Wednesday, April 21, 2010

THERE'S A SPECIAL ON DEP DOWN AT THE DRUG STORE: Having finally seen the final few minutes of last night's Glee (no, thank you Fox for your inability to finish Idol on time), seems that we had the traditional strengths and weaknesses--Sue Sylvester's awesomeness, a couple of dramatically overblown production numbers ("Like A Prayer," "4 Minutes," "Ray of Light"), one interesting reinvention of a song ("What It Feels Like For A Girl"), and a gleeful disregard for any sense of continuity (the mysterious appearance and disappearance of Quinn's baby bump, the makeup coverup on one of Lea Michele's tattoos in the bedroom scene). There wasn't an awful lot of plot development, and Idina Menzel's absence was notable (wouldn't she be raising holy hell about her star leaving for the "competition," at least unless this is all a ruse?), but still, a good time, right?

25 comments:

  1. girard3111:28 AM

    I don't expect continuity in the show any more. I only want three or four Sue one liners, some Britney and some dazzling dance numbers. Last night met those goals.

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  2. George11:57 AM

    Yep  A good time was had by all in my house.

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  3. gretchen12:01 PM

    I thought that Quinn's baby bump disappeared in Express Yourself because it was a fantasy sequence.  No?

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  4. Jay G.12:36 PM

    My wife and I really enjoyed it, although the last five minutes or so was disjointed.  And I think we are absolutely supposed to believe that Jesse joining the club is a ruse.

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  5. Sheila12:59 PM

    Where did you see the last few minutes? Is it already up on Hulu?

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  6. I'm lukewarm on Glee, but thought this episode was a lot of fun. I was lucky to be watching on a delay close enough to the show's air time that once my DVR stopped I immediately switched to the proper channel and started the newscast over (yay digital cable), thus recovering the last five minutes. I'm a little too proud of myself for the quick thinking.

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  7. Marsha1:27 PM

    Alas, my DVR had already switched over to Parenthood on that channel. Boohiss.

    Seriously, FOX? If you do this, put it up on your website immediately. Idol is not sports. You can make it fit in the allotted hour.Especially when you've hyped this particular Glee episode to death.

    Sheila, the whole episode is up on Fox.com now.

    To me, this was a somewhat failed gimmick. Seven good musical numbers in search of a plot. I agree wtih girard that i watch the show mustly for the musical numbers and the funny lines, but I also like the portrayal of high school, and this episode felt Isaac-and-Ishamelish to me. Getting permission to use Madonna songs is not an excuse to avoid writing an episode well.

    But the Cheerios on stilts were awesome, and I did enjoy the meta stuff about not giving Kurt and Mercedes enough to do and Finn not really being able to carry all the male leads.

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  8. Saray1:41 PM

    I really really appreciated the opening bars of "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love" during the part where Jesse was seducing Rachel.  It was like a little 15-second inside joke for theater nerds everywhere.

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  9. I thought the "Like A Virgin" bit worked very effectively in moving plot and character (and gave Santana her first solo lines), but yeah, agreed that the remaining musical numbers didn't really advance much.

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  10. Christy in Philly2:22 PM

    Gretchen, that's how I explained the baby bump mystery to my partner who wondered about the disappearing bump.

    Plot? What plot? There was Madonna! And Sue Sylvester talking about her "handicapable" sister which I totally LOVED!

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  11. Not to mention her Nazi-hunter parents.

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  12. Marsha2:59 PM

    Compteley agree. I laughed out loud at that.

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  13. Marsha3:01 PM

    Fair enough. And I thought it was true to character (though not true to real life) that Rachel didn't and said she did, and Finn did the opposite.

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  14. bristlesage3:01 PM

    I like the show, but it is not know for its kind and sensitive yet insightful portrayal of women.  So to keep shoving the "female empowerment" line down our throats while...not really empowering females, and certainly not in any way I think will carry past this episode, that kept taking me out of the show.  I'd pretty much worked past my issues on that front, but this just brought it all back up again.

    That said, fun musical numbers for sure.  I was an especial fan of "Four Minutes" as far as downloadablity goes.  (And "Like a Virgin" for Best Use in Show, yeah.)

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  15. Watts3:15 PM

    I want to like Glee, and keep watching in the hopes I will fall as in love with it as a lot of people seem to.  But I still can't shake the feeling while watching it: "Oh, hey, does anybody else see that the guy preening around in his new suit is actually NAKED?"

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  16. Have to agree with the above posters. Love Sue. Love (most of) the musical numbers. Love the idea of the show. Admire the likeable, hard working cast. But the storytelling is a hot mess a lot of the time. It's frustrating to see something teen-centric and off-center (and that seems to have its heart in the right place) miss its opportunity.

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  17. P.S. In terms of the results of the three-voice "Like a Virgin" I would have played it differently.

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  18. Renee4:36 PM

    I know that he's a fictional character and a teenage boy, but I was really disappointed in Finn for having sex w/ Santana.  I did like that he lied about it to Rachel though.  Maybe I'm naive, but I was kind of surprised how overtly physical the show got during the "Like A Virgin" scene (but enjoyed it nonetheless) -- I thought they would have sensored it a bit for primetime.  Yes, I sound like an old lady who is out of touch w/ reality when talking about "too sexual" and "Like A Virgin". :)

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  19. lisased7:22 PM

    I forgot about the Nazi-hunter parents. I snorted.

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  20. lisased7:25 PM

    Well, this is the show that featured premature ejaculation in a plotline.

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  21. Renee8:27 PM

    Valid point. 

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  22. Anonymous12:36 AM

    I really liked the random students dressed in different Madonna looks that would pop up in the crowd/hallway scenes.

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  23. Quinn's baby bump may come and go... but Sue Sylvester is always under 30

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  24. Genevieve10:07 AM

    I think Finn was disappointed in Finn, too, so that worked for me as a storyline.

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  25. J. Bowman2:50 PM

    Quinn is fast entering her third trimester, so that bump better be appearing more often.
    Anyway, let me tell you what "Like A Virgin" is about...

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