Regardless, I'm going into Glee's second season with the steadfast desire to watch a full run. I mean, if I like the show, there's no reason not to, right?
That said, if this season is going to keep me hooked episode-to-episode this year, things will need to improve a bit after a fairly middling kick-off with last night's premiere. It wasn't so much the music selection (which was scattershot), the awkward introduction of new characters, the slightly dour reshuffling of roles and personal dramas among the Glee Club kids, or the dearth of quality Sue Sylvester-isms throughout the episode--it was kind of all of that, at once. That said, I still had some fun with the episode--I just hope that after all this middling set-up, better things are to come. Read on for recappiness and my personal thoughts about the episode, but be forewarned, there be spoilers here.
The big new plot point for this season (after the kids lost at regionals last season) is a sudden and terrifying budget crisis for both the Glee Club and Sylvester's cheerleading squad. A new, female football coach (with the appropriate name of Ms. Bieste) has taken command of things, and has the school's primary backing, leading to Sylvester and Schuester joining forces to try and take down the brutish coach.
Elsewhere, the episode focused on reshuffling a lot of the social hierarchies around the club. Tina and Mike hooked up at Asian camp over the summer, leaving Artie sad and desperate to win her back. Puck got a vasectomy. Santana got a boob job and subsequently lost her captainship of the cheer squad (after a particularly amazing anti-fake-boob tirade by Sylvester--the only really memorable one of the episode) to Quinn, despite her baby-having ways. Finn and Rachel are still together, but both lose a good bit of their social status with the club after attempting to bring in new recruits to the club, only to have various tragedies strike.
Finn attempted to win over newcomer Sam (Finn Overstreet, who suffers from a serious case of Joker mouth), and Rachel discovered Sunshine Corazon (played by Philippines pop star Charice). Finn's efforts somehow ended up with him kicked off the football team (and Sam replacing him at quarterback), and after a ragingly jealous Rachel sent Sunshine to a local crackhouse for an "audition" (and, inexplicably, Sunshine showed up for a later audition anyway), she found herself recruited by the rival club Vocal Adrenaline, and took the gig, after Rachel's efforts made her feel so unwelcome.
There was a lot of set-up here, and not a great deal of funny or quality drama, sadly. I enjoyed a couple of Sue Sylvester diatribes, the opening video blogging montage, and while I found some of the bits a little labored, I think I'm digging on the addition of Bieste to the mix. Her snarling demeanor and penchant for nonsensical metaphors had me giggling more than a few times, and seems like good fodder for future running gags. Still, too much of the episode felt like awkward set-up, and several characters still felt underused throughout the episode.
Also, straight up, didn't dig the music that much. The opening musical number--which partook of Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind"--was a lot of fun (especially with Artie's opening rap), and while I hate any and all music from Dreamgirls, Sunshine's performance of "Listen" was, at least, compelling to watch. Elsewhere, Sunshine and Rachel's duet of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" was reasonably performed, but I also think I'm kind of Gaga'd out at the moment. And I straight up hated, hated, HATED the rendition of Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars' "Billionaire," because that song is dogshit.
All that said, as middling as this episode was, it had enough going for it to at least hold my attention, and perhaps with the amount of hype going on over the course of the summer for this season, anything short of orgasmic Gleekiness was going to be a let down. All I know is I am actually rather looking forward to next week's Britney Spears-themed episode. I don't care what that statement does for my heterosexual standing, I think that looks like fun, dammit.
To the Gleeks of Screened, I ask, what did you think of the beginning of season 2?
