Glee: "Silly Love Songs"

Once I take a poll to determine just how offensive “Fat Bottomed Girls” really is, I'll be able to give you a review of last night's Glee, after the jump....

There are only so many ways that we can celebrate love, until we realize that it's a real bitch.

Like a few other critics out there, I am of the opinion that Glee is ultimately a sad show, that its title is meant to be ironic, and that the show's best moments come from the darkest place. Enter “Silly Love Songs,” the best Glee episode since “Duets.”

Like “Duets,” “Songs” is an episode wholly about the kids – as I believe every Glee episode should be. (While Will and Sue were interesting characters at one point, the show kind of ran their respective stories into the ground, and now all these characters can do is go broad. It's quite sad, really.) And, much like “The Sue Sylvester Shuffle,” this episode was able to make one theme stretch amongst all the characters, another goal I believe all episode should strive for. Given the size of the Glee cast, and the establish character relationship, there are never going to be clear-cut A-,B-, and C-stories, so it helps all of the diverging plot lines to congeal as a whole if there is some sort of thematic similarity between them.

But perhaps the best part of “Songs,” and something that I think makes it essential Glee viewing, is that this is an episode that really expanded the show's universe, and it did it quite smoothly, not like the fits and starts we've seen in other episodes. Santana, a character who has always been part of the main cast, has never had a storyline that was really about her. Sure, she's been a part of other people's storylines, but in those instances she was reacting to other people's actions, not making her own path. But tonight she got a story of her own, even if it involved her acting across multiple other stories. Even better, we got to see her for once as more than just “the bitch”; sure, that was still her primary role tonight, but it was also quite obvious that she was hurt by Puck's rejection of her over Lauren.

And speaking of Lauren, I think I am most pleased (at least on a moral level) about the show expanding her character. Prior to joining the glee club, Lauren wasn't a character so much as she was just a string of ugly/fat girl jokes. (See especially her “role” in “Britney/Brittany.”) But here we see her get to play the badass, the girl who has obviously been made fun of, but instead of wallowing in self-pity, has built her self up into a strong, independent women. In a show that is quite often misogynistic, this was a nice growing moment.

(And here, because I don't have anywhere else to put it, I would like to say something about Puck's storyline: I like it. His feelings for Lauren were NOT just made up for this episode, as I recall hints about this being dropped in this season's sectionals episode. But beyond this, I think I like what this is going to due for the character. I much as I like Mark Salling's character, he really has only gotten to play “bad boy” and “lovesick,” and I think making him less shallow [and exploring the weird little things that turn him on] will help deepen him into a more fleshed out character.)

And finally there was Blaine. I get that Daren Criss is a big Broadway name (right? Is that correct?) and that can't be on Glee forever. But I had such a problem with how perfect he was in his first appearance, that everything he said made him seem like a walking Hallmark card, so it was nice to see him humbled a great deal in this episode. (Plus it meant that the whole Dalton-base storyline wasn't just about Kurt pining away for Blaine, which had frankly gotten a bit old.) So now that Blaine is more of a human character, it is not only more feasible that Kurt has feelings for him, but it should make the supposedly requisite time that every episode must spent at Dalton far more interesting. Plus, this could heighten things when it comes time for Kurt to return to McKinley, and that would be just gravy.

But don't let all this talk about the expansion of the secondary cast take away from the greatness of the core cast plot. While last week's return to the Finn/Quinn dynamic was a bit sudden (let's not have any talk about whether its “right”; that's not what I'm here for), I think this episode handle everything in a much richer fashion, but also weaving in Rachel and Sam and making sure that all of these character's feelings were respected. I especially enjoyed the two heartbreaking scenes between Finn and Rachel, where the show acknowledged that yes, sometimes love in messy, and we as humans can't make sense of it as easily as we would like. I found that to be a true thing for the show to explore, and I think it added richness to this “love pentagon” (to quote the opening “previously on” segment) was initially missing. (And though it was really just a runner, I like the the scenes that explored how happy Artie/Brittany and Mike/Tina are. Sometimes it's just nice to see couples in love.)

While I wouldn't call this the best episode Glee has ever done (it doesn't have the “umph” of the best episodes), it was very good, and I think that we (and the show) should consider this a model for what Glee should strive for week-to-week. 

What did everybody else think? 

Additional Thoughts:

“One, never punch a cop.”

“Stare at me again and I'll break your nuts.”

“You're addicted to vests.”

Kurt's idol? Patty Lepone.

McKinley has a record collection in their library? I find that hard to believe.

“That's how we do it in Lima Heights.”

“If he and I got married, the Gap would give me a 50% discount.”