With a couple of episodes to go last season, I thought to myself that I wished I wrote weekly Glee blog posts, so I could have a place to nitpick about the aspects of Glee that annoyed me. So, naturally, when I finally decide to start up a weekly Glee post series... I have few nitpicks. Of course. Regardless, I wrote out my thoughts on the series, after the jump.
You see, I have a love/hate relationship with this show. The first half of the first season, I was completely and utterly in love with it. It was a show with heart, a show that didn't take itself seriously, a show that was just downright awesome for a whole bunch of reasons. Sure, the plot was labored and cliche-ridden, but the writing was hilarious yet touching, the performances engaging, the talent undeniable. The cast effortlessly injected new life into older songs, making them completely current in new, inventive ways. The show quickly became "appointment TV" for me and my friends. Then the show went on a seemingly endless hiatus, and when it came home, it began to become a bit shaky. It almost seemed like the the writers listened to the fangirls and worked to write the show they all wanted, as opposed to telling the stories they wanted to write. But, I was still hooked.
Season two. Oh boy, season two. Gone was the snarky show that poked fun at high school life. Gone was the show that never took itself seriously, that was self-aware just enough to be fun. Gone was the show I loved. Glee took on an after-school special kind of feeling, a show that knew it was popular and needed to be on its soap box at all times. Sure, the musical numbers were still fun, but the "book scenes" in between, to borrow some musical theatre terminology, were all trite bridges to the next musical number. The music, too, changed: (mostly) gone were songs selected to enhance or further the plot, replaced by current hits seemingly selected because a particular artist needed to be represented. Plus, you had to appease and serve big-name guest stars almost every week. Sure, the second season had flashes of it's first season goodness (the Brittany/Santana storyline, the "Rumours" episode, some aspects of the Kurt/Blaine courtship, etc), but on the whole, season two was an overdone, overblown annoyance. Yet, still, I watched.
All summer, series creator Ryan Murphy told anyone with a press badge that would listen that Glee S3 would be a return to the basics. All members of the core cast would get their moment to shine, more appropriate (read: older) song choices, new writers, no special guest stars. I was skeptical, of course, but decided to be optimistic (yet knowing full well that Murphy was likely talking out of his ass.... which he was... but whatever).
The result, at least in tonight's season premiere? Shockingly first season-esque! The most recent song on tonight's song list was "You Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray (which was in 2002)... a song that was reinvented to fantastic effect as a finale to tonight's episode. The writing wasn't terribly heavy handed, with some absolutely fantastic one liners (I legit do wonder why the T-Rex was eating the Jew). Most of the cast did get individual moments to shine. The "Anything Goes/Anything You Can Do" mashup was absolutely fantastic. At the end of the hour-long show, I was sad to see the show end, which I can't say was the case at times last season. And, shockingly enough, I actually want to know where they are going with the storylines, as opposed to knowing what will happen weeks ahead of time. I do have a few small nitpicks (I am me, afterall), like how they ignored the Finn/Rachel relationship and how fast Blaine changed his mind about school, but in the grand scheme of things, these are moderately minor.
In all, Ryan Murphy and co. hit the ball out of the ballpark tonight. I sincerely, sincerely hope that this is a sign of things to come and that the show I absolutely loved in season one has returned. I cannot wait for next week's episode!
Also, I do plan on writing regularly about the show, so do stay tuned.
