Saturday, November 10, 2012

Glee - The Role You Were Born to Play


Glee returns from hiatus with the students at McKinley High, including a few return graduates, preparing for the school's production of Grease. To help get Finn (Cory Monteith) out of his current funk stuck working in Burt's (Mike O'Malley) tire shop Artie (Kevin McHale) invites his friend to co-direct the musical with him. Artie also enlists the help of McKinley alums Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.) and Mercedes (Amber Riley) to help with the musical by offering their services as choreographer and vocal coach for the play.

The list of potential Sandys is long, including both Marley(Melissa Benoist) and Kitty (Becca Tobin), but with the heartbroken Blaine (Darren Criss) unwilling to perform and Sam (Chord Overstreet) dead set on playing Kenickie, Finn has to get creative to find the production its leading man including struggling football hot dog Ryder Lynn (Blake Jenner). And despite Sue's (Jane Lynch) stringent objections Wade (Alex Newell) has his heart set on the role of Rizzo.


Mr. Shue (Matthew Morrison) and Emma's (Jayma Mays) ongoing debate on whether she will go with him to Washington finally comes to the suspected conclusion as, despite initially agreeing to go, Emma convinces Will her place is in Lima. And, introducing a way to keep Finn around for multiple episodes post-musical, Mr. Shue handpicks the New Generation's sponsor in his absence. Again, with the exception of Artie who is given a little more to do directing the musical, the series' supporting players over the past few years are pushed to the sidelines again in favor of its new and returning stars. Here's hoping we see a little more Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz, who the show's writers seem determined to find ways to write her out of episodes) and a lot less Kitty (or as I like to call her, Bland Quinn-Lite) in the weeks to come.

This week's musical numbers include Blaine's performance of "Hopelessly Devoted to You" while bemoaning the state of his relationship with Kurt (Chris Colfer), Wade and Marley perform a duet of Pink's "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)," Finn and Ryder sing Foreigner's "Juke Box Hero," Kitty and Jake (Jacob Artist) perform a duet of Neon Trees' "Everybody Talks," and, in the episode's final musical performance to determine the leads in the musical, "Born to Hand Jive" is performed by Marley, Kitty, Ryder, Jake, Mike Chang, and Mercedes.

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