REVIEW: Glee, Season 3, ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Saturday Night Glee-ver’

SPOILER ALERT: 'Warning this article describes episodes on the internet which have not yet shown on british television!

As predicted my optimism towards Glee was far too hasty. The following two episodes were so tacky and bad and emotionally unrewarding that even watching them in my room on my own when the house is empty still managed to induce an extreme pang of shame and self-loathing. 

Over the last month or so I revisited the first season and I almost forgot it used to be not terrible. Anyway, here’s what you missed:

Following regionals I was anxiously awaiting the fate of Quinn, who you might remember had a truck plough into her car at full speed. Fortunately our wait was short-lived as she was back in school at the start of the next episode. The other characters seemed too preoccupied stressing about her wheelchair to ponder how she miraculously has no scars, not even a bruise, from a collision that would have certainly been fatal to any normal human being.

For the remainder of the episode the immortal Quinn Fabray developed a bond with the other disabled character. She disappeared from this week’s Saturday Night Glee-ver, so either she was off saving the world or the producers couldn’t accommodate more than one incapacitated character in such a dance-heavy episode.

In another baffling display of incompetence, the writers are phasing out the only redeeming quality in the show by using Sue’s pregnancy as an excuse to make her nicer. I don’t want her to be nice, and I don’t want to like her. Sue Sylvester should be mean, uncompromising, manipulative, and downright sinister. Stop with all this hormonal happiness and bring the old Sue back.

And finally, enter Wade aka Unique – the transsexual performer of rival group Vocal Adrenaline, now coached by Rachel Berry’s former boyfriend Jesse. I’m not entirely sure what my thoughts are on Glee’s representation of transsexuals, but internet forums seem to be reacting very positively, although I imagine most of the comments are from Gleeks. It’ll be interesting to see how they play this out.

The only positive from the last couple of weeks, perhaps even the whole series, is the Sam-Mercedes relationship. This week they finally kissed after Sam posted a video of his now probably girlfriend on YouTube and everyone loved it. Considering how everything else in Glee is resolved after a couple of episodes, it’s nice that this storyline is being given a lot more depth. However, it was merely a nugget of gold in an otherwise turgid show. The novelty is gone, the music lacks relevance or realism, and the glee is so overwhelming it’s infuriating. Now let’s all turn our attention to Smash.