What I’m Watching: Glee

Glee: Season 2, Episode 7 “The Substitute” (B)

I’ll start out by saying that I enjoyed the number one guest star in this episode much more than I thought I would. I’ve never been a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow’s, but I thought her spot in this episode was great, both dramatically (or more appropriately, comedically) and musically. The way that she got the students energized and performed numbers with Rachel and Will was great, and her stunt casting doesn’t bother me all that much since she did a great job. What is somewhat problematic (only knocking the grade down a bit) is the fact that, just like last week, the students seem to mature for no reason when we only see the adults experiencing any sort of transformation. The kids were delighted to have Holly take over the glee club, and therefore the push to get Will back doesn’t exactly track. I was disappointed that this episode allowed Mercedes to back off from Kurt so easily. Just like when Finn told him that the problem isn’t that he’s gay but that he needs to understand that no means no, this isn’t merely a case of Kurt finding someone to love and Mercedes not having anyone. It’s him completely ignoring his best friend, and we even see Blaine trying to engage Mercedes in conversation before Kurt steers the topic away from any of her interests once again. The return of Terri was puzzling to me since she’s still such a reviled character, and I did enjoy Sue attempting to exert her new powers and comparing herself to one Richard Millhouse Nixon.