tv: Glee returned last night for its fourth season. After the end of last year, there was a lot of work to do. The third season ended at an emotional apex, with a significant portion of the original cast saying goodbye after graduation, not to return to McKinley High. Santana was seemingly foregoing college to move to New York (although we found out last night she did go to college with her cheerleading scholarship), Mercedes moved to L.A. to pursue a career in pop music, Mike Chang moved to Chicago to join the Joffrey Ballet, Puck moved to L.A. to start a more lucrative pool cleaning business, Finn joined the army, and Rachel moved to New York. With all of these main characters set to leave the show and Kurt's future after graduation uncertain, the shows future was equally uncertain.
Season four picked up with Rachel in New York struggling to deal with her mean as hell dance instructor, played by a bitchy as ever Kate Hudson. Over the course of the episode we find that Rachel is quite lonely. Her roommate is isolating her through her slutiness, and her dance teacher, Hudson's Cassandra July, is making her doubt her ability to succeed. Through this Rachel finds a new friend, Brody, played by Dean Geyer, who helps her realize she is not as alone as she thinks. Given nothing else than Brody's good looks, this seems to be set up as a possible New York post-Finn love interest. But Personally (and I hate saying that, I don't want to be too personal) I think she could just use a friend to help her find her way. And one way or the other they seem to have something good to work with between the two of them in terms of chemistry.
Meanwhile, at McKinley, the glee club is dealing with their new-found popularity and stardom rather poorly. They have fallen in with the "popular" kids after the win at nationals at the end of season three and it doesn't seem to have done them any good. Mean girl Kitty, who unfortunately at first glance seems to have zero character besides the word bitch, an inadequate replacement for season one Quinn, has all but stripped their sweetness by playing on their desire to remain at the top of the popularity food chain. The members of the club who have remained in high school have all but lost all of their sweetness while enjoying their stay at the top, being mean and being ashamed of new outcast types looking to join New Directions. During all of this there are two desperate searches that collide. One is the search for new members and the other is the search for their new star. As the club bickers for the position as the "new Rachel", resulting in a hyserically bad version of Call Me Maybe, auditions reveal that a new member, Marley Rose, played by Melissa Benoist, maybe be the person to fill that role. They use her under privileged upbringing to bring the club back to their roots and getting them out of their mean girl spirit while letting her show her true star power by the end of the episode.
All that plot not withstanding (and maybe because of how much there was), the first episode of season four was choppy at best. There was a lot to cover in a limited amount of time. And that could be the hardest thing for the show to deal with moving forward. The continuing story of Rachel in New York added on to the required, by the show choir rule book, minimum of twelve students and built in faculty members, could be too much to cover. Even in this story coming back, it really took all of that storytelling, not to mention the arrival of Puck's younger half brother, till the final minutes of the episode to register emotionally. This was done largely by settling Kurt's story by moving him to New York to chase his dreams. It gave Rachel the friend and roommate she had been lacking. It resolved the one story line from last year that needed to be finished. And maybe most importantly it allowed a (possibly final) return of Mike O'Malley, as Burt Hummel, to say goodbye to Kurt as he bid his son farewell. All that can be said is that that Burt is the best TV dad, besides coach Taylor, since the Cosby show. It was awesome and moving and so sad and hopeful. With that having been resolved I can only hope that Glee turns its focus back to the club. After all that is where the show's foundation, not to mention title, lie. It will condense the story and the foundation of what we are watching while not splitting loyalties between the old favorites and new characters we need to learn to love.
But it won't be easy. Sure there are about ten built in characters, the returning glee club members and various faculty members. But our new and future stars, namely Marley and Jake (the young Puckerman), did not resonate in their first episode. Jake's story is only beginning, so that has room to grow. Marley on the other hand seems to be the new star of the glee club. And by the end of the episode she brought everyone back to where they needed to be, but it wasn't because of who she is, like the leaders that Rachel and Finn once were, it was because of what she is, the girl who's mom got made fun of with the great voice out to teach a cheesy morality lesson. I can't say it is impossible to learn to care about these characters. But in their introductions, they just didn't resonate like those we have said goodbye to.
I feel like I might be a little harsh coming down on the episode this way. Glee tends to start its seasons with their worse feet forward and only improve from their. They also have this weird thing going where when the club sucks the show seems like it sucks too. Almost a syndrome of their ability to make what they write come true. If being a part of something special made them special, the show sucks when they aren't speical. The show, and the club, have a lot of work to do to get themselves back to where they once were. But as long as they stick to their formula of some funny mixed with some drama and their star belting ballads at the end of the episode, they might be ok. The jury is definitely out on the post-original cast era. I guess they will just keep on chasing pavement.
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