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Episode 4.15: “Girls (and Boys) On Film”
(Spoilers lurk below.) This may be one of the top ten most plotless episodes that Glee has ever done. Don’t get me wrong, it was a hell of a lot of fun, at least for the first few acts, but what really...
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Episode 4.16: “Feud”
(Spoilers lurk below.) I watched Nashville right before I watched this. That was an error. It was like eating a steak prepared by a master chef right before eating poorly cooked Kraft macaroni. In case...
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Episode 4.17: “Guilty Pleasures”
(Spoilers lurk below.) When I first became a fan of Glee, I described it as a guilty pleasure. Around the middle of season two, when the series really began to pick up, I dropped that descriptor...
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Episode 4.18: “Shooting Star”
(Spoilers lurk below.) Is it possible for two outstanding acts to save an entire episode? Is it possible for one very offensive and wrong-headed writing decision to tank it? And what can you say about...
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Episode 4.19: “Sweet Dreams”
(Spoilers lurk below.) After a run of four episodes that ranged from bad to unremarkable to undefinable, and with the specter of two more seasons looming before us, it’s good to be reminded of why I...
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Episode 4.20: “Lights Out”
(Spoilers lurk below.) This episode features a blackout whose length is only matched by how symbolic it is. The blackout is actually fairly unique in Glee terms in that, while it provides an obvious...
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Episode 4.21: “Wonder-ful”
(Spoilers lurk below.) I love Stevie Wonder, so I certainly have no complaints about making him the subject of a tribute episode. His music has a unique sound that makes it feel alive, and his songs so...
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Episode 4.22: “All or Nothing”
(Spoilers lurk below.) Where do I even start with this? Season four as a whole could be described as unfocussed at best and unremarkable at worst, at least until the season finale came along to drag...
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Glee season four overview; or, dissociative identit-glee disorder
(Spoilers lurk below.) Season three was very ambitious in terms of story and number of characters, and, while season four was no less ambitious, it was so in a different way. The stories thinned to a...
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The top 10 musical performances of Glee’s fourth season
You know what really surprised me the most when I went back over this season’s songs to put together my top 10? The sheer volume of fantastic numbers that there were. It doesn’t really feel like it in...
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Thoughts on the death of Cory Monteith
What a way to start the morning, finding out that a young man whose work I respected, just a little older than I am, has died, suddenly, unexpectedly, and, so far, without explanation (and I will...
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Thoughts on the death of Cory Monteith, part 2: where does Glee go from here?
Many people are still mourning the death of Cory Monteith: his family, his friends, his fans, his former co-workers and employers. It’s these final two for whom things are going to get so much worse...
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Episode 5.01: “Love Love Love”
(Spoilers lurk below.) Well, it’s the beginning of a season that is destined to be indelibly colored by the death of Cory Monteith. But you wouldn’t know it (mostly) by the season premiere, which is as...
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Episode 5.02: “Tina in the Sky with Diamonds”
(Spoilers lurk below.) First of all, this episode does not contain a performance of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which I’m afraid I can only count against it. Aside from that, this was another…...
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Episode 5.03: “The Quarterback”
(Spoilers lurk below.) Glee has never felt the need to adhere strictly to the rules of television writing. On several occasions, they’re produced episodes that were little more than long music videos....
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Episode 5.04: “A Katy or a Gaga”
(Spoilers lurk below.) “The Quarterback” contained a lot of references to Glee‘s first season, something treated almost as sacred by the legions of Glee fans. Back then, it was the little show that...
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Episode 5.05: “The End of Twerk”
(Spoilers lurk below.) This episode matches the plotless rambling of season three with the ultra-dramatic tonal shifts of season one with the odd moralizing and relationship drama of season two. Add a...
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Episode 5.06: “Movin’ Out”
(Spoilers lurk below.) True to its title, this episode is about moving forward, leaving behind the safety of the familiar for the often-frightening specter of the unknown. Blaine is going to audition...
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Episode 5.07: “Puppet Master”
(Spoilers lurk below.) Up to now, season five has mostly been mired in mediocrity, but now we have our first genuinely awful episode of the season. “Puppet Master” is slow, boring, unfocussed, bizarre,...
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Episode 5.08: “Previously Unaired Christmas”
(Spoilers lurk below.) There’s a fine line between genius and stupidity, and Glee‘s method of squeezing a second Christmas episode out of the same school year rides that line like nobody’s business....
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