to California with no life plan. And, oh yeah, Quinn is in a wheelchair. Also, Quinn is inexplicably absent from this episode and no one misses her.
Unique: Oh, were you worried that a disco-themed episode of Glee would be unable to deliver an after-school special lesson? Silly reader! Of COURSE Glee delivered an after-school special life lesson. Enter Wade, a student from Carmel High who envisions himself as a woman named Unique – a fabulous mix of Andre Leon Talley and Beyonce. He wants to go on stage at Regionals as Unique, wearing a dress and heels. The advice Mercedes and Kurt offer is… open-mouthed stares. Great.
The kid playing Wade is Alex Newell, another The Glee Project runner-up. I know his arc won’t be long, but I wish they’d at least introduced us to Teen Jesus a little more before throwing yet another character into the mix.
Naturally, Sue Sylvester turned this sensitive topic into a chance to be villainous by encouraging Kurt and Mercedes to convince Wade to perform in drag. Because she wanted him to embrace his true self? No. Because she wants to win. Classy.
So You Think You Can’t Dance or Sing
Will sings in falsetto and holds a Saturday Night Fever dance competition, and he selects his three “at risk” seniors as finalists. And then he immediately tells them it was all a ruse, and demands that they plan to sing a song from Saturday Night Fever and then share their “dreams” with the class. Wow, this is really good mentoring! I’d say that my dream is to never sing from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. (This would be a lie. I love that soundtrack. I am also the least cool person ever.)
Mercedes: Mercedes went first and was fierce, but then she told a sad story about how she’s not sure she’ll be able to get a recording contract and be the next Whitney. Foreshadowing told us that instead Sam would turn her into a YouTube sensation… because none of these spotlight loving kids have done YouTube covers yet?
Santana: Santana’s performance was alright, but not sassy enough for my liking. Schu tried to push her to go to law school (what? where did that come from?) but Santana is all about the fame. That line “I’m gonna be famous if it’s the last thing I do” was sort of ominous though, wasn’t it? If Matthew Weiner were running this show, Santana would be dead by the end of the season.
Instead, Brittany put a sex tape up of her and Santana – spliced together with footage of Lord Tubbington performing everyday household chores, of course. Congrats, Santana! You’re famous!
How Shallow is Your Love?
How long must we endure this back and forth with Rachel and Finn? Good Lord. Rachel, just move to New York and be a Broadway star. Finn, take a mechanics course at the local community college. Instead, Rachel decided to try and be a supportive fiancee for a spell. I’m sure she’ll go back to self-centered diva very soon.
In fact, Finn threw all the college pamphlets that Emma and Will gave him in the garbage. And then he had a little tantrum about how he’s not good at anything. What do you do when a teen throws a cold dose of reality in your optimistic teacher face? You throw Saturday Night Fever into the VCR. Yes, VCR – McKinley High can rent a lit-up dance floor for a glee club rehearsal, but they don’t have DVDs yet.
I will never forgive Will Schuester for being the reason I had to hear Finn Hudson sing in falsetto. All the couples dancing was cute, though. The Finn told Rachel that he wants to move to New York and be John Travolta. And he wants to go to acting school. Um, guys? Neither Finn Hudson nor Cory Monteith can act, so this is a tough storyline to buy.
Don’t Be a Drag, Just Be a Queen
Wade did perform in drag, and Vocal Adrenaline coach Jesse St. James freaked out. It was a fun performance, and even though the small town Ohio audience reacted with astonishing support, I enjoyed it. However, a storyline this complex really needed to be explored more than it was here. I mean, get real. High school boys in small towns cannot just put on sparkly high heels and be instantly beloved. I wish life worked like that, but the world is cruel.
Later, we discovered that Sam did put that video of Mercedes on YouTube, and there were hundreds of positive comments. Now that is the most difficult to believe detail Glee has ever tried to pass off. People on who comment on YouTube are the lowest of the low.
We also discovered that Sue had applied to the University of Louisville on Santana’s behalf, and she’d been accepted with a full cheerleading scholarship. Because apparently you can do all that behind someone’s back. Oh well. Santana is going to college! I’ll abandon Glee to watch that spinoff.
Finally, everyone pulled their favorite white suit out of the back of their closet (what, you don’t own one?) and performed “Stayin’ Alive” together. Even Sue!
Overall, I actually thought this was an OK episode. You know, if we’re grading on a curve and pretending that people like Quinn and Karofsky have never existed. What’d y’all think?
I loved the one moment Quinn got this whole episode was to awkwardly sway her hands Brady Bunch style during Santana’s solo. I guess one week was long enough for the other glee clubbers to care about her condition, either that or she’s becoming better friends with Tina and we all know she’s not allowed to speak on camera. Finn is the one who shouldn’t be allowed to speak, sing, dance etc. on camera.
Alex was one of my favourites (alongside Lindsay and Hannah) on The Glee Project, and I was thrilled to see him. I adored Unique. It just summed up Glee’s problems to watch the scenes change from his amazing performance to Finn attempting to either commit mass murder or proposition James Massone for a torturous duet.
Any time the writers start on a good storyline, or focus on an underused character it seems like they get distracted by something shiny in the other room and forget everything they were talking about.
I would drop Glee in a heartbeat to see a Santana spinoff. She’s one of the few characters I still love. All of my other favourites seem to be selectively mute.
Was Quinn there? I didn’t remember seeing her at all.
You would’ve missed her part in the episode if you blinked at the wrong moment! I really hate how they spend one episode focusing on a huge plot line and ignore it the next.
So I watched this episode and it left me unsettled. Mostly for two reasons. When I watch Glee I see a campy show that uses subtle exaggeration to make a point. Yes it teaches “after school special” type lessons but really, who’s doing any of that these days? No one! It’s the closest to the Cosby show, Brady bunch, Leave it to Beaver, the current generation has. It’s the only show I can think of that is actually dealing with social issues like bullying, sexuality, and just generally growing up. One could argue how well it reaches these goals but that’s a different story.
The two main problems I had with this particular show was the introduction of a sex tape. Let’s consider two about that things A) A high school kid making sex tape is participating in making child porn! B) No one seemed particularly disturbed by it or took it seriously. They never dove into the issue that it’s a serious, potentially illegal, activity for youth to be doing. There could be a whole show just dealing with that.
The other major problem was the introduction of Unique, the transgendered kid. Again, this is something facing real kids all over. They hardly scratched the surface of the character, his issues, his challenges, his strengths. Hell just being transgendered in today’s society is yesterdays gay. Few people are out about it and life for them is difficult. While they take a lot of pain to export Kurt’s life as a out gay teen they neatly deal with Unique in half a show. It’s too tidy.
All in all I think they could have dealt with two serious and worthy issues through a developed story-line but just glossed over both issues. Making a mockery of both.
They visited the high school sex tape child porn idea last season with Puck and Lauren. I’m assuming that they didn’t bring up the issue again because Santana and Brittany are 18 (not that it’s any excuse). It definitely seemed like an odd thing to bring up again though, especially without the same concerns they discussed last season.
I wasn’t as bothered by the sex tape thing because I assumed Santana and Brittany were 18. There have been things that bothered me more, like Becky sending a naked picture via text or the Puck/Lauren sex tape storyline.
I did think the Unique storyline came and went too quickly.