photo: fox
Britney 2.0
Original Air Date: Sep 20, 2012
Alyssa – Associate Staff Writer
alyssa@thetwocentscorp.com
There is something symbolic about painting over a name on a brick wall, and recreating the downward spiral of a famous celebrity. There is also something entirely predictable about a Glee tribute episode. Usually it devolves into a self-indulgent escapade where RIB attempt to cram as many songs as possible by the artist into an hour, without nary a thought to story development. Brittany was the main focus of this episode and sadly it only showcased the incredible dissembling of a once funny character into a painful caricature.
It’s Britney (with crayons)
I didn’t enjoy the forced attempts at humour that Heather Morris was dishing out this episode. Brittany as a character was initially portrayed as a clueless blonde who was miraculously still attending high school. She was funny in small bursts. But having her in the spotlight now just made me acknowledge how insulting her character is. What humour is there in a girl who pretends she’s too dumb to acknowledge how hurtful her remarks her and whose sound effects for a internal monologue is a lullaby? Is it funny to showcase how little Brittany cares about her education that she writes her answers in Crayola and simple drawings? The rest of McKinley treat her as a simpleton with barely two brain cells to rub together and any laughter from that situation has faded. Really what value does Brittany as a character, divorced from her relationship with Santana, have?
Essentially Brittany mimics the downfall of Brittany in a haze of Cheeto dust and attempted head shavings in order to resurrect herself from the bottom to the top. Sam inexplicably is the only one who figures out her plan and the two bond over being blonde and being unable to spell ‘here’ properly. I don’t know why the writers want to drag down Sam Evans to Brittany’s level but I hope they correct that at once because one Brittany is more than enough to fuel my ire.
Revamped Puckleberry Finn? Please.
Rightfully predicted by one commentator last week, Glee decided to have Marley want to date Jake who is apparently dating Kitty (another character whose a waste of pixels). I would have appreciated a little bit more build up between Marley and Jake before they started “hanging out” but whatever. I’ll pretend the lingering looks were subtext. I actually grew to like Marley a little better this week despite the horrendous attempt to recreate the Puckleberry scene from Season One’s ‘Mash Up'(I can’t believe they went there. Do not mess with my OTP writers. Just don’t). She played the naive, hurt high schooler well and got rid of her atrocious hats.
Jake displayed the same vulnerability that made me love Noah so much. Speaking of, the original Puckerman made his way to Ohio so he could talk some sense into his little brother! MARK SALLING! That was the only reaction I had because while the sentiment behind Puck’s words was fitting, I didn’t understand why he wasn’t more reactive to meeting a brother he had never met for the first time. While I enjoy me some Mark Salling his appearance wasn’t necessary other than to highlight that Mr Schue doesn’t have any influence on his students. In any case Jake finally joins the Glee club at the end while Noah returned to LA to be an awesome pool cleaner.
Rachel and the wall
New York was predictable but it was worth it for the last few moments at the end. Cassandra doesn’t think Rachel is sexy enough to dance the tango so Rachel ropes in Brody to perform a routine to prove her wrong. Cassandra rightfully points out to Rachel that she’s okay and Rachel flips out, pointing out that Cassandra’s crazy stunts on Broadway cost her career (something which I doubt Rachel wouldn’t have known about if she was staying true to character) and she’s taking it out on her students. When Rachel comes to apologize Cassandra reveals that she’s toughening up her students for the intense scrutiny and criticism of the stage.
Brody brings orchids and tells Rachel he wants to kiss her (no duh). I liked Rachel painting over Finn’s name. Brody represents a new version of Rachel that’s emerging in New York as opposed to the insecure, unsexy Rachel that clings to Finn. I hope the end of Finchel is neigh.
The Songs
The best
3 – This stripped down version was adorable!
Crazy/You Drive Me Crazy – Finally something Marley can do that Rachel cannot – sing bubblegum pop. I enjoyed this duet and Jacob Artist continues to wow me.
The okay
Boys/Boyfriend – This mash up kind of grows on you. Frankly I think Artie and Sam should have sung this together, rather than Blaine.
Oops…I Did It Again – Rachel didn’t really dance, did she? Also Lea Michele and Britney isn’t a match made in heaven (see her cover of Hit Me Baby…One More Time as reference).
The meh
Gimme More and Hold It Against Me – Positives were Heather Morris danced. Other than that eh.
Womanizer – Autotune much?
Everytime – There were a few shaky moments. I preferred the original. Britney conveyed a deep vulnerability that Marley didn’t.
What did you think of this episode? Was it just filler? Did you enjoy having Brittany in the spotlight (and reiterating scissor Skype)? Did you get a better feel for the new characters? Give me your TwoCents below or over on Twitter!
Next Week: Makeover
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I don’t think Lea as bad at Brittany as everyone wants to pretend. Her goal was to show July she could be sexy and she did.
Really liking the NYC stuff. I miss the cute interactions between the kids in the background the choir room.
Kurt and Rachel are cute.
She’s not bad at Britney. Lea’s voice is just too powerful so it doesn’t really fit.
What bothered me about Rachel’s performance was that you can’t just throw on skanky clothes and do an uncoordinated dance routine to be “sexy”. And yeah, it’s weird that she didn’t know about Cassandra before.
As for the Brittany plotline – what the hell? Why is everyone so nice to her when she keeps being completely mean? What this girl needs is a reality check. She can’t keep repeating her senior year forever, and she also can’t rely on Santana all the time. (Plus, Santana herself crosses the line between snarky and mean a lot.)
And why is every blond person on Glee either mean or stupid or both?
As for the new characters, they’re not very original… I do like Marley, but her voice is a little bland.
Rachel’s performance didn’t even show off her dance skills! She pretty much jumped from table to table and the back up dance crew demonstrated the skills she was supposed to!
Brittany is pointless except for Brittana and Britney tributes.
Jake Puckerman may be Puck but younger, but I am biased and like him immensely. I liked Marley’s character better this episode.
Super-far behind, but vacation was worth it– thank god for DVR.
Totally fan-girling Brody and Rachel. I think he represents a type of guy that is less caricatured and just overall better than Finn, et al. But I agree: the dance was a bad representation of her “sexy dancing” skills, since she just kind of walked and sat. And Kate Hudson is still amazing and spot on as a college level and professional-hopeful teacher
I never liked Brittany since season 2, so I have nothing to add, except I hope Sam doesn’t become her boyfriend. Glee needs platonic relationships, and I like Sam too much to have him date her. Plus, I like Sam taking the role Finn tried and failed for (the guy who befriends and helps everyone in Glee Club).
LOVE MARK SALLING AND JACOB ARTIST TOGETHER!!!! end scene (but bring it back soon!)
Marley was much more likeable in this episode– heck, I even liked Unique (mostly b/c they still seem to think she’s a drag queen and not trans). I know nobody else likes her, but where did Sugar go? I liked her and Unique together.
I honestly hate Britney/tribute episodes, because I think Brittany is a horrible singer, as witnessed by the auto-tuning and synthesizing of almost every song, and it takes five seconds of character development and turns it into a waste of a whole episode.
Couldn’t agree more, especially about the Sam part.
And no more Brittany-centered episodes, PLEASE!
Looks like next week’s episode has Brit has a central character. That ‘Hole’ cover was…(read review to find out).
Brittany wasn’t too bad as a background cast when her important job was dancing. I also didn’t mind the Santana/Brittany storyline in season 2 (even though when you really think about it, it is kinda like Santana used Brittany’s clueless-ness to take advantage of her with lines like ‘I need a warm body under me to help digest my food’ and ‘It’s not cheating if you have the same plumbing’) with Holly Holiday. It is quite painful to watch any scenes with her ‘singing’ when it is so obvious that they autotuned the crap out of her voice. It just made me wish that much more that Glee focused more on Rachel and Kurt because despite the lack of dancing or whatever, it was still much better than watching New Directions (the only good thing about ND is Sam and they don’t even show him enough).
Rachel painting over Finn’s name is perhaps the best scene ever in the history of Glee. Ugh, I am worried that they are going to use the Brody storyline as a way to have Finn riding in on his white horse and saving the damsel in distress and playing the part of the ‘hero’ again.
I didn’t care for the Jake/Marley/Kitty thing AT ALL. Seriously, they may as well have Unique crushing one of those characters so it could be just like Quinn/Finn/Rachel in the first season with Kurt crushing on Finn. The writers need to stop digging in the trash bins for their storys. I really hate love triangles/squares and the fact that a lot of shows think they need them.
I totally agree with the love triangle/square hate– especially when they seem to use the same formula of polar opposites vying for the same girl/guy. Will he end up w/ the Queen Bee or the Young Ingenue? Will she end up with the Golden Boy or the Vulnerable Bad Boy? The only one that I liked was Quinn with Sam, just because at least Sam and Finn were different without being opposite stereotypes.
Also, does anyone else think that the “if the Nationals Board gets wind of this we could be banned” is foreshadowing? It would be a great excuse to allow ND to follow a new path, since they couldn’t compete…
If ND get banned from going to Nationals, I hope that means Matt Morrison is off the show.
Puckleberry is my OTP but I did enjoy Quinn with Sam. Sam should be the new Finn rightfully, not Blaine. He’s just so nice and he was Puck’s bro.
I have watched this episode three times. What does that mean? I actually liked it, which you know, is HUGE, since I pretty much have hated the show for the last two seasons. Ryan Murphy had Brit do Brit in a way that no one else could. It was showing how lost and confused she was (paying tribute to the real Brit’s “comeback” at the VMA’s was AMAZING and perfection to those who understood it). But the biggest part of the whole thing is in the end we all know what happens to the real Brit and I think Murphy is trying to show us that Glee’s Brit is going to do the same. Considering it’s October 6th as I’m writing this, I think we all sort of saw a little bit of it happening….