Glee: Original Recipe

Oh “Glee”, just when I think I’m out…you pull me back in!

If you read this column regularly, you know that I feel too much of the show’s second season has been bogged down by its crusades against gay teen bullying, alcoholism, etc., as well as “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy apparently deciding to believe every last bit of his own hype.

In short, the bad has been far outweighing the good lately, and it’s made me consider giving up on the show. (This from the guy who watched every last episode of “Heroes” and “Nip/Tuck” the LAST Ryan Murphy creation that got off to a sensational start before flaming out spectacularly.)

But even in bad episodes, the show displays little glimmers that keep me around. Every once in a while, “Glee” will even deliver a full episode that lives up to its early season 1 promise…like last night’s “Original Song.”

Now, don’t get me wrong: this episode wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

For example, I’m pretty much done with Sue. No matter how hard Jane Lynch works, I just don’t find Sue’s antics to sabotage the glee club amusing anymore. I mean, maybe last year I would’ve laughed at her forging a letter from My Chemical Romance to keep New Directions from performing “Sing” (it turns out she’d actually slept with the drummer from Jimmy Eat World not MCR), but last night I just rolled my eyes. (Ok, fine, I laughed at her throwing sticks at Mercedes.)

Sue’s just annoyingly exhausting at this point. Fortunately, the previews for the new batch of episodes in April showed Sue getting some antagonistic reinforcement from the likes of Sandy Ryerson (yay!) and Terri Schuester (boo!)

Also, the cruel joke about the how the kids in these singing groups kill themselves to win these competitions…only to be judged by a bunch of buffoons who arbitrarily pick a winner was funnier last year when the show did it during Sectionals. At least this time, the judges weren’t ridiculously overqualified (Josh Groban and Olivia Newton-John judging a high school singing competition in Ohio?!), but I’m still disappointed that the best Murphy — who wrote the episode — could get out of guest star Kathy Griffin was a lame Sarah Palin/Christine O’Donnell impersonation that was probably stale six months ago. At least Loretta Devine’s Sister Mary Constance made me think of “Sister Act 2.”

But I really don’t want to dwell on the negative, because there was a lot to like.

The cast, by and large, once again delivered strong performances. I was especially impressed by Lea Michele and Dianna Agron.

Quinn was still seeing Finn on the down low heading into Regionals. Finn wasn’t quite ready to go public, much to the chagrin of Quinn who was craving the title of prom queen. (We learned last night that prom queens live longer.) As a result, she adopted a “Keep your enemies closer” approach with Rachel.

I thought it was clever that the main reason New Directions wound up going with original songs was because Quinn supported Rachel’s suggestion with devious motives. Eventually, Rachel confronted Quinn in a fantastic, emotional scene that displayed Quinn’s bitchiness and a tiny bit of her heart. When Quinn cruelly told Finn that she needed to end up with Finn in Lima because Rachel was destined for bigger things, I detected more than a hint of jealousy for Rachel’s talent, as well as a the faintest glimmer of a desire to see Rachel man up, get over Finn and achieve her true potential.

Of course, the other, non-musical stand-out scene in the episode was the kiss between Blaine and Kurt. The scene was romantic, but also a little funny and awkward. Although, Blaine realizing (and acting on) his feelings for Kurt felt a bit sudden, I feel like this coupling was earned because the two had established a really strong friendship and bond.

Still, the best thing about this episode was all the music. Even though I reflexively cringed when I read that the show would be tackling original material, most of the songs really impressed me.

Since the show sometimes forgets that it’s a musical/high school comedy, it was refreshing to see a whopping 11 numbers (some partial), all of which were performed by the talented young actors who play the students. Let’s go ahead and break down all the musical numbers:

“Misery”…B: A perfectly serviceable, but standard Warblers performance of a top 40 hit. Then again, that was probably the point since this was where Kurt called Blaine out for hogging all the solos. (“Blaine and the Pips.”) This number actually opened the episode (no dialogue, no “Previously on…) and set the music-heavy tone for the rest of the hour.

“Only Child”…B-: Another funny, disastrous, hyper-specific attempt by Rachel to write her own song. I liked “My Headband” a lot better. (So did Brittany, since we found out it’s her favorite song…awesome!)

“Blackbird”…B+: A lovely number for sure, but I’m not entirely buying THIS being the moment where Blaine realized that he was in love with Kurt. (During his eulogy for his pet bird Pavarotti?!) It’s not even the best Beatles cover from Kurt this season (that’d be “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”).

“Trouty Mouth”…B: I think Santana sounded really good during her jazzy ode to her sham boyfriend’s mouth. Unfortunately, Sam’s lips have officially overtaken Will’s hair as the show’s overused punchline.

“Big Ass Heart”…A-: Really funny, clever and sweet ode from Puck to current lady love Lauren.

“Hell to the No”…C-: Sorry, but Mercedes’ attempt at an original song was WAY too much Sassy Black Girl 101. (I mean, look at the title!) Is there nothing more to Mercedes besides the fact that’s she’s black and big. (When the song rhymed “Tell me I should eat my Wheaties” with “Tell me I’d come down with diabetes” I literally groaned out loud.)

“Jesus is My Friend”…D+: Intentionally soulless and terrible, but soulless and terrible nonetheless.

“Candles”…B-: I loved how Blaine realized that he WAS hogging all the solos, so his big gesture was to hand Kurt a (co)solo. The Warblers went from having Blaine sing lead on all their songs to…having Blaine decide who sings lead on all their songs, while still kind of singing lead. Thanks, oh mighty Blaine! Honestly though, Chris Colfer and Darren Criss sounded good here, but this was a slight letdown for me. I thought it’d be a home run after their earlier, emotional scene.

“Raise Your Glass”…A: Maybe the Warblers ARE meant to acapella-ize top 40 songs because I thought this was actually a great improvement on the original. (Then again, I was always lukewarm on this Pink song.)

“Get It Right”…A: This could’ve been VERY Lea Michele Ballad 101, but damnit the song actually moved me. Maybe I was paying closer attention to the words because it’s an original song, but the (admittedly sappy) lyrics don’t just apply to love. Of course, I probably don’t have to tell you that Michele knocked it out of the park.

“Loser Like Me”…B: This was the glee club’s more pop-y attempt at an uplifting anthem. I remember enjoying it when it was happening, but it also immediately exited my mind when it was over. Also, too much Rachel on lead vocals in the beginning…this was an excellent chance to spread the solos around.

So what’d you think of this episode? Do you think New Directions deserved the win? (I actually do, just like I thought they deserved to lose to Vocal Adrenaline last year.) Finally, doesn’t Rod Remington have anything better to do than judge high school singing competitions?