OK, so to sum up the season finale of Glee (Tuesdays, 8:00 ET, Fox, DISH 76): First-time babies are generally born in about the time it takes to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody”; Rachel’s mom concocted an enormous multi-faceted plot to meet her daughter, then, upon actually meeting her daughter, decides “nah, not so much with being your mom and all”; and Sue Sylvester meets her semester-long goal of destroying Will Schuester only to… un-destroy Will Schuester, because…um… okay, I’m still trying to figure out the whole Rachel’s mom thing.
What a frustrating finale from a frustrating “back nine.” The dark, sharp edge of Glee‘s first episodes has been dulled by bowing and scraping to Madonna, endless Very Special Moments, and flying leaps of logic. At its best, Glee is a deadly satire which breathes exuberant new life into pop and Broadway standards; at its worst, it’s an After School Special with dancing, drenched in AutoTune and pureed out of end pieces of Brady Bunch plots.
While it already enjoys the promise of two more seasons–a phenomenal success for a freshman series–Glee already stands at a precarious point. Is it going to right itself to the guilty pleasure of the pilot, which at once took on drug-selling teachers, Broadway babies pampered by two dads, and the supposed supremacy of cheerleaders? Or will it succumb to the cheap one-liners and soapy plotlines which marred its second half?
Glee has undertaken a ponderous responsibility. It introduces great music, classic music to a new generation, but to stuff these Styrofoam plots around it diminishes its impact. So while it may not seem a big deal to see Sue simply being evil because she likes to be evil, the loss of such rich characterizations and ripe satire is hardly worth cramming in yet another tribute to Lady Gaga.
