Tag: Jane Lynch

Glee: Funk First Impressions.

1 Comment

In this episode: Jesse defects back to Vocal Adrenaline and they come to the McKinley High auditorium to sass New Directions up; Will finalises his divorce with Terri; Will decides that the way to defeat Vocal Adrenaline would be through funk; and lastly, Will decides to take revenge on Sue by seducing her and sending her -you guess it – into a funk.

Continue reading →

Glee s01e13 – Sectionals review.

2 Comments

After all the “sectionals are in a few weeks, guys”, we’re finally here – the sectionals where the New Directions take on the deaf and the delinquent; and also, the end of the half-season and the last episode for the next few months!

As expected for a half-season ender, the episode is great, with great pacing, non-stop action, plot developments and storylines being tied up, a witty script (with some dialogue gems) and, of course, great songs.

So, the Glee club finally gets to sectionals. The road to victory ain’t smooth, however. Not only do they find out in horror that Sue has leaked their setlist (including the wheel-chair choreo for “Proud Mary”) to the competition, Rachel also (psychically) finds out that Puck is the real father of Quinn’s baby and tells it to Finn, with an expected dramatic result, thereby bringing out (most of) the season’s big plots to light.

Here’re some of my points for this ep:

-The beginning scene, with the multi-way conference call, was lol, especially with the little dialogue between Brittany and Santana (and girl gets a lot more lines this week than usual!)
-I don’t understand why Sue isn’t instated as the main coach for Glee? I mean, she is (or was, can never keep track) the co-director right? Shouldn’t it go to her by default if Schue is kicked out?
-I thought the setlist was decided ages ago? I mean, wasn’t the one that Will gave Sue (which she then gave to the other schools) the finalised copy? How, then, are they still deciding on (and fighting for) new songs?
-On a related note, how did the Bad Girls’ club know to perform “And I”m Telling You” when they only decided on it after the setlist was given to Sue (btw, choosing a new song like the day before sectionals? Not very smart)?
-While it might have served to move the plot along, the whole Rachel-suddenly-senses-something-going-on thing felt a bit forced. I’m sure there could have been other more realistic ways of letting her find out about the real father.
-Dianna Agron’s acting (re: the showdown between Finn and Puck) has improved, although she still looks like she’s suppressing a laugh everytime she cries. Cory Monteith’s acting, though, was totally solid for that scene. Didn’t know he had that in him.
-What was with the terrible lip-synching for every single song? It was so off! The sound producers (or whatever) should be fired!
-I thought Artie’s dad was gonna drive him and he donated the money raised to platforms for the school?
-Emma’s little spiel against the two teachers in charge was unexpected and slightly out-of-character (I’d imagine she’d have to have worked it up for hours to do it) but highly satisfying.
-I know they’re in for the “Very Special” element but how is the Deaf Glee Club supposed to realistically win the thing (a singing competition)? Unless it’s by pure sympathy, in which case they should have just gone with “Imagine”.
-The judges’ deliberation was HILARIOUS. “I have no idea what the hay-ell I’m doing here”.
-About Schue suddenly being able to go to Ken and Emma’s wedding, that’s so “OH YEAH!” hahaha. Ken must have been really sad. Not to mention the fact that Emma pushed it later anyway so Will would still have been able to make it anyway.
-This episode, btw, is the first ep where I feel like Schue isn’t an annoying, self-righteous failure-of-a-teacher, although he kinda screwed that up at the last minute with “but I just left my wife”, which is kind of a douchéy thing to say given the circumstances.
-How are Emma and Will both at the wedding at the same time? Then who’s taking care of the Glee club?
-How did Principal Figgins “set the record straight” about Schue, even if Sue did leak the set list (which are two separate issues)? He still violated the “no professional” thing.
-Results? Anyone surprised? Although I guess they might have lost if the show wasn’t picked up for the next 9 episodes, in one of those lost-but-still-winners things.

Songs performed this week (apparently the theme is “songs with very long names”):

And I’m Telling You (I’m Not Going) (Jennifer Holliday version): It’s such a standard black diva song and so overdone recently but so good. Good to see that Amber Riley is as good as the huge-voice divas out there. Plus, it lends a solid diva-ed out power ballad to the show’s reportoire, which hasn’t really been done before (since Rachel’s songs have been more Broadway or pop than full-on Whitney-fications and “Halo” was just freak weird). A

Don’t Rain On My Parade (Barbra Streisand version): How does this count as a Glee performance? Good as it was, Rachel did it solo (unless it was an intro song, in which case it shouldn’t count as a first song)? Still, it was very well-done and shows off Lea Michele’s Broadway background very well. A

You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones version): It’s so unbelievable that they learned a song (including coming up with, not to mention rehearsing, dance steps) in an hour and rocked it out like that. But I guess they’ve been known to get scores and spontaneously and immediately break into song so what’s new? Still, great, if not terribly bombastic, song choice and performance. Nice, slow start and it got into good, catchy gear once the chorus hit. A-

My Life Would Suck Without You (Kelly Clarkson version): What the heck was with the hoochy dancing? Despite that, I liked the performance. I’m not sure if it was just because I like the original song itself (because the Glee club’s arrangement of it was a very standard one), but it was still catchy and was a great end to the show (instead of going out on a huge tear-jerking ballad, like I originally thought they would). A-

Like I said: great songs, non-stop action, plot movement and witty lines. Despite a few plotholes (which, who cares anyway?), this was the best episode since the first few, and I can’t wait for the second half of the season to start. Episode grade: A+