New Kids on the (Glee) Block

Brody - I know another Glee hunk who made his debut singing in the shower! Hello, Finn 2.0! Brody's a tough act for me.... He comes off a little arrogant in the beginning (The 'yeah, I'm straight' comment), which is distinctly not Finn-like. But then he's all encouraging and sympathetic to Rachel... which is a little weird to me. He's a junior. Who met this freshman in the bathroom one night. And what? She's his protege or something? Why does he care? I'm a fan of his looks, and their chemistry, but not the character... yet.

Unique - I know he/she isn't technically 'new' but happy to have him be a full time member of the club, and, I'm assuming, a regular on Glee. He was my pick to win the first season of The Glee Project anyway. Now... when do we get to see Blake? And how do we get rid of Mr. Dreadlock-Dead-Eyes?

Marley (and mom) - First off - Marley is the new Rachel. She's pretty, dorky, and a helluva good singer. But what stole the show for me was that scene with the lunch lady / her mom. That.broke.my.heart. Ladies and gentleman - it's Kurt's dad + Coach Beiste combined. But is she always going to wear that hat? Because that's going to be an issue. I vote for a Sugar makeover!

Kate Hudson -She's a bitch yes, but we all know she's just doing it to make Rachel stronger. She's obviously not that bad ass considering she was so nice to that TA Benji, has a drinking problem and is eager to prove she's still got it. My question- if you were trying to hide your drinking from students, why make an elaborate blended Malibu drink in the dance room? Come on, Kate!

Jake - He's a good singer, and good looking... I just want him to be more than a furniture-throwing brute. And fast. Also, please tell me we get to have a Noah / Jake meeting?!

Kitty - Believe it or not, by far my favorite addition. TV Guide mentioned that Glee needed to show her soft side soon, or she'd become a villain like last seasons' Sebastian. I'm sorry, what's wrong with a villain? I loved Sebastian. I miss evil Terri and crazy Sue. Kitty is snarky and hilarious. Keep her!

... And where is everyone else?
The big question this season is if Glee can juggle McKinley and the rest of the graduated members sprinkled across the country. In the first episode, the back and forth between Ohio and New York worked fine. Kurt was still back at home, and his numerous and frequent (albeit phony) phone calls with Rachel kept the connection between the two cities relevant.

But what about now that he is in NYC too? And what about when we're flipping to LA or Louisville (or St. Louis) to see our other Glee alums? And what about people like Emma and Beiste that we didn't even see in the first episode?

Between that and all these new characters... I'm worried.

Glee: The First Time

For once, I actually watched Glee the night it was on.... Okay, lie. I watched the second half of it this morning, but whatever.

Just a couple thoughts:
1. Does that count as one of Damien's seven episodes? Because a shout out from Coach Beiste about his accent doesn't seem like much to me...

2. I feel like this episode was too much. You obviously had the BIG storyline about sex - which, can someone please point out that we already had this episode/conversation last season? But then you add in Artie's direction of the musical; Coach Beiste's romance; Finn's football/life drama; the new Warbler liking Blaine.... I just feel like those 'side' stories deserved more time. Maybe even their own episodes. Those were big moments for the characters.... but they were overshadowed by all the 'first time' mumbo jumbo.

3. And sort of playing off that... I wish we had met the new Warbler earlier. Sort of had some build up, more flirtation between the two for Kurt to be jealous of. What's going to happen to him know? Is he still on the show?

4. Kerofsky! So glad to see him back. I really liked that scene. But did we know he transferred? I think I missed that...

5. And on Glee Chat, they asked: Do you believe Blaine and Kurt? Not anymore. I never really saw the passion, the attraction. But then when we see Blaine and the new Warbler... wowza. (A) He's hot, and (B) Blaine knows it.

Glee Premiere: More Sugar Please.

Okay, first of all - I can't wait to hear Hypable's Glee Chat podcast about the premiere. I'm biased because I  have two friends (Megan and John) on it, but whatever. They're awesome. I listened to their first podcast last week and was really impressed. It wasn't just 'yey! We love Glee!' These folks speak the truth. They aren't afraid to be critical of the show when it needs criticizing. Kudos the them.

Now, some of my on thoughts.

On Sam... and Mercedes: Whoever let Chord Overstreet get away from Glee is a dumbass. There I said it. I'm not saying you should have offered him a gazillion dollars to stay. But you should have worked harder to keep him around. The Samcedes revelation at the end of last season was the plot development I was most excited about. And to come back this season with one line about Sam and suddenly she has moved on to some other guy? Seriously? Did you see the googly eyes she made at Sam? Can't she be a little sad he is gone? And who is this new guy? I think this is a perfect example of bad management/casting, and then bad writing/plot development follwing it. What can save this story for me? If Mercedes admits she misses Sam. That she really liked him. And is sad he is gone. That she tries really hard to be the tough girl diva all the tie, but with Sam she was more her sweet Mercedes self. Now, she has a wall up again. And she wants a guy to come along and break it down again. Maybe a cute Irish exchange student? (You're welcome, Ryan. I just wrote the story for you.)

On Zizes quitting glee club (and getting less air time this year): Again, way to go you idiots. Zizes rocks.

On Quinn's new look and attitude: I love it. But judging from the previews for next week, it won't last long.

On Sue's congressional run: Umm who thinks her anti-arts stance sort of makes sense? Her rant on 'Sue C's It' is probably the most logical thing she has ever said on the show. I mean, I love the arts as much as the next gal, but putting tax money into general education instead of show choirs? That just makes sense. And benefits more students. Right?

I know what is going to happen - something crazy will happen to end her run for Congress. You know what I wish would happen? I wish she would win. Get her out of McKinley. Her character has to evolve, change, grow. How awesome would it be for glee club to meet in secret a la Footloose?!

On Santana: Sort of happy to have bad girl Santana back for a bit. I want to see her act all rough and tough but really miss glee club. She can sing 'There Are Worse Things I Could Do' a la Rizzo in Grease. And Brittany can bring her back down to earth, as usual.

On Glee Project's Lindsey: I was surprised to see her so early on. I know John mentioned in the last podcast that it would be tough for viewers to see them as characters after getting to know them on the reality show. Lucky for us, Lindsey's character wasn't too far off her real personality...

On Roxanne Sugar: Love. Love. Love. Can we have her sing more? Can we please have her in the club, Mr. Schu? I'm obsessed. Seriously. Loved her on American Dreams.

Chances are, her and her rich dad will join forces with Sue to take down glee. Predictable.

On last night's song choices: Okay, I loved Darren's number. And I was in Anything Goes in 8th grade, so yeah, that was awesome. And Hairspray is an all time fave. But anyone else surprised they didn't have one top 40 pop song in the episode? I mean.... if you didn't know/like Broadway you wouldn't have liked half the songs they sang. 

On the actual singing: I feel like the songs are getting more and more radio ready and less and less realistic sounding/looking. The Hypable crew commented on this last week (how autotuned they are) and even my Dad thought the lip syncing was terrible. Honestly, maybe that is why I loved Sugar's song so much.... because she was actually singing. 

Confession:

I looked up the results of the Glee Project before I watched it. It is still sitting in my DVR queue. And yes, I'm still going to watch even though I know the ending.

Project: Glee

Are you watching The Glee Project?

I was interested in the least, but started watching at the gym and got hooked. While I'm not blown away by much of the cast (wouldn't say there is a Lea Michele in the bunch....), it's still fun.

There's some potential -
Lindsey, who I think is actually a little bit too Rachel for me. What would she bring to the table?
Damien, Glee could use a foreign exhange student.
Hannah, who is just cool. And she could rap with Artie and Mr. Shuester.
Alex, say what you want about his personality.... he's the only one that seems to have any star power strong enough to fit in in the Glee cast. And he killed it, I mean KILLED it this week when he was in the bottom three. Singing in drag. Dayum boi!


Oh, and people love Samuel and his dreadlocks. I don't. I think he's creepy.