Glee: "Comeback"

Only after I have myself inoculated from Bieber Fever will it be safe to offer up a review of last night's Glee, after the jump....

Nobody who seriously watches this show can afford to pretend that Glee doesn't have problems. Episodes either tend to be really good, or really off kilter. Into this dialectic we need to add a new category, one that describes both the Super Bowl episode and last night's outing: boring. While Glee being awful is still a problem, at least it's slightly entertaining to watch it flail about uncontrollably. It's when it's boring that I tend to wonder why I even watch the show.

The main problem stems from the fact that Sam was one of the main focuses of tonight's episode. While I like Sam – or, more specifically, the Sam we saw in “Duets” - he hasn't been the same since that episode, with the writers generally steering the character into douchebag territory. In “Duets,” he was this sweet, yet incredibly dorky guy, someone who was attractive (or at least that's what the show tells me) yet incredibly accessible, and he was a good match for Quinn. But once he became a straight up jackwad, it became harder and harder to believe that Quinn actually likes this guy. So for the show to throw us back into this relationship hard, expecting us to believe once again that Sam is a sweet guy, was extremely disorienting, and I spent most of the episode reeling from the abrupt character shift, unable to connect on an emotional level with what was happening on screen.

Nor does it help that the character's stupidity was ratcheted up for this episode. I get that stupid is one of Sam's character traits (and this is what effectively allows the show to introduce Bieber songs, and play it off as a joke), but how bad can we really feel for a guy who believed Quinn's story that involved her saving Finn from choking on a gumball? Of course the show has had Brittany play dumb, and to good effect, but it those instances it has been set off by the sweetness, and since she is SO DUMB and SO SWEET, it actually kind of works. But Sam, who has been a douchebag, and can obviously formulate plans to win a girl back, isn't that dumb, and isn't that sweet, so here is stupidity comes off as a contrivance, not an actual character trait. The end of this storyline was good, with Quinn and Sam talking about how much she hurt him getting to the emotional crux cleanly and effectively, buy I can't help but feel this would have been a far more powerful moment if everything that had come before it had been equally engaging.

And speaking of engaging: Justin Bieber. He's not engaging, or at least his music's not engaging, an effect of it being an output of the pop music machine. Regardless of his voice, his music is soulless, with lyrics that fail to express any real sentiment. This, plus the obvious zeitgeisty nature of the song selection of this episode, stops Sam's (or anyone else's) storylines from reaching any emotional honesty. And the fact that the other guys got in on the Bieber action in order to recharge their girls libidos was the kind of misogyny that the show can't really afford at this point. (Although I did laugh at Puck in a Bieber wig, so at least one good thing came out of all of this.)

Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying; not all songs have to be emotionally effecting. I don't think the show could handle that kind of pressure. Look at two of the other numbers, “Take Me Or Leave Me” and “I Know What Boys Like.” The first was just meant to something fun for Rachel and Mercedes to do (let's ignore the songs lesbian context for now), an appropriate song for the diva-off. I have long contended that Glee could be mostly just a bunch of fun songs that don't have an emotional connection to the plot, and I would be okay with that, as tonight's example proves. Lauren performing “I Know What Boys Like,” on the other hand, is obviously not an emotional song on its own accord, but here it was perfectly used to comment on Lauren's deep-seated confidence issues, and it also helped in the continuing saga of Puck and Lauren's relationship. These are the kind of numbers that the show should be doing – songs that actually relate, or songs that are just fun. But the show shouldn't just pick songs because they are popular now; their presence feels shoehorned and tend to ruin the show.

Speaking of shoehorned: Sue Sylvester. She was shoehorned tonight, as the show tried to continue her “storyline” from the Super Bowl episode, completely disregarding the fact that it was a bunch of cartoony jokes, not something anybody should take seriously, especially that Katie Couric coda. I have said often that Glee should stop being about the adults, and be more about the kids. (And as certain critics pointed out last week, there is the undeniable fact that “Duets” and “Silly Love Song,” the two best episodes of the season, both had absolutely zero Sue screen time.) And while I appreciate that the show is trying to give Sue things to do, and to change up the dynamic somewhat, they're not changing it up enough, and we had to take a few leaps of logic to get there. After attempting Sue-icide through Vitamin A (really?), Emma suggests Sue sit-in on the glee club (really???) in order to get her spirits back up. Then Will takes sue to the pediatric cancer ward, where they sing a song to the children (REALLY????) and suddenly Sue seems involved with the glee club (DEAR LORD.) Look, I get that the show has established Sue's softer side by showing her relationship with her sister, but remember, that's her SISTER, somebody she was with as a child, when she was far more in touch with her feelings (presumably). But the tough world has caused Sue to grow a hard outer shell, one I doubt could be broken by just a few days with the glee club. And as dark as it would have been, I believe it would have been for more in character for Sue to be mean to the sick children, as opposed to opening up as quickly as she did to them.

And then there was the ending to the Sue's storyline, where we find out she's going to be the coach of Oral Intensity (still can't take that name seriously), and thus the glee club's biggest rival once again. Sure, this is a different role for Sue on a literal level, but haven't we seen this all before? At this point in the show, Sue's attempts to take down the glee club have gone from funny to mean to “oh god, please do something else.” In order to create good drama, shows need to offer up new storylines, not old ones with new faces.

I don't have a good segue for this, but: Rachel Berry. I liked Rachel's storyline with Brittany, with her trying to make a comeback through fashion – at least when it was just a runner. But when the show tried to play it for pathos, to use this jokey storyline that was good for laughs and nothing else in order to reflect back on her emotional state, well then it just became forced. I like the idea of Rachel staging a comeback (or whatever), of her growing into a person who can take charge AND earn the respect of her peers. However, if the show is going to do this, they can't half-ass it like they did here. They need to fully commit to a storyline, not just turn jokes into something real halfway through an episode.

Glee dipped down this week, and with the introduction of some questionable plot points (Sam & Santana, Sue) and one I kind of liked (Rachel's quest to grow), I have no idea what to predict for the upcoming week. But then again I never do, and that's half the fun of watching this show.

What did everybody else think?


Additional Thoughts:

Hey, there wasn't any forced Kurt appearance this week, so yay for that.

“I did a test run back in my office, and there's asbestos up there. That can kill a person.”

“It's the bottom of an ant's pants.”

“Well, sort of. The goat just ate the money.”

“I don't care how depressed I am, I won't date a curly.”

Hey, it's Wendy the Waitress! But she's moonlighting as a nurse! Hmmmm.....