Welcome to my review of Glee episodes 202 and 203, “Britney/Brittany” and “Grilled Cheesus”.
~PenguinJosh
BRITNEY/BRITTANY
Unlike the considerably well-handled Madonna episode, Britney/Brittany failed to deliver a good ‘themed’ episode. There are numerous things I have issue with.
1. Jacob. This is undoubtedly my biggest issue with this episode. Creepy, inappropriate, unrealistic... lines like “wanky wanky” and screaming “don’t stop!” while thrusting in the Glee club’s performance of Toxic was hugely cringe-worthy and not at all funny. Why the writers thought it clever to include any of the Jacob scenes in this episode is beyond me. The girl behind him screaming “I wanna be that hot” and “Mr Schu I wanna be your Britney” was equally repulsive and unrealistic. Yes, Glee dabbles in the unrealistic and over exaggerates things, but this was awful and humourless.
2. The sex riot. This ties in to the Jacob issues, but it also beyond me how the school would get so enthusiastic about the New Directions performing Toxic, yet undoubtedly the Glee club will still be the most unpopular thing at school in coming episodes. Not to mention the over reaction at the fire alarm going off, Sue’s ridiculous response to the dancing, Jacob getting knocked over and carried out and Sue getting injured is all just ridiculous. Watch the scene again where the crowd surge towards Sue; she starts spinning yet nobody is even close to her.
3. Will. Will’s character was so unbelievable and annoying in this episode; yes, he was trying to be different for Emma, but buying the same car as her current boyfriend? That just screams desperate, and I don’t think Will would be like that. Not to mention him performing in Toxic being highly inappropriate for a school teacher.
4. The incorporation of the songs. I’m not the biggest fan of Britney Spears, but the only way the writers could think of coming up with including the songs is to drug-induce everyone? In the Madonna episode, the songs made sense to the storyline (Like A Virgin for example), yet here they were just thrown in to make it a Britney Spears episode.
Let me forget the large negative list, and focus on some good points; the dancing was impeccable, Brittany was hilarious (“Finn can fly?”) and the songs were a nice homage to the original Britney videos which was a nice touch.
However, at the end of the day, this episode failed to deliver anything exciting and I thought it was the worst episode of Glee to date. That is, until I saw the following episode.
Grilled Cheesus
Perhaps the most depressing episode of Glee ever. Whilst it is good to deal with real life issues like this, in a comedy programme it’s not the thing you most want to see. Let me start by saying I am an atheist. However, I feel the episode struggled with finding a balance between the religious beliefs of people and the atheist beliefs of Kurt (who luckily, despite my dread, did not become a believer in the end of the episode). I have heard religious people say they felt insulted about how the issue was handled in the episode, which I can agree with. As an atheist also, however, I felt the issue of God was too strongly focused on. It is OK for people to have their individual beliefs, but in the episode I felt I was being forced to hear how religion is make-believe, whilst also being forced to hear how religion is wonderful. There was no real balance that I could see and it did not sit right with me. The songs, though well sung, were not at all enjoyable for me to watch; most notably Rachel’s. Puck’s song seemed to come out of nowhere. On the plus side, however, I did enjoy Kurt’s song.
But that’s the only plus side I can see for this episode.
It feels like Glee reached it’s peak in the first half of Season One... the second of that season felt far weaker, however. And now? Glee seems to have hit rock bottom. Can it ever pick itself back up? I hope so. I really do, because I loved Glee. I’m not so sure however.
I want to hear your thoughts about the episodes. So comment away! Or join me in discussing the episode on the forums at http://www.spoilertv.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=162&t=21370
~PenguinJosh
