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Glee

I am a Gleek and proud of it. It took me a little while to get into it. The pilot premiered on the day I graduated college, so I obviously had other stuff on my mind. Then when it re-aired in September, I was still getting used to living in Hawai`i and going to grad school, so I didn't watch the first few episodes. However, many of my friends were obsessed with the show and talking about how amazing it was, so I decided to give it a chance. The first episode I tried watching was Episode 4, Preggers. The first musical number was "Single Ladies", but the characters weren't singing, so my first thought was "huh. Ok. Good dancing, but I wanted some singing." And then I saw Quinn's explanation of how she got pregnant and I thought "holy crap, this is dumb. The show is trying to get away with *this*?" (For those of you who don't know, Quinn claimed that she got pregnant when her boyfriend came early in a hot tub. In reality, she had cheated on him, but I didn't know this at the time.) So, thinking the show was kind of dumb, I stopped watching and forgot about it.

However, a few months later, I heard some of the music and really liked it. So I downloaded the soundtrack. And then, a few months after that, I was on Spring Break. I wasn't working at the time, and I had little homework, so I was looking for something to take up my time while I wasn't submitting applications and resumes. I decided to give Glee a second chance. After watching the pilot, I loved it. I loved the second episode even more. I watched the first 13 episodes (the only ones that had aired so far) that week, and I have not missed an episode since. I even bought the DVD a few days after it was released, and I have every single song.

Last night's episode, "Never Been Kissed", was as good as always. It dealt with some very heavy issues (bullying, gay kids staying in the closet, self-esteem) and the music was performed well. In fact, their rendition of "Teenage Dream" might be my favorite Glee cover so far. This was certainly the best episode of the season.

As much as I love Glee, I have been having some issues with it this season. In season 1, about 95% of the songs followed the story line. Either they contributed in some way to plot or character development. For example, in the pilot, Rachel sings "On my Own", which was a little insight in to her unrequited crush on Finn, while he never notices her. Kurt sang "Mr. Cellophane", which showed his feelings on being "unpopular". In episode 2, Rachel sang "Take A Bow" after Finn kissed her but ran back to Quinn. In the Madonna episode, "Like A Virgin" was the soundtrack for a number of characters contemplating losing their virginity. Most of the songs made sense.

This season, 95% of the songs are thrown in willy-nilly. Rachel and Sunshine sing "Telephone", but they are not in a club, and there is no telephone in sight. All the Britney Spears songs were just there to be a showstopping number (except for Artie's "Stronger", which actually made sense.) The Rocky Horror Songs were amazing, but didn't help with storyline or character development. All it did was show off how amazing John Stamos is, and how awkward Will has become around Emma.

And last night, "Teenage Dream" was the only one that made sense, plot-wise. "One Love" was totally random, and the mash-ups were just kind of there.

I think that Glee is hitting a bit of a sophomore slump. Instead of choosing music because it's amazing, Ryan Murphy needs to go back to where he was last year and pick songs that actually work within the episode. Glee is not a musical anymore, it is a spectacle.

Teenage Dream

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