What I’m Watching: Glee

Glee: Season 2, Episode 11 “The Sue Sylvester Shuffle” (C)

I’ll preface this review by saying that, as a non-sports fan who watches more than enough TV, I did not view this episode after the Super Bowl, and as such, did not watch it with a large group of excited “gleeks.” Instead, I watched it the morning after, with the thrill of a football game to lead into it. As it stands on its own, it’s a rather poor episode. There’s plenty of entertainment to be had, but structurally speaking, it’s rather horrendous. Sue’s storylines have gone off the deep end, and while I was happy to see her write in her journal again with the show’s token score serving as her musical theme, I just can’t stand the way they’re using the character. The Katie Couric piece at the end seems like stunt casting and nothing else, and the launching a person out a cannon plotline should have been just a theoretical joke, like Sue’s Nazi-hunting mother. We already had an episode where the football players sang and danced on the field, and now we have them performing as members of the glee club in the middle of their own huge game? Kind-hearted as she is, there is no way Coach Bieste would agree to have her team concern themselves with learning new dance routines instead of practicing plays (or whatever they do in football – again, I’m no expert). It’s also beyond frustrating to have Karofsky jump in and participate in the performance and then reassert his bigotry to Finn. Did others enjoy this more than me?