The Bat Cave

I don’t feel like writing up a long post on the last half of season one, so I’m just going to sum up my feelings here briefly. I really thought the second half of the season took a big nosedive. The writing was already worrisome, but it got progressively worse throughout the season. There weren’t as many stand out musical numbers either, and the poor writing and ridiculous arcs on the show started to overshadow awesome performances. I enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris in his episode and the episodes devoted to Lady Gaga and Madonna, particularly Jane Lynch’s rendition of “Vogue” (“Will Schuester, I hate you!), but I wasn’t doing nearly as much rewinding. As obsessed as I became during the first thirteen episodes, I found myself getting bored and irritable finishing the season. How many times do we have to see an episode close with a musical number and watch these kids set aside their differences for a moment, come together as a group, smile, and exchange meaningful looks? They even ended the season by giving Sue Sylvester a heart, which is not a good look for the future, as her crushing criticisms and constant sabotages were the one non-musical pieces of writing I always looked forward to.

Season two opens with a new potential villain–for both Will Schuester and Sue Sylvester–as Coach Beiste (pronounced Beast), an extremely large and butch woman, takes over the football team and the school shifts focus to sports, threatening the budgets of both the Cheerios and New Directions. I’m tired of hearing about budget cuts on this show. It’s hard to believe that a Glee Club constantly facing budget woes has the financial freedom to pony up for new (and expensive looking) outfits and elaborate sets for every new musical number they do. Seriously, where is that money coming from? Lazy writing, that’s where.

I did like the way the season started with high school blogger, and nerd, Jacob interviewing various members of the Glee Club with loaded questions. He asks Will Schuester: “Did you know there’s a forum on my blog begging you to stop rapping?” A good question! It was a rare moment when the white people on Glee did hip-hop and my face didn’t look like this —-> : / It’s obviously a montage meant for the writers to respond to some of the negative feedback people have posted about the show online. Rachel is asked if she is difficult to work with, which mirrors similar real-life rumors that actress Lea Michele is the same way. It’s good tongue-in-cheek humor with a bit of self-deprecation. Kurt tops it off by giving a big “Fuck You” to the blogosphere. It’s good that they are self-aware and don’t really care about the critics, but seriously, no one on this show can rap.

A new season and a new school year means new students and potential new cast members. What’s the deal with discovering male vocal talent in the showers? It was weird the first time and now it’s just creepy. Fortunately, Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) can sing. He doesn’t join the glee club in this episode, but we all know he will, and his number shows that he’s going to contribute to the show in a good way. Charice also joins the cast as Sunshine Corazon and her confrontation with Rachel in the bathroom doing Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” was the highlight of the episode. She shows right away that she’s got a good voice and later proves that she has some serious pipes, announcing herself as legitimate competition with Rachel for best singer in the group…. so naturally, she’s lured away by Vocal Adrenaline by the end of the episode.

It was a better premiere than I was expecting after last season’s lackluster run to the finish line. The new cast members are great additions and all the musical numbers were excellent with the exception of Jay-Z’s “Empire State Of Mind,” which featured more of that questionable rapping. After briefly teaming up against Coach Beiste, Sue & Will are enemies by the end, which is good because a friendship there doesn’t help this show out at all. Sue is definitely at her best when she’s stirring up trouble for everyone… but “poop cookies?” Really? Come up with some better gags. A solid premiere episode that has me a bit more optimistic about this season than I was a few days ago.