REVIEW: Glee: “Sectionals”

Wow. Just wow. Last night’s fall finale of Glee, titled “Sectionals,” was one of the most perfect mid-season finales (or season finales for that matter) I have seen in a very long time. I can’t say this enough, but Ryan Murphy and his creative team are truly brilliant. The episode centers around the Glee Club’s trip to Sectionals. Since Mr. Schuester couldn’t take them, Emma (Miss Pillsbury) volunteers, and pushes back her wedding. However, their trip to Sectionals is not without problems. Mercedes revealed to all of the Glee Club (minus Rachel) that Puck is the father of Quinn’s baby, and then Rachel gets suspicious. She spills it to Finn, who storms out and leaves everyone to scramble.

When the Glee Club arrives at Sectionals (with Jacob filling in for Finn), they draw the last spot and have to watch the other schools go first. It is quickly evident that Sue leaked their set list, and they can’t sing the songs they were planning on doing all along. (Eve’s group even did the wheelchair number!) Rachel calls an emergency meeting, where Mercedes gives the ballad over to her. Earlier in the episode, Mercedes sings I Am Telling You (I’m Not Going) from Dreamgirls, and I will admit I shed a tear (and my heart melted a bit). So Mercedes was all set to sing the ballad, but admits that Rachel should sing it and she is their shot to win. Rachel steps up and says she has something she’s been working on since she was four. Meanwhile, Mr. Schue runs into Finn at school and “leaves his keys” for Finn to show up at Sectionals. He shows up, song in hand, and they start rehearsing. It is finally showtime, and Emma holds up the phone for Schue to listen to the Glee Club perform.

The Glee Club opens with Rachel singing “Don’t Rain on my Parade” as the ballad portion. I could talk for days about Lea Michele’s talent. This number was jaw-dropping, tear inducing, and just amazing. She knocks it out of the park with anything, but ballads are clearly her forte. When I saw her sing at the True Colors Cabaret Night, her show-stopper was a ballad she sang. As much as I love all the other Glee cast sharing the spotlight with Lea, this was her moment to shine, and she nailed it (times 1,000).

After her ballad, Rachel introduces the rest of the Glee Club, and they sing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which was really great. Meanwhile, Mr. Schue comes home to Terri, who says she’s in therapy and wants to work on their relationship. He leaves without saying much to go to Emma and Ken’s wedding. When he arrives, Emma is sitting by herself. She explains that taking the kids to Sectionals was the last straw for Ken, and that she did it for him and not the kids. He tries to stop her from going but this show isn’t going to tie up everything in a pretty bow. Emma declares that he just left his wife, she put in her resignation, and then leaves.

The best scene of the episode, and best musical number comes at the end. The show didn’t tell you who won Sectionals until the last scene when the Glee Club shows Mr. Schue the trophy. They then declare that they prepared a musical number for him. “My Life Would Suck Without You” is one of my favorite Kelly Clarkson songs, and dare I say it that Glee’s rendition was just as good. But it wasn’t just the singing (led by Lea Michele) that was amazing. They incorporated an entire season of performances into that musical number. They did the dances from Push It, Single Ladies, Crazy In Love, and everything in between. During the performance, Mr. Schue clearly realizes he can’t let Emma go. He runs down the hallway to find her and looks in her office but she (along with all her stuff) is gone. This was such a perfect subtle moment. They can’t just run to each other’s arms, we have to want it so badly it hurts. He spots Emma down the hallway, goes to her, and finally kisses her. The look on Emma’s face after this kiss was a whole season of angst let go: finally she had gotten her dream man. When I spoke with Jayma a couple weeks ago, she clearly couldn’t reveal this wonderful moment, but in her subtext, I could see she was rooting for her and Will (even if she couldn’t say it). The kiss ended the episode, and what a perfect episode it was.

After a (half) season of drama, not getting along, and pregnancies–the Glee Club all came together. Sue gets fired for leaking the set list, Schue gets reinstated as the Glee Club director, and justice has been served. But what makes this show truly a cut above the rest is that there is always a bumpy road along the way, but when it all comes down to it, Ryan Murphy knows what the fans want, and he gives it to them. I haven’t read anything thus far that said anything negative about this episode…because there isn’t anything. I have watched the last scene approximately 10 times since writing this, and it’s so subtle and wonderful. Finn may have been frustrated and angry with Quinn and Puck, but he knew he had to support the Glee Club. Even Santana admitted that she loves Glee Club, and it’s the best part of her day. Now one could say where do they go from here now that they all get along and support each other and Emma and Will are together. But there is a long road to Regionals ahead. Jonathan Groff will be heading up their competition Vocal Adrenaline, there is much more to the Terri/Will relationship, we need to meet Rachel’s two dads, and Emma and Will aren’t just going to have a perfect relationship. I’d also kind of like to see the Ken backlash. Will he be around in the back 9? I imagine so, but who knows. And whatever way Sue is going to find to be reinstated is bound to be hilarious and wonderful.

Glee, I applaud you. (In fact, during last night’s episode, I may have given Lea Michele a standing ovation–yes, I am aware it’s just TV). You have done for me what no other show has done in a very long time, in that I am excited every week to see what comes next. You have combined music, dancing, talent, drama, comedy in an innovative way that has truly never been done before. It is going to be a long time until April, but I will be re-watching the episodes to prepare (and fill the void), and listening to all the wonderful music. If the back 9 is anything like the first 13 episodes (which I’m sure it will be), there is a lot to be excited about. I recently read this article in New York Magazine about how TV is an art form (and has become one in the last decade or so). If anything proves this thesis, it is absolutely Glee. It was a wonderful end to an absolutely amazing half season.

And I know my Glee reviews haven’t had great videos lately, so I hope all of these make up for it! I know you want to watch them over and over again, because I sure have: (I can’t even pick my favorite quotes of the episode, because it was all so good).

I Am Telling You (I’m Not Going):

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Don’t Rain On My Parade:

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You Can’t Always Get What You Want:

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My Life Would Suck Without You:

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INTERVIEW SERIES: Glee: Amber Riley (Mercedes)

Last week I had the chance to attend a “Carol-Oke” event for Toys for Tots. I jumped on this chance because some of the Glee cast were going to be there helping people sing carols. (Sadly, they didn’t sing themselves). If you read my site at all, you know how much I love Glee. This week is the fall finale (which means no Glee until April), and I’m not quite sure how I will fill the void. I got the chance to chat with Amber Riley (Mercedes), Cory Monteith (Finn), and Mark Salling (Puck) about their characters, what’s coming up for the fall finale and their biggest challenges filming the show. It was a holiday-themed event, so of course I wanted to know their plans as well. I will be posting all the pictures from the event tomorrow, along with the Cory and Mark interviews.

What are your plans for the holidays?
I’m going to go to my mother’s house, she’s going to cook, and we’re going to eat like pigs. And then I’m going to wake up and open my gifts.

What has been your favorite moment from filming the show so far?
Probably when we did “Somebody to Love,” that was definitely one of my favorite moments.

The musical number “Imagine,” that you filmed recently was incredibly powerful. Did you work with the deaf choir to learn the signs?
Yeah — actually it was kind of like improv. They were like “you guys go up there, and try to catch on with the signs,” so we did.

And if you could sing any song on Glee, what would it be?
I would sing “Boom Boom Pow,” by the Black Eyed Peas.

Maybe a group number?
Yeah!

Do you have a favorite song of 2009?
Single Ladies.

And what’s coming up in the fall finale?
Oh gosh, there’s going to be some great songs that you may recognize from Broadway, and some great motion picture songs.

You all have such great chemistry. Was that instant when you started filming?
I think when we first started, we figured out what the work load was going to be like, and how much we were going to be around each other. So we kind of made up in our mind, okay we’re going to work at it. Like with any relationship — a working relationship, a friendship — you have to work at that relationship, and we really did. We made it a point to get to know one another, to know how to work, how everyone’s work ethic is, and to be sensible to one another.

And what has been your biggest challenge so far?
Probably the dancing. Getting used to the dancing everyday, that was the greatest challenge. But we got used to it — we have a really great choreographer Zach Woodlee and his assistant Brooke Lipton, and they’re really wonderful, they’re good with us, they make sure that we know what we’re doing, they make us look good, they know what looks good on our bodies, so we’re confident when we go up and film

What do you want to see with your character going forward?
I really want to see Mercedes’ home life. I think we got enough love drama going around…so I really want to see Mercedes’ home life, I think that would be really cool.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night at 9 pm on Fox for the fall finale of Glee!

REVIEW: Glee: Mattress

Sorry that this post is very delayed. I was attending a Glee event! Amber Riley, Cory Monteith, and Mark Salling were all at Bryant Park doing “Carol-Oke” raising awareness for Toys for Tots. Sadly, they didn’t sing any carols, but I did get the chance to interview all three of them! I have some exciting Glee scoop and info including what Amber wants to sing on Glee, what Cory wants to see from his character, and what Mark’s most challenging part of filming is…but I’ll post all of that next week for the Fall Finale!

But anyway, let’s talk last night’s episode of Glee! The episode, titled Mattress, centered around the Glee Club preparing for sectionals, and their photo in the yearbook. In previous years, their photo has been defaced, and this year it looked like Glee was not going to get a picture after all. The Club seems more than okay with this (Kurt points out some hilarious de-facings). But Mr. Schue decides that Glee should have a photo, and has to fight Figgins and Sue. The Glee club settles on a compromise, and elects Rachel to be the “captain” and represent the club in the yearbook. Rachel gets Finn to agree to be her co-captain, but after being hassled by the football team Finn doesn’t show up. During Rachel’s photo session, she learns that the photographer is going to direct and cast a local commercial. She decides that this would be a great way for the Glee club to look cool (and earn some yearbook/street cred) and they shoot a music video for the commercial. They sing “Jump,” by Van Halen while flipping and jumping on the mattresses. I really loved this musical number. It’s great to see them just having fun and being themselves–no drama or slushees. Meanwhile, Quinn is determined to get back on the Cheerio squad (and into the yearbook photo), and she ends up saving the day. After the commercial, the mattress store sends all the kids mattresses. Mr. Schue ends up sleeping on one (more on that later), thereby disqualifying the Glee Club from sectionals because they accepted a gift (and forfeited their amateur status). Quinn goes to Sue (uniform and baby bump and all) and threatens to tell Principal Figgins about all the gifts all the Cheerios received. She insists that Glee got their own full page picture (one of the Cheerios pages), free of charge. After she gets what she wants, she declares she doesn’t want to be on Cheerios anyway. I really enjoyed Quinn sticking up for herself. She is turning into such a wonderful, well-developed character.

However, the most memorable storyline of this episode wasn’t the whole yearbook fiasco. This episode was Jessalyn Gilsig’s (Terri Schuester) chance to shine. I interviewed her last month, and she was delightful. I was thrilled to see her get her big scene, even if it was very upsetting to watch. Mr. Schuester, while looking for his pocket squares, stumbles upon one of Terri’s baby pads (what she has been using to make her look pregnant). He asks her what it is and discovers by looking for himself that Terri isn’t actually pregnant. I could see the despair in both Will and Terri’s eyes, and it was such a poignant moment. Terri was vulnerable, scared and unsure, and you could say the same about Will. He was duped, but he still loves Terri. She did what she had to in order to hold onto her relationship, but this moment had to come. It wouldn’t be Glee (or realistic) if Quinn just handed her baby over to Terri and everything worked out fine. Moments like these are what keeps Glee grounded. Will didn’t break out into song (and sadly neither did Terri–Jessalyn, we’ll get you your solo!) or do anything cliched. It was just a real moment, full of real emotions. It was brilliant acting on the part of Jessalyn Gilsig and Matthew Morrison. And while I was always sort of rooting for Emma and Will all along, I don’t think Terri and Will are over. Many bloggers and critics alike had expressed that they didn’t like or find the need for Terri’s character. I feel quite differently. I thought this was one of the best moments from the show so far this season, because it was so honest and adds a lot to Will’s character. If he had a perfect home life, he wouldn’t be as interesting or unique of a character.

And I have said this much without talking much about the music. “Smile” by Lily Allen is such a wonderful song, and I was so glad to hear Lea Michele and Cory Monteith sing it. Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” is also great (and another tear inducing number), that ended the show quite nicely. Schuester said because he was the only one who accepted a gift (by sleeping on one of the mattresses because of his home troubles), he won’t go to sectionals so the Glee Club can still compete. I was sad there weren’t more musical numbers, but I hear that next week’s show more than makes up for it. I don’t even want to think about the fact that next week is the last episode until April, so I’ll just continue to appreciate Glee for all it is. I would have to disagree with the assertion that it has become over-rated. I love it, and I’m not afraid to say it. Every episode can’t be “Wheels” or full of Kurt dancing to Beyonce, but every episode has its great moments, and its even greater musical numbers.

Quotes of the Episode:

“While they were in there, I told ’em to go ahead and yank out those tear ducts. Wasn’t usin’ ’em.” -Sue Sylvester

“Aside from nudity and the exploitation of animals, I’ll pretty much do anything to break into the business.” -Rachel

And because I know you want to listen to it over and over, here is Smile (Charlie Chaplin version):