Original Song: New Directions goes in a New Direction!

Phew! finally Glee is back from Holiday. Yup folks that week's episode typically and rightfully named 'Original Song' was definitely a lot more cohesive that the preprocessor that was 'Sexy' and is definitely one of the best episodes of Glee this season. 


So gleeks regionals are here once again! This year New Directions went in a new direction by performing completely original songs. With “World War Sue” coaching Aural Intensity and Blaine and Kurt leading the Warblers, New Directions was up against some stiff competition and needed a competitive edge. Though their initial attempts at song writing were hilariously bad (“Trouty Mouth”, “Big Ass…Heart”), New Directions ended up with three terrific songs.


Let’s first summarize this entire episode in a nutshell, shall we? Due to more ill direction under Schue, the club found out that My Chemical Romance refused to grant them the rights to anthem out to SING at the competition. Sue, of course, is behind all this. Apparently her affair with the drummer led to the cease and desist order (we find out later that this is entirely fictitious) and is her opening salvo in World War Sue. New Directions won Regionals (I know right?) because they somehow managed to compose two original songs before the weekend. Amazing use of those rhyming dictionaries kids. The ironic/stereotypical judges (Kathy Griffin as a Sarah Palin/Christine O’Donnell lovechild, Loretta Devine as a caricature of my beloved Sister Mary Clarence and Rod the Anchorman) all thought that was enough to send the club predictably towards New York and Nationals.


That said and done, let's now break down the catalogue one-by-one shall we?


Starting the episode with Maroon5's MISERY by the warblers gave every sign of a powerful and riveting Glee episode and then finally addressed a long-running query of a lot of fans(me included) - Why the heck does Blaine get every single Warblers solo?

From there the episode delivered one winning performance after another, focused on actual relationship and character developments and proved one indisputable fact: Lea Michele, the power house of the show. Rachel's "Get It Right" was the highlight of the hour, as it did a lot more than merely showcase Michele's pipes. It spoke to the evolution and struggle of this girl, someone who has gone from cute to irritating to the most obvious MVP candidate.

Blaine and Kurt didn't preach to the audience in any way. They simply acted like two students falling for each other, as writers resisted the effort to just throw these two into a relationship from the outset. After Kurt’s touching rendition of “Blackbird,” Blaine seemed to see Kurt in a whole new light. And judging from the reaction on Twitter (“THEY KISSED” was a trending topic tonight), fans are ecstatic. Blaine even shared the spotlight with Kurt during “Candles.” It must be love. And then a second kiss because, come on, it's Darren Criss!

On to the 'World War Sue' front or the 'Not so stupidly named' Aural intensity front. Sue did her homework on the judges and decided to go with Sonseed’s “Jesus is My Friend” in order to impress tea partier Tammy Jean Albertson (guest star Kathy Griffin) and Sister Mary Constance (guest star Loretta Devine). I think the nun summed it up nicely: “I didn’t even like to be pandered to when I was a stripper!” Sue’s pandering ultimately backfired, and she took her anger out on the poor, drunk Lieutenant Governor’s wife.

The Quinn-Finn-Rachel love triangle took an interesting turn tonight with the revelation that Quinn thinks she and Finn have a future together in Ohio, while Rachel’s talent will take her on to bigger and better things. That explains why Quinn is obsessed with becoming Prom Queen—she thinks she’ll peak in high school and also shows us the fact that without her cheerleading outfit and the prom crown she's unsure of who she actually is. But with plenty of meaningful looks between Finn and Rachel, I think Quinn might be losing him but that better not happen cause well i'm sick and tired of Finchel, they totally suck(sorry to all the finchel shipper i'm just stating a point). Rachel needs a new boy-toy or somebody old....well it has been rumoured that Jonathan Groff returns for the final four episodes of this season...hope that happens.....GO ST.BERRY. 

And...how 'LOSER LIKE ME' we so good wasn't it?? Yes, context can really change things! I honestly didn’t care for this original song in isolation, but watching it all come together in this episode, this kind of grown on me a bit. It still sounded too High School Musical for my taste, but the visual and the Sue-esque undertones really had me enjoying the whole performance. This song made more sense now.

Lastly i'd like to take up the point of MVP - First New Directions don’t like her. Then they do. The hot and cold treatment the glee club gives Rachel confuses and disgusts me. Awarding her the MVP was simply another way of saying “We only like you when you’re useful.” 

And i'm not wrong with a much more screen time for the Warblers this episode marks their end on the show, something about the end of the contract for using that school's premises. This also means that Kurt would also soon be returning to home-ground with Blaine in tow(rumored). Cue in for a 4 weeks skip(i know FOUR WEEK.....they r trying to kill us!!!) Glee returns on April 12th for the next episode of the season 'A night of neglect'.

Original Song: New Directions goes in a New Direction!

A glee-ful "sexy" substitute----but an equally lackluster episode

The title aptly sums up my views about this weeks Glee episode SEXY. Yup, the "Sexy" substitute a.k.a. Gwyneth Paltrow is back on Glee and this time she is not subbing for spanish class or english class or taking over glee club but subbing for sex-ed class. Ya, Glee is feeling preachy again which also involves some dirty dancing......and it seems like also taking a holiday.


Although this episode also had a lot of pros. Namely, The songs were great, the story moved along, relationships developed, and the series finally gave voice to the lesbian feelings of a certain two glee clubbers. Other than some highly inappropriate things going on that would never be allowed at a real high school,


At various times, this episode of Glee was fun, profound, humorous, romantic and simply random. Shall we go over some of the finer points of the episode.


Really wish every day were a Holly Holiday. Gwyneth Paltrow is perfect in this role, bringing an energy and snark to lines about wet hugs and sex tapes with JD Salinger, while sexing up performances such as "Do You Wanna Touch Me." Just great times all around any time she stops by.

Paltrow's first appearance last fall was a resounding triumph, so of course Glee wanted her back. Last night, Holly discovers, while teaching health class, that the students at McKinley are very ill-informed about physical pleasure and its consequences, especially members of New Directions. This is best evidenced by airhead Brittany (Heather Morris) believing she is pregnant because a stork is building a nest outside of her window, and Finn (Cory Monteith) and Mercedes (Amber Riley) worrying they can get HIV from salad after Holly shows them how to put a condom on a cucumber. Those aren't exactly realistic happenings, but I sure laughed heartily when Brittany shared why she thought she was with child after panicking her boyfriend, Artie (Kevin McHale).

Oopsie! i think i forgot to add the finer points of the element of Frustration.  It's not so much that I hate when Glee preaches, it's that it does so in an unrealistic manner. Emma and Carl have never had sex?!? Brittany thinks babies come from a stork?!? These quirks are funny when used in a one-liner, but they become irritating when used as actual plot points. 


Definitely loved Burt's speech to his son and, while I take issue with Santana's revelation of love to Brittany (more on that below), I must applaud Naya Rivera's performance during "Landslide" and also during her big speech.

In the romantic view point - Will doing the tango with Holly? Hot. Holly finally admitting that she should open herself up to a relationship that lasts more than 36 hours? Vulnerable and sweet. 


Holly is likely to return again, as she enters into a relationship with Will before the closing credits. The chemistry between the two is palpable, especially in their duet of "Kiss", though Holly's hesitation for dating the Teach is also warranted. She tends to go for less serious pairings, while his dating experience is limited to his high school girlfriend and a guidance counselor who won't even touch her husband, which we'll get to in a minute. I guess Holly just has to fall for the Schuester charm in the end, though. I don't believe it will last very long, the least of the reasons being Paltrow's continued availability (or lack thereof), but it's nice that Will will get a chance to be with someone so cool before he is roped back into the inevitable drama to come.

Santana came fully out of the closet, Carl and Emma broke up and Quinn made her intentions clear to Finn (as well as her return to total bitch-dom). But Glee often feels like a hodgepodge of events and scenes thrown together around a weekly theme.

One second, Santana can't open up, the next second she's breaking down by singing a few lyrics. We haven't seen Carl in months, and then, just as suddenly as he appears behind the drums, he's gone again. Blaine and Kurt run into Sue in the coffee shop and are instantly convinced they need to sex up their routine, complete with bubbles that resemble... let's just say... something very personal to guys? It all just felt random and under-developed.

So, after all this we have the regionals episode next week, which is coincidently title "Original Song"- yup the two original songs by glee that came out with the last glee album features on the episode. So stay tuned.

A glee-ful "sexy" substitute----but an equally lackluster episode