glee 1.5: the rhodes not taken

Will: "Do you think we can win Regionals without Rachel?" Emma: "Remember the Jamaican bobsled team?"

In this week's episode, "The Rhodes Not Taken", newly minted Emmy winner Kristin Chenoweth guest starred as April, a former Glee Club superstar who's become a drunk has-been squatting in foreclosed homes. And let me tell you - that lady won an Emmy for a reason. Not only can she sing, she completely stole the show - a show that was probably the best episode of Glee I've seen yet.

This episode left me with so many thoughts and reactions that I'm going to try something a little different, and divide the review into sections based on my thinking. I'm also going to skip the plot recap, since I assume if you're reading this, you already know what happened :-) Let me know what you think about this format, as I am still playing with review styles.

Focus, people! Focus!
One of the best things about "The Rhodes Not Taken" was that it finally narrowed its focus into a cohesive storyline. To be honest, I've been struggling with To-Do-or-Not-To-Do a recap each week, partially because there are so many things going on, just trying to summarize it takes up like 2 pages. I don't mind having lots of things going on, and Glee has done a fairly good job of keeping them all pretty much related to the "Theme of the Night", but centering around a few key characters and plot points made a HUGE difference in my viewing experience. It definitely helped me become more invested in what was going on, as well as allowing the characters more breathing room for development. Much tighter storytelling, for sure.

Plus, I feel like having a huge cast with too many storylines is what did Heroes in, so I'm a little wary. I spent so much time trying to follow what was going on that I completely stopped caring about the characters, who basically started sucking anyway because, well, how much can you do when you've got 6 lines each episode?

Welcome Back to Earth
In addition to filtering out the noise, "Rhodes" was a far more grounded episode. Don't get me wrong - I love the show for its absurdity and cheekiness - but I was really happy to watch something that I could relate to. Until tonight, Glee was more like a edgy, sly spoof of every high school movie/show ever made - more concerned about how the story was told then the story itself. And I loved it - I love poking fun at all 3 sequels of Bring It On - but would it have been sustainable? How long can you make fun of others if you don't have your own story to tell?

Flawed, but Real, Characters
I really like flawed characters - mostly because I think that being flawed is what makes us human. I also like complex characters. The two leads of this episode - Rachel and April - proved to be both flawed and complex, while the "good" characters - Will, Emma, and Finn - gave in to manipulation to get what they wanted.

Rachel really struggled with her decision to leave Glee Club. She feels the only thing she has is her talent, and she (wrongly and selfishly) thought it was being dismissed last week. She's miserable with the play, but keeps insisting that it's the price to pay for being such a star - trying to convince herself as much as those around her. Like any teenager - heck, any human being - she wants to belong, have people who miss her.

Kristin Chenoweth brought out layers and layers of complexity in April. She used to have such bright future, but made some bad choices, and ended up quite south of where she wanted to be. But instead of being bitter or in denial, she acknowledges what's happened and is doing her best to move on. She remains pleasant and sweet, if not altogether appropriate or classy. Like Rachel, she seeks Will's approval and admiration; but rather than being defensive and snotty, she tries hard to do what he asks - raising her hand in Spanish class, trying to woo the Glee kids, with hysterical results.

And Will, Emma and Finn? All of them knew that what they were doing was wrong - Finn took advantage of Rachel's crush to get her back to Glee, Will took advantage of April's vulnerability to help New Directions win, Emma took advantage of Finn's dilemma to help Will be happy. But they really convinced themselves that the end justified the means, even when they were patently uncomfortable about it. I'm glad that they aren't paragons of virtue.

Now... the Critique
Of course, no review of Glee can ignore the musical numbers. Tonight we had some powerhouses: while I didn't especially love the song from Cabaret, I thought splicing April and Rachel's performances were cleverly done. The karaoke of "Alone"? Genius! And picking a country song? Very bold, very fun.

Yet... *sigh*. I really enjoyed "Somebody to Love", but there are holes in the performance. First of all - Finn's singing. He's the male lead - he needs to be stronger. He's always quiet when he starts off a number, and especially when he's playing off a powerhouse like Lea Michele, he sounds tiny and unsure. At first, it was endearing - it made sense plot-wise, Finny was nervous and unsure. But at this point, he needs to drop the bewildered act, and really step up his performances. Its not that he can't sing - once he gets further into the song, it becomes more confident - he just leads off poorly, which sets a poor tone for his solos.

Second, the "dancing". What dancing? Vocal Adrenaline danced. I realize that New Directions isn't going to win because of their mad choreography, but does it have to be so amateur? On last night's So You Think You Can Dance, there was this hilarious segment about what NOT to do in an audition. One of the four was what they called the "Reach to Nowhere" - basically, when a contemporary dancer reaches beseechingly into the sky. As judge Adam Shankman said, "What are you trying to get??"

There's an awful lot of reaching in New Directions' routines. It even bothered me starting with on "Don't Stop Believing", when all Rachel and Finn did was hold their hands out to each other, but I wrote it off to being their first performance. Now, its just annoying. And I don't mean to pick on Finn, but he really looks constipated or like his pants are too tight when he "dances". Again, not very becoming of a male lead.

Finally, please fix the lip synching. Study some Britney Spears if you must, but if you're going to lip synch, please do it in, er, synch.

Oh, and what's with the shameless plugs for MySpace? (Fox owns MySpace.)

Finally... the GLEEful Moments:

-- Kurt: "Oh Bambi, I cried so hard when those hunters shot your mommy."

Best line of the night, hands down. Emma really does look like a deer in the headlights sometimes, with her humongous, trusting eyes :-)

-- Puck: "I bet you thought Bert and Ernie were just roommates."

Sue only had one line of the night, but it was a doozy...
-- "When I heard Sandy wanted to write himself into a scene as Queen Cleopatra, I was aroused, then furious.

Speaking of Sandy...
-- "Let me tell you about my planned production of Equus. Have you ever hung out at a stable?"

-- Puck: "That Rachel chick makes me want to light myself on fire, but she can sing."

-- Will: "We'll get you sobered up, find you some underwear."

-- Emma: "I'm pretty sure its not a fake ID because he looks like an 11 year old milkmaid."

All in all, superb. Could this be the turning point, where Glee grows up to be a real show? I certainly hope so.

Four out of four boxes of wine.