Glee: "Blame It On The Alcohol"

After I once again gripe about how Glee's song selection is too on-the-nose, I'll offer up a review of last night's episode, after the jump....

Though critics can usually agree on the plethora of problems the plague Glee from week-to-week, certain flaws tend to irritate some critics more than others. This week's episode hits on my particular peeve, in that despite the ridiculous and shoehorned premise, the episode itself manages to actually pull out some good moments. This frustrates as it proves that Glee can write good stories, but that the show will jump on any idea it think it get a story, any story, from, regardless of how overdone it may be or how illogical of a fit it is for the show.

While I understand that the idea of these kids learning about alcohol is obviously indebted to the show's earlier “after school special satire” side – which has largely been dropped sine early season one, by the way – I think that this element went underground before critics had really gotten a handle on the show's particular problems. The result of all this is not only was it jarring to see the show return to something that it had stopped doing over a year ago, but seeing the “satire” element in this new critical light points out all of the flaws in trying to pull it off.

And I put “satire” in quotes for a reason, as I don't think this show really knows what satire is, or at least how to do it effectively. While the show is able to pull of some humor (or at least something resembling humor) from getting these kids drunk, and thus mocks the self-seriousness of after school specials, it screws up this momentum by having Will (of course) come in and give the facts and figures about alcohol poisoning or whatever. The show then even screws this up by having Will accept the fact that his kids will drink, but making them promise not to drink until after regionals. By trying to paint a realistic picture (in saying that teens are going to drink anyways) the show ultimately sells out what we know about Will (as a caring yet morally upright teacher) for the sake of a “lesson.”

But like I said above, even if I didn't like the overall framework of this episode, I did like how they used the alcohol as an impetus to explore some of the students a little further. I especially liked the idea of Blaine having to sleep over at Kurt's, which causes Burt to come face-to-face with another aspect of his son's sexuality: the “having gay sex” part. Despite the fact that Burt has accepted Kurt's homosexuality, I think that the show realizes that Burt is probably more comfortable with it in the specific (in that his son is gay) than in the general (in having to think about what being gay means for a person's actions). It's a wise move to show that accepting a gay person's way of life is a multi-step process, at I like that the show doesn't rest on on the father-son interactions from season one.

I also like how the show used this to explore Rachel and Blaine, at least at first. (But seriously, drunk Blaine? That was just awesome.) Given how little we knew about Blaine, and how “perfect” he was when we first met him, I have enjoyed watching the show break him down in order to find out what makes him tick, to make him a real person. So even though I knew it was plot machination, I liked the idea that Blaine might not be completely gay after all. Given how confusing sexuality is at that age, I buy the possibility that Blaine isn't sure of what turns him on just yet, and I felt that it could have created some interesting narrative tension going forward. Unfortunately, it didn't go forward, as the hour buttoned off this plot-line with a joke, thus ending something that was interesting not only for Blaine but for Kurt as well.

And speaking of that joke, there's Rachel's part in all of this. While I didn't buy that she would get drunk just so she could achieve song writing ability (it's a bit convenient for the sake of the plot), I kind of liked the idea of alcohol bringing out this dark, inhibited side of Rachel. Unfortunately the show didn't go there either, as it was apparently just content to have Lea Michele act drunk for most of the hour. And while I was interested in her part of Blaine's storyline insofar as I thought Blaine might be bisexual, once he turned out to be straight-up gay (again), it just killed something that could have been interesting for her character. And learning about good songwriting from being rejected by a gay man? I'm pretty sure going the Alanis Morissette route is more up her alley.

Yet while I saw some potential in the kids storylines, I had little optimism for the adults' part in all of this. Mostly, I'm just confused on what the show felt Will's action added to the hour. Are they supposed to just be making the parallel between him and the kids? Or are they making a statement about how sad his life has become? And what are we supposed to think about Emma's part in all of this? Was she creeped out upon hearing that drunken message, or did it somehow move her? None of it makes sense, and when plotlines are this ambiguous, they just become useless, a waste of screentime. Nor did I enjoy the continually mean-spirited exploits of Sue, both with her pushing Oral Intensity's director down the stairs (twice!) and her playing Will's drunk message over the PA system. Though that's obviously a fireable offensive, she won't get fired, and each time the show avoids this issue, they continually stretch the credibility of who Sue is, and push her farther and farther into the cartoon category.

The hour also ended way too easily, with school assembly meant to wrap everything up, and teach the kids some sort of lesson, I guess. Not only does it not make any logistical sense (the kids threw up after one shot of Rachel's homemade liquor bomb?), but for this one event to somehow speak to the kids undersells the way in which the show depicted these kids relationship with the hooch. But I suppose that's the kind of logic you have to go by every time you enter Glee World.

What did everybody else think?

Additional Thoughts:

“Key-dollar sign-ha.” “You mean Ke$ha?”

“How can the school let you coach another glee club?” Glad to see somebody in that universe has some sense.

“You just want a place to have sex and get drunk.” “Yeah, there's a word for that: a party!”

“Wait, seriously? That's probably why I never got past second base.”

“Brittany! Remember the rules! No sitting on anything!”

“It tastes like pink. IT TASTES LIKE PINK!”

“Blaine Warbler – I'm gonna rock your world.”

“From what I gather...something went down in the tent.”

So “Blame It On The Alcohol” is an inappropriate song choice, but “Tik Tok” isn't?