So Glee covering 'The Most Wonderful Day of the Year,' out of all possible arrangements, decided to give Quinn of all people the line 'Don't you know that it's time to come out?'
I deeply want to know your thoughts of Mr 👞 now, I’m admittedly not his biggest fan just because I never particularly cared for many of the adult storylines compared to the kids, but I have complicated feelings about the hate he gets
Ooh, now we're getting into the spicy stuff.
Also hi sudden spate of new followers! Er. Please don't immediately unfollow when this is the first post you see.
So, couple of things to lay the groundwork. One, like a lot of characters on Glee, Schue's development can be... complicated. In S1, he had adult friends, other hobbies, and was in general a more well-adjusted teacher than common opinion. But when S2 came around, and Glee's relevance seemed to hit its peak, the writers decided to give him a full-on midlife crisis where he goes overboard into his worst traits. If this is someone's defining era of Glee, it's worth acknowledging Will gets hit harder than anyone else with the genre shift from S1 to S2. He mostly levels out, early S2 is a bad time for basically every character, but yeah,
The other thing is that, like, 2010s era tumblr fandom is. Not a reliable source of information? I swear there are points where fandom just makes things up, in every fandom from that era I’ve been in.
Content warning: Will Schuester rapping, brief ED mention
Like, let's just begin with the one that always pops up. "Will called a student with an eating disorder selfish for not wearing a bikini." My guess is that this came about from people that watched youtube videos of songs rather than, like, the actual episode? this was S5, Katy or a Gaga, and even if we take the position that Marley's ED hasn't vanished into the black hole of Glee canon, this was the episode where the assignment was for the NDs to go outside of their comfort zone - not in terms of modesty, but in terms of fashion. Marley's brief was 'Wear a Gaga style costume.' Going by how the other characters acted in the episode and the rest of the series, there is no indication Will has any actual control over what they pick in weekly assignments, and there are plenty of Gaga costumes that cover more skin. Marley, for episode-drama related reasons, opted to go out dressed in cheery Katy Perry fashion, and was condemned for not only not doing the assignment, but for actively missing the point. Every indication is that whatever Gaga costume she'd have worn, was her choice, and the condemnation was for missing the assignment.
if you want to headcanon ED-related body image issues, I'm with you, the ED arc could have been handled so much better so trying to mind more from it is a good thing. But treating this take as fandom gospel as frequently as I seem to see it, is... weird.
So with the caveat that there is inconsistent writing, and not every criticism is necessarily justified, let's dig in.
The Cool Teacher
One of the biggest traps of teen media feels like it's middle-aged writers trying to write someone kids will feel is a Cool Teacher. There's always this need to include an adult character who's perceived as likeable and cool, and so often it fails miserably. Will is, in S1, Glee's attempt.
The thing about Will is that he's kinda pathetic. He's a dork in sweatervests that is perfectly content making a fool out of himself if he thinks the kids will enjoy class. Will is perfectly content with being laughed at. The idea is that he's so earnest, that it's supposed to come off as charming, because he acts with no significant expectation of seeming cool or hip. (It's also a neat counterpoint to the status and image obsession of some of the kids, which I will be getting back to).
Almost no media gets it right, because the simple fact is if you're a teenager, you're kinda hardwired to just cringe. But this is when we get to the much-maligned rapping. Middle-aged white guys rap to try and seem cool, Will isn't the first and nor will he be the last. There's a kind of fun lack of self-consciousness to Will's performances though - he's self-aware, it feels, with a level of consciousness that it is physically painful to watch sometimes, but he's having a good time and the kids are apparently vibing, that he doesn't care that he's embarrassing himself. he does it precisely to get that reaction from the kids. Will is the person who would consciously misuse slang to make the younger generation wince and honestly I’m entering the era where that’s me so, I support him.
Should Will rap? Well, no, but there is a reason why he does. If you want to compare the raps to any musical number on the show, go for Run Joey Run - they aren't remotely played straight, they're meant to be a little awkward. But just as a lot of people wanted straightforward musical numbers and disliked the comedy-focus of Run Joey Run, too many people seem to treat Will's raps as things intended as 'cool' performances, and not the dripping in self-aware lameness that they really are.
But if, in S1, the idea of Will was that he's so uncool that it loops around, what about later?
Holly Holliday enters by taking a prank the kids intended to pull on her as an entrance opportunity, turning it on its head, sliding dramatically into the room, and promptly singing Forget You. Can we all agree that this is objectively an embarrassing entrance? But she's played straight, and this for me is when we really see the shift in Glee's priority. Will was the guy who'd knowingly get pranked for the heck of it, the embarrassing dad of the show. Holly is 2Kewl4Skool in a way that makes her as bad of a teacher as Will, but the show is now more willing to say that's enough. Like, I like Holly, but the shift in focus is startling.
Ditto, from the same episode, "I think I've found a Journey song we haven't done yet!" Joking flashbacks present Will as a Journey superfan trying to get the kids to sing their whole catalogue. In S1, Journey was Finn's thing, and Will learned to let the kids pick their favourite songs right from the second episode, if imperfectly.
It gets tricky to talk about Will because there are several iterations of him. He's always uncool, usually ultimately sincere, and does put the kids first (eg, skipping the S1 sectionals, where attending was his dream, so that they could go) but the way this is perceived varies. When the show was reinventing itself in S2, it picked up a cynical streak, likely from trying to replicate the popularity of Sue. This however ended up reframing Will's sincerity as more of a negative. We see him having a midlife crisis, when before his more extreme antics were a result of competition pressure. It's definitely the stretch where I most dislike Will.
All that to say, Will is supposed to be admired and liked by the kids for being sincere, even when he's making a fool out of himself. There are points where the show acknowledges his unpopularity, but ultimately that's the core of Will.
The Meta
Glee likes its fourth wall bending humour. That can make fan reaction and analysis awkward, though. When Sue calls out Will for staging an elaborate costume-heavy performance for just his benefit, do we take this as literal truth, or do we file it away with Brittany thinking she's doing a voice over?
There's a lot of stuff that's open-ended like this, and it goes beyond jokes. Say, Will having former students be significant figures at his wedding - do we take this as inappropriate boundaries, or as "Well the show would suck if random guest stars were Will's best friends?" Does Will have no adult friends, or did they get cut from the show after S1? For fictional characters, what is the difference?
Is the fact Will is so close to all the kids inappropriate, or just the inevitable end result of having a show set at a high school with a teacher as an actual character? It's hard to judge, honestly. Ditto, does he do too little to stop the bullying, is it beyond his ability to effectively tackle, are his hands tied by Figgins, or would the show simply not function if a teacher swept in and prevented the slushies that became so much a part of the show's identity and advertising?
So, yeah, untangling gets complicated, and as it is Glee typically offers you a lot of ways to engage with it. For me, while I can see how meta jokes and lines that serve to highlight fandom complaints can feel like confirming them in-universe, I tend to just treat them as jokes and acknowledgements rather than reflective of actual character detail. Glee continuity can be weird enough as it is without incorporating fourth wall breaks, especially when those fourth wall breaks contradict otherwise established details.
The Parallels
And to finish it up: the adults on Glee, in my opinion, can't easily be separated from the kids. One of the things that I genuinely find interesting about Will, is the fact that so many of his conflicts overlap with the kids.
So, a character who peaked in high school, who ended up with their high school sweetheart, like Quinn plans on being... that's Will. Finn leaving a long term relationship and trying to figure out who he is to even try to be with Rachel, the exact same advice Will gets after leaving Terri. S1 paralleled both the love quadrilaterals. Glee's take on the coming of age story is looking at how the same sorts of stories affect adults and kids differently, and Will and other adults in paralleled positions is part of that. (I rambled Shelby way for more in that vein)
Which, honestly that's a huge part of the show fo rme -it happens with way more than just Will - but I kinda want to ping it because, inevitably, watching Glee as an adult means a lot of his drama is inherently more relatable. The thing the show keeps saying, that high school is hell while you're in high school but a month after you graduate you won't give a damn about who dated who, is true, but for any teenager hearing that, it comes off as dismissive even if there is more nuance to the way Glee presents it.
Take the aforementioned fact that Will is so fundamentally uncool, and contrast that with all the Glee characters who worry about climbing the social ladder. 'Loser Like Me' doesn't just refer to the kids. (If we skip forwards to S6, Rachel's lowest point at the start is basically becoming Mr Schue. That feels intentional. She does the same thing, sharing artists she likes and the kids might not know, teaching values, etc).
Glee is built on the fact that who you are in high school doesn't define who you'll always be. Every character goes on that same arc - as does Will, who maybe shows it the most by reinventing himself decades on. Will isn't perfect, but what makes me interested in him is that he acknowledges that. You can list a myriad of times he messes up, I've no doubt, and I'm also sure that the vast majority of those times he freely admits that he was in the wrong. Honestly someone like Will, who can be an idiot, but has no shame about saying he was wrong and actually trying to improve, to me that's a good thing.
I freely admit I can be a hypocrite on this front - there are characters that claim improvement and such, but in the end I feel like they haven't changed. Will, to me, usually feels like his heart is in the right place, by contrast. This can partly be his actions, and partly be his willingness to actually face consequences for his decisions. By contrast, too much of the time with other characters, flaws feel unacknowledged, or the responses feel incomplete. This might be subjective, but for me this usually isn't the case with Will. The show is built around the fact he can be the butt of the joke, and it's not afraid to criticise him as a result. The reason he gets celebrated when he does, is precisely because he's willing to model development.
In which I vaguely try to be concise
Will is a mixed bag. Some iterations of him are terrible, others are better. That's the same as any Glee character, it just depends which you pay attention the most, and which you see as more reflective. Is Rachel the person that sends a student to a crackhouse, or the person who gives the solo to Mercedes? Is Brittany the supportive girlfriend who helps Santana be comfortable with herself, or the dumbass who posts a sex tape online? Is Kurt the person who pushes Finn to tell Quinn's family she's pregnant, or the one who tries to welcome Sam without making him uncomfortable?
By the same token, is Will the person who sacrifices his chance to go to Sectionals, tries to uplift students that seem to have a bad plan or limited confidence, and who prioritises teaching acceptance over winning? Or is he the person that convinces teenagers to star in Rocky Horror as part of a convulated scheme to break Emma up with her boyfriend, who performs La Cucaracha in a poncho and sombrero as a Spanish teacher, or dedicates a week to twerking?
No one's ever just the one thing. But, for me, the fundamentally sincere guy who in general doesn't care about appearances, and who is so unashamedly uncool, and who does, ultimately, care a great deal about the kids, that's a character I like. I can look past the dodgy stuff that is so ubiquitous on Glee because it feels like it defines him less, and I like his storylines because 'adult re-evaluates his life path' is not an unsympathetic one, and plays so well off the kids who feel like they're trapped in one way of life.
Because, at the end of the day, if a Spanish teacher in a dodgy relationship and a fake pregnancy can, over five years, end up running an arts school with a loving relationship and an actual child... Surely that says a lot about the prospects of all the kids too?
So Glee covering 'The Most Wonderful Day of the Year,' out of all possible arrangements, decided to give Quinn of all people the line 'Don't you know that it's time to come out?'
Sectionals, Regionals and Nationals, all members. My personal taste only. This is going to cover song choice, performance, and general build-up and context. Worst to best.
Also I ramble about why I like or dislike each. Because hi, if you’re new here, I ramble.
S4 Sectionals
- Gangnam Style -
Ahahaha. No.
Like, can we all just agree Glee should never do contemporary meme songs? (Especially when they never do Never Gonna Give You Up, like, that is the meme song and we were robbed of Santana going to the front of the class saying she wanted to perform, only to rickroll everyone. Thank you. Yes that's unrelated I just don't want to talk about this song)
This should not have been one of Tina's biggest in-universe performances, for all kinds of reasons. Full props to Jenna for learning the whole song phonetically and performing it well, but. No this should never have happened.
And then, what really earns this a place at the bottom, is the fall-out. Marley faints on stage because of her ED. Honestly, the first time I saw that, I was interested - EDs can be horrifying, and having it take a real toll on a lead character felt like a worthwhile storyline to do. It had felt like the show was being a bit flippant with the topic, but having it build to the New Rachel pass out mid-performance, with genuinely disturbing foreshadowing, and the New Directions losing sectionals for the first time as a result? That feels like it's going to good Glee-dramedy directions.
Spoilers: it does not. NDs are back in the competition with minimal hassle, Marley's ED is cured via magic, and it's never brought up again. It didn't matter. So with a poorly handled Glee storyline on one hand, and Tina's character again being reduced to Asian on the other, yeah this is. Not a good one.
S5 Nationals
- More Than A Feeling - America - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For -
Okay there's a lot about this episode that bugs me and I am going to take the opportunity to vent. This is when the S4 newbies were shoved to the sidelines, and the S1-3 characters still in the NDs took centre-stage for a last hurrah. It's also framed as a memorial to Finn, singing his favourite songs as a goodbye. Okay, screwing over the S4 cast rather than trying to make them better (which, after all, is the Glee staple - it's not like the OGs were everything they're known for after just one season, for the most part) that's a bad look for Glee, but given the show's switching gears to NY soon, fair enough I guess. They go out with a whimper rather than a last hurrah, which is dumb, but whatever. This is the last remains of the OG Glee Club putting on a memorial to Finn.
And they lose. They don't even lose to Vocal Adrenaline, but to some randoms that never appear again. (And it's not even like VA are written out, they get mentioned in the next couple of episodes when Will's convinced to coach them). It's one of the most baffling decisions Glee ever makes. The New Directions losing, that's not inherently bad - it was where Glee began - but having the goodbye to the S4 cast and the last big performance in the spotlight for the characters that played second-string, their promised chance to showcase themselves, that gets no meaningful follow-up...
Yeah, no.
And even if we ignore all of that... these aren't good performances? Which is no slight on the singing, for the most part. Most of the best blocks in the show use solos, little things to help distinguish each number and add a sense of pacing to the performance - none of that's here. Instead, the songs just kind of blur together, not helped by the show's insistence on having Blaine, Tina, Artie and Sam all share spotlight-duty.
One of the points I'm going to get into ranking my faves, is variation. Especially in S3, we got a Troubletones performance, a group performance, and then something that was much more of a solo. All that to be said, the songs were given a lot more to make them distinct. These, however, are all full-cast New Directions performances.
Give Tina a solo, give Blaine and Sam some poppy song with dance back-up, have Artie lead the third. Do something to give each song some sense of identity, and have some better pacing. And have them win. For something that seems like it's trying to showcase the characters, it completely fails to play to their strengths. As it is, this is at the bottom of all the full performance sets for good reason. It's just bland.
A last, storyline note - one of the things that does bug me with this episode is how much the NDs are focused on winning. Like, before they explicitly played up competition as friendly, rooting on their rivals. They completely lose that here, and it goes unremarked on. There was a time I thought they'd win the competition and the the NDs would dissolve because it had stopped being fun, but nope, it's just. There.
S2 Nationals
- Pretending - Light Up The World -
The one word I can think of to describe this performance, and frankly most of this episode, is 'pointless.' One of the flaws of S2 was that the singing competition often felt like a formality, rather than the big deal it was in S1. Gearing the whole finale around something that didn't seem to matter anymore, especially when it ultimately just ends on a repeat of S1's loss, feels ultimately meaningless. It doesn't actively aggravate me the way the above two sets do, it just bores me.
The songs aren't bad, but I am grading on a curve when it comes to competition performances - these feel like typical Glee songs, while I expect the competitions to stand out more.
If I'm judging a competition, part of the metric is how significant it feels. Here, it feels like something that happens because they couldn't get away with not showing it. The episode feels much more like it's about being in New York, than it does the Nationals performance. This isn't something built up to, this isn't a resolution, it's just something that happens.
Like, I could be picky and criticise them coming to New York without their songs written, but that's just Glee. The bigger issue for me is that it's what the build-up is replaced with. It also doesn't help that this is the second competition to be centred on original songs, so it lacks that unique flourish, and as far as a realisation goes, it feels ultimately inferior, to me, to its predecessor. While before, the contents of the songs were built up to as continuations and summations of the show and characters, we very much lack that here.
Ultimately, it feels insignificant - it’s set-up, where its only purpose is to make the next season’s nationals a big deal. In of itself, it lacks impact, in my opinion.
The songs are fine. Pretending is an okay number, a good Finn and Rachel duet and I can imagine shippers loving it, and it has some character potential. Light Up The World though just feels like a fairly generic song, not what an original song ought to be. For my taste, they lack energy, though I can't put my finger on why - it might be that they feel so consistently at more or less the same level of energy and intensity that there's too little contrast to make much stand out.
What we end up with is, ultimately, fine. But for a season finale, fine just isn't good enough.
S4 Regionals
- Hall of Fame - I Love It - All or Nothing -
The S4 cast deserved better. That's getting to be a theme.
This episode has some issues. It's the S4 finale, heralding this storyline continuing into season 5 in a manner that undeniably feels a little overstretched. As a finale, Regionals are going to feel a little unsatisfying after two seasons of Nationals in a row. On top of that, the episode feels regeared at the last minute to serve as a goodbye to Heather Morris as Brittany.
So it has issues going in. Acknowledging that it was in a bad place, though, doesn't make the problems go away.
Marley has a fantastic voice, along with decent range. Jake is one of the best all-rounders the show's ever had, holding his own in both song and dance. And on top of that, season 4 genuinely, in my opinion, has some of the best choreography across the whole show - that's whether we're talking Jake's dance numbers, or something like Heartbreaker that turns into a full-on music video. Which brings us back to the comparison problem - these songs are fine, but a lot of the performances across the rest of the season took a step up, taking full advantage of New York for staging, so the competitions either needed to do the same, or they suffer.
So they suffer. I think if it were in any other season, this would maybe be ranked higher, but surrounded by the general quality of S4 staging and choreography, the competition ends up less impressive than Jake having a solo in the classroom. It’s a similar issue to S2′s Nationals ultimately seeming like a downgrade from that season’s regionals.
Hall of Fame is a decent opener, a good atmosphere-builder, but I Love It suffers in my opinion - it's a song that's perpetually at the same level of intensity, so for a competition performance it feels like it stalls. The highlight honestly is just Sugar just doing her own thing in the background.
All or Nothing is probably my favourite of the set - it showcases two of the strongest voices, but it feels like it's too little too late. This does double for Marley. Ostensibly, Marley feels guilty for them losing sectionals - her ED isn't her fault, but she deserved a triumphant moment to show herself coming out from that. The fact said triumph is a duet is fine, mitigates it a little, but it could still be solid. The number just ends up feeling too understated for its own good.
Some of this likely is the episode's problems - I can imagine it was more Marley-focused before they needed to write in Britt's departure - but it still hurts the story.
It's not uncommon for the big performances to cut away from the stage to show reactions of Will/a teacher, and sometimes parents or characters in the audience, people having some actual reaction to what happens on stage. This mostly lacks that. It robs the performance of context that would elevate it to more than, well, ordinary songs.
They're good songs, and good performances, but if I'm ranking these as competition performances, it has to end up lower.
But this is the last of the performances that are more milquetoast to me.
S3 Sectionals
- Survivor/I Will Survive -
- ABC - Control - Man in the Mirror -
Yes I'm including the Troubletones fight me. (And honestly, yeah, for this particular ND set, the Troubletones should have won so they are giving this a little boost).
It's a fun set-up. The NDs have a new set of rivals, as opposed to just the Warblers, led by Mercedes and Santana and Britt (and Sugar Motta just. Making facial expressions in the background). And then Rachel's suspended for the duration of the competition, so the New Directions lack all of their tried and tested powerhouses. It's something of a redo of the S2 sectionals (spoilers for later), but it's a good way to showcase the whole crew.
Tina carries ABC, with decent choreography from Mike (We've seen him do fancier, but for a team number, it's good). Control belongs to Artie and Quinn doing the dialogue. And then Finn, Artie, Blaine, Puck and Sam bring it home. There's none of the usual stage-filling ballads that were something of a mainstay before this point, and it's a more low-key affair made by harmonies and timing and it's cosy more than powerful, but it helps exemplify the strength of the team.
Also best costumes the New Directions ever get thank you.
And then on the other side are the Troubletones. I've seen some people rank it as one of the best performances on the show, and while I wouldn't go that far, the transition from one song to the other is absolutely a spectacular moment that would be up there. For me, the choreography feels a little hectic at points, but there is still a lot of recommend it.
Anchoring more is the context of the episode. We have the fantastic idea of all three show choirs being, to one degree or another, known - something Glee really does too little. Harmony begins with Buenos Aires, and then we go to the New Directions and Troubletones with their built-up rivalry.
And then there are smaller ongoing story beats - Quinn's dynamic with Shelby comes to a head this episode, and the opening of 'Control' comes with perfect subtext, and it's something of a showcase for Mike in an admittedly very cliche plot. Still, it delivers on actual character for someone that was usually just a minor background character.
These aren't my favourite performances, certainly, but it's a damn good set.
S2 Sectionals
- I've Had The Time Of My Life - Valerie -
This is where we really start to get to the good ones, for me.
So let's talk skill. I've seen too many takes that seem to view singing talent as some number from 0 to 10, someone being either good or bad, and I don't think that's true. Every genre of music takes a different skillset. You take someone like Finn - he inhabits old school rock songs, the She's Not Theres, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights (spoiler for later), while he's not as adept at some other genres. That happens, there's a reason singers are often known by genre.
Rachel Berry is the best singer on the show. That's not because she's always the best pick for a song - Mercedes will give her a run for her money and often oust her on some - but because she's pretty damn good at almost anything she's given. Over the show's run, she goes from Barracuda to Celine Dion. What makes Rachel stand out is as much versatility as voice.
So then we get Sectionals where Rachel doesn't lead, and rather we get Quinn and Sam in a soft, mellower melody, followed up by Santana in an upbeat dance number. And rather than be a set that plays up Rachel's absence, it perfectly depicts the strengths of the rest of the team. Quinn's voice is perfect for the number she has, and her dynamic with Sam is remarkably sweet, and then Santana follows it up with her first real time in the spotlight and her sheer stage presence is impressive, especially alongside Mike and Britt's energetic performance.
One of the criticisms I had for songs lower down the list is that they don't feel like events. They felt obligatory, with little time spent making the competitions feel like they matter. S1 handled it the best, with the competitions being at the core of Will's arc, and Will being more central on the show - when the kids took over, and their drama obviously mattered more to them, competitions could begin to feel secondary.
This episode might not totally fix that, but it does significantly more in making the event have a point - it shows that everyone in the New Directions has value, and gives the character reactions of the rest in the lead-up.
These sectionals existed to showcase the unsung heroes of the New Directions, as it were, and wow did it succeed.
S2 Regionals
- Get It Right - Loser Like Me -
Original songs are a mixed bag. They're not going to be songs where you already know that people love them, and you're only going to have so much time to work on creating lyrics and instrumentation from scratch. On the other side, you get the ability to have them reflect the characters more than another artist's song ever could.
Get It Right is phenomenal. I swear, you get Rachel to stand up and just belt out a ballad, and you've got me. Pair that with the original song making it feel more personal, and it's a gorgeous moment.
Loser Like Me is less my thing - lyrics can be a bit clunky, and the put-on voices are clearly a genre-reference which is just distracting when it's an original song, but it's still a good, upbeat melody to round it out.
Also, this marks the first time the New Directions actually start on the damn stage rather than at the back of the auditorium. I swear, it took them four tries, but they finally managed it.
As alluded to before, original songs come with a lot of potential. In this case, the show delivers - Get It Right feels like Rachel pouring her heart out, and Loser Like Me is something on an encapsulation of one of the show's themes, building on from an ongoing dynamic.
Plus the Warblers. Taking the time to build up a rival group was something S1 did with Vocal Adrenaline, to a limited degree, and it's surprising that it isn't done more frequently. Having Kurt on the rival team, too, makes for a good dynamic - it's the same thing I praised the Troubletones for. Everyone involved is a quality singer, and by the internal logic of the show there are competition winners on all sides.
Bonus points for the only proper use of props the New Directions do.
S1 Regionals
- Faithfully - Any Way You Want It / Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' - Don't Stop Believin' -
Yeah. All about the build-up.
Journey were part of the show since the first episode, and Don't Stop Believing closed out the pilot. It might be something of a cliche, but it is a good song, and never underestimate the strength of a good callback. The songs were all selected for a reason, bringing the show full circle in a way that never really happens again, and realistically never could.
Faithfully is a slower, powerful build. Finn and Rachel enter, sing a number that fills the auditorium with just their two voices. Then, midway through, the curtain raises and all the New Directions suddenly join the number in a glorious moment. Then, from slow and powerful, it transitions to an energetic, upbeat mash-up so quickly it's almost dizzying. And then, rather than cutting away as S1 did, or ignoring it as S2 did, for the first time we see the full set of three as it rounds it out with DSB, the pilot callback.
They're good songs. They go well together, and were arranged wonderfully. The only real criticism I can give is that it's still very much the Rachel and Finn show - though that's more forgivable in season one where most of the cast were less in-focus. Even then, a few get spotlights and moments in the latter two songs.
And, yes, I like just seeing Will (at a competition for the first time) just kinda dancing along off-stage. They're cute cut-aways, and it really sells this as what the series has been working towards.
And then you add Olivia Newton-John and Josh Groban in the audience and?? What the heck is Glee.
This was a spectacular way to close out the season. A deliciously galling loss, a bittersweet kind of closure from Sue, and a medley that makes it clear that if Glee had ended here, it would have gone out on a high.
Also, Quinn was minutes away from giving birth that whole performance so. I mean. Gotta respect it I guess. I'll be honest, I generally think a lot of the "Will Schuester is a terrible person," stuff can be overplayed by fandom, but. Okay yeah you have a point here WHY IS SHE ON STAGE
S3 Regionals
- Fly/I Believe I Can Fly - Stronger - Here's To Us -
The escalation. Fly is a more mellow number, which kicks into a high energy Stronger, building up to Here's To Us and that moment where Rachel holds the note while the instrumentation cuts out still gives me chills. It's a solid set of songs with a fantastic arrangement. And all of that in the episode On My Way, doing what Glee can do so well - juxtaposing the happy and the sad, using the bad to make the good matter.
Undeniably, this episode begins as one of the most serious in Glee's run, certainly up to this point. And as a counterpoint, we end with a Regionals with the theme of 'inspiration,' going to a dark place and generally handling that plot well, but replying to it with the firm insistence that people are worth it and there's hope.
It's a wonderful thematic conclusion to the episode, using tragedy to uplift.
And if we're going to talk Stronger, we have to talk the Troubletones - I love that sense of the New Directions coming together over the seasons, and having that group-within-a-group is a great way to do that. It makes the episode feel earned, feel like a continuation. The same way as earlier episodes that offer more of a build in order to make the competition feel like a culmination, here we have the Troubletones getting a number from within the New Directions, showing the group willing to showcase all their talent. And we have Sebastian's development, on the side of the rivals, as a result of the events of the episode - the competition becomes a genuine celebration on all sides.
Also Sugar Motta ignores her team when they win and runs over to hug a vampire. Which is adorable.
S1 Sectionals
- Don't Rain On My Parade - You Can't Always Get What You Want - (Somebody To Love) -
And here we are in the top three.
This may partly be fond memories talking, but this is a heck of a first performance. In a lot of ways, this is the episode that really got me into Glee. I liked some characters, some storylines etc before this point, and there had been good songs before this, but this was the episode where I was first genuinely wowed.
And it's got a good build-up. Season 1 of Glee showed each character slowly come to the club, and find their place, and this allows them to all be spotlighted. The episodes begins with Mercedes knocking it out of the park, and Rachel in a bit of character development due to be forgotten about in half a season's time willingly stepping back to let Mercedes sing the ballad. As much as this is the first performance, it's treated as a story in its own right, not just a stepping stone to reach - the last minute hectic planning of the cast figuring out what they want to do, improvising their second number, and off-screen redo of Somebody to Love (the first song they ever sang as a full group), all kicked off by Rachel bursting into the auditorium with her by-now iconic Don't Rain.
Like, we're all agreed that's the perfect song for Rachel right? I swear I was just cackling as soon as I heard the opening notes, just for how well it fits - something the show just goes in to prove again and again with the repeated acknowledgements of Funny Girl and use of similar beats.
It feels like a finale. Which, honestly, was likely intended, it's hard to imagine a musical TV show being a long-runner, so they really pull out all the stops. So we get a pair of triumphant performances, juxtaposed with Will missing the performance because he took the blame for them an episode prior, and say what you will about Will but Matthew Morrison acts the hell out of him just in tears of pride while listening over the phone.
Honestly my only criticism is that it needed Somebody to Love because I'm a sucker for a Queen song.
S6 Nationals
- Take Me To Church - Chandelier - Come Sail Away -
This might be unpopular. Oh well.
One of the strengths of the S6 cast, with how they were much more secondary as characters, was that they got to spend their time singing the genres they were best at - so given a spotlight like this, they nail it in a way few other performances do. And for good measure, there's that thread I keep talking about - how the performance feels like a culmination, from the blazers to the Warblers dancing, to Spencer's injury. The competition matters again.
I didn't expect much, honestly. When the S4+5 competitions were all on the lacklustre side to me, and the S6 kids being more secondary as characters, I figured this would be the same, a season that peters out with a mediocre performance before Glee ends.
Then Roderick walks out with confidence gained over the course of the season, and fills the stage with a ridiculously good voice, and gorgeous use of a translucent curtain for staging. My jaw was on the floor. The harmonies with Jane are downright heavenly. Then, onto Chandelier, we get fantastic choreography making full use of the more experienced Warblers to show off, Myron just kinda doing Myron stuff in the audience, and Madison getting a chance to show off her voice. And to top it off, Spencer who was injured in rehearsals, and likely unable to join in, appears via getting tied to an actual chandelier and swinging in overhead because why the heck not. Glee is a lot of things and subtle is not one of them.
And we finish off with Come Sail Away. It begins quietly, doing the same trick with pacing that so many of my favourite performances do - the first song gets people into it, the second is upbeat and energetic, and here they take a breath to pause - with a wonderful double-act from Mason and Madison - before the song kicks into high gear after the almost reflective moment, and it's just pure celebration. All that paired with Rachel, Kurt and Will in the audience just beaming, and it's easily one of my favourite performances.
If I was going to criticise, Jane deserved a number. She killed Tightrope in her debut and then got little else - technically she only really got one song less than the average for the S6 kids, but hey, she had a great voice and stage presence.
So, let's talk about how the season built to this. My favourites will always be the performances that feel like culminations. S1 could handle this the easiest, though we saw shades of it elsewhere - but like S1, we got more focus on each of the Newest Directions as they joined, saw the show choir be built up piece by piece. And then the Warblers joined up, offering an extra piece to the performance, and bringing more developed choreography with them. Is it cheesy? Yes. Is it fun? Still yes. And just for the heck of it, the New Directions head out with Warbler-inspired blazers in McKinley red, and it's a good look.
I don't always talk that much about costuming, unless it really stands out, but it does here. They bring a splash of colour without resorting to the stock suits and dresses that the more average costumes do.
And speaking of the Warblers, the choreography feels like the elephant in the room. I see a lot of criticism of the dancing of the NDs, which is justified, but also unavoidable for meta reasons - the lead characters sing a heck of a lot of songs. That’s a lot of rehearsal time. The reason their rivals get better performances is because people that are only singing a few songs can rehearse them exclusively, rather than hurrying from one episode to the next. So having more minor characters, with such names as Super Gay Warbler, who can afford to dedicate time to just learning the moves, it really helps play up the feeling that this is the finale, and is one of the best performances the New Directions ever do.
It feels like the whole season built to this point. And then we have Vocal Adrenaline, under Sue, performing Hey Mickey (am genuinely amazed it took Glee so long to get to that song) and firing students out of cannons, and they're really just throwing everything at the wall.
It's pure ridiculous cheesy fun, but backed up by a set of fantastic performances and arrangements. Which, I mean, it's Glee, what more do you want?
S3 Nationals
- Edge of Glory - It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Paradise By The Dashboard Light -
I feel like this is a cliche first place but eh. Cliches exist for a reason.
Just, wow.
So let's talk about the build-up. Graduation is soon, this is the New Directions’ last chance to win, Rachel’s chance of getting into NYADA rides on her performance for Reasons... This is, in many ways, the last hurrah of the original cast. Jesse is back as a rival, coaching Vocal Adrenaline, who are led by Unique who’s already proven herself to be a spectacular performer. We get a little drama, overcome by Sue of all people helping the team.
And it begins. The Troubletones take the stage with the aptly named Edge of Glory, serving both as a Gaga callback and a chance to showcase more members of the group, and you know by now how much I love having that piece of the performance set up. They set the scene, and we get to Rachel belting out Celine Dion like her life depends on it and it’s one of the best vocal performances in the entire show. Whoopi Goldberg shows up. With Rachel feeling a sense of hope, things feel resolved, and it closes out with a triumphant Paradise By The Dashboard Light - a song that suits Finn’s voice, and that the whole New Directions manage to nail. Even with their limited choreography, they do a lot with the contrasts of their costumes to stand out. It just builds and builds and it’s wonderful.
Each song is distinct, each helps build up the larger set, and each one is a fantastic number in its own right. And all of this in an episode that makes it feel like a culmination of everything. They have good rivals, good build-up in the episode proper,and a spectacular performance.
I’ve criticised previous entries for feeling like they leaned on Rachel and Finn too much. I understand it in S1 by the nature of the show at that time. Season 3 in general avoids this, though - the first performance lacks Rachel completely, while the remaining dedicate one song to the Troubletones, showcasing the other performers. While the other two do lean much more on Rachel and Finn, Paradise is enough of a group number, and it feels earned to me by the context of the episode. Plus, all else aside, these are spectacular enough performances for it to be forgivable.
Mind you, I do have to wonder if anyone read the lyrics of Paradise before picking it. It’s either a not-so-subtle bit of foreshadowing for later drama, or accidentally hilarious. (I like Rachel more than a lot of people seem to, but also building to someone singing to her “I’m praying for the end of time to hurry up and arrive, because if I've got to spend another minute with you I don’t think that I can really survive,” is. Um. I mean I get it, but still).
But anyway yes, that’s where I fall. This is admittedly partly down to my music taste, but hey. Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong!
So Glee. S2E22 New York. Nationals. The New Directions take the stage and perform original songs - Pretending and Light Up The World.
They’re expected to perform three songs, and just because we only see two doesn’t mean they didn’t sing all three - going by S1 sectionals, where they said they’d perform Somebody to Love but the episode didn’t show it as they’d performed it in a prevoius episode - which raises an important question.
Which of their original songs do we think they completed their set with?
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
gummygunk
andulkaphoto
romaincrisis
snowghoul
