Glee-Season So Far Review and Clips from Super Bowl Episode

Credit: FOX

My Review of the season so far of Glee and clips from tomorrow's episode are after the jump.

The one word I generally think of when I think of Glee is uneven. It's not the good episodes that I have the problem with, it's how awful the bad episodes are.

Glee is a show that I really want to like. It even has aspects that I like. The musical numbers are usually the best parts of the episode. Songs like "Forget You" "Teenage Dream" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" have been very good. If I had to guess why I'm still watching Glee, the reason would be the performances. They can be anything from fun to watch and listen to ("Teenage Dream"), a showcase for a strong guest star ("Forget You" "Dream On" Last season), or completely heartbreaking ("I Want to Hold Your Hand"). In general, the cast can sing and this is where the show is at it's best. My enjoyment of an episode hinges on how good the musical numbers are. The two episodes I really liked this season ("Grilled Cheesus" and "Furt") both had great songs.

The only other aspect of Glee that I genuinely enjoy is Chris Colfer's character and his story arc. He has been the only character who has been consistently written from week to week. His arc has been the most grounded and the most consistent. (For most other characters any growth from the episode before is largely forgotten in the next episode.) It helps that Chris Colfer is the best young actor in the cast (and has the Golden Globe win to prove it). His performance is clearly better then almost everyone else in the show (only out shined by Mike O'Malley as his father).

The show likes to have a lot of characters at one time so naturally many new characters were introduced in this season. Chord Overstreet has done a decent job playing Sam Evens. He has a decent enough voice and he's only really there to look pretty and be a plot device. Dot Marie-Jones has done a good job with a character that is rooted in cliches and stereotypes. The character is so poorly written that there's not much she can do. John Stamos has been John Stamos, not introducing anything new to a role that acts as a plot device and not an actual character. My favorite new character is Darren Chris's Blaine. I might be slightly biased (because of A Very Potter Musical) but he is certainly the most talented new actor playing the best written new character. "Teenage Dream" and "Hey Soul Sister" are some of the better covers this year.

The rest of the main characters (of which there are way too many) are a combination of unlikeable, inconsistently written, and poorly written. (There's so many that here I'm only going to discuss the most notable.) Matthew Morrison's Will Schuester is not only poorly written but he's completely unlikeable. He's the definition of a stagnant leading man. Lea Michele's Rachel Barry is not only annoying but she's completely unlikeable. She's too egotistical that it stopped being funny and started being annoying. It doesn't help that she can be super egotistical one week, then trying to be sympathetic the next, and then back to annoying the next. Cory Monteith is not doing a bad job as Finn, it's his character's fault. His character is inconsistant from week to week. Jane Lynch is still doing her best as Sue Sylvester, it's Sue's writing that has crippled her. She's still a funny actress, it's what she's saying that is not funny.

The show's major achilles heel is it's writing. The writing is very inconsistant (another critic has his 3 theories of Glee, based on the writer that wrote the episode). Most of the time a plotline that happened in the episode before has been completely forgotten about in the next one. It will randomly come up three or four episodes later. The characters are usually badly written with their most annoying traits presonified. (These traits are ususally what are the easiest to write.) I agree with Ryan McGee when he says that they seem to put the first draft in production. My complaints would usually be written out in a lookover by the showrunner.

Overall, I really didn't like most of the season. The plotlines are usually lazy and stupid and the writing is a little very bad. The episodes I did like had good performances from the actors and great musical numbers. (Grilled Cheesus is Chris Colfer's Emmy episode and Furt is very good.)

I'm going into the last batch of the season with an open mind and hopefully I'll enjoy it.


And now clips from the Post Super Bowl Episode:

California Gurls Opening Number:



Need You Now (by Lea Michele and Mark Salling):



Bills, Bills, Bills (by the Dalton Academy Warblers)


What has everyone else thought about the season? Did you guys like the clips?