Glee: Oh God

Admit it.

When you heard that “Glee” would be addressing the subject of religion, you involuntarily rolled your eyes. Or maybe you voluntarily rolled your yes. (I was rolling my eyes at the end of last week at the unintentionally hilarious juxtaposition of the end of the Britney Spears episode and the emotional preview with Kurt by his father’s hospital bedside.)

Whatever your thoughts are on the matter, you have to give “Glee” credit for even taking on religion in the first place and, especially, for attempting to do so in a balanced way. I mentioned this in my inaugural recap, but it’s worth mentioning again: the fact that this show takes chances like this is the main reason I can’t give up on it, no matter how horrible it gets at times. (The other reason is Lea Michele.) For what it’s worth, I prefer the semi-serious side of “Glee” to the theme episodes where an artist’s songs are awkwardly shoehorned into the plot.

The episode’s subject came up after Kurt’s dad, Burt (Emmy nominee Mike O’Malley) ended up at the hospital (you just KNEW Kurt was going to pay for acting like such a jackass at the start of the episode) and the Glee club tried to rally to Kurt’s side.

Actually, the subject FIRST came up when Finn was making a grilled cheese sandwich and saw the face of God (up until then he only worshipped Eric Clapton and Chad Ochocinco), giving the episode its title (“Grilled Cheesus”).

Although “Grilled Cheesus” was very obviously a showcase for Chris Colfer’s Kurt — Colfer mostly delivered, but Kurt spent WAY too much of the episode acting like a dick (I get that his dad was in the hospital and near death, but seeing more of Kurt’s hostility and less of his hurt made him unlikable — I found myself enjoying Finn more. I liked that he was really upset about Burt’s condition and I liked his interactions with Rachel (except for when he served as a glorified prop during he big song — more on that later).

Still, with Rachel taking a relatively minor role (it made sense that she made the crisis about her), and Mr. Schue on the sidelines (hey, I’m not complaining!) Colfer was the star of the show, and he did a good job with the material he was given. You could tell Kurt was distraught by what he wore the day after his father landed in the hospital (were those pajama bottoms) and you could tell when he started to feel better (look at what he wore to Mercedes’ church). I just wish that someone other than Kurt (not-so-secretly the stand-in for show co-creator Ryan Murphy) shouldered the burden of the show’s heavier storylines.

Of course, there’s also Sue, who initially rallied Kurt to her anti-religion side. As usual, she got in a good number of zingers (“SweetHolyMotherofGod Academy”), but I’m always very mixed when they try to humanize Sue. I mean, she’s an outlandish cartoon of a character, so humanizing her is as worthwhile as trying to humanize Daffy Duck. Fortunately, Jane Lynch always kills her performance, no matter how little sense it makes.

I should probably discuss the music in this episode. (This IS “Glee” after all.)

“Only the Good Die Young”…B+: It’s cool when they throw a bone to someone other than Rachel, Finn or Mr. Schue with the solos, and Puck actually sounded like he could be singing live to the rest of the club. (Always a treat!) I love me some Billy Joel, and I didn’t even realize he had a streak going of performing songs by Jewish artists. Most importantly, welcome back (Beardy) Piano Man!

“I Look to You”…C+: Amber Riley sounded great, but this was WAY too short, but definitely lovely and I could’ve definitely done without the weak background vocals. In light of her superior second performance (see a few paragraphs below) this one felt totally unnecessary.

“Papa Can You Hear Me”…A: Not the splash of “Don’t Rain On My Parade”, but Streisand fits Lea Michele like a glove. Thank goodness Kurt waited until Rachel was done to burst in the hospital room.

“I Wanna Hold Your Hand”…A-: I liked the arrangement better when I heard it on “Across the Universe.” (I was half expecting the flying football players to show up.) Colfer’s vocals were great and properly restrained, and the flashback footage with his dad was effective.

“Losin’ My Religion”…B+: Not sure what was up with the slo-mo walk down the hallway, but Cory Monteith acquitted himself quite nicely.

“Bridge Over Troubled Water…A-: Mercedes sounded a little Fantasia-y there, which I’m not mad at. For a while, I thought that “Glee” would be able to resist setting a scene with a gospel choir during its religion episode — I was wrong.

“One of Us”…B: Typical “Glee” ensemble, episode-capping performance. The kids all wearing complimentary outfits + a few solos to start out + Mercedes’ wailing mixed in with the group = the Glee formula for how to wrap up an episode.

So what’d you think of this episode? I see they’re really going ahead with this Artie on the football team thing – alrighty then! Who else kind of wants a glimpse at Brittany’s book report? (In crayon!) How and why are Brittany and Santana still spying for Sue?