Glee – The fans win at Regionals

Glee finished its final run on a pretty high note. While the team blew the doors out during their Regionals performance, they didn’t manage to place when the rankings were released. You can blame Sue for that slight, but not exactly in the way that we we all would have expected. The birth of Quinn and Puck’s child fixed one family, and created another. And Sue, once again, proves that she has a heart. Much will be made this summer about New Directions not winning, or even placing at Regionals, but I don’t think that they needed to win this year. The story worked better on levels with the kids — and adults — of Glee Club overcoming the disappointment of losing.

Sue has a heart? Who called it first? (Oh, yeah, yours truly.) You can point to her crying in the back of the house during “To Sir, With Love.” Or you can point to her blackmailing Figgins into giving New Directions another year (“You’re a good teacher Will. And I don’t like you so much, but I admire you, and the work you’re doing with your kids. I really do.”). Or, you can point to my favorite Sue moment, where she was talking about how easy it was to vote the way she did, while we find out in flashback she voted for New Directions. Exterior as hard as diamond, but she’s got a heart of gold.

The juxtaposition of the birth scene with Vocal Adrenaline’s performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” was brilliant (if not corny at a time or two). Much as been said about Dianna Argon’s performance during that scene, and it’s well deserved. Mark Salling deserves a little credit, too. While I think the “let me go” bit may have been over the top, the blocking onstage with Jesse St. James being “birthed” out of the arms of his teammates really worked well.

I am a little concerned, though, that Shelby’s story might be all told. Her adoption of Quinn’s baby seemed like a sendoff for the character. Other than being the competition’s coach next year, I’m not sure we’ll see nearly as much of her, if at all. I certainly hope I’m wrong, though. Idina Menzel is amazing.

Just a quick comment, but this deserves more than a bullet point note. The concept of the “Don’t Stop Believing” re-cover was wasted on the television audience that didn’t get to see the fact that, not only did Puck/Santana get into the action, but Artie/Tina and Kurt/Mercedes did as well (At least I think it was Tina, but not being able to see it on-screen, I’ll never know). I’m not saying that including it wouldn’t have cost something somewhere else, but after having listened to the MP3, it was the moment in the show I was most looking forward to.

All in all, Glee had a pretty solid first season. As with any shows, it had its ups and downs (I’m looking at you, “Funk“), but I think it did a damn good job living up to the hype. I look forward to what they can do next season, with a little bit more experience under their belts.

Notes & Quotes

• “I am having a really difficult time hearing anything you have to say today because your hair looks like a brier patch. I keep expecting racist animated Disney characters to pop up and start singing songs about living on the bayou.” – Sue
• “I’m President of the Celibacy Club, I took a vow.” – Quinn
  “So did Santana and Brittany, and I did them….” – Puck
• “What’s the point Mr. Schue? Coach Sylvester is one of the judges. She’s gonna crush us.” – Artie
  “You don’t know that.” – Mr. Schue
  “Yes we do, she told us at Cherrios practice.” – Santana
  “Yeah, she said, ‘I’m going to crush Glee Club.'” – Brittany
• Hey, who is this redheaded guidance counselor character? Have we seen her before? She looks sort of familiar….
• “Besides, we’ have got something that the other groups don’t.” – Mr. Schue
  “What?” – Artie
  “Finn’s dancing. Right?” – Mr. Schue
• I liked how the in-house blocking for “Faithfully” was a callback to Rachel’s solo at Sectionals.
• Took Quinn’s mother long enough to step up, but getting there in the end was what really matters.
• The running joke about Vocal Adrenaline, all technique and no soul, is actually pretty accurate.
• “You know I partied with Freddie Mercury back in the ’70s, and I partied hard if you know what I mean. Back then, people weren’t so obsessed with labels.” – Rod Remmington
• “Two questions … [To Sue] One, are you single? …” – Josh Groban
• “Heart? Oh please, talk about blatant tokenism, that whole ‘We’re inspiring … We’re a rag tag bunch of misfits’ thing is so 2009.” – Olivia Newton-John
• “Brunettes have no place in show business.” – Olivia Newton-John
• “Thank you all for coming! As you Glee Club is such an important … and I honestly can’t even finish that sentence.” – Sue
• The not at all stupidly-named Aural Intensity?
• Damn, that redheaded character that I barely recognize really went off on Figgins … If I knew who she was, I might be able to say that was way out of character for her!
• “I didn’t have a father. Someone I could look up to, model myself after. Someone who could show me what it really meant to be a man.” – Finn, tugging hard on everyone’s heartstrings
• “I should shake your hand.” – Will
  “Not unless you’ve got some hand sanitizer. I’ve seen that car you drive, I don’t want to catch poor.” – Sue

Clacked by Ivey West
on Jun 09, 2010 @ 10:30 EST5EDT