Every year there is a day that seems more beautiful than most, a day that has been done the great injustice by not being named a holiday. What is this holy moment of divinity? The start of the fall season of television.
So You Think You Can Dance
Though I am more than pleased that SYTYCD has returned within weeks of the last summer season, I was a little unenthused about what we must go through before the real magic begins. Not only that, but a lot of the faces showing up for this season already had a lot of face time with the cameras only a few months ago. That, and I must be a little tired of watching auditions because I am starting to grow indifferent to the performances the judges rave about, including the great tap dancing uprising. Three whole tap dancers with talent? Golly G. The problem with them is that out of the three, Evan’s brother (for lack of remembering his name) was the best, but because of that freak of nature event known as Evan being in the top three last time, I don’t think I can deal with keeping the show in the family. However, tap dancing is always fun, so I will mock giddiness for them, but what I will not do is pretend to understand what they saw in the girl mixing hip hop moves (or what was supposed to be hip hop moves) into her salsa routine. It looked a little inconsistence and awkward to me. But what do I know?
Lucky for me, that was only the first half of the night.
Glee (sort of) Series Premiere
Tonight was the first new episode of Glee since the episode shown this summer, and it raised the bar quite high for all the shows in the fall lineup. Not only that, but it finally found it’s stride (namely comedic timing), which I felt was lacking in the first episode.
A lot of Glee’s charm is in its depiction of the high school experience. Sure, it reminds me nothing of my own school because it is still an extreme representation, similar to all the teen dramas on TV right now; however, instead of feeling overpowered by the ridiculous melodrama, we get to laugh at the more dramatic moments, especially those that hold some truth. For one thing, I never thought I would laugh so much about an encounter between a self conscious girl and a guidance counselor about bulimia, but how can you resist finding the humor in it when her first response to finding the girl in the bathroom stall is to tell her that her lack of a gag reflex will be thought of as a gift later in life?
However, what really came to life this episode were the characters, especially Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) and Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays). The past few roles I have seen Lynch in have been a little disappointing following her character in Role Models, but she has made her way back to that as the ridiculously narcissistic cheerleading coach, who always seems to be offended by others, only to follow their comment with the most distasteful thing that you just can’t help but laugh at. So far, the only other actor to match Lynch’s portrayal of her character is Mays, who plays the counselor with some major issues of her own. You can’t help but cheer for her as she pines over the married glee club coach, Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison).
As the title suggests, the songs are going to be a driving force of this show, and this episode was no exception to that assumption. Though I would argue that there was something a little more special for me with the musical selections of the first episode (how can you top “Don’t Stop Believin’”?), all of the songs flowed well with the story of the episode, and were amazing in performance. However, I will say that I did have a little problem with Rihanna’s “Take A Bow.” There is no question that Lea Michele (playing Rachel Berry) sang the heck out of that song, but it was all a little too Dreamgirls for me. Every other song that has been performed so far has been based in reality, whether it is through auditioning for the club, practicing, or creating a video youtube style. So what was so off-putting with this final song was that it was shot like a music video, going between Rachel on stage and her singing while watching Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) and his girlfriend talking in the hallway. I half expected someone to make a comment about how ridiculous it was for her to be belting out a song like that, or at least throw another slushie in her face (which I don’t think will ever lose its hilarity for me).
However, with all my complaining about that, I won’t be that upset if they do this again. I just hope that if they choose to do so, they mix them in more so that when it does occur, it doesn’t seem so out of place.
IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE EPISODE YET, YOU ARE GOING TO WANT TO CALL IT QUITS NOW. SEE YOU NEXT TIME! All right, now onto the spoiler and/or trailer moments. I knew the wife wasn’t going to be pregnant! That whore. I am glad that they chose to have her really believe that she was pregnant when she told him the first time, however, she definitely gets points deducted for not telling him when she found out that she was just getting fatter (The doctors line about seeing a whole chicken wing in there was priceless…). But this gives him an out so he can go get with the counselor, which I am already praying is going to happen. Now for the question round of the spoilers: Did Finn really kill the mailman? How are they going to get out of this whole only singing songs with the Jesus or balloons in the title? Do you think Quinn will eventually turn away from the dark side when she realizes how awesome the glee club is? Why on earth is Kurt auditioning for the role of kicker on the football team? Oh, and one last thing (not a question): I am really excited for the Mercedes’ solo we see in the trailer. How bout you?
Final Grade: A
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