glee: Britney and Cheesus

So all my glee-lovin’ friendys are going to yell at me, but the Britney Spears episode? Sucked.

Yep, I said it.

Now hear me out.

I love Brittany. She has long been one of my favorite characters and has been long-overdue for her own episode. And the girl can DANCE. So pairing her up with Britney Spears made perfect sense. She KILLED the first dream sequence.

Except then the producers took a good thing and essentially repeated it until it was boring and redundant. Too many exactly-recreated videos, too many dream sequences. Waaaaaaay too many times the words “Britney Spears” were uttered. In the same vein as the Madonna episode of last season (although that was much, much better), this whole episode just felt like a Britney infomercial. They put all plotlines on hold to basically kiss Britney’s ass. Madonna is still relevant because she kind of always will, even when she's not. (Plus it allowed for that amazing rendition of "Like a Virgin.") But Britney Spears just isn't. Do high schoolers really care about her anymore? She was my generation's Madonna, but everyone I know is kind of over it/her.

But my biggest issue with this episode as a whole is the my issue with the show as a whole sometimes – it can be horribly inconsistent.

Take Sue for example. Sue is hilarious and fabulous and the show could probably survive on nothing but her cynical one-liners. But she is still a character and I still want her to exhibit some character consistency. During the Madonna episode Sue preached the need for women to be sexually free and whatnot, but then Britney Spears (who is essentially Madonna 2.0) shows up and Sue is super concerned with the chasteness of teens?

I’m not even going to touch that sex riot.

Moving on….

This week: Glee does religion!

So I was all prepared to commend the show for giving both sides of the religion debate equal footing. Until I read my Tom and Lorenzo’s take on it. And they swayed me (I’m so easy) that the message was kind of ruined in the end when both Kurt and Sue seemed to embrace at least the possibility of religion.

BUT I still appreciate that the show’s writers presented two valid arguments for atheism. Being gay and watching society reject your sister/hero are completely legitimate reasons for a person to not believe in God. Kurt’s speech on God making him gay and then having his followers tell him its sinful was super emotional and perfectly illustrated what I think is one of the major problems with modern religion.

And I still liked the line about Rachel, Mercedes and Quinn all being from different denominations, so one of them were bound to be right.

And I still cried like a baby when Kurt’s dad’s finger moved.

All in all, this episode was SO. MUCH. BETTER. than all that Britney nonsense. Kurt’s relationship with his dad is one of the best ones on the whole show, the songs were more good than bad and we got some real characterization. Last thoughts:

The GOOD:
- Puck really doesn’t get to sing enough. He and Billy Joel are a match made in heaven.
- Who is that kid playing young Kurt? Because he looks EXACTLY like him. And the scene where lil Kurt is teaching Papa Hummel about sushi? Adorbz.
- Mercedes plus full choir. Love.
- "I'm very impressed by everyone's Sunday best. Very Christ chic.” Also Kurt’s hat.
- As usual, everything Brittany says.

The BAD:
- Oh Rachel. Rachelrachelrachel. Girl’s got a bangin’ voice, but that song was just weird. And somewhat creepy.

The UGLY:
- Finn… shouldn’t sing that song.