Friday, October 29, 2010

What I’m Watching: Glee

Glee: Season 2, Episode 5 “The Rocky Horror Glee Show” (B-)

I’m not sure how to take this into account, but this is one of those episodes where not being familiar with and not having a connection to material being used really makes the experience infinitely less enjoyable. As someone who’s never seen “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” I didn’t really get into the songs in this episode, with one or two exceptions. And because there’s no supporting plot aside from Will’s duel with Carl, it’s hard to enjoy and appreciate the episode as a whole. My main point of contention is similar to that of the glee club members – there’s no reason the adults should be taking on roles that should be played by students. In that same vein, Will and Carl don’t need to play the roles when the glee club is designed for high schoolers. That doesn’t mean I don’t love seeing Jayma Mays start singing and dancing; it just means that I’d prefer it didn’t come about in such a contrived way. I’ve never been a fan of Sue’s talk show, and relegating her to one fantastic glare accompanied by furious finger-snapping in Will’s direction is hardly a reward for her well-deserved season one Emmy win. Unfortunately, she’s barely had any material with which to follow it up, and the way the show is going, I’m not sure she will. That’s what really worries me – it’s not the stunt episodes that are the problem, but rather what the show is left with when those are stripped away.

1 comment:

Richter Scale said...

I had the exact opposite experience. I am also not familiar with Rocky Horror, and yet I felt the episode had enough plot and character development to make up for it. For one, I'm loving John Stamos on this show. He makes a fascinating rival for Will, and I was happy to see him featured here as something for than a device for a series of music videos. I want to see more of him. It was also interesting development for Will, seeing him use Rocky Horror to go after Emma without any regard for the students or what the performance might do to their reputation.

I also liked that it touched upon the subject of gender roles and the pressure guys have on their bodies, not just girls. Even though I don't see the big deal about Rocy Horror (the songs I heard here are pretty forgettable), I liked the story that the show pulled from Rocky Horror, and I'm also fascinated to see what they're doing with Emma, who is taking a few more risks than she would have before.

So, not really me favorite episode so far this season (that would either be Grilled Cheesus or Duets), but a pretty solid entry. Also, just out of curiosity, you seem to be a lot more generous with your grading system on Glee this year, since I remember a lot of "C"s in the first half of last season, and now even the episodes you don't like you give a "B-". I think a lot of episodes you gave "C"s to last season are much better than Britney/Brittany (the only episode of Glee I've hated thus far).

Anyway, I don't know if I'll ever check out Rocky Horror, but in my opinion it was a pretty solid episode.