Glee: The Complete Second Season

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1. Label

   December 9, 2011 at 9:31 pm

   103 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Not quite on par with Season 1 yet, December 2, 2010

   By 

   Label (Indianapolis) –

   This review is from: Glee: The Complete Second Season (DVD)

   Glee Season 2 started off with a great self-effacing recap that I thought bode very well for the season. The writers had clearly listened to some of the feedback on the web and from critics and anytime you become self-aware about your work, it stands to reason it will get better. This has turned out to be somewhat true for Glee in it’s sophomore season but there are definitely a few problems that have developed that have given me a reason for concern. However, first the good:

   The Positive:
   + Coach Beiste is a welcome addition and is a better fit than Tanaka. More opportunities there.
   + Chord Overstreet as Sam is also a nice addition and replaces Matt in the group.
   + Naya and Heather being promoted was a good call. Both bring some great things to the table and add to the diversity in the group. In the same light, Harry Shum also getting promoted was a good call.
   + The Rocky Horror tribute was well handled
   + John Stamos fit in with the cast and this show like a glove.
   + Gwyneth did an pretty nice job as well.
   + Nice balance of music/story/comedy in most episodes.
   + Also loved Charice’s guest spot. Very talented and fit nicely with the cast.
   + Darrin Criss is awesome and a very likable character. Also love the warblers. Not a Katy Perry fan but I did like their version of Teenage Dream a lot.
   + Corey sounds alot better this year so far.

   The Negatives:
   + The Britney episode was very clumsy. It was a fine idea and I don’t have a problem recognizing her impact on music, but the way it was executed just seemed forced.
   + Parts of the the Wedding episode were also very clumsy. Sue marrying herself didn’t work. It was absurd and should have stayed in the writers head. Waste of a perfectly good Carol Burnett guest star. (I did enjoy their duet together)
   + Way too much focus on Kurt to the exclusion of other characters. I do like some of what they’ve done with his character this year. I always thought it was unfair that Finn took all the blame for the situation down in Kurt’s basement when Kurt was equally to blame and to the writers credit, they covered that. I also liked the “picked on” angle where Kirk is getting singled out by an in-the-closet guy even if the “tough guy turns out to be gay” was not much of a surprise. Obviously kids get picked on for many reasons at school and how painful that is makes for great TV. (Though I wish they’d make the point that more than just gay kids get picked on.) However, there is so much focus on Kurt – and sometimes inappropriately so like the over the top wedding episode – that the other characters suffer because of it. Clearly, Chris is a very talented actor and singer. I enjoy his presence on the show and think it works great. However, I wish it didn’t have to be at the cost of all the other characters because right now I’d love to see some Puck, Quinn, Sam, Rachel, Will/Emma or even some Santana or Mercedes story lines.
   + Not nearly enough Will and Emma (especially the Emma part)
   + Lea’s character isn’t getting a whole lot of opportunity to sing much this year which is a shame given how talented she is. Yes, I know she got lots of chances in Season 1, but we’ve almost swung too far the other way this season.

   Perhaps things will balance out over the remainder of the season and the characters that are being left in the background will get their chance for a storyline as well, but right now it feels like far too much focus in being placed on a select few and some of what made the show so strong in Season 1 is being overlooked as the show tries to tweak it’s formula.

   Overall I still really enjoy the show and will continue to watch and hopefully as Season 2 unfolds a better balance will be struck and we’ll get back to the show we all loved in Season 1.

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2. Phoenix Child

   December 9, 2011 at 8:39 pm

   145 of 172 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”…For Better or Worse., May 31, 2011

   By 

   Phoenix Child (USA) –
     

   This review is from: Glee: The Complete Second Season (DVD)

   There’s been quite a bit of truly justified criticism of “Glee”‘s second season. I myself had to force myself to wait a few weeks after the airing of the “New York” finale to actually try to write a coherent review on this sophomore season. Bearing that in mind, let’s take the route of this season’s first episode and recap what was the first season of “Glee”:

   “Glee” tells the story of a tiny, bullied glee club (a show choir where the participants sing and dance to either pop or showtunes or both without actually performing a musical) and how both the power of music and a kind mentor who believes in them helps twelve misfits forge a family and strive to share how special they are with the world, no matter how much is stacked against them. Although it sounds like a strangely cheesy premise and an unlikely TV show, “Glee”‘s madcap formula, amazing music performances, terrific acting, intriguing characters, and potently quotable one-line zingers launched it into the stratosphere and it quickly became an international sensation and success. Within these plot lines, “Glee” tackled the sensitive issue of teen pregnancy (and how religion can impact that issue) wonderfully, along with showcasing the struggles of teenagers with body issues, the confusing adolescent world of sexuality, popularity, friendship, family, loyalty, bullying and peer pressure. Although there were a few misses in the first season, overall the season itself was one of the brightest and freshest new shows around, and it won several awards for it as well.

   There’s the rub, however: “Glee” is handled by three showrunners (Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan), all of whom apparently decided that they could do no wrong. They flatly refused to bring in other writers or directors for season two, and since they were still selling massive amounts of music from the show and getting millions of views from their devoted audience of “gleeks”, every single thing that was wrong about season one got blown out of proportion in season two, while everything that was right fairly faded to the background. The result? Season two of “Glee” started off strongly but by the second half meandered into sloppily handled plotlines that were often began and concluded in the space of one episode, characters acting severely out of character just for the sake of an episode’s “theme”, “theme of the week” episodes that were no longer touching or interesting but instead cheesy PSA-type episodes, bloated importance of guest stars, and a season finale that failed in every way that season one’s finale succeeded.

   Where on earth did “Glee” go so wrong? Season two’s worst mistake was the characters acting out of character as “Glee” committed the worst mistake that any sophomore effort of a creative work, be it a film, television show or novel, can make: it completely erased any and all character development from the first season and started the characters off fresh. Rachel Berry, the club’s star, who learnt the mistakes of her selfishness and made friends and learned how to lead a team in season one? Back to being a self-centered and often downright mean diva who stepped on each of her teammates to get what she wanted. Finn Hudson, the loveable popular dummy with a heart of gold who learned how to be a star and effectively lead the glee club and also learned that popularity was meaningless because he liked the glee club losers better than the popular football jerks? Right back to being a selfish, obsessed-with-being popular jerk to all of his friends.

   However, the two characters this affected the worst? Firstly, Mr. Schuester. Mr. Schue was once the teacher everyone wished they could have: he put his students above everything, he pushed them, he motivated them, he guided them to being the best that they could be. Season two saw our once-beloved Schue essentially hitting a midlife crisis, using his glee club as an excuse to try to get closer to his now-unavailable crush Emma Pillsbury the guidance counselor, acting like a spoiled brat, and continually believing himself better than what he was. The second character was, of course, Quinn Fabray. Quinn began as the pretty and mean popular girl who became pregnant and became part of the heart of season one as she made true friends amongst the glee club, learned the value of family, and overcame her own meanness when the club rallied around her during the pregnancy issue. Season two saw absolutely no mention of her being pregnant anywhere ever. She inexplicably broke up with Puck (no explanation was ever given) and rejoined the Cheerios because she suddenly (like Finn) needed to be popular again. Although some of this damage was repaired by her new boyfriend Sam (newcomer Chord Overstreet), that repair was itself destroyed even worse later on. I won’t even mention the destruction of Sue Sylvester, who transformed into a meaningless, cartoonish villain who was rarely even funny by the…

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